Commercial radio stations have expressed that huge money is on the table for RTÉ stars if they leave the broadcasting service over pay cuts.
CEO of Radio Nova and Ireland’s Classic Hits, Kevin Brannigan has revealed that talent spotters are eyeing up the radio icons.
RTÉ presenters will see a huge dip in their annual earnings at the end of their current contracts following the broadcasting service’s scandal last year.
Radio stations like Classic Hits and Newstalk will be able to offer household names including Joe Duffy and Claire Byrne the right to work on side gigs, an incentive which is being shut down by RTÉ.
The new General Director of RTÉ Kevin Bakhurst brought in a register of interests for the broadcaster’s top stars which will be released in February 2024, and every quarter after that.
The new Register of External Activities will also see a list of every star’s side job published every quarter including details of how much they were paid.
A separate Register of Interests will also be put in place for workers where they must declare any potential conflicts of interest from work they carry out outside of their roles whilst at the national broadcaster.
Although the incentive of more privacy may be appealing, one radio guru warns that similar to Ryan Tubridy, the presenters would be forced to work a lot harder for their money.
4fm boss Kevin Brannigan told The Sun: “In terms of the amount of broadcast hours per week, there will be a far higher expectation, in commercial radio than RTÉ.”
“Look at how much money RTE was willing to pay Ryan Tubridy for a one hour show. Now he hosts a three hour show for Virgin Radio in the UK.”
“Oliver Callan is getting paid a €150,000 salary for a one hour show on RTE. That’s not what’s done in commercial radio.”
An RTÉ also spoke to the Sun and said: “Would you want everybody finding how much you were paid?”
“Top talent can make five to seven grand a gig outside RTE. They might do two of those a week, You’re talking hundreds of thousands of euro extra a year.”
“So RTÉ don’t want to pay their talent but they want to stop them getting outside work as well.”
Another source added: “There is a serious possibility now that if Newstalk or Today FM wanted to target an RTE star, they could match RTE’s offer and also tell them they can do as many nixers as they wanted.”
“There are going be some easy pickings in the months ahead for the big commercial stations who want to strengthen their rosters with big names from RTE.”
Kevin Brannigan of Ireland’s Classic Hits and Radio Nova also added: “Now the playing field is levelled, we would definitely be interested in talking to presenters in RTE.”
“And on the subject of outside work, they would definitely have more flexibility to negotiate things like that in the commercial sector than they now have in RTE.”
