Popular RTE duo 2 Johnnies reveal 2FM quit reason with big money admission

THE 2 Johnnies have revealed they make more money from their podcast than the 2FM show they will leave TODAY.

The lads — Johnny ‘Smacks’ McMahon, 33, and Johnny ‘B’ O’Brien, 38 — shocked fans when they announced they were leaving their daily show.

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But the Tipperary jokers said they have been doing too much and “something had to give” as they have their podcast, a music career, TV shows and live shows — as well as the 2FM drivetime programme.

Johnny Smacks told us: “We enjoyed our time in 2FM, it was lovely, we loved working there.

“But the volume of work we were putting out in terms of five radio shows, two podcasts, along with all our socials and our music, and the whole lot, something had to give and unfortunately it was the radio.

“We’re heading on tour to the US and Australia so we’ve loads to be at. And we’re back on telly in the autumn so we’re flat to the board.”

Johnny Smacks said their lives were essentially on hold since they joined the RTE station in 2022, meaning family and friends were not at the forefront.

He added: “All that was put to one side for the last two-and-a-half years. We had foot to the floor working pretty much seven days a week, most weeks.

“So other things probably suffered and now we’re happy. We loved every minute of the radio and we won’t ever close the door on radio. I think someday we might end up back in radio.

“But for now, it’s back putting in all that work for the podcast and everything else we do.”

He revealed that with so much on their plates, the pals had turned down a lot before deciding to leave 2FM.

He said: “We’ve been very lucky, we turned down an awful lot of stuff, from TV projects to books to working abroad and stuff like that.

“We’ve turned down loads, so we’re not afraid to say no.

“The radio was just something we really enjoyed but it just got to the point where we took the show from the ­lowest rating to the highest rating, and it just felt like the time was right.

“There was a change coming. And rather than just sit there and take the money for another three years, we decided to
head onto pastures new.

“And that’s exactly what it is. We’re going on tour for the guts of two months of the summer, so it wouldn’t be fair on the listeners for us not to be around and be half-arsing it.

“We’ve never half-arsed anything. If we can’t give it our full attention, we don’t do it.”

STARS OFF AIR

2FM will also say bye to Doireann Garrihy today, while ­Jennifer Zamparelli departed last week after six weeks off air.

It has been claimed the reason the hosts left is due to money and RTE’s new Register of Interests, where staff must declare the pay for any jobs outside of Montrose.

But Johnny B revealed the duo actually make more money from the podcast than at 2FM.

He said: “We’d never pause the podcast. The podcast is the biggest thing in our universe. The podcast is the mothership.

“It’s very special to us. The ­community that we’ve built up there is huge for us. The podcast was never going to stop.

“Maybe for people who don’t ­listen to podcasts or of a different generation they might think it’s weird to hear us stopping radio.

“But that’s the modern landscape now that podcasts are huge and it’s the biggest thing in our world and we’re never going to stop doing it.

“The podcast has more listeners than the radio, makes more money than the radio, the podcast is who we are really.”

PAY PACKETS

No 2FM presenter has featured among the ten highest-paid RTE stars since Nicky Byrne pocketed €182,400 in 2017.

The latest figures, from 2022, shows reporter George Lee has the tenth highest salary of anyone in the business at €179,821.

However, latest figures show the 2 Johnnies shared directors’ pay of €404,183 at their firm last year.

After the lads finish up at 2FM today, they have their Pints in a Field event in Dublin’s St Anne’s Park on June 8, which still has some limited tickets available.

They then head to America, and then Australia, on tour.

They also release new album Small Town Heroes today and will tour record stores this weekend to sign them.

Johnny B said: “The songs are the things we talk about on the podcast — riding, shifting, living in a small town, drinking, fighting, playing GAA, farming, young lads spinning down the town acting the maggot.

“That’s what the album is about, the content of the album and the content of the podcast are very much the same.”

HOMETOWN HEROES

And the Tipp pair, who formed their act in 2016, said they feel like they’re representing their hometown of Cahir when they do anything.

Johnny B added: “Sometimes we feel like we’re representing country people.

“That was a big part of what made us want to go on the radio to have those mad conversations with people.

“The medium that is on is not necessarily the biggest part of it. And we’d play songs on the radio.

“Often we felt like this doesn’t really fit in with the conversations you’d be having.

“The content of the songs and the content of the chat on the radio on 2FM were often at odds with each other.

“We wrote songs that we thought represented what’s going on round here a bit more. If we find a new medium, we’ll have a go at that as well.”

He joked that could even some day be OnlyFans, laughing: “We’ll stick to Patreon for the moment but I wouldn’t rule it out.”

Smacks added: “I think there’s a culchie revival at the moment, everyone is starting to lean into their identity, where they’re from and what that means to them.

“And they are proud to be from the country, they are proud to be culchies. They don’t see it as a bad word. And why not?

“All we’ve ever done is be ourselves since we started and it’s gotten us here, so why would we change it?”

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