RTÉ Radio 1
RTÉ Radio One is owned and operated by RTÉ the Irish Public Service Broadcaster which is ultimately controlled by the RTÉ Board, chaired by Siún Ní Raghallaigh. Day to day operations and management of RTÉ is the responsibility of the RTÉ Executive Board, which reports to the RTÉ Board. The RTÉ Executive is a committee of senior management in RTÉ led by the Director General, and includes Directors of television, radio, news and current affairs, Heads of channels and content as well as heads of corporate divisions such as marketing, finance, legal and strategy. Following the RTÉ payments controversy, which emerged in summer 2023, new Director General Kevin Bakhurst disbanded the RTÉ Executive and replaced it with an Interim Leadership Team.
The most recent data available shows that RTÉ Radio One reaches 20.7% of Irish adults and has a 19.8% share of the Irish radio audience (Ipsos JNLR (Joint National Listenership Research Report August 2023).
RTÉ Radio One broadcasts a variety of programme genres including news and current affairs, music, drama, documentary, talk shows and radio phone in. News and current affairs programming are a core component of the radio schedule for RTÉ Radio On with flagship morning, lunchtime and early evening news programmes, Morning Ireland, News at One and Drivetime. Throughout the schedule there are also daily current affairs discussion shows such as Today with Claire Byrne and the Late Debate. At the weekend the schedule includes The Business and the Brendan O’Connor show which examines key news stories of the week with a panel of journalists and experts.
RTÉ Radio One traces its origins back to 1926 when the 2RN radio service began broadcasting from Dublin. 2RN was established within the Department of Post and Telegraphs to manage and run the public service broadcaster. It was funded through a listener paid licence fee and advertising revenue. In 1938 it was renamed Radio Éireann. Until the mid 20th Century the station only broadcast live in the evening due to budget constraints. Up until 1960 the broadcasting service was a section of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs and everyone working within it were civil servants, directly employed by the Government.
Under the Broadcasting Act of 1960 the government established a statutory company Radio Éireann to manage Irish radio and television, moving management and operation of the corporation outside the direct ownership and control of the Civil Service. The Government established the Authority Board to manage and operate the corporation. In 1966 the name was changed under legislation to Radio Telefís Éireann (RTÉ).
Originally the radio station production studios were located in the General Post Office on O’Connell Street in Dublin. Following the establishment of RTÉ as a statutory state corporation responsible for the management of TV and Radio in 1966, the Department of Post and Telegraphs no longer had direct involvement in the radio service. In 1971 the station moved from the city centre to the purpose built Radio Centre on the newly built RTÉ Campus in Donnybrook, south Dublin where it continues to broadcast from. In 1979 the name was changed from Radio Éireann to RTÉ Radio One when a second station RTÉ Radio Two (now 2FM) was launched.
In 2011 RTÉ launched the RTÉ Radio Player, offering listeners an app to listen to live RTÉ radio online and on demand programming via a digital app for radio programming.
More recently, the payments controversy that emerged in RTÉ in summer 2023 has impacted on RTÉ Radio One where Ryan Tubridy hosted his daily radio show in the 9am to 10am slot from Monday to Friday. One of the fallouts from this controversy was his suspension and then permanent removal from hosting this programme. Since his departure the programme has been hosted by a number of different presenters, at this time no permanent host has been appointed.
Audience Share
19.80%
Ownership Type
Public
Geographic Coverage
National
Content Type
Free content
Media Companies / Groups
RTÉ
Ownership Structure
RTÉ is Ireland’s Public Service Broadcaster, as such it is publicly funded and is set up as a Statutory State Body. It is owned by the RTÉ Board and for the purposes of this project we treat the chair of the board Siún Ní Raghallaigh as the ultimate global owner. We also provide details of every board and interim leadership team member. Within this structure there are no shareholders and no dividends are paid, RTÉ operates a dual funding model where income is derived from a public Licence Fee, collected by An Post for the State and advertising revenue from its various platforms.
Individual Owner
General Information
Founding Year
1926
Affiliated Interests Founder
When it was first established 2RN (Now RTÉ Radio One) was under the remit of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs. This department, who at the time oversaw the postal service and communications in the state were responsible for the management and operation of the new radio station as well as collection of the radio licence fee. Until the establishment of the statutory state organisation RTÉ under the 1960 Broadcasting Act, anyone working for the radio service were classified as civil servants and worked in it’s headquarters at the General Post Office on O’Connell Street, Dublin.
Affiliated Interests Ceo
RTÉ Director General
Kevin Bakhurst became Director General of RTÉ in July 2023 following the resignation of Dee Forbes by request of the RTÉ Board in the midst of the Ryan Tubridy payments scandal.
Between 2006 and 2012 Kevin Bakhurst worked in senior editorial and Director level positions in BBC News. In 2012 he moved to work with RTÉ as Managing Director of News & Current Affairs at RTÉ and Deputy Director General from 2012 to 2016. During this time he was a member of the RTÉ Executive and acting Director General for six months.
On leaving RTÉ in 2016 he moved to work with Ofcom, the media regulator in the United Kingdom as Group Director for Broadcasting and Online and was also a member of Ofcom Board. At Ofcom he was responsible for setting Broadcast Strategy and Policy, creating and implementing the regulation framework for the BBC and editorial standards for UK broadcasters. He also led work on the future of Public Service Broadcasting in the UK. He also led work on the Online Safety Policy for the UK.
Editor-In-Chief
Peter Woods
Affiliated Interests Editor-In-Chief
Head of RTÉ Radio One. Peter Woods is a radio producer, documentary maker and is the current Head of RTÉ Radio One. He was born in London and grew up in Lisdoonan near Carrickmacross, County Monaghan. After school he went to work in London and travelled through Europe, North Africa to Israel where he worked for a time. On returning to Ireland and applied for a production traineeship with RTÉ and joined the organisation in 1999 as a trainee radio producer. He went on to produce key news and current affairs programming across the station including, evening news programme Five Seven Live now Drivetime, The Late Debate and Saturday with Claire Byrne. In 2014 he was appointed Editor of Current Affairs for Radio One taking on full responsibility for the station's full portfolio of current affairs programming. He was promoted to Managing Editor of RTÉ Radio One in 2018 taking on responsibility for the majority of the station's flagship programmes. In 2020 he was appointed Managing Director of RTÉ Radio One. He has also written two books, The Living Note with Christy McNamara and Hard Shoulder.
Affiliated Interests other important people
Chair of the RTÉ Board. Siún Ní Raghallaigh is the Chair of the RTÉ Board. A media professional and former TG4 Chairperson and Board member, where she was a founding member of the team who established the Irish language station. She was CEO of Ardmore Studios and Troy Studios until 2021 and previously Managing Director with Tyrone Productions. She was Head of Finance with Tribune Newspaper Group. She founded her own independent television company Ikandi Productions and produced several documentaries. Siún is also involved in the animation sector and has executive produced several animated feature films.
Contact
Financial Information
Revenue (in Mill. $)
Missing Data
Operating Profit (in Mill. $)
Missing Data
Advertising (in % of total funding)
Missing Data
Market Share
Missing Data
Further Information
RTÉ says Ryan Tubridy will not return to radio show after salary controversy from Nadeem Badshah, The Guardian (2023), Accessed on 9 October 2023
Meta Data
RTÉ does not provide financial data for individual stations/outlets.
Audience share data is sourced from the JNLR Radio Listenership Press Release July ‘22 to June ‘23. The share of listening is based on weekday listening for Irish adults aged 15+ between 7am-7pm.
Within the media industry in Ireland reporting on income levels are generally at group level rather than individual title level. On top of this, overall revenue details for the market as a whole are unavailable. Due to these factors it is not possible to report accurately on market share for individual titles or groups.
Horgan, J. & Flynn, R. (2017), Irish Media A Critical History, Four Courts Press, Dublin
