Dunne takes on the goliaths

For nearly a decade, Tom Dunne had been steadily building his cult status as a formidable rock’n’roll disc jockey with his Pet Sounds show on Today FM. No more. The former Something Happens frontman has jumped ship, leaving Today FM and moving to the more cut-throat arena of daytime radio with Newstalk, where he has taken over the mid-morning slot.
Dunne’s new chat show, which goes on air after the 9am news every weekday, has the potential to propel him into the big league. But it’s a very competitive arena, where he will go up against Gerry Ryan, Ryan Tubridy, Pat Kenny and Ray D’Arcy – not to mention the likes of Neil Prendeville in Cork – in a bid to attract the broad swathe of mainstream listeners. Some might see it as a make or break move – but Dunne, a notoriously affable character, seems unphased by the challenge.
“No, it just doesn’t enter my consciousness at all. I am ready for it. I really want to do it. I have to say that I don’t really feel the stress or worry that I’m taking on the likes of Gerry Ryan. I think those battles are really in the tabloids’ imagination,” he insists.
“I’m on a three-year contract. I’ve done talk radio in the past when I stood in for Ray (D’Arcy) and Ian (Dempsey) and I was very comfortable doing it. There’s four national stations and they all have to have shows on between 9am and 12, you know? So, I think there’s an audience for all of us. And I’m delighted to be doing my show at this time. I’m confident that we’ll get good figures.”
He might not want to publicly admit it, but the choice of Dunne in such a prime-time slot on Newstalk is undoubtedly a decision to go head to head with the aforementioned mid-morning Goliaths of radio, for the so-called ‘housewives’ market. It’ll be a tough challenge. Gerry Ryan enjoys ratings of 325,000, approximately seven times greater than Newstalk in the current JNLR has in the vital post-news slot. The bottom line here is that Newstalk have brought in big names before that have failed to effectively dent RTE’s dominance, including Eamon Dunphy.
“Well, he was doing The Breakfast Show in the mornings. I can remember criticism at the time – he had items on for too long and stuff – but I don’t know. Maybe he wasn’t that into it. What we have to do is get a really good show together. I’m only on-air for a few days and I’m already delighted with the shape we’ve got. If we build a really strong show, an audience will follow. What type of audience is it going to be? I have no idea.”

LIGHTER LOOK
Dunne’s show is being labeled by Newstalk as a magazine-style talk show, which will cover topical news items, lifestyle, sport and entertainment. The show is still finding its bearings, but it appears that comedy and debates – coupled with listener comment and reaction – will be key features.
Will there be much emphasis on current affairs and breaking news?
“You see, there’s news every half an hour – it’s a news talk-station. We want to be entertaining. The Breakfast Show and Lunch Time Show are both serious shows, so there’s room in between for a much lighter look at everything that’s going on,” Dunne argues.
“People are interested in music, sports and lifestyle, and how politics and the economy impinge on their lives – but not heavily. Newstalk said they’d build the show around me and my personality and my interests. I’m seen as very typical of a type of person who is still madly passionate about music – but I do have kids and a family – and I am now more aware of other things in life, apart from music. I take a passing interest in politics; a big interest in sports; food and wine; and entertainment – whatever’s going on.”
Does he in any way pine for Pet Sounds?
“It was a fantastic show and I loved every moment of it. I did it for nine years, but I felt during the last two years that I was repeating myself a little bit,” he explains.
There had been rumours recently that Dunne was being restricted when it came to playing new material by unknown Irish bands on Pet Sounds. Is there any truth in this?
“No. That was more of a quality decision than anything else. I felt that we had – without meaning to – gone down the road of starting to play things without reason – just because it was new and Irish. We introduced an item where we played a new band every night on the show. I was playing it and I’d be thinking, ‘They aren’t very bloody good!’ A lot of them didn’t need airplay, they needed a bit of feedback.
“I started to think, ‘This isn’t what I set out to do with the show’. I remember thinking that I want to build an audience and then, when I introduce a new band, I want there to be an audience for that band; I don’t want to reduce the audience by playing unknown stuff, so that when I play it nobody gets to hear it. That’s self-defeating.

FUNNY RELATIONSHIP
“I always used to pick The Frames as an example. The Frames were a great band from day one but they weren’t very popular and I’d be playing a bit of Mercury Rev and Radiohead and then a bit of The Frames because I wanted people who liked Mercury Rev to listen to The Frames.
“I felt it shouldn’t be about taking new stuff, but taking bands who have already made a bit of progress and bringing them to another level. And I think it really worked very well on that level. A lot of bands came through the show and graduated onto other shows and became very popular. It’s very important to try to get an artist to a big audience.”
Was Dunne ever approached by RTÉ?
“Several times,” he reveals, laughing. “We refer to it as the ‘long dance’. There’s been constant, ‘What’s the state of your contract?’ approaches, from various members of RTÉ. But where would I go? I’d always ask, ‘What do you have?’ I think they had an idea to bring me in on a late night kind of shift and then move me on. But the show (Pet Sounds) was doing too well and... it’s been a funny relationship with them.”
If Dunne’s new show is a resounding success, it’s easy to imagine him making the progression to television. After all, he’s already had a taste for TV, doing the likes of the Planet Rock Profiles for UTV and The Hive for 3 Ireland mobile phone network.
Don’t hold your breath, warns Dunne.
“I tell you where I think I might have shot myself in the foot with TV – it’s by being on independent commercial radio. They really have a pro-RTÉ talent policy. They are ruthless about it really. Their take is not to promote people who aren’t from RTÉ. Ray D’Arcy is a very established TV presenter so it was very easy for him to keep up that contact. For me it’s a case of, ‘Is there anybody else we can get’?”
Is he angry or bitter about that?
“Not in the least. I am enjoying life too much,” concludes the beaming DJ.

Tom Dunne is on Newstalk 106-108 fm, every weekday 9.00am-12.00pm