How DID Nicky end up on the RTÉ super rich list?
He was the boyband backing singer whose early television forays were critically panned, so...
WHATEVER the decade, and whatever the provenance, most boybands go through a similar life cycle. At the zenith of their popularity, one member decides that he might be better suited to life as a more ‘serious’ musician, and makes haste quicker than you can say Donny Osmond.
The surviving group members putter on for a while, hoping to retain their pop crown. As it all falls apart, each member scatters in different directions — towards a different career, towards a backseat role in the industry, towards oblivion.
It happened with Take That and Boyzone, and it happened with Westlife. When the Sligo-formed band called it a day, the fortunes of the fivesome — Nicky Byrne, Shane Filan, Kian Egan, Mark Feehily and early departer Brian McFadden — were anyone’s to guess.
But as they shot out of the traps into post-pop life, few could quite have predicted that Nicky would be the one to rise phoenix-like from the ashes.
Brian had the cheeky chappy role, Mark had the voice, Shane had the boyish charm, Kian had the model good looks and Nicky... well, he was best known for marrying into a political dynasty.
By his own admission, he waited in vain to be given his time to shine in the pop group, and when it came to providing lead vocals on a hit single, Nicky was left wanting.
‘In my heart there was burning embarrassment and frustration that you’re buried,’ he has said in the past. ‘But when you enter a band like Westlife, you effectively win the lottery and count your lucky stars.’
Whatever his place in Westlife’s pecking order, Nicky has had the last laugh. According to reports, FM104 publicly offered him a job the day that Westlife called it quits but Nicky had already presented editions of 2fm’s Celebrity Sunday show, so the national broadcaster appeared a natural progression.
But far from being sent to the outpost that is Sunday evening, Nicky now finds himself in the peak slot once occupied by Gerry Ryan.
Signing on the dotted line to present a show with Jenny Greene in 2014, Nicky is now officially 2fm’s highest earning presenter, breaking through the €200,000 salary barrier.
When RTÉ released their list of ten highest earning personalities this week, it kicked off a huge debate about the gender pay gap and the utilisation of the licence fee.
But perhaps the most surprising thing about it — and something that will likely anger many lower down
‘He’s willing to muck in behind the scenes’
the list — was that Nicky found himself sitting pretty among more established names such as Ryan Tubridy, Joe Duffy and Marian Finucane.
In fact, Nicky, a relative newcomer, earns just €915 a year less than broadcasting veteran Claire Byrne and, it would seem, significantly more than his co-presenter.
Jenny, a radio stalwart with over a decade’s experience at 2fm, was conspicuous by her absence in the top 10 high earners’ list.
The hefty paycheck can likely be explained by Nicky’s extra TV presenting work: fronting Dancing With The Stars, he spent much of the first part of this year double-jobbing.
Hard work and rejection are two things he’s well used to.
In 1995, aged 17, the Baldoyle native left sixth year in school to go to Leeds United. He had signed on for €11,000 and was earning €332 per week as a boot boy to Lee Sharpe and Gary Kelly.
Within weeks, the goalkeeper was selected in the Leeds United first team squad for a Premier League game against Southampton but didn’t make it on to the pitch.
What was initially a promising career turned into a disappointment and Nicky decided to return to Ireland to sit his Leaving Cert. He had an eye on joining the gardaí when he heard Louis Walsh’s siren song.
Nicky met his fellow future Westlifers in a roundabout way: he and Brian McFadden were auditioning for a new traditional boyband, Reel. Louis put the pair together with Kian Egan, Shane Filan and Mark Feehily, and the five signed as Westlife with Simon Cowell.
At a time when the charts were already saturated with boybands, Westlife confounded everyone’s expectations with a 14-year career, 14 British Number One singles and 45 million album sales, earning them over €15million each.
When Brian left the group in 2004, Westlife continued as a foursome for seven more years. At the height
He is being paid big bucks for past glories
of their success, they were said to be earning a reported €1million a year each.
Although his music career was pretty smooth sailing before they were dropped by Simon Cowell, it’s safe to say Nicky’s presenting forays are best described as chequered. While Kian landed several lucrative gigs — including a victorious €100,000 appearance on I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here — Nicky had many false dawns and axed efforts.
He evidently had an eye on a broadcasting career even while riding high in Westlife.
In 2002, he co-hosted an edition of chart show CD:UK with Cat Deeley. There were sporadic appearances on BBC’s Children in Need and Comic Relief, and he presided over the Cheerios Childline concert for several years.
Yet for every behemoth project, there was an ill-fated flop. The Million Euro Challenge, which aired initially in early 2015, was axed within six months. The Hit on RTÉ One, a TV talent show hosted alongside Aidan Power, also proved short-lived. The Irish version of Football’s Next Star, which ran in the autumn of 2012, lasted a single series.
In 2016, his hopes for Eurovision glory were kicked into touch when he failed to make it out of the semifinal — and earlier this year, it was revealed RTÉ spent €337,000 sending him to Stockholm.
Nevertheless, Nicky has been something of a cachet signing for the broadcaster, and most of that €200,000 salary has, for all intents and purposes, been spent on securing his name.
There’s no doubting that his glittering pop past has put stars in the eyes of the bigwigs down in Montrose. Asked why the singer’s salary was so high, 2fm boss Dan Healy simply said this week: ‘Nicky is an international star.’
Reading between the lines, Nicky is being paid the big bucks for past glories. However, he has been keen to prove himself from the outset.
Intent on making a hit at 2fm, on day three in the gig the novice gave €1,000 to two listeners after they mistakenly texted 2fm to respond to a
competition being run on Today FM. ‘You entered a competition on a national rival radio station to win a grand in cash, is that right? Well, let me tell you, let there be no confusion. Here’s a grand in cash from us at 2fm,’ he told the listener.
A rookie error or inspired publicity stunt, it’s hard to tell.
Supported by Greene on his daily 2fm show, he has fulfilled the role of a professional broadcaster. His Westlife fanbase have evidently followed him to the airwaves, too.
Said a source close to RTÉ, who did not wish to be named: ‘Nicky and Jenny definitely have good chemistry, and they’ve become pals. It’s definitely helped their onair rapport.
‘Nicky is a likeable lad and pretty popular with his colleagues in the radio centre. He’s not showy or starry. He was keen to learn the ropes at the beginning, is definitely willing to muck in behind the scenes and get his feet wet, and knows how lucky he is to be where he is.’
Recently, radio critic Mick Heaney wrote of the show: ‘There’s an affable appeal to the on-air relationship between Nicky, the cheeky but decent lad-turned-dad who talks about driving his son to soccer and his celebrity friends, and Jenny, the sparky DJ who slags her co-host about his advanced years.
‘But with a playlist of contemporary pop eating up the air time and a tone that rarely moves beyond larky banter, the show is a pleasing distraction at best, the radio equivalent of perusing social media updates on a smartphone.’
It’s precisely this down-to-earth, devoted family guy shtick that has proved to be Nicky’s stock in trade. In the heady Westlife days, Nicky’s then-girlfriend, now wife, Georgina was a solid presence. They married in 2003 and now have three children, twins Rocco and Jay, 10, and daughter Gia, almost four.
Still, in the same week that his hefty salary was revealed by RTÉ bosses, Nicky was likely breathing a sigh of relief when the latest JNLR figures were released. With 144,000 listeners, Nicky and Jenny are up 5,000 listeners since April, and 8,000 year-on-year.
With a career of many highs and lows, Nicky has evidently built up a constitution for the vagaries of the showbiz life.
As he finds himself on RTÉ’s rich list, among the station’s heaviest hitters, it’s clear he’s settled in well to his new radio role, though colleagues on lesser salaries may question how he’s climbed the pay grade ladder quite so quickly.
As is the nature of the boyband, Westlife’s successors One Direction now find themselves in similar terrain that their predecessors once did. They won’t be the last to scramble for a postpop career. But they, and those after them, could do worse than look at how Nicky Byrne parlayed his squeaky-clean appeal into a broadcasting career.
And, as we now know, a lucrative one at that.