How to lose listeners and alienate people

The news broke a week or so ago now and people have had their say since. I twittered about it at the time but didn’t write a full blog post on it. Consider that fixed. 2FM have taken the ridiculously short sighted decision to axe the interactive and talky parts of Rick O’Shea‘s show. His show is not the only one to suffer but his is the one I listen to so I’m mentioning it. Full disclousure: I consider the guy a good friend.

From a purely financial perspective, the decision to axe researchers will save money in the short term. Undoubtedly. What 2FM are not taking into consideration though is the value of the format Rick was adopting. He fostered genuine communication and banter with the public via a number of different channels (text, Twitter, his blog etc). In an age where every young person has an MP3 enabled device (phone, iPod), the key advantage that radio has is personality and interaction. That’s what Rick brought to his afternoon show. That’s what they’re taking away from him. There’s a Facebook group but, as Mulley says, they rarely change the world (alternatively email complaints@rte.ie). Here’s hoping that they see the error of their ways and start thinking long term.