Oiling up the Tape Players out in Montrose.

MJ23

That Brush fella is never funny.
Does he get paid from RTE for his hilarious contributions?

Losty Dublin

MJ23 wrote: »

That Brush fella is never funny.
Does he get paid from RTE for his hilarious contributions?

He does get paid as are all of the "Funny Friday" gang. While in the car, I heard some of their show on the 24th and even by their normal standard, it was very poor going. The expense laid into this show for the day (Appearance fees, OB crews, catering and security, musicians etc) would be well spent hiring in more capable local comedians, extending Morning Ireland and Ronan Collins either side of the show or heaven forbid, paying the wages of a junior staffer in RTE.

Something I ought to clarify here is that John Creedon was actually broadcasting live on Christmas Day.

Harry Angstrom

Even the guy who does Risin Time gets to go on his Christmas holidays. He does one and a half hours every morning, yet RTE reckon he needs a Christmas break. Madness.

Losty Dublin

Harry Angstrom wrote: »

Even the guy who does Risin Time gets to go on his Christmas holidays. He does one and a half hours every morning, yet RTE reckon he needs a Christmas break. Madness.

The lad covering the show yesterday also had the luxury of broadcasting from the Galway studio; it made up for the additional 90 minutes of work he had to endure

Evan DietrichSmith

Harry Angstrom wrote: »

Even the guy who does Risin Time gets to go on his Christmas holidays. He does one and a half hours every morning, yet RTE reckon he needs a Christmas break. Madness.

Harry,it's not just the stars who demand the break, the real reason is that the back up,sound people ,producers,programme assistants, switchboard,technical lads and lassies, etc etc ,despite working for a PUBLIC SERVICE broadcaster demand that they be, as much as possible close down at Xmas.

So obvious answer, sling on some lad just playing music from a remote studio and horse out as many repeats and stuff as possible.

About three people and the station cat could keep that running.

Meanwhile in the REALWORLD retail staff, transport staff,entertainment folks on a fraction of the salaries of RTE are away at full tilt.

Cannot figure it out.

P. Breathnach

There is nothing wrong with organising work so that as many people as possible can have time off at Christmas. It's not as if news bulletins and the like are pre-recorded.

Evan DietrichSmith

P. Breathnach wrote: »

There is nothing wrong with organising work so that as many people as possible can have time off at Christmas. It's not as if news bulletins and the like are pre-recorded.

Perfectly correct,but depends on the industry you are working in.

Would there be anything wrong with BUS EIREANN, IARNROD EIREANN the theatre industry, the airline industry , the ferries, organising work so as many as possible can have time off.
What would that lead to?, skeleton service at an extremely busy time.
You see P, it's all about attitude to the customer and a commercial approach to things.

I listen to the BBC quite a lot and whilst they do draw in a bit at Xmas ,nowhere do they put the station on auto-pilot and just churn out rubbish

The public pay a lot for this service,and I am a complete admirer of the product they produce during normal times.

I equally am severely critical of the quality,output,and customer respect which they put out over the Xmas period.

It's diabolical.

P. Breathnach

Evan DietrichSmith wrote: »

... You see P, it's all about attitude to the customer ...

It's also about customers' expectations. I don't think the coterie who regularly indulge themselves in threads like this one are representative of the customer base for radio.

I think most people don't mind that much of what is broadcast at Christmas is pre-recorded, and a great deal of it previously broadcast.

Evan DietrichSmith

P. Breathnach wrote: »

It's also about customers' expectations. I don't think the coterie who regularly indulge themselves in threads like this one are representative of the customer base for radio.

I think most people don't mind that much of what is broadcast at Christmas is pre-recorded, and a great deal of it previously broadcast.

The first paragraph to me anyway accurately reflects RTEs attitude to the radio listening public at Xmas,distain and arrogance

I would disagree with the second paragraph.

Dwoogle

Harry Angstrom wrote: »

Even the guy who does Risin Time gets to go on his Christmas holidays. He does one and a half hours every morning, yet RTE reckon he needs a Christmas break. Madness.

In fairness that's a very crap slot, it caused poor maxi ill health

Harry Angstrom

Dwoogle wrote: »

In fairness that's a very crap slot, it caused poor maxi ill health

I suppose. Sure give me 8 hours a day in a factory, working 5 days a week instead of spinning records for an hour and a half every day........

hardCopy

Evan DietrichSmith wrote: »

Perfectly correct,but depends on the industry you are working in.

Would there be anything wrong with BUS EIREANN, IARNROD EIREANN the theatre industry, the airline industry , the ferries, organising work so as many as possible can have time off.
What would that lead to?, skeleton service at an extremely busy time.
You see P, it's all about attitude to the customer and a commercial approach to things.

I listen to the BBC quite a lot and whilst they do draw in a bit at Xmas ,nowhere do they put the station on auto-pilot and just churn out rubbish

The public pay a lot for this service,and I am a complete admirer of the product they produce during normal times.

I equally am severely critical of the quality,output,and customer respect which they put out over the Xmas period.

It's diabolical.

The services you've listed do just the same. Even hospitals run on skeleton staff over Christmas.

Evan DietrichSmith

hardCopy wrote: »

The services you've listed do just the same. Even hospitals run on skeleton staff over Christmas.

:rolleyes:

Back in 1970 maybe.

hardCopy

Evan DietrichSmith wrote: »

:rolleyes:

Back in 1970 maybe.

The airport is closed on Christmas Day, buses and trains are cancelled or on partial service for the 24th, 25th, 26th, 31st of December and 1st of Jan.

The hospitals discharge as many patients as possible for about two weeks and only a priority service is provided. The Gardai are on skeleton staff. All schools are closed.

Most private businesses are the same, including private radio stations.

Whether or not you agree with the idea of the whole country shutting down over Christmas, picking on RTE is a strange place to start reforming.

Evan DietrichSmith

hardCopy wrote: »

The airport is closed on Christmas Day, buses and trains are cancelled or on partial service for the 24th, 25th, 26th, 31st of December and 1st of Jan.

The hospitals discharge as many patients as possible for about two weeks and only a priority service is provided. The Gardai are on skeleton staff. All schools are closed.

Most private businesses are the same, including private radio stations.

Whether or not you agree with the idea of the whole country shutting down over Christmas, picking on RTE is a strange place to start reforming.

Airport may be closed on Christmas Day for sure but to say all those services are on partial service for the times you quote is not correct.

Try going to Dublin Airport on 26Dec and tell me that's true.

My gripe with RTE is that it is a public service broadcaster, presumably charged with providing a service to the licence payer year round

To just churn out music and replays and taped stuff from Dec 24 to Jan. 06 to my mind is disrespecting the licence payer

Newstalk didn't do this ,the theatres didn't do this, the shops didn't do this,so why should RTE who in my opinion are part of the entertainment industry do this.

BBC4 Today programme is firing along giving the public a service as normal.

The day ,in my opinion is gone when the national broadcaster can shut up shop and let everyone go on a break for 12 days around Christmas.

It's 2014 people

hardCopy

Evan DietrichSmith wrote: »

Airport may be closed on Christmas Day for sure but to say all those services are on partial service for the times you quote is not correct.

Try going to Dublin Airport on 26Dec and tell me that's true.

My gripe with RTE is that it is a public service broadcaster, presumably charged with providing a service to the licence payer year round

To just churn out music and replays and taped stuff from Dec 24 to Jan. 06 to my mind is disrespecting the licence payer

Newstalk didn't do this ,the theatres didn't do this, the shops didn't do this,so why should RTE who in my opinion are part of the entertainment industry do this.

BBC4 Today programme is firing along giving the public a service as normal.

The day ,in my opinion is gone when the national broadcaster can shut up shop and let everyone go on a break for 12 days around Christmas.

It's 2014 people

Yes you can get a bus to the airport but Dublin Bus were on Sunday service on the 26th. Bus Eireann also had a heavily altered timetable, even on the 27th.

I just don't see live radio as a critical service outside of News and Weather. The Christmas period is the one time of the year where most people are off or at least working reduced hours, I don't see a need to insist on RTE staff coming in.

I didn't listen to much Newstalk over the break but I definitely caught a Moncrief clip-show at some stage.

Evan DietrichSmith

hardCopy wrote: »

Yes you can get a bus to the airport but Dublin Bus were on Sunday service on the 26th. Bus Eireann also had a heavily altered timetable, even on the 27th.

I just don't see live radio as a critical service outside of News and Weather. The Christmas period is the one time of the year where most people are off or at least working reduced hours, I don't see a need to insist on RTE staff coming in.

I didn't listen to much Newstalk over the break but I definitely caught a Moncrief clip-show at some stage.

I guess we will just have to differ on those points.

Happy New Year.

L1011

hardCopy wrote: »

Most private businesses are the same, including private radio stations.

Not all of them. There were live presenters on Christmas day itself as well as the days between then and now on many stations.

More Music

All radio stations are on holiday rotas over Christmas. This applies to back room staff as well as presenters.

They have a mix of pre recorded and live programmes on Christmas Day and also over what is generally accepted as the "holiday period".

If you're working over Christmas and not happy to see other people off maybe a change of job is required.

Radio is a sector where people can take time off over Christmas. Retail & Hospitality isn't.

There are plans in place to deal with news related emergencies over the holidays.

BTW, Newstalk (not the only ones) had plenty of pre recorded review shows over Christmas.

Evan DietrichSmith

More Music wrote: »

All radio stations are on holiday rotas over Christmas. This applies to back room staff as well as presenters.

They have a mix of pre recorded and live programmes on Christmas Day and also over what is generally accepted as the "holiday period".

If you're working over Christmas and not happy to see other people off maybe a change of job is required.

Radio is a sector where people can take time off over Christmas. Retail & Hospitality isn't.

There are plans in place to deal with news related emergencies over the holidays.

BTW, Newstalk (not the only ones) had plenty of pre recorded review shows over Christmas.

What puzzles me is why RTE is referred to as a Public Service broadcaster .

Now what does public service mean.

To me it's providing a service to the public and to me that does NOT mean practically shutting down for 5 days around Christmas.

I would also take issue with the statement that radio is a sector which can take holidays at Xmas.

Now I would have no difficulty if the programmes went along at a reasonable resemblance to the normal schedule but at a perhaps at a less in depth coverage, with different presenters if the A-listers all want to be off at Xmas.

To foist two hours of John Murray and followed bt two Hours of Ronan Collins on the helpless public for the Xmas period to me is disrespectfull.


The today prog on BBC 4 carried on practically normally all over the period.

I fully acknowledge your point of view and respect it but this treatment of the listener by RTE at this time annoys me intensely .

More Music

Possibly quite a few things about RTE annoy you!

Anyway, in an ideal world I suppose they would take the 2 or 3 days and everything would go back to normal. There's a legacy and union thing at play there.

RTE would be considered the PSB because they get the licence fee, like the BBC.

Today on BBC R4 might have continued as normal but many other shows on TV or radio didn't.

Not looking forward to returning to work on Monday

Evan DietrichSmith

More Music wrote: »

Possibly quite a few things about RTE annoy you!

Anyway, in an ideal world I suppose they would take the 2 or 3 days and everything would go back to normal. There's a legacy and union thing at play there.

RTE would be considered the PSB because they get the licence fee, like the BBC.

Today on BBC R4 might have continued as normal but many other shows on TV or radio didn't.

Not looking forward to returning to work on Monday

Not really, would always give credit where credit is due.

Legacy is an interesting word,usually in my experience used in relation to the airlines, as in "legacy carriers" like say Sabena for instance and Swissair

If you get my drift.:cool:

padd b1975

Mooney off last week.

Marion off yesterday.

Both Murray and O' Rourke off so far today.

Didn't RTE give an undertaking some years back to stagger the leave of it's big names??

Expunge

Not much better over at BBC Radio 2. Chris Evans off, Ken Bruce off. Replaced by Zoe Ball and Michael Ball and once again, Ryan Tubridy will be replacing Simon Mayo on Drivetime.

Even the beeb can't sort their rosters out from time to time, so what hope for the shambolic RTE?

Evan DietrichSmith

padd b1975 wrote: »

Mooney off last week.

Marion off yesterday.

Both Murray and O' Rourke off so far today.

Didn't RTE give an undertaking some years back to stagger the leave of it's big names??

And these are the people who criticise teachers !

These guys have teachers hours by the sound of it.

Interesting to see if McCoille will make an appearance on MI.

Murray show is marginally better with KT,if she would get over her obsession with Z grade celebs.

P. Breathnach

Evan DietrichSmith wrote: »

And these are the people who criticise teachers !...

I haven't noticed that any of them makes a habit of criticising teachers. [Mooney might, for all I know because I rarely listen to him.]

padd b1975

Expunge wrote: »

Not much better over at BBC Radio 2. Chris Evans off, Ken Bruce off. Replaced by Zoe Ball and Michael Ball and once again, Ryan Tubridy will be replacing Simon Mayo on Drivetime.

Even the beeb can't sort their rosters out from time to time, so what hope for the shambolic RTE?

Shambolic it may be, but to allow three of their heavyweight names to be marked absent at the same time really should be avoidable.

Evan DietrichSmith

padd b1975 wrote: »

Shambolic it may be, but to allow three of their heavyweight names to be marked absent at the same time really should be avoidable.

Wilson replaced by PBH on Drivetime

my friend

padd b1975 wrote: »

Mooney off last week.

Marion off yesterday.

Both Murray and O' Rourke off so far today.

Didn't RTE give an undertaking some years back to stagger the leave of it's big names??

Their only big name left, he's at Newstalk now.

Davarus Walrus

Evan DietrichSmith wrote: »

Wilson replaced by PBH on Drivetime

PBH seems like a suitable replacement on first thoughts. Wilson is turning up and firing out a show on instinct at this stage. No passion or commitment there. I've never warmed to her presenting or interview style, but the top brass in Radio One must see that she isn't haemorrhaging too many listeners. Don't rock the good ship RTE.

Many of the listeners must be tired after a long day, and are suffering from a case of button pressing fatigue when it comes to changing the channel. Cooper goes on a bit, but isn't afraid to hammer a hack or politician. Hook is like a big pot of 70 year old marmite. Some think he gets better with age, whilst others thing age has made him even more rancid and appalling.

Both viable options imho.