This week's relaunch of the national commercial radio station, formerly called Radio Ireland and now to be known as Today FM, was not an auspicious occasion. For an event that had been months in the planning there were some alarming shortcomings in the content of the programmes, especially in the morning show Daybreak which actually started up a month ago. No doubt, the initial problems will be ironed out, but it will be some time before it is clear whether the new format is sufficiently popular to make it viable.
The new format, in some respects, is a disappointment; it is also a reflection of the harsh commercial realities in Irish broadcasting. Radio Ireland was a courageous attempt at setting up a radio station which would not just take listeners away from RTE's Radio 1 but would offer a distinct service. It succeeded in formulating some distinct programming but it did not succeed in winning over listeners.
That may well have happened because its owners completely underestimated the appropriate marketing and advertising spend for a launch situation. Evidence for that came through in research figures which showed, not that the public didn't like what it heard on the station, but that, in great numbers, the public had never tuned in to the station at all. The lesson has been learnt. The marketing spend for Today FM is expected to be at least twice what was provided for Radio Ireland at its launch nine months ago and the marketing and promotional material for the new station will emphasise 100 to 102, its location on the dial.
The format of the new station is a disappointment because it concedes defeat to Radio 1. Its programmes seem designed instead to win listeners from 2FM and the local commercial stations, particularly those operating in Dublin. Today FM, up until 5 pm, seems destined to add little to diversity on the radio dial. It is not good for listeners and for advertisers that Radio 1 is once again without competition. Moreover, it is not good for Radio 1 either. The content of Today FM would seem to be greatly at variance with that which the promoters originally promised the Independent Radio and Television Commission (IRTC). And yet there is little that the IRTC can or will do about it. It failed to ensure that Century Radio had sufficient broadcasting assistance from RTE and, partly for that reason, it collapsed. Perhaps the IRTC is so anxious that Century's replacement survives, that it is prepared to tolerate an indisputable dumbing-down of the product.
Today FM is more tightly focussed and it will develop in the months ahead but it may well play safe and simply pitch for the younger market with more music and less talk. Hopefully, it will prove viable but there is an unwelcome probability that in attaining viability it may merely replicate that which is already widely available. If so, the omens for TV3 are not favourable. Can it be established on a viable basis as a worthwhile rival to RTE's two stations, the penetration of which is phenomenal? If TV3 manifests programming broadly indistinct from British commercial stations, it will hardly be worth having. And the Government might then consider facing up to the monolith that is RTE.