Jennifer Zamparelli has hit out at the lack of female presenters on other radio stations, and is calling for them to “get their act together”.
The former Republic of Telly star hosts Breakfast Republic on RTÉ 2FM alongside Keith Walsh and Bernard O’Shea, and admitted that they’re very proud of the station’s strong female presence.
“We’re very happy that 2FM is a voice for female presenters because in other stations you don’t hear a lot of females on air, so 2FM is the only station that has a female on nearly every time slot.
“It’s important to have balance. So, other stations need to get their act together,” she told Indpendent.ie.
Proud: Jennifer is happy with 2FM’s strong female presence | VIPIRELAND.COM
2FM’s shake-up in 2014, orchestrated by boss Dan Healy, saw Hector Ó hEochagáin leave his breakfast show – and the slot was filled by Breakfast Republic.
And although Jennifer, Keith and Bernard are delighted to be the “most listened to breakfast show” in their demographic now, Jen has admitted that they seriously doubted themselves in the beginning after receiving “a lot of abuse”.
“The radio show has turned a corner. That took a while I suppose, we were probably too frank in the beginning, it took people a while to get used to it. We’re the most listened to breakfast show in our demographic, which is a huge achievement. We’re very proud of that.
Tough start: Jennifer admits Breakfast Republic got a lot of abuse in the beginning | VIPIRLEAND.COM
“The thing about Keith, myself and Bernard is we’re our own biggest critics. We had a tough time in the beginning, we had a lot of abuse.
“We burned a lot of listeners, older listeners, that we were told we needed to get rid of and start fresh, and we were kind of doubting ourselves, but the boss in there really believed in the show and what we were doing and, I hate to say it, but he was right.
“It takes time. People are very particular about what they listen to, so we had to bring in a whole new audience and that takes time. Especially if you’re not putting up billboards or doing a lot of advertising. It’s really all word of mouth,” she added.
