‘It’s the talk of the country’: Joe Duffy aims at radio rivals’ cash cow

Plugging on-air competitions is part of any presenter’s remit. It’s more unusual to hear a radio host hyping a rival station’s contest. Yet there’s Joe Duffy on Liveline (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays) describing a lucrative game on Newstalk and Today FM in decidedly breathless terms.

“It’s the talk of the country,” Duffy says of the daily Cash Machine competition on Bauer Media’s network of national and local channels. Coming from a presenter whose default setting is a tutting lugubriousness, this language counts as praise indeed.

Of course, it being Liveline, Duffy’s endorsement of Bauer’s big-money slot isn’t as ringing as it initially seems, though he leaves it to others to make this explicit. “I think it’s an absolute disgrace that it’s allowed on Irish radio,” says one caller. Their objection is that the Cash Machine is a potential gateway to problem gambling, particularly for children. Duffy highlights the apparent ease with which anyone with a mobile phone can enter the contest, which involves answering a call with the correct amount of prize money, which changes each day. Though ostensibly only open to over-18s, there’s no obvious way to verify ages.

Entrants receive regular text reminders to play. According to Bauer, there’s a cap of 12 premium-rate text entries per week, but even still it can be a costly pastime. One listener messages that she spends €250 a month on the game. The host also frets about the game being promoted by Bauer’s roster of presenters across its stations: “People trust those people, and rightly so.”

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In airing such worries – initially in a series of now-deleted tweets – Duffy may be taking a swipe at RTÉ’s rivals, but he has legitimate concerns. As the discussion develops, however, it quickly loses momentum, with the host unable to summon optimal levels of indignation. For one thing, he notes that the relevant authorities, from Coimisiún na Meán, the media regulator, to the Department of Justice, have no plans to act.

He also appears unpersuaded by some arguments. When one guest bemoans Bauer using the game to raise revenue, Duffy makes positive noises about the German company’s purchase of Newstalk et al in 2021: “You could say that Bauer Media saved a lot of jobs in Irish radio.” He’s succinct about the suggestion that RTÉ runs a similar game. “The argument is we have the licence fee,” he says, perhaps sensing the ice becoming thin underfoot.

It’s notable that Duffy sounds more engaged by other items, such as Monday’s enlightening discussion on prostate cancer or Wednesday’s surprisingly uplifting conversation with a Galway caller, John, who was given a year to live in 2022. Duffy is right to raise questions about Bauer’s cash cow, but, as the topic stalls on air, he knows when to hold and when to fold.

Bauer’s Cash Machine also comes under the microscope on Drivetime (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays). On Monday its reporter Barry Lenihan hears Prof Colin O’Gara of St John of God Hospital express trepidation that the competition’s prevalence could contribute to addictive behaviour.

“Something that’s regularly advertised, that mimics a gambling product, both the sound and feel of it, is problematic,” O’Gara says. On Tuesday Lenihan speaks to Stewart Kenny, founder of Paddy Power bookmakers, who fears that the apparent lack of age controls around the radio contest could entice younger people into gambling, though he also admits it might seem a “a bit rich” for someone with his past to reproach people for liking a flutter.

Discussing the subject with the Drivetime presenter Cormac Ó hEadhra, Lenihan makes a far more cogent case than the loose-limbed contributions heard on Duffy’s show. While both Drivetime and Liveline note that RTÉ runs its own competitions across various platforms, the airtime devoted to the issue may invite suspicions of an element of sour grapes in the mix. The risks posed by Bauer’s money game seem dwarfed by betting on sports such as horse racing, which receives wide coverage on RTÉ despite its main attraction being not so much admiration of equine poise as the lure of a winning wager.

[ ‘Gambling is by and large a very secretive addiction’ ]

Admittedly, the glee with which Newstalk and Today FM presenters enthused about the contest’s €200,000 prize pot in the run-up to Christmas must have seemed like epic trolling to a cash-strapped, embattled RTÉ, never mind a temptation for susceptible listeners. While recognising the seriousness of the core issues, it’s unsurprising if there’s a frisson of payback in Radio 1’s focus on its competitors’ activities.

The devastating impact of problem gambling is explored on The Nine O’Clock Show (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays) when the campaigner Matt Zarb-Cousin shares his experiences of such addictive behaviour with the programme’s presenter, Shay Byrne. Zarb-Cousin recalls how he started frequenting bookies when he was 16, before moving on to games such as roulette. Running up huge losses by the age of 20, he was in a “dark place”, even considering suicide: luckily, with the help of others, he overcame his habit. Byrne’s guest says he’s not anti-gambling but wants a safer environment than the current “frightening” access to gambling products offered by smartphones. He has cofounded an app that blocks such software.

It’s a pertinent conversation, handled with understated inquisitiveness by Byrne, the latest occupant of The Nine O’Clock Show’s rotating hot seat. The presenter is aware of the dangers of gambling but avoids a disapproving tone, acknowledging that people who visit bookies can feel “part of the tribe”. Best known as host of Rising Time (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays), he also covers topics such as autism in similarly nuanced fashion, while retaining the wryly genial manner familiar to his early-morning listeners. With an announcement about a permanent presenter for the 9am slot in the offing, Byrne has signalled that his current tenure at the programme is temporary. But with his reliably appealing pedigree, RTÉ bosses might surely consider a punt on Byrne.