Lyric fm's Breakfast show presenter - Marty Whelan.

Maggie McGaggie

Sandwlch wrote: »

Folks, stop rising to the bait.

Any criticism you make only adds fuel to annoy you if you think you are arguing with a reasoning correspondent, and bounced back to you by seemingly its biggest fan on earth; Lyric, Mary, Lyric management, RTE integrity, Lyric programming, long talky interludes in a music programme.
Now you throw in Neven Maguire. And what do you get ? Neven and his contribution praised to the heavens of course. All wrapped in a smirk of flowery language.
No point beating around the bush here. Troll. The more you feed the troll the bigger it gets.

Sandwlch, you could be right that he is trying to annoy other people on here. It is difficult to believe that anyone could like MW that much especially a person who claims to visit the Wexford festival and has been a long time listener to Lyric. However in this world anything is possible, so he at least deserves a listen. I agree with that it is necessary to discuss Lyric Fm music policy here.

I am of the opinion that Hugo has a vested interest with Marty, although he does have the same name as a contributor to the show, so i don't know if it is too obvious. He tries to snuff out debate with his language and tried to lead the focus away from John Masterson and Blacklion. This business is very shady and if it came to the attention of management it could be black for MW. That is why i am going to write to Lyric management. Marty presumably got free board and meals for advertising MacNean on his show and he continuously promotes merchandise for him. Basically i just want to get rid of Marty and if making an issue of his dealings with Neven Maguire is how to do it, he wont still be there for the lack of effort on my behalf.

HugoBradyBrown

Dear All,


I am sorry to say that I never saw 'Open House' with the great Mary Kennedy, due to other commitments at the time of TX, and to a general feeling that there is something unseemly about watching television during daylight hours. I have no idea who John Masterson is, and I have intentionally avoided finding out, since I think Mr Masterson and his commercial activities are of no relevance to my opinions.

I remain frankly dazed by assumptions that anyone who revels in Marty's morning three-ring circus must be either deranged, in the pocket of RTE or, in the worst case, engaged in the sophomoric baiting of members of a well-meaning if somewhat po-faced ginger group aching to deny Marty access to the RTE Lyric FM listener. As I have written repeatedly, the simplest explanation is often the correct one: like many tens of thousands of others, I value what is being done to RTE Lyric FM by Marty and his team.

It is especially troubling to think that anyone would even suggest that personalities of the calibre of Marty would sell their professional integrity for a 'mess of pottage', albeit one prepared by Neven. I would suggest, with the greatest possible respect, that if anyone thinks that absorbing the cost of B&B for a production team is the reason we were treated to a thrilling morning's radio last Friday, they must have a very low opinion indeed of humanity. MITM is concerned with larger things. I would almost go so far as to say that if anyone could be bought for the cost of a night's B&B, there couldn't be much to them.

And, to recall another gem from last Friday, until then, who knew that there was a Cavan Burren? I, for one, have marked it on my list of places to visit in the next extended spell of fine weather. PSB at its best!

Sincerely yours,


Hugo Brady Brown

pinkypinky

Maggie McGaggie wrote: »

I am of the opinion that Hugo has a vested interest with Marty, although he does have the same name as a contributor to the show, so i don't know if it is too obvious. He tries to snuff out debate with his language and tried to lead the focus away from John Masterson and Blacklion. This business is very shady and if it came to the attention of management it could be black for MW. That is why i am going to write to Lyric management. Marty presumably got free board and meals for advertising MacNean on his show and he continuously promotes merchandise for him. Basically i just want to get rid of Marty and if making an issue of his dealings with Neven Maguire is how to do it, he wont still be there for the lack of effort on my behalf.

Maggie,

Let us know how you get on with writing to Lyric. I hope you don't get the carbon copy same response as a few of us did last year when we wrote to complain about MW. The shameless promotion of Neven Maguire both on by MW on the radio and HBB here should be discouraged and Hugo, it's off topic.

PP

HugoBradyBrown

Dear All,


The peremptory statement that something is off-topic seems to suggest that some authority has decreed that corrosive, crude personalised abuse of Neven and coarse and wholly unwarranted criticism of Marty are acceptable here, but that a listener's expression of the genuine pleasure he shares with tens of thousands of contented listeners to "Marty in the Morning" is to be forbidden.

I am reminded less of the open discussion that the Internet can sustain, and more of the denunciation of Shostakovich by Pravda in 1936, when he offended self-satisfied conservative forces with his opera 'Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk'.

I cleave to the values of the Enlightenment, and conclude by invoking the spirit of free expression.

Very sincerely yours,


Hugo Brady Brown

marienbad

HugoBradyBrown wrote: »

Dear All,


The peremptory statement that something is off-topic seems to suggest that some authority has decreed that corrosive, crude personalised abuse of Neven and coarse and wholly unwarranted criticism of Marty are acceptable here, but that a listener's expression of the genuine pleasure he shares with tens of thousands of contented listeners to "Marty in the Morning" is to be forbidden.

I am reminded less of the open discussion that the Internet can sustain, and more of the denunciation of Shostakovich by Pravda in 1936, when he offended self-satisfied conservative forces with his opera 'Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk'.

I cleave to the values of the Enlightenment, and conclude by invoking the spirit of free expression.

Very sincerely yours,


Hugo Brady Brown

Do you know something we don't know Hugo ? Is Marty going to spring a bunch of great string quartets on us that he havs being hiding for fear of being shot ?

Comparisions are usually odious but this one is just plain ridiculous .

Gloomtastic!

HugoBradyBrown wrote: »

Dear All,


The peremptory statement that something is off-topic seems to suggest that some authority has decreed that corrosive, crude personalised abuse of Neven and coarse and wholly unwarranted criticism of Marty are acceptable here, but that a listener's expression of the genuine pleasure he shares with tens of thousands of contented listeners to "Marty in the Morning" is to be forbidden.

I am reminded less of the open discussion that the Internet can sustain, and more of the denunciation of Shostakovich by Pravda in 1936, when he offended self-satisfied conservative forces with his opera 'Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk'.

I cleave to the values of the Enlightenment, and conclude by invoking the spirit of free expression.

Very sincerely yours,


Hugo Brady Brown

You're mad as a bag of cats Hugo. Keep up the good work.

goingpostal

I listened to a good bit of the show this morning. It was like the wild west, with all the tunes from cowboy movies he was playing. It becomes more tolerable when you forget that you are supposed to be listening to a classical music station. After nine, he had some woman on promoting some book or other, so he got the heave-ho then.

HugoBradyBrown

Dear All,


I think the salient point to realise is that RTE Lyric FM is not, was not intended to be and has never been a 'classical music station'. Some acquaintance with the pre-launch literature about the service will make that clear. Had it been intended to be a 'classical mucis station', a station title to reflect that restrictive remit could have been chosen.

It would have been ill-advised of RTE to launch such a service for such a small audience as the classical music audience in this small market. The easy comparison with BBC Radio 3 is fundamentally flawed: Britain is a much larger market and the BBC has immense resources available to it.

The musical component of RTE Lyric FM's output serves very well the larger minority of the population who like classical music, jazz, world music, film music, music from the shows, classic popular song, contemporary art music, older popular music that has attained immortality and other musical genres that are not carried elsewhere on RTE's services. RTE Lyric FM is distinguished particularly by its use of informed, enthusiastic presenters who do more than simply play music, but who engage meaningfully with both the music and with the listener. I rather think that it is the reflective, knowledgeable presentation by the radio stars that gives that extra value to the listening experience that most of us respect and enjoy, pretty much across the board on RTE LyricFM. (Listen back to Gay's programme from yesterday, where he enriches our understanding of Imelda May's musical world, and where he entreats the lsitener to enjoy the music and to drive safely, as one single readily available example of an authentic broadcaster as it were sitting beside one in the car; this is heartwarming broadcasting of the first water. Or consider Frank's programme from Saturday last: two tight hours of broadcasting by one of our foremost pianists and composers, where, amongst a well-chosen roster of works, he reveals the art of musical composition through his popular and inventive Spot the Tune. This is quality broadcasting, enveloping the listener for a brief two hours in a magical musical world; we should be grateful for what we have.)

Very sincerely,


Hugo Brady Brown

ziggyman17

Maggie McGaggie wrote: »

Sandwlch, you could be right that he is trying to annoy other people on here. It is difficult to believe that anyone could like MW that much especially a person who claims to visit the Wexford festival and has been a long time listener to Lyric. However in this world anything is possible, so he at least deserves a listen. I agree with that it is necessary to discuss Lyric Fm music policy here.

I am of the opinion that Hugo has a vested interest with Marty, although he does have the same name as a contributor to the show, so i don't know if it is too obvious. He tries to snuff out debate with his language and tried to lead the focus away from John Masterson and Blacklion. This business is very shady and if it came to the attention of management it could be black for MW. That is why i am going to write to Lyric management. Marty presumably got free board and meals for advertising MacNean on his show and he continuously promotes merchandise for him. Basically i just want to get rid of Marty and if making an issue of his dealings with Neven Maguire is how to do it, he wont still be there for the lack of effort on my behalf.

I think you should get a life.. You are clearly lacking something upstairs.. If you don't like lyric's breakfast show then don't listen to it.. Lots of people tune in and like what they hear.. Its been proven that he has increased his listeners, you and a few on here are in the minority when it come's to people who dislike the show..

mbur

ziggyman17 wrote: »

I think you should get a life.. You are clearly lacking something upstairs.. If you don't like lyric's breakfast show then don't listen to it..

As fine an example of an ad hominem attack as you will see anywhere. I'm sure Hugo will agree it adds nothing to the discussion

Maggie McGaggie

ziggyman17 wrote: »

I think you should get a life.. You are clearly lacking something upstairs.. If you don't like lyric's breakfast show then don't listen to it.. Lots of people tune in and like what they hear.. Its been proven that he has increased his listeners, you and a few on here are in the minority when it come's to people who dislike the show..

'Sitting on the sidelines, cribbing and moaning is a lost opportunity. I don't know how people who engage in that don't commit suicide because frankly the only thing that motivates me is being able to actively change something,'

Bertie Ahern 04/07/04
Irish Prime Minister

I have already sent my letter. No Irish person could really be surprised that RTE has decided to turn Lyric into a bland and insipid institution. I posted an article from The Irish Times from the first day of the station's broadcast in May 1999 a few pages ago.It is included in the first post on page 17. The author of the piece was well aware of the likely direction Lyric would take. The problem is that the people in RTE believe that Lyric FM is there for their benefit, much like Bertie Ahern's government and you like Bertie believe that anyone who speaks out against the bland and nonsensical should be subjected to calumny and libel.

Coriolanus

ziggyman17 wrote: »

I think you should get a life.. You are clearly lacking something upstairs.. If you don't like lyric's breakfast show then don't listen to it.. Lots of people tune in and like what they hear.. Its been proven that he has increased his listeners, you and a few on here are in the minority when it come's to people who dislike the show..

I'm not sure that any of that is at all relevant. If you parachuted in some other 2fm "deejay" and told them to play the UK and Irelands top 20 single chart for an hour or two every morning it would be a wildly popular show.

Does that mean that it would be a good idea for Lyric to pursue? Patently not, even Hugo would concede that there are some limits to be placed on the pursuit if listenership.

Maggie McGaggie

goingpostal wrote: »

I listened to a good bit of the show this morning. It was like the wild west, with all the tunes from cowboy movies he was playing. It becomes more tolerable when you forget that you are supposed to be listening to a classical music station. After nine, he had some woman on promoting some book or other, so he got the heave-ho then.

This was Michele, Matt Monro's daughter. Last week we had Mario Lanza's daughter. I'm looking forward to future guests. I wonder who he'll have on? Michael Buble's auntie Jane maybe? Tony Bennett's grandson perhaps? Should be spectacular. If people who are associated with Blacklion are launching personal attacks and trying to discourage me, it will only serve to make me redouble my efforts. Hugo, i told you who John Masterson is( he also writes in Sunday Independent). He is a massively influential figure in Irish media and has been a long-time friend of Marty.The sunday Independent cabal, which includes Gay Byrne, view Lyric Fm as their own personal cash cow. I believe that he lobbied for Marty to be given a position in Lyric. I seem to remember another campaign last year in the Sunday Independent for Brendan Balfe to be accommodated in Lyric upon his forced retirement from Radio 1. MW obviously was in debt to Purcell Masterson and PM's main client and revenue provider is Blacklion.

http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/tv-radio/end-of-an-era-for-our-own-irish-voice-balfe-2334634.html

Typically this cabal have annexed RTE Lyric Fm for their own selfish desires. But then everyone here is selfish. Hugo doesn't seem to care that many people don't believe that MW is a suitable host. I don't care if Hugo would miss MW from Lyric. Blacklion have no compunction over hijacking Lyric for their own needs. The head of Lyric only cares for ratings and looking over his shoulder. He is not interested in providing a public service.

HugoBradyBrown

Dear All,


I, for one, thoroughly enjoyed Marty's interview this morning with Michele Monro, as they honoured and kept alive the memory of the man behind the music. The fact that Michele was motivated by family piety and by service to Monro's art and not by the lure of making money from his musical legacy added a special savour to the experience. The success of the book in hardback was heartening; the fact that a publication launch was organised for the paperback edition was an interesting and surprising fact; the resurrection of old advertising jingles recorded by Matt Monro (under such amusing recording studio monikers as 'Freddy Flange', to preserve the special mystique of his identity at the time of recording) was frankly a revelation. 80 of these jingles have now been released by his record company (EMI, if I recall correctly), and, at Michele's suggestion, the original limited edition of 3 000 copies, which flew off the shelves, has been followed by a budget price multi-disc edition for the mass market. Hopes remain alive that some other jingles are still extant in some recording company vault, and could perhaps be added to future issues of the box set. (And, if I remember correctly, Michele was expertly drawn out by Marty to reveal that Robbie Williams was one of those who read and loved the book (evidently having come across it in the ordinary course of his structured reading), and pressed on her some material to use as a cover endorsement in reprints of the book, which he sent over by motorcycle courier. This shows the world that Marty has opened for us. It also shows how Marty's musical choices, such as Matt Monro, offer an unexpected but musically credible avenue towards building a young audience among the followers of a pop singer like Robbie Williams. In this, it seems to me, we are seeing the high intelligence of a broadcaster who is thinking about the farther horizon, rather than simply day-to-day JNLR 'books'.)

The most poignant part of the interview with Michele for me was the revelation by Marty in passing that, despite being invited to the launch in London (itself clear evidence of the high regard in which he and MITM are rightly held by the musical establishment), in the company of a glittering array of showbiz talent (and with messages read out from some who couldn't attend for unexpected reasons of the calibre of Bruce Forsyth), because of the diminution of resources in Radio Eireann, it wasn't possible for Marty and team to attend. It is another, if relatively minor, consequence of the economic calamity that Ireland and RTE are enduring; in better times, MITM might have been transmitted for a day or two from, for example, the Classic FM studios in Leicester Square, with the possibility of a galaxy of stars of stage and screen dropping in over the course of the programme.

Marty's interview, conducted with charm and delicacy, was a textbook example of what non-confrontational arts broadcasting should be. Similarly the interview last week with the late Mario Lanza's daughter was enchanting, bringing back vivid recollections of one of the last century's very finest musical talents, snatched away from us too soon. "Golden Days in the sunshine of our happy youth" and fine, very fine indeed it was!

Finally, I think that it is heartening to see that a range of opinion that in terms of number of posts better reflects the warm welcome of the Irish radio audience for MITM is at last being reflected on this Board. I would encourage other audience members who appreciate the stalwart work that Marty and his team have been doing in ensuring the financial viability and listenership legitimacy of RTE Lyric FM to consider placing their views on this Board. It is perfectly proper to be among the silent majority who thrive on the diet of MITM, but, for fear of being shouted down by the intensity of expression of variant minority voices, it is important for the majority to be heard. Considerations that to intrude here would mean a lapse of taste, or a tussle in a unwinnable battle must be overcome. We should keep in mind the adage about what happens "when good men do nothing", and I would, of course, include 'women of goodwill' in this also.


With my sincere regards,



Hugo Brady Brown

HugoBradyBrown

Dear All,


While wary of possibly being slightly 'off topic', as I understand the cant expression is, I was taken with the suggestion in a recent post that Brendan Balfe should return to the national airwaves through the good offices of RTE Lyric FM. This is a truly marvellous suggestion.

To think of the depth of experience, the comprehensive knowledge of both music and comedy, and the affable naturalistic style of presentation that has been wasted by enforced retirement simply for reasons of chronological age is to despair of the rigid application of administrative regulations to those special people working in the arts. If Mr Balfe is kept off the air, it is the Irish public that is being deprived; RTE Lyric FM has to be the ideal place where a talent like his could flourish for many years to come.

He could turn his hand to any segment of the schedule, of course; my own initial mental picture is of focussing his core competencies on a couple of weekend slots, but he seems to me to have those talents of mental agility and effortless charm to fit the evening rush-hour slot perfectly. I think he would be a certain magnet for a surge of advertising interest at that time of day, with a car-bound captive audience shaking off the stresses of the wearisome day through classic comedy and musical entertainment.

'Marty to work and Brendan home': it must be possible to construct a contemporary proverb or an advertising slogan along these lines: a good idea for a competition, perhaps. Maybe the next time someone is writing a snorter to the DG out in Montrose, they could include this idea as a p.s.


With kind regards,


Hugo Brady Brown

goingpostal

Maggie McGaggie wrote: »

This was Michele, Matt Monro's daughter. Last week we had Mario Lanza's daughter. I'm looking forward to future guests. I wonder who he'll have on? Michael Buble's auntie Jane maybe? Tony Bennett's grandson perhaps? Should be spectacular. If people who are associated with Blacklion are launching personal attacks and trying to discourage me, it will only serve to make me redouble my efforts. Hugo, i told you who John Masterson is( he also writes in Sunday Independent). He is a massively influential figure in Irish media and has been a long-time friend of Marty.The sunday Independent cabal, which includes Gay Byrne, view Lyric Fm as their own personal cash cow. I believe that he lobbied for Marty to be given a position in Lyric. I seem to remember another campaign last year in the Sunday Independent for Brendan Balfe to be accommodated in Lyric upon his forced retirement from Radio 1. MW obviously was in debt to Purcell Masterson and PM's main client and revenue provider is Blacklion.

http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/tv-radio/end-of-an-era-for-our-own-irish-voice-balfe-2334634.html

Typically this cabal have annexed RTE Lyric Fm for their own selfish desires. But then everyone here is selfish. Hugo doesn't seem to care that many people don't believe that MW is a suitable host. I don't care if Hugo would miss MW from Lyric. Blacklion have no compunction over hijacking Lyric for their own needs. The head of Lyric only cares for ratings and looking over his shoulder. He is not interested in providing a public service.

The minute I hear him talking about some book or commercial venture that he wants to give a free plug to, he gets the heave-ho. Even if it is a person or a topic I might have an interest in. MW is a terrible interviewer. Fawning and obsequious to anyone with even a faint whiff of fame about them. It is pathetic, painful listening.

HugoBradyBrown

Dear All,


There can be no question of a 'free plug': Marty interviews people from the relatively small subset of celebrities whose work is relevant to the content and purpose of RTE Lyric FM. He does this very well, too, in my view: were it not for the difference in the timbre of their voices, one might imagine that it was Gay who was interviewing. This is not forensic interviewing of a hostile witness: Marty interviews people about bright, sunny topics, and by being on-side, he is able to elicit even more from them than anyone might gain from some needlessly harsh, aggressive, carping, misanthropic interviewing style.

And if we consider the people he interviews: what is there for them to gain financially from any publicity from a small station like RTE Lyric FM in a small advertising market? These are people at the peak of their careers, not tyros grubbing around for pennies, or elbowing their way into the limelight. The only people who gain are the listeners, whether by being informed of a concert, or notified about some new book or 'album', or simply by being better informed about the work and thought of some musical or artistic legend.

In short, by assuming the worst, a dark and disturbing construction can be placed on something that is self-evidently the opposite: good, honest, sunny and incorruptible radio at its very finest.


With my sincere regards,


Hugo Brady Brown

goingpostal

HugoBradyBrown wrote: »

Dear All,


There can be no question of a 'free plug': Marty interviews people from the relatively small subset of celebrities whose work is relevant to the content and purpose of RTE Lyric FM. He does this very well, too, in my view: were it not for the difference in the timbre of their voices, one might imagine that it was Gay who was interviewing. This is not forensic interviewing of a hostile witness: Marty interviews people about bright, sunny topics, and by being on-side, he is able to elicit even more from them than anyone might gain from some needlessly harsh, aggressive, carping, misanthropic interviewing style.

And if we consider the people he interviews: what is there for them to gain financially from any publicity from a small station like RTE Lyric FM in a small advertising market? These are people at the peak of their careers, not tyros grubbing around for pennies, or elbowing their way into the limelight. The only people who gain are the listeners, whether by being informed of a concert, or notified about some new book or 'album', or simply by being better informed about the work and thought of some musical or artistic legend.

In short, by assuming the worst, a dark and disturbing construction can be placed on something that is self-evidently the opposite: good, honest, sunny and incorruptible radio at its very finest.


With my sincere regards,


Hugo Brady Brown

Ah, blow it our your rear-end, Hugo.

marienbad

goingpostal wrote: »

Ah, blow it our your rear-end, Hugo.

Yeah Hugo, give it rest, you are not even quaint anymore. I don't know how you even have time to listen to MW and write these long-winded posts here and elsewhere.

HugoBradyBrown

Dear All,

There have been some frankly outrageous comments. One must assume that they will be deleted by the moderators, in one case on the grounds of puerile vulgarity alone. This type of comment is beneath contempt: if one has to go to the lavatory for one's humour, the writing is on the wall for this Board.

I am sensing why Marty's professional and high quality work, the work of a gentleman of taste and discretion, is proving not to the taste of all contributors to this forum. It cannot be his fault if he does not and will not stoop so low in terms of taste.

I find the time to make my modest contribution to this debate as a civic duty, because this is something that matters: RTE Lyric FM is clearing a path to permit us, the ordinary TV tax-payer and the citizen, to make our way under the sure-handed guidance of an expert through a rich and varied diet of music of many kinds. It is an initiative that might offer the potential to educate every reader of this board, whether in music of various genres, or, simply on how a civilized person conducts himself or herself in public. There really are boundaries of taste that are unbreachable and certain language that might be tolerable in the privacy of one's own home (if even there) should be entirely hors de question in any public setting. Contributors affecting an appreciation for the transcendence of the art music of the western world rather undermine their standing by engaging in the discourse of the sewer, if I may say so without causing any unnecessary offence.

My hope is that MITM continues as the new frontier on RTE Lyric FM, a zone where different musical interests meet under the chairmanship of a consummate professional and a gifted broadcaster. If this can spread out elsewhere on RTE Lyric FM, appealing to a wider public, a great public service will have been rendered, and my contributions shall not have been in vain.

With my sincere regards,



Hugo Brady Brown

TimmyTarmac

Posters both for and against Marty in the Morning seem to be labouring under the impression that the show and Marty's presence on Lyric has increased it's audience. It hasn't according to Jnlr surveys. Marty has been hanging around Lyric on a daily basis for about 3 years now. In his first slot at lunchtime lost nearly a third of the audience and the audience for the morning show is now only back to where it was a number of years before he arrived.

A commercial success? No
A critical success? No
A sell out and a betrayal of Lyric's mission by inept RTE management? Ohh Yes
I repeat these facts because the idea that those of us who despise the MITM show on Lyric are in the minority is probably not true.

According to the last RTE annual report for 2010, 5 euro and 5 cent of every licence fee goes to fund Lyric.(sorry can't find a link) If they persist with the Martys et al, let them fund with ads alone and see how long it lasts.

HugoBradyBrown

Dear All,


So we learn from a contributor that RTE Lyric FM costs the taxpayer only 5 euros a year: wouldn't you give that to a child for going to the shops on a message? I would have thought it cost more, at least the cost of one CD per person. And, since it's so low, if we do the calculation, it seems to me that 3 hours each morning of Marty's sparkling wholesomeness costs the taxpayer a mere 45 cents a year! What could you get for 45 cents?

For our 45 cents this morning, as an example, we got, amongst other favourites, the following carefully composed musical tapestry, catering for all tastes and potentially drawing new and tentative listeners to RTE Lyric FM to consider staying with the station for the Coffee Concert and all that follows:

Malaguena by Roberto Alagna

The Trumpet Concerto in E flat by Johann Nepomuk Hummel

The Waltzing Cat by Leroy Anderson

Cinema Paradiso by Morricone

If My Friends Could See Me Now, vocalised by Shirley MacLaine

I Get Along without You Very Well by Hoagy (and a superb performance!)

Carrickfergus vocalised by Brian Kennedy

Miss Marples Theme by the composer himself, Ron Goodwin

Air on a G String by Sebastian Bach.




As the song says, "who could ask for anything more?"


With my kind regards,


Hugo Brady Brown

Dirigent

HugoBradyBrown wrote: »

As the song says, "who could ask for anything more?"

As one who no longer listens to Lyric in the morning, could you tell us does your hero still do his "da dum da, da dum bum bum" after every track he plays?

Who could ask for anything more indeed.

marienbad

HugoBradyBrown wrote: »

Dear All,


So we learn from a contributor that RTE Lyric FM costs the taxpayer only 5 euros a year: wouldn't you give that to a child for going to the shops on a message? I would have thought it cost more, at least the cost of one CD per person. And, since it's so low, if we do the calculation, it seems to me that 3 hours each morning of Marty's sparkling wholesomeness costs the taxpayer a mere 45 cents a year! What could you get for 45 cents?

For our 45 cents this morning, as an example, we got, amongst other favourites, the following carefully composed musical tapestry, catering for all tastes and potentially drawing new and tentative listeners to RTE Lyric FM to consider staying with the station for the Coffee Concert and all that follows:

Malaguena by Roberto Alagna

The Trumpet Concerto in E flat by Johann Nepomuk Hummel

The Waltzing Cat by Leroy Anderson

Cinema Paradiso by Morricone

If My Friends Could See Me Now, vocalised by Shirley MacLaine

I Get Along without You Very Well by Hoagy (and a superb performance!)

Carrickfergus vocalised by Brian Kennedy

Miss Marples Theme by the composer himself, Ron Goodwin

Air on a G String by Sebastian Bach.




As the song says, "who could ask for anything more?"


With my kind regards,


Hugo Brady Brown

We are not asking for more Dear Hugo, we are asking for less, less of Marty et al,di dum di-dee, da dum dum da - vocalise that my man !

TimmyTarmac

Hold your horses there, Hugo.
That's 5 euro and 5 cent of EVERY licence fee for Lyric. About a million households and businesses paying that.
The reach of Lyric is only about 3 percent of all adults.
Add to that the number of retired persons and those on social welfare who do not pay the fee but may listen to Lyric.
As a result, many, many of those who do not listen are subsidising those who do.
I have no problem with that. That's how the model of public service broadcasting is supposed to work as I understand it.
Same with RnaG, the Performing Groups, Radio Drama and Arts etc.
It's supposed to work on the understanding that what Irish Society recieves in return is a Public Service.
You feel MITM is a fair return -fair enough.
Shirley MacLaine, Phil Collins, Neven Maguire, Brian Kennedy, Mike and the Mechanics, Matt Munro with some token classical thrown in?
Not Public Service Broadasting in my view. Therefore in my view, it is naught but theft of public funds

HugoBradyBrown

Dear All,


I feel that we are getting somewhere at last, and that common ground is being illuminated between the various opinions here. I have an intuition that in the short- to medium-term, there will grow amongst us all an appreciation of the work that Marty and his team are doing to address a potential crisis of public legitimacy in relation to the funding and existence of RTE Lyric FM.

The issue is that the 3% listenership figure is low and, in order to guard against some diktat from the bean counters that RTE Lyric FM should be shut down, the way RTE Radio Cork and Raidio Eireann on Shortwave were shut down, it remains crucial to get that figure up. (I think I have indicated previously my view that the listenership figures in relation to MITM are likely to be defective, for para-statistical and cultural reasons, and that a richer and essentially qualitative approach to data gathering would be likely to reveal a sharply different and more positive position.)

Paternalistic and patronising high cultural ideas of leading listeners up some pyramid of musical taste are not acceptable to citizens in this relativistic age, but there must be some public policy permission for those who enjoy something wonderful to seek to present it to those who do not know it yet. With much of the non-listening but potential RTE Lyric FM audience, this is the classical art music of the western world; for other listeners who read this Board, the hidden Elysium is to be found in the Songbook, in the music from the Shows, in the deathless popular songs of yesteryear and so forth. MITM is the potential leg-up to all of us to enhance our knowledge of the different musics that surround us; there is a gradient to be addressed by each of us, but the rewards will be great once we all reach the same relativistic sunny uplands. MITM is both the means and the end. By all of us learning to enjoy equally the entire musical spectrum that MITM covers, the whole potential RTE Lyric FM audience benefits. If the listenership figures could be raised to 10%, the bean counters might be kept at bay. I would term this addressing the crisis of legitimacy; Marty is a tool in the armoury that can be used to ensure that the Friday Concerts, Gloria, Movies & Musicals and Nova remain with us for the future.


With my sincere regards,


Hugo Brady Brown

TimmyTarmac

Sorry Hugo. Not buying it. If Marty in the Morning is the price to keep Gloria, Nova and all core classical shows on the air, then the price is simply too high.
Whether the audience reach is 3 or 10 per cent is not the important factor here.
We pay RTE a fee to provide us with a range of popular, educational and specialist products as well as more the mainstream fare of news, sport and entertainment. Allowing MITM play the music that is played is a failure to deliver.

Thinking that playing the Beatles and John Denver will make people love Beethoven and Berlioz in greater numbers is, I think, an error.

If there is to be more of this type of cancerous music programming (for instance if B Balfe were to turn up on the schedule as well doing the same thing, as suggested by you), then Lyric should simply be let die. And the licence fee could be 5euro and 5 cent cheaper for all.

my friend

Marty sucks.

TimmyTarmac

Incidentally Hugo, if you don't accept the audience figures for MITM according to the JNLR, do you believe any of the audience numbers for other programmes or radio stations?

Do you accept that around 400,000 punters listen to Liveline on Radio One for instance or that 186,000 adults listen to Ryan Tubridy on 2FM?

Seriously mate, a sentence or two will suffice as an answer.

HugoBradyBrown

Dear All,


A couple of sentences will suffice, I am informed.

I would always tend to treat round numbers with some circumspection, but I could well believe that there might be more accuracy in these larger numbers, if only for simple statistical reasons. In addition, since there is a view abroad that MITM is, in the parlance of the age, 'cheesy' radio, there is likely to be a reluctance on the part of respondents to surveys to volunteer that they enjoy the programme. Joe Duffy and Ryan are probably, in the non-McLuhan sense, 'cooler', and thus people are more likely to admit to listening to them (or at least to having their trannies tuned to their wavelength at the time of transmission).

MITM is the well-appointed antechamber to Berlioz; I have only this afternoon heard a non-habitual RTE Lyric FM listener praise the programme, this listener having happened upon the John Denver track that lit up this morning's transmission and, as it were, 'filled up the senses'. It's a question of building an audience listener by listener: 'inch by inch and row by row', as the old song says.

I recall at one time that Gloria, the great popular Irish singer, was flying high in the hit parade with her account of "One Day At A Time". None of the nation's sophisticates was prepared to come clean about buying her records, yet week after week she was topping the chart; someone was consuming her product. This inconspicuous consumption was analytically close to the concept of 'lurking' as a passive consumer of content in parts of the web.

My view is that the same quasi-surreptitious listening to MITM is now going on, akin to people behind the Iron Curtain before the change, listening to Deutsche Welle, while pretending to listen to Radio Peace & Progress from the USSR. MITM is operating as if behind an Iron Curtain of disdain, and the listeners are embarrassed about ticking the MITM box in their JNLR Survey Returns; hence the depleted listenership totals.

I trust this adumbration of the situation will be of some service to us all as we converge on a common position on the issue.


With kind regards,



Hugo Brady Brown