Radio Days Ireland 2025 - Sustaining Radio's Future - The Panelists View.

Radio Days Ireland 2025 took place on 27th and 28th March 2025 in the Gibson Hotel in Dublin.  Organised by Learning Waves Skillnet and the Independent Broadcasters of Ireland, the bi-annual event saw over 230 radio professionals attend a range of sessions over the two days.  Radio professionals were joined by academics, aspiring graduates and representatives from funding organisations. The event sponsors, Coimisiún na Meán, IMRO and Skillnet Ireland were also in attendance.  The overarching theme of the conference was 'Sustaining Radio's Future' and it was fitting that the Minister for Arts, Culture, Communications, Media and Sport, Patrick O'Donovan TD officially opened the conference.

The Minister brought energy, humour and some key messages for the industry in his opening address.  He told the audience that "Media is important to our democracy here in Ireland and globally.  We take democratic principles seriously,” he said, referring to the recent election in Ireland and to world events after the inauguration of a new US President. It is important for people to have a regular place to go to so they can understand what is happening in the world. We have an attachment to local news and people still want to hear their local accents, so local stations are so important in Ireland. Local radio has preserved a path of our culture, our language, our discourse and our local connections. Irish people love to talk, we want to have conversations, so radio is important for that. In an era where disinformation is so prevalent, where people create fairytales, some people begin to believe the misinformation.  He said radio stations will play an important part in educating audiences about what is real and what is not.  He also said that "radio is a fun medium, expect for politicans like me who sometimes get a grilling" to which there was a raptorous applause. 

This was followed by the opening panel who discussed the theme of the conference, 'Sustaining Radio's Future'.  The panel, hosted by Managing Director from Midlands 103, Will Faulkner featured Broadcasting and Video on Demand Commissioner, Aoife MacEvilly, Director of Audio from RTE, Patricia Monahan, Managing Director from Onic, Sean Barry, CEO from Clare and Tipp FM, Ronan McManamy and CEO of Bauer Media Audio Ireland, Chris Doyle.

Chris addressed the audience first by saying that the radio industry in Ireland reaches 3.4 million people every day and this is what makes the industry great.  Those people choose to come to our radio stations and it really is phenonenal and that as an industry we need to understand how important that is and he said i still love that moment when somebody says, "i heard that on the radio today, it is a very special industry to be in".

Commenting on the value of radio to advertisers, Sean acknowledged that there is a lot of change happening in the sector and the minute and that we really need to understand the complimentary benefits of digital advertising.  Radio has really leaned into the power of digital audio and linear audio can work very well alongside digital audio.The sector must become multi-platform and embrace new distribution platforms to maximise reach and maximise impact.  Trust is extremely important also but we need to work at putting a value on the trust placed in all of the stationsin in our sector.   

Broadcasting and Video on Demand Commissioner Aoife MacEvilly said radio is “a diverse and dynamic medium. A wide range of initiatives are going on in the radio sector.”  The Department is promoting trusted journalism and digital innovation in its activities and "we want to support the radio sector so it can support democracy. A Digital Innovation Scheme will be launched at the end of the year to support broadcasters on their digital strategy"'.

Ronan said that "social media is taking a lot of revenue out of the market and as a sector we need funding and policy support from government for future media initiatives.  Social media don't play by the same rules we do. Ronan welcomed the funding received by RTE but called "for conditionality around funding and a level playing field in terms of accountability".  In addition to this, he believes that "if we keep producing rich content, it will continue to attract audiences because audiences care about what is happeing in their local area.  The big plus Ronan believes local radio has is "that it is so entrenched in the local communities". The future is about the content and the personalities, it is not all about the music. There are challenges around staffing in the industry at local level particularly in news and current affairs".

Patricia believes that the industry "must embrace both podcasting and audio.  She said that we are brilliant at it and let's lean into podcasting and work to understand new consumption habits to determine where best to use audio, radio and podcasts".  Radio has a really important role in helping people understand the complexities of the world we now live in.  In addressing the challenge of younger people listening to radio, Patricia said, "it is simply not true that young people don't listen to radio, they do. We need to talk to our audiences and find out what they want. We should take advantage of that by supplementing linear stations with other types of digital audio, so we need to have complimentary products to our linear schedule.  RTE like the Independent Radio Sector is full of creative and passionate people who are really energetic about radio and audio and about creating amazing content to create connections with audiences.  This is a real opportunity for the industry and this is how we can all move forward by encouraging people to stay tuned to really high quality audio.  You have to be agile, you have to be flexible, you need to upskill, the more skilled you are, the better product you will get to air". 

Chris talked about how radio is changing with it’s listeners. “Our industry needs to look at digital listening survey collection methods, but there are challenges. That is the most important piece of work we need to do. There are things happening in places like Australian to update survey methods that we can learn from.There are new models for us to expand audiences on other platforms that are aimed to keep people in our ecosystem. Once we get hold of that audience we can push them to us, that is the trick to attracting younger audiences to our radio platforms.”

Sean’s network launched new DAB services this week to “provide more touchpoints for the audience. In the absence of any new FM spectrum availability in Ireland, DAB expansion is important".  Sean also highlighted the importance of the JNLR, "the single biggest piece of research being carried out across the country gives signifcant results that the industry can work with".  He also pointed out that real-time data is something currently being reviewed.  We need to look at how we recruit people into the industry and we ensure we create careers for people coming into the industry".

Aoife said that "there is real scope in the industry through Sound and Vision Funding.  We want to work with and support the industry in their role in supporting democracy.  There are aspects of the scheme that we can work on and we could collaborate on them and this sector is very creative and we can work together to demonstrate the additionality required in the schemes.  The regulator will be looking at spectrum availability and what content the audience wants in a format that people are engaging with. We have to make sure we are agile and flexible in adopting new technologies".

Chris made the point that Ireland needs to "keep young people coming into the industry".   People won't naturally arrive into radio and we need to work on this.  There is huge competition for people with media skills from other Ireland based international technology companies". New products are finding new audiences. e.g podcasts with live tours and we are bringing in new audiences while maintaining our existing audiences".  One suggestion he had was to change the job titles used in radio. “Researcher, producer, announcer are old job titles, make them more compatible with other industries.”  In addition to this, Chris referenced programmes like the TY Media Week run by Learning Waves as a way to promote and excite young people about radio as a career choice and that "the industry needs to get out in front of more younger people, we need to look at how we present ourselves".  We also need to consider how we work and look at how AI can help us, it can provide opportunities for efficiency to allow people to concentrate on whats valuable to them". 

The final word was given to Aoife from Coimisiún na Meán who said, "they know that this is an industry that needs to transform and that there is a real energy around that.  She said he heard very clearly that the industry wants support from the regulator, both through funding and the approach to regulation and look at some of the work we are doing in user education around engaging younger audiences and having greater diversity reflected in the broadcasting media and i would encourage more discussion on this".