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Today FM to preserve Pet Sounds
Sunday, August 24, 2008 By Catherine O’Mahony
Today FM chief executive Willie O’Reilly is hoping to preserve the Pet Sounds brand that has been associated with Tom Dunne for the past nine years, in the wake of the presenter’s move to rival station Newstalk 106-108.

The music show, which increased its audience to 50,000 from 49,000 in the latest Joint National Listenership results (JNLR), is losing Dunne to a mid-morning slot on Newstalk, which is now Today FM’s stablemate in the Communicorp group.

O’Reilly has temporarily replaced Dunne with Paul McClune of the Undertones, who will present the show for several months, pending a review of the Today FM nighttime line-up.

‘‘Tom’s been very successful at night-time. This will be a challenge for him, but he’s up to the challenge,” said O’Reilly, who added that all well-regarded music presenters reached a stage in their careers when they needed to move on.

Dunne, who has filled in for Ray D’Arcy and for Ian Dempsey at Today FM, is expected to bring a lighter touch to the Newstalk schedule, which has been struggling to produce big audiences in its mid-morning slots.

He will not be allowed to play a great deal of music, however. Newstalk has committed itself in its operating contract to playing no more than three tracks per hour at any time, and to having music content constitute no more than 6 per cent of its output between 7am and 7pm on weekdays.

Dunne’s new magazine-style show will replace two programmes fronted by Brenda Power and Orla Barry. The JNLR showed these with unchanged audiences of 49,000 and 46,000 respectively.

Newstalk’s Breakfast Show has grown its audience by 43 per cent to 66,000, while its lunchtime programme is attracting 52,000,up 40 per cent.

Overall, Newstalk remains stalled nationally at 3.7 per cent market share and 6 per cent reach. In Dublin, its market share is 7.1 per cent and its reach is 11 per cent.

Elsewhere, 2FM’s Colm and Jim-Jim breakfast show passed the crucial 200,000 audience level for the first time. This was its initial target and represents an increase of 34,000.The programme is seventh in the top ten radio shows for 15 to 34-year-olds.

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