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RTÉ 2fm, or 2FM as it is commonly referred to, is RTÉ's second national radio station. It broadcasts popular music programming aimed at a young audience.
RTÉ Radio 2, as it was originally known, began broadcasting on May 31 1979. "Like Clockwork" by the Boomtown Rats was the first song on air, played by Larry Gogan. It was developed as a response by RTÉ to the pirate radio craze sweeping Dublin and the country. Its main inspiration in format was BBC Radio 1. Its original slogan was "Radio 2 Comin'atcha" and as well as broadcasting popular music, it carried a number of other musical strands as well as news and current affairs. Its original broadcast frequencies were 612 kHz MW (until 2004) and later, 90-92 MHz FM. Original DJs included Larry Gogan, who moved over from RTÉ Radio 1, Mark Cagney, Michael McNamara, Declan Meehan, Vincent Hanley, Ronan Collins, Gerry Ryan and Dave Fanning.
An all-music, mostly rock, sister station of 2FM, "2XM", operates on the RTÉ DAB Multiplex.
In 1988 after many years presenting a nightly music show called 'Lights out' for around 6 years previously "The Gerry Ryan Show", a morning topical radio show, began broadcasts. Not long afterwards, RTÉ began radical changes to Radio 2's format. Most non-pop music programming was dropped. The station was rebranded as "2FM" in 1988. At this stage the basic schedule for the next decade or so was put in place: Ian Dempsey, Gerry Ryan, Larry Gogan, Garreth O'Callaghan, Tony Fenton, and Dave Fanning were staples of this period. Many of these presenters have stayed with 2FM over the years while others have moved to competitors stations.
2FM in this era was at its most popular. Its mobile broadcasting unit, the Roadcaster, made regular trips nationwide, and 2FM organised live events throughout Ireland, such as the "Beat on the Street" and "Lark in the Park". New bands would often get their "big break" by being featured on the Dave Fanning Show. Gerry Ryan's radio show became a national institution.
However by 2000, this schedule was looking very stale. In addition, 2FM suffered the high profile departure of Ian Dempsey to independent national radio station, 100-102 Today FM. Both Today FM and the emerging Independent Local Radio sector had eroded 2FM's once unassailable listnership base. Today FM continues to sign up disillusioned 2FM staff, with Tony Fenton being the most recent departure, in September 2004.
In 2000, John Clarke, a new Controller of 2FM, was brought in to sort out the station. He rebranded 2FM with a new blue and red logo (as "RTÉ 2fm") and re-arranged the schedule. Ryan Tubridy was poached from RTÉ Radio 1 to present "The Full Irish" breakfast programme. Though in 2005 he returned to Radio 1, being replaced by Ruth Scott and Rick O'Shea who in turn were replaced after 5 months by Marty Whelan in September 2005. DJ Mark McCabe arrived to present a dance music show at weekends. Later, more changes saw Larry Gogan being moved from his lunchtime slot to "drive time". A news programme, Newsbeat, was added to the schedules in response to criticisms that RTÉ 2fm was not fulfilling its remit as a public service broadcaster. Newer alternative DJs such as Canadian Jenny Huston, Dan Hegarty and Kerbdog front-man Cormac Battle have also joined the line-up in recent years.
On 12 January 2007 RTÉ announced another revamp of 2FM, with the axing of Marty Whelan's show and Larry Gogan's move to the weekend. The presenters of FM104's The Strawberry Alarm Clock will move to the station, as FM104 will continue to broadcast its breakfast show under the latter title the 2FM version will be known as the Colm and Jim-Jim Breakfast Show (initially referred to in pre-publicity as the 2FM Alarm Clock, however the name was changed after FM104 threathened legal action). Rick O'Shea will move to the afternoon slot. This will leave Gerry Ryan the only original Radio 2 presenter to retain a weekday programme with the station. The new schedule will launch on 5 March 2007.
RTÉ 2fm still faces criticism that for a youth station, many of its DJs have been there for a very long time. Larry Gogan, Gerry Ryan and Dave Fanning have worked with the station since the beginning. Many other DJs have spent the best part of twenty years with the station.
The station has also been criticised for its constant changing of the schedule and is known not to keep stuck to a particular schedule for very long. This leaves listeners sometimes wanting to turn into a particular DJ only to find out that they have been moved to a new timeslot. The latest "reinvention" took place on July 31 2006 to coincide with the departure of Dave Fanning to weeknights on RTE Radio 1. He will however present a pre-recorded music show on Sunday evenings from 7-9 on RTÉ 2FM.
Nevertheless, RTÉ 2fm remains the most popular music-driven station in Ireland.
RTÉ 2fm is the only RTÉ broadcast station which is entirely commercially funded, receiving no contributions from the television licence.
These moved their Strawberry Alarm Clock from FM104 in 2007 to host the new 2fm Breakfast Show in place of Marty in the Morning. The show will take off on March 5 2007. Colm previously worked for 2fm for two years in the late 1980s before becoming largely responsible for the success of FM104, as both Programme Director in the 90's and main anchor for the flagship "Strawberry Alarm Clock".
Nikki (born May 6, 1979) joined 2fm in November 2003 when John Clarke, the head of the station, called her and asked her to cover The Sunday Cruise, Aidan Leonard's show, for 8 weeks. From that experience she obtained a show of her own during the weekends. Then, when Rick O'Shea moved to present his now defunct breakfast show with Ruth Scott, Nikki replaced him and in doing so was given her own weekday show which was broadcast from Monday until Thursday from 8 p.m. until 10 p.m. It was here that listeners began to find out more about her background as she told of her upbringing in Bray and one evening she revealed she had studied in Letterkenny at LYit. She has since moved to a new weekday show broadcast from midday until 2 p.m., replacing Damien Farrelly when he moved to noght-time radio.
Rick has presented a number of different shows on the station since his arrival at the dawning of the twenty-first century. At the beginning of his career he presented a night-time show before being moved to an earlier slot from 8 p.m. until 10 p.m. in January 2003. At one point this was the most listened to night-time show in the country. Having moved from night-time radio in 2004 to the breakfast show, which he co-presented with Ruth Scott for two years, he has now returned to early evening radio and in August 2006 replaced Dave Fanning who moved to RTÉ Radio 1. The Rick O'Shea Show is broadcast from Monday until Thursday from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. He also broadcasts the Official Irish Top 40 on Friday evenings from 6 p.m. until 7 p.m. However, according to his own blog [3], he will soon be moving once again, to the weekday afternoon slot from 2 p.m. until 5 p.m.
(born April 4, 1977)Having moved in 2004 to the breakfast show, which she co-presented with Rick O'Shea for two years, he has now returned to late afternoon radio to present her More Music Drive from Monday to Friday from 4.30 p.m. until 6 p.m. From March 5 2007 she will present a new show that runs from Monday to Thursday from 7 p.m. until 10 p.m.
Avril presents her own show on Friday evenings between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. She also presents Newsbeat on weekday afternoons.
Formerly a presenter of the weekday afternoon show (now presented by Nikki Hayes), he can now be heard from Mondays to Thursdays from 9 p.m. until midnight. From March 5 2007, his show will start an hour later and be reduced to two hours to make place for Ruth Scott's new show.
A mix of genres and sounds - new, old, and completely overlooked - are played by this 32-year-old every Monday to Thursday from midnight until 2am. Also included are snippets from the archives of the RTÉ 2fm Sessions.
For the past six years, RTÉ 2fm have provided help for students facing the Junior Certificate and Leaving Certificate in a series of programmes that run before and throughout the examinations. Hosted by Gerry Ryan Show reporter, Evelyn O'Rourke, the series provides listeners with useful study tips and daily analysis of the papers during exam time. Regular contributors include "The Maths Guru" John Brennan from the Ballinteer Institute, Brian Mooney from the Institute of Guidance Counsellors. In 2007, the series began on Monday May 28 and runs on weekday nights between 7 p.m. - 8 p.m. until Friday June 15.
In June 2003, in and around the time she discovered ceramic hair straighteners, Jenny Huston began work at 2FM. She immediately made her mark with her eclectic music savvy, bringing a diverse mix of alternative rock to the ears of Irish listeners. Within months, Huston's programme had built a substantial and enthusiastic following. Since then she has earned a high amount of respect in the Irish music industry, not least for her willingness to support homegrown talent and the valuable airtime she gives to emerging Irish artists. In that short timespan she has received two nominations for Best Irish DJ at the Meteors.
Will is also joined on The Saturday Show by Astrid, billed as the "resident agony aunt" on the official website but she's also "more controversial than that". She hails from Sweden and was previously an in-demand porn-star who regularly produced top quality top shelf adult films. She now lives in Ireland and provides RTÉ 2FM listeners with a dose of "fun and frolics" every Saturday. The requests to bring back the RTÉ 2FM studio webcam poured in as Astrid recalled her "acting" days in Sweden. DJ Gary was born in West Dublin and came to RTÉ 2FM on a work experience programme in the summer of 1999, which led to him staying a little longer than originally planned. He is prize co-ordinator for The Saturday Show and he also presents a 21st birthday request slot.
From March 5 2007, Will will be moving to the weekday afternoon slot. The Will Leahy Show will be aired from Limerick on Monday until Friday from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m.
In 2005 Michael was also appointed as one of the stations new producer's. In the last 12 months he produced The Saturday Show, and currently produce's The Will Leahy Show.
Damo hosts a show on Friday nights from 10 p.m. until midnight and also on Saturdays from 3 p.m. until 6 p.m.
One of the original 2fm DJs, Larry presented a show from Monday to Friday from 2 p.m. until 4 p.m. However on March 5 2007, he was shunted aside to make way for Rick O'Shea. He presents a new show on Saturday and Sunday.
Dave Fanning (1979 - present)
Dave previously presented a magazine show from Mondays to Fridays from 6 p.m. until 7.30 p.m. but was replaced by Rick O' Shea in August 2006.
2fm Live[11] is broadcast every Saturday night from 9pm until 10pm and features live music from either a festival or major concert that has happened, usually in Ireland (although in January 2007 there was a show that featured Sigur Rós live from Reykjavík). It was previously broadcast every Sunday night from 11pm until midnight, incorporated into Cormac Battle's The Wireless show. Battle's voice is still featured in the show where he narrates between songs.
2fm Live has featured music from the Oxegen, Electric Picnic and Hi:Fi Ireland music festivals. In early 2006, acts that were featured included Kaiser Chiefs and Arcade Fire. Post summer editions have included Gnarls Barkley, Snow Patrol (live from the Heineken Green Energy Festival in Dublin Castle), The Frames (live from Electric Picnic 2006) and Razorlight (live from Hi:fi Ireland 2006) as well as The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand, Editors and Feeder all live from the previous summer's Oxegen festival. The Red Hot Chili Peppers set from Oxegen 2006 was broadcast live as it happened over the internet.
On Christmas Eve 2006 from midnight to 1.30am, a special edition was broadcast of snippets taken from Oxegen 2006 which included The Who, The Magic Numbers, Damian Marley, The Feeling, Placebo and Goldfrapp. The following night the same occurred, only this time for the Electric Picnic 2006, where the list included Pet Shop Boys, Antony and the Johnsons, Sparks, The Blue Nile, Gary Numan and Basement Jaxx. On St. Stephen's night the Red Hot Chili Peppers broadcast from Oxegen was repeated while on 27 December Arctic Monkeys' Oxegen set was broadcast once again.
In 2007,2fm Live has tended to feature two bands on each hourly show. These have included The Rapture at the Electric Picnic being broadcast alongside the aforementioned Sigur Rós concert, Antony and the Johnsons from the 2006 Electric Picnic alongside The Kooks live set from Oxegen 2006 and the "Manchester special" of New Order and Elbow, both live from the Electric Picnic in 2006.
Live music is also broadcast throughout the week on other shows on the station including those of Dan Hegarty and Jenny Huston. Dan usually broadcasts live music on Thursday nights while Jenny tends to do so on Friday nights. Jenny has in recent times broadcast three songs from The Automatic's set from Oxegen, some of the Super Furry Animals set from the Electric Picnic, and highlights of David Kitt also from the Picnic. On Dan's show, recent features have included bits of Gary Numan's live set from the Electric Picnic, as well as Julie Feeney and Humanzi at the Eurosonic festival in Groningen.
Black Echoes 3a.m. - Monthly. For the past three years, John Public has given music fans a show billed as "this is to yuletide what Dub Side of the Moon is to Pink Floyd."
THE INFADELS AND SH*T DISCO AT HI FI 4a.m. - Monthly. The Infadels are described as "five young(ish) men from east London". They are Bnann, Matt, Wag, Richie and Al. Founded out of the frustration of previous failed musical ventures, a love of 90's dance music and rock n' roll bands like The Stooges, The Stones and The Scream, The Infadels "decided it was time to kill hum-glum wafer thin indie music and create a racket all of their own".