RTE couldn't find it's own arse even with an RTE Arse Finding Machine

DublinWriter

Here’s my argument – RTE currently receive 75% of its revenue from commercial advertising and 25% of its revenue from the licence fee.

In the light of the above fact, this makes RTE (select a, b, or c from the following selections) :

a) A National Public Service Broadcaster
b) A Commerical Broadcaster
c) A Commerical Broadcaster using tax payers money to shore up it’s own management ineptitude

If you’ve selected (C), then well done. If you answered (a) and are still hanging on to the pipe dream that RTE are a national public service broadcaster, then please explain to me why they make a €247K Golden Handcuff payment every year to a ‘retired’ ex-presenter in order that he doesn’t go work for the commercial opposition?

It’s hard to define exactly what RTE are in terms of its organisation. It seems to combine the worst of both public/private sector worlds by marrying the dynamism of the Civil Service with the sense of public-duty of a commercial fast food chain.

Then there’s the usual conspiracy theories that abound….Opus Dei infiltration….cancelling Scrap Saturday and Bull Island at the height of their TAM ratings because of behind the scenes political pressure when Licence Fee increases were being sought….pulling the plug on Open House after it was discovered that Marty Whelan was putting subliminal Satanic messages in the closing credits…

The real truth of the matter is that RTE and Leinster house both have each other by a mutual ball-squeezing agreement. So don’t expect change anytime soon.

I’m a spoilt brat mancub of the Cetlic Tiger. I demand something better for my licence fee than a national broadcaster with all the production values and middle management layers of Albanian State TV.

Just look at what TnG manage to achieve on a budget that is a half of what TD pay themselves in personal expenses annually.

Anyway, in true Management Consultancy style, here’s the executive summary. I’ve trimmed my initial 387 points of grievance about RTE down to a slender list of just ten:

1. The guy behind the scenes at The Late Late show who halfway through the programme has to change the switch setting at the back of Pat Kenny’s head from ‘Chat Show Host’ to ‘Renault Ireland Salesbot’, then switch it back to its original setting five minutes later.

2. Marion Finnucaine’s scary ‘Hellloooo there….’ every weekday at 9.03am after the initial jingle for her radio show.

3. Destroying the original tapes for Wanderly Wagon

4. Ryan Tubridy

5. Ryan Tubridy

6. The quality of acting on Fair City and the huge effort involved in having to cover the entire cast with a protective coat of Cupronol every year.

7. Allowing Claire McKeown anywere near a microphone and/or camera.

8. Thinking in the year 2004 that broadcasting on Long Wave radio was a leap forward after most of Europe’s public broadcasters went digital in the late 1990’s.

9. Thinking that middle-aged, middle-class, double-chinned, over-weight ex-solicitors appeal to a youth demographic. Lads, just give the €600K annual salary to Zig and Zag instead, say a great big sorry to Ian Dempsey while you’re at it, and all will be forgotten.

10. …and finally, no matter how many times I enter the ‘Be an Extra on Fair City’ competition, I never win.

BlitzKrieg

uhmm wrong forum?



i mean you mentioned some political info...but most of it is bitching about RTE...which should be in television?

earwicker

[OT]Sir, I am outaged. And how would RTE fund said Arse-Finding contraption? Your idea is merely a ploy for more RTE funding.

I'm on to you.[/OT]

DublinWriter

****e and onions....foiled again....back to Opus Dei HQ for more evil plotting....and I would have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for you pesky kids.

jd

Originally posted by DublinWriter
****e and onions....foiled again....back to Opus Dei HQ for more evil plotting....and I would have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for you pesky kids.

You don't drink in Grogans, do you?



jd

The Beer Baron

Is dah awl me sun'z loife iz wurth?

The Beer Baron

The news of late is some scary ****.
Why is it every time I turn it on there's another "a recent study/survey shows that..."
Every night without fail. Mostly it's due to drinking, I mean tbh the problems we have with alcohol have always been there but they seem to be fueling some kind of neo-prohibitionist agenda lately.

RTE News is far from subjective, it's current affairs programs seem somewhat biased. I realised this watching Questions and Answers during the last election when they let bertie twaddle on and on spouting statistics that weren't related to the question whilst they done their best to shelter him from Noonan, who was by far the better debator whether you like him or not, every time he tried a rebuttal he was hit with the, "I'll have to stop you there" or the "we're running out of time..."

As for the quality of their programming, it's dire, absolutly dire.
The home-produced programming has gotten worse and worse.
They're showing ads for "educational" programming- I dunno, Bosco was a damn sight more educational that the drivel they're making now.

As for the crap they show? Eeh, Friends, weren't they showing the last episode a few weeks ago- why's it still on? They're just going to re-run it forever, Friends, Fair City, a prayer at bedtime...there's nothing, absolutly nothing I want to watch on it, ever- so why do I have to pay for it why?

And then of course we hear they've turned a profit this year- admitting that increasing licence fees has helped them. Well whoopdeedoo! Knowing RTE turned a profit really makes me feel warm inside. I ain't gonna pay for a licence- yet I'll be prosecuted if they catch me? **** that!

Like so many of these state-run dinosaurs, be it RTE, Aer Rianta, whatever- they're old dinosaurs of a bygone age, no purpose in a modern Irish society. Lame horses propped up by our money- let's just put a bullet in the back of their heads, put these horsies to sleep and cart them off to the glue factory PLEASE!

Oh no wait- that'd get a lot of state-paid ppl with big unions and "jobs for life" up in arms wouldn't it...

stupid country.

TwoShedsJackson

Wrong forum it may be but that's still the best thread title I've seen in a while

whosurpaddy

4. Ryan Tubridy

5. Ryan Tubridy [/B]

whats wrong with ryan tubridy? hes a breath of fresh air in comparison to most of the presenters on rte (radio and tv)

ReefBreak

3. Destroying the original tapes for Wanderly Wagon

Is this true? That actually makes me feel a little depressed (not joking).

sceptre

Originally posted by ReefBreak
Is this true? That actually makes me feel a little depressed (not joking).

Oh they didn't destroy them all. They still have one or two. They did the same with Tolka Row, not that this was much of a loss.