2FM reckons it's wasted on the youth of today

When it was launched in 1979, 2FM had a captive audience of youthful listeners. But now that the young are turning off in droves, the station is bringing back Dave Fanning to appeal to dad-rockers

AT 30, THE patient seems a bit young for a midlife crisis but, it has to be said, his entire existence has been marked by personality changes and shifts in direction. He has long suffered bullying from younger, more streetwise rivals, and in recent years has lost many of his closest listeners and confidantes.

Despite repeated changes of diet at breakfast-time, his condition remains grave through the mornings, when he is given to endless babbling. It barely improves during the day, and by the evening he is often bereft and rudderless, given to loud clanking noises that repel even the most long-standing of friends . . .

Perhaps it’s too easy to be cruel to 2FM, RTÉ Radio’s national music station, now in the throes of yet another crisis as its listenership continues to decline. But cruel certainly describes the reaction of the blogosphere to the news this week that the station was revamping its schedules yet again to target the 25-44 age group instead of the “yoof” audience it has been courting so far this century.

“2FM sounds like a school disco organised by a geography teacher – it’s run by the radio version of civil servants,” said one online poster. “I couldn’t even tell you where 2FM is on the dial because I haven’t listened to it in over 10 years and that ain’t going to change,” commented another.

The revamp, which includes the return of Dave Fanning to the station after a three-year stint on Radio 1, is prompted by a near-continuous fall in 2FM’s ratings in recent years. In 2004, it claimed 15.2 per cent of audience, but this had fallen to 11.6 per cent in May and 10.9 per cent in the latest figures released on Thursday.

The overall situation is even worse because these figures are effectively propped up by the enormous audience Gerry Ryan still pulls in each weekday morning, though even his figures are going downhill.

A few percentage points here or there may not seem like a big hill of beans to you or me, but advertising revenues are directly related to listenership figures and, with its current financial woes, RTÉ could hardly afford to let its “cash cow” slip further into ill-health.

2FM’s problems aren’t entirely self-made. Radio listenership generally is in decline; iPods and the internet have seen to that. Websites such as Spotify or Last.fm provide music aficionados with alternatives to traditional FM stations and sales of internet radios, offering near-endless choice, are booming.

Listener choice has greatly increased, and will continue to do so. When RTÉ Radio 2 (as 2FM was then known) started in 1979, it had the field to itself and commercial radio, which started a decade later, was slow to compete directly with it. Now the dial is crowded with commercial rivals, many of them focused on the same youth market 2FM was targeting.

The State music broadcaster never firmly controlled the Dublin market but, of late, it has seen its traditional base outside the capital eroded by new entrants such as Spin, iRadio and Beat.

“2FM has been targeting a 15-34 age group for a very long time,” head of RTÉ Radio Clare Duignan explained during the week. “It is a very crowded part of the market. There are very strong local stations chasing that same audience. They are in a position to be very close to their listeners like guerrilla radio.”

GUERRILLA RADIO2FM certainly ain't; whereas in the UK, BBC Radio 1 captured young listeners and recovered market share by being "zeitgeisty" and alternative, 2FM was always trying to be all things to all youth and never enjoyed critical credibility.

Michael Cullen, editor of Marketingmagazine, says the station was "caught between a rock and a hard place", between the pull of RTÉ's public broadcasting remit and its need to keep up with the youth stations in Dublin. "They were trying to fill a gap for people interested in pop music, but these ranged from U2 and Coldplay to the various niche interests. In the end, teenagers just frowned upon the station."

Faced with the external challenges, the station floundered. After Ian Dempsey jumped ship for Today FM, it changed the breakfast line-up four times in a bid to find a winning formula. New talent was brought in but mostly confined to off-peak slots. Only six months ago, gabbier DJs such as Rick O’Shea and Nikki Hayes were told to button their lips and play more music, prompting a backlash from peeved listeners.

Now the architect of the youth-oriented programming, station head John Clarke, is stepping down and, in the words of Duignan, there will be a return to more speech programming to appeal to “slightly older adults who still feel quite young”.

Whether these thirtysomethings will put down their iPods and DVD boxsets for the siren call of a new 2FM remains to be seen. The likes of 4FM and Q102 are already targeting more conservative musical tastes, while Phantom FM and Today FM’s evening programmes have a firm hold on more alternative offerings. The station hasn’t the money to bring in new talent, so replacing Clarke may turn to be a deckchairs-on-the-Titanic job.

Then there’s the question of what to do with Gerry. The only presenter from the station’s beginnings still to have a weekday show brings in listeners and money by the bucketload, but his talk-oriented approach sticks out in the current schedules like a sore thumb. Arguably, he should fit in better in the revamp, but Cullen for one believes it might be time for him to make the long-mooted move to Radio 1, possibly in the afternoons.

If there is a straw in the wind, it is the increasing volatility of radio listeners. Cullen says 25-44-year-olds are “promiscuous” radio listeners, there to be won over. “This move is probably the safest bet for the station in the current climate.”