Eoin McDevitt and co. have parted company with Newstalk
Rory McCarthy | Deputy Sports Editor
The culling of Ronan O’Gara from the Irish Six Nations squad, thus bringing a close to an illustrious international career might, have left many an Irish sports fan in foul mood on Monday morning. Then at the close of the day the news filtered through the staff of Newstalk’s ‘Off The Ball’ were resigning. For any fan between the age of 16-40 this news was just as catastrophic. The ‘Off The Ball’ outfit was for many an integral part of their weekly fill of sports information. Eoin McDevitt, Ciaran Murphy and Ken Early presided over an excellent daily show that mixed the serious analysis with cutting humour and always covered the widest range of sports. The show consistently provided a solid respite from the oft nauseating ramblings of George Hook on air before them, who ironically might have had a hand in the affair. The Irish sporting landscape is a lesser place without them. However this piece is not simply an obituary or elegy for this ‘Off The Ball’ team. The presenters along with producers Simon Hick and Mark Horgan will find work, with RTE at short odds to grab them up. Whether an organization such as RTE has the will and desire to do this is up for question. RTE still count the likes of Joe Duffy, Marian Finuncane and Ryan Tubridy on their books and whether a young, fresh and innovative team such as McDevitt and co. would be given the same freedom is unknown.
With the news of their resignation coming out, Newstalk, owned by businessman Denis O’Brien, issued a statement saying “Ger Gilroy, Newstalk Sports Editor, will be joined by mainstays of the Newstalk sports team, Cian Murtagh, David McIntyre and Joe Molloy in taking over the running of the show, starting tonight”. The statement was brief and certainly abrupt, closing with “Newstalk would like to thank Eoin, Simon, Ken, Ciaran and Mark for their contributions to the station and wish them luck in their future endeavours”. With that in mind it appears the scope for a way back into the set-up to Newstalk is closed off.
So where can the hope to go? RTE are in the middle of layoffs in their own various departments so the likelihood of George Hamilton and Ryle Nugent having any financial clout to sign the team up is limited. Newstalk are fortunate in that the back-up team scheduled to take over at least for an interim basis is just as good as the departing one. Gilroy founded ‘Off The Ball’ back in 2002 before moving on to take the Saturday sport slot covering the Premier League and the GAA Championship. As for the other stations while a team as covetable as that of McDevitt’s is alluring, all major radio stations such as Today FM, 98FM, FM104 and Spin 103.8 fill their late-night slots with music shows.
The resignation and dissatisfaction from the current OTB team it appeared had been brewing for some time. They were quite keen to increase the slot of the show from 6pm to 9pm rather than it’s normal 7pm-10pm. The problem here was George Hook’s slot. It is worth bearing in mind that Newstalk operate a ‘pay-for-play’ system that means its presenters are paid on the amount of airtime their show has rather than in reflection to its advertising revenue garnered. The management at Newstalk was believed to have been against the shows demands to increase to programme from 6pm to 9pm. From Newstalk’s perspective this is somewhat understandable. A sports show would be in direct competition with ‘Drivetime’ on RTE and ‘The Last Word’ on Today FM. Both these shows cover current-affairs and news both domestic and worldwide during the peak commuting hours. A sports show, however popular and engaging, would struggle to compete against these shows when the average person driving home is looking to fill up on the day’s news and so on. However ‘Off The Ball’ for their part can point to George Hook’s diminishing listenership and state that their show could have provided a welcome alternative to the news shows and may have increased the audience of the show.
Newstalk would have been keen to keep ‘Off The Ball’ at its original slot due to the fact that its other competitors are music shows. George Hook in the aftermath of the news tweeted on the story breaking that he ‘found out with the rest of the Newstalk staff’ and resented the allegation from one vociferous tweeter that he was in some part responsible. It is worth bearing in mind that with Newstalk operating their ‘pay for play’ system Hook would lose a great deal out of having his show reduced. Hook certainly didn’t seem too flustered over the ‘Off The Ball team deciding to seek fame and fortune elsewhere’ as clearly it alleviates pressure on him that would have continued had McDevitt and co stayed on and forced the matter further. Whatever happens the fallout will be tough on Newstalk and were it not for the insightful and cheerful Gilroy it is likely that Newstalk would have been receptive to the demands of OTB. However knowing that the talent never comes before the show, they know they can move on from the issue. The subject will have to be breached by Gilroy on tonight’s show and seeing how it is handled will be interesting. In the mean-time all any self-respecting Irish sports fanatic would want is to hear ‘Maradona Es mi Amigo’ ring out the credits again on another radio station sooner rather than later.
