If nothing else, Ray D’Arcy sounds excited, if slightly nervous, as he begins his new career chapter as a podcaster.
“This is something I’ve dreamed of doing forever,” the former RTÉ Radio 1 presenter remarks during the first edition of his podcast, Ray D’Arcy Daily, on Monday. But while podcasting offers an opportunity for the host to reinvent himself following last year’s acrimonious exit from RTÉ, it’s the very much old D’Arcy who features in the opening instalments.
For his daily venture – he also launches an interview podcast, Being Human, next week – D’Arcy doesn’t break new ground so much as follow the well-worn formula he established as a radio host. While there’s no faulting his enthusiasm, his first two episodes feature familiar content such as self-consciously quirky items and random chats, as well as the rambling introductory monologues that marked his Radio 1 afternoon show.
The podcast iteration of the latter element is even more aimless, in fact. He ponders the correct pronunciation of “marathon” (“Loads of words in English are pronounced differently than they’re spelt,” he observes), plays clips of the late GAA commentator Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh and discusses – for two days running – the sound effects on a vintage toothpaste ad. To describe these opening spiels as meandering is to give a false impression of dynamism.
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The choice of guests also harks back to his radio days. Mairead Ronan, who worked alongside D’Arcy during his peak years on Today FM’s midmorning show, joins him on Monday, chatting about the latest developments on Dancing with the Stars and advising him on building his Instagram following. This is hardly stuff with which to grow a podcast following.
He’s also joined by his long-time producer – and wife – Jenny Kelly, for a daily debrief. While palpably affectionate, these conversations have all the mass appeal one would expect from hearing a married couple chat in their livingroom.
Other segments are less predictable but try too hard. On day two D’Arcy introduces an item called Pin Drop, which involves him gingerly calling businesses in random parts of the country: if listening to D’Arcy navigate voicemail messages is your idea of enthralling listening, you’ve hit pay dirt.
True, the resultant conversation with a Co Clare agribusiness owner has a certain shaggy-dog appeal, but it’s not nearly enough to anchor a podcast.
[ Ray D’Arcy: ‘I’ve lost my job and my mother. What’s going to happen next?’Opens in new window ]
Media veteran that he is, D’Arcy knows he has a formidable task in attracting his old audience to the online sphere each day. “We’re going to have to change your listening habits,” he says. But on this (very early) evidence, it’s difficult to discern what incentive there is for putative listeners to work his podcast into their routine. There’s no obvious purpose or mission on display beyond the chance to hear D’Arcy shoot the breeze about whatever’s on his mind.
While this approach may have worked – or at least sufficed – for afternoon audiences already tuned into national radio, it seems insufficient to bring over erstwhile fans in large numbers, much less win new followers in the ultracompetitive podcast world. (In contrast, his fellow ex-RTÉ presenter Ryan Tubridy has parlayed his much-trumpeted love of books into a literary-adjacent podcast, The Bookshelf.)
In this light, D’Arcy’s decision to devote another podcast to long-form interviews is possibly overly ambitious, robbing his daily show of a potentially strong component.
For all that, D’Arcy sounds happy, which wasn’t always the case in his latter years on radio. And while the opening episodes are more throwback than forward-looking, he makes it clear that the daily podcast is a work in progress. “It’ll be great over time,” he says, chuckling.
He certainly has the time to make it work, and even the scope, too: as last weekend’s interview with my Irish Times colleague Patrick Freyne attests, D’Arcy can be reflective and revealing presence, a side he might tap into more. If he’s to make the most of his fresh start, he will need more than stale retreads.
