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Lyric fm's Breakfast show presenter - Marty Whelan.
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HugoBradyBrown wrote: »as we converge on a common position on the issue
We can converge all you like, but I'll only rejoin the Lyric Morning Listenship when they loose that fu*king w*nker. (I don't usually use language like that online, but I think it's appropriate). Just compare him to Niall Carroll who does the drivetime program: interesting (and not exclusively classical) music choices, not all just lollipops, or Lorcan Murray, a man who has probably forgotten more more about music than your pensionable hero will ever have known.0 -
Eureka.
Its a parallel universe. Of course.
In one part, a debonair MW bestrides the airwaves like a colossus, dispensing witty repartee, insight and musical knowledge to a grateful people. Great playlist and just the tonic you need in the morning. Audience figures are huge.
In the other we have a pleasant but cheesy gameshow host cheerfully vandalising the only radio station for which some of us feel a real affection. Easy listening music is punctuated by vacuous patter. Audience figures are measured by JNLR
Which brings me to the solution. RTE already splits its output when necessary, such as when it wants to broadcast religious services or long sports programmes. They could do the same here; Marty on one band and a classical programme on the other. Marty would be free from the current requirement to play at least some classical stuff and could develop the sort of magazine programme he probably craves. Give him free rein. His fans would sail serenely on a sea of Matt Munroe, Phil Collins, John Denver and Sir Cliff Richard. The others get back 15 hours a week of what Lyric used to be like and peace returns to middle earth.0 -
I suggest that the very verbose poster who is posting under a name which has signed off on many letters to The Irish Times throughout the years go back and delete all those posts under that name, out of respect for the letter writer to The Irish Times.
At worst they are deeply disturbing; at best they belong to some esoteric personal blog. It's not nice to see an identifiable person embarrassing himself in front of anonymous posters.0 -
Dear All,
It would trouble me if anyone were to be disturbed by my posts to this forum. Mine have been cast in the most temperate language, and have sought to express laconically a small number of conceptually related points with a measure of cogency and clarity. I would not wish anyone to feel affronted by anything I wrote, and so I would counsel anyone of a disposition to be shaken or stirred by reading written matter to exercise considerable caution when exploring the Internet. In my experience, material like mine is at the lower end of the scale of objectionable material, if not, indeed, failing to register on that scale; there are some reaches of the Internet where people, through poverty of language or through incapacity to express their thoughts with any argumentative power or skill (or even through sloth or laziness), resort to coarse, abusive, scatological, juvenile, crude, simplistic, incoherent, illogical, emotive or shameful expressions of their opinions.
In addition, as a strong believer in the rectitude of a person’s appending their name and identity to anything they place in the public domain, I have no concerns about what I write, nor am I susceptible to embarrassment in relation to anything that I choose to place in the public domain. In those parts of the Internet where, regrettably, people fail to exercise appropriate restraint on their passions, it is comprehensible why shameful writing might be hidden behind pseudonyms. I am touched by concerns expressed for my public standing, but I can assure readers that my self-confidence is undiminished even by critical comments on my exposition of a true understanding of RTE Lyric FM’s role and activity in Irish society. I do not, of course, suffer from a pathological amour-propre, but as Trollope so wisely said in another context (I think it was Trollope), ‘he knew he was right’.
On a lighter note, I have this afternoon enjoyed a splendid programme of music and audience interaction with Frank McNamara. I was most especially struck by the correspondent from Botswana, who informed Frank that his programme and RTE Lyric FM in general were, if I recall correctly, the best thing in life for a listener in that country. Here in the security and comfort of Europe, we should spare a thought for our expatriate countrymen for whom life in the jungles of Africa, Asia and South America are improved by their fortunate online access to RTE Lyric FM. Imagine the pleasures of listening to Marty in the Morning, while hunting, or on safari, or while simply observing bonobos at a safe distance. This brings me back to a time when all we had during my years in Africa was the External Service of the BBC (now the BBC World Service), which was, I can assure you, nothing like Marty in the Morning!
Hugo Brady Brown0 -
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featuring live broadcasts such as the RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet’s performance on Marty in the Morning (Lyric FM, weekdays) in Dundrum Town Centre: an anomalous concert venue, maybe, but no more baffling than Whelan’s frothy sinecure on a supposedly serious music channel. But Lyric hardly needs a dedicated week of events to underline its core musical mission. If RTÉ really wants to attract music-lovers, it might be better served ditching self-promoting spectacles and working on an uneven music policy that places the likes of Collins and Whelan in unsuitable slots
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2011/1015/1224305807382.html0 -
HugoBradyBrown wrote: »On a lighter note, I have this afternoon enjoyed a splendid programme of music and audience interaction with Frank McNamara. I was most especially struck by the correspondent from Botswana, who informed Frank that his programme and RTE Lyric FM in general were, if I recall correctly, the best thing in life for a listener in that country. Here in the security and comfort of Europe, we should spare a thought for our expatriate countrymen for whom life in the jungles of Africa, Asia and South America are improved by their fortunate online access to RTE Lyric FM. Imagine the pleasures of listening to Marty in the Morning, while hunting, or on safari, or while simply observing bonobos at a safe distance.Hugo Brady Brown
LOL Top stuff and in the year of the Mylesian centenary too...0 -
Dear All,
I think that from time to time we stumble across the parapraxis of an intellectual, and something previously implicit but yet occluded from general sight thus becomes plain. The Irish Times radio critic, quoted by a previous contributor, by referring to RTE Lyric FM as "a supposedly serious music channel", has shed some searching light on the issue that animates this thread. It would appear that he or she is making the elementary mistake that the music of RTE Lyric FM (and, a fortiori, classical music as a genre) is ‘supposedly serious’. Au contraire: classical music, and all the other genres covered by RTE Lyric FM, are music deriving from and giving faithful cultural expression to the entire range of human experience, from the serious right up to the light, gay and frivolous.
Think back to Mozart and Haydn with their divertimenti; think of the endless ribbing of the listener in Haydn's symphonies and, to some extent, in his string quartets; W A Mozart's 'Musical Joke'; Leopold Mozart's 'Toy Symphony'; Bach and his Quodlibets and his embedded musical jokes in the texture of perhaps a majority of his works; Stravinsky and his dancing elephants; Brahms and his adulation of Johann Strauss's facile waltzes; the Abbé Liszt enjoying the high-kicking Cancan danced to the light Galop from Offenbach’s ‘Orphée aux enfers’; Sir Arthur Sullivan climbing down from his musical pinnacle and mixing with the musical demi-monde around Pigalle. And, as Marty would say, this is all to the good!
The epithet 'sinecure' used in relation to Marty Whelan’s toil on radio calls forth ecclesiastical images. It reminds one that for some people, classical music has in the contemporary post-religious world come to be thought to have usurped the place of religion in the numinous realm, and to require equivalent obeisance and solemnity of attitude. This mental substitution on the part of some may lead them to mistake the performance and reception of classical music for some sombre, doleful, hieratic activity, rather than seeing it for what it is, an activity with Dionysian aspects as well as Apollonian. I would argue that it is a potentially liberating, joyful, and even an ecstatic activity. Listen some morning to the unalloyed compliments that pour in to Marty in the Morning, and sense the joy that there is. One can enjoy the highest standards in a full spectrum of music without needing to carry oneself with the air of a desert hermit.
With all good wishes,
Hugo Brady Brown0 -
Dear All,
Readers of this Board will wish to know about an inspiring and ebullient interview conducted by Marty this morning with Vladimir the Violinist, who is starting a major tour of the country.
Vladimir's own Facebook page is linked below, and he seems to be a charming fellow who manages to straddle the gulf between conservatory classical music, learned from his professors in Slovakia, and the popular music that is enjoyed by the public.
The interview, which is bound to become a Playback item this week, was in a class of its own. It was interspersed with music, both live in studio (!) on a cold violin (with the inevitable concerns about intonation), and with tracks from his new CD (including his cover of David Bowie's 'Life on Mars'). As Marty said, and as the listeners agreed, the latter was particularly fine. ["Vladimir - Classical Twist The Album" on the Rubyworks label]
Their wholesome joke about 'my recent wife' and 'my current wife' set the right tone for the whole thing, of course. Vladimir met his Lithuanian wife on Grafton Street while he was playing to a crowd of music lovers.
One would heartily recommend listening back to the interview on the RTE Lyric FM site (a bit after 9.30 a.m. on 19 October). It demonstrated RTE's commitment to the Arts, even after the end of RTE Big Music Week, when one might have feared it could have become limp. Marty's was also a masterclass in how to use an engaging interviewing technique to reduce even the most austere subjects to something palatable for that hour of the morning. Vladimir was at one time a busker on Grafton Street, but he is still the real classical. Tip-top stuff, full of zing and snap at 10 o'clock in the a.m.! It was great to see a bit of publicity for the arts in this day and age, using radio for what it's good for.
http://www.facebook.com/VladViolin
Incidentally, with the new improved site, it's possible to explore Marty in the Morning more easily and over a longer timeframe, which is a great joy in itself.
With my kindest regards,
Hugo Brady Brown0 -
Reading some of the replies to Hugo's and others opinions, I'm reminded why I stopped reading the Boards a few years ago. Why is it that just because someone disagrees with your opinion or something is simply to a different taste, that the author is vilified for having the nerve to raise their head above the parapet.
So whomever wishes to disagree with my opinion or even (and I can't think why anyone would) reprimand me for using my real name rather than a non de plum can go right ahead. I'm still going to express my opinion matters which are thus;
I discovered Lyric a few years ago when searching the wavelengths for an alternate to the incessant and depressing talk of the economic down turn. The so called serious stations be they the state broadcaster or the supposedly independent variety, simply tried to be more clever in out doing each other's morning coverage. It became a battle of who could score the most points by sounding more clever than the interviewee. So I gave up! I stumbled across Liz Nolan's programme, then Paul Herriot's and discovered that I was learning something about classical music, which I'd not had an opportunity to before. Moreover, I was enjoying it. Though my working routine began to interfere with my listening ability, I thoroughly enjoyed Liz's breakfast serial as well as the occasional coffee concert.
When Marty first joined Lyric on the lunch time show, I confess that at first I did wonder if it was just an alternate Ronan Collins show to fill in the hour. However, happily I was proven wrong as Marty did bring a new and refreshing approach which served to lighten the tone of Lyric around midday. I was more than happy to listen to the Lyric schedule right through from 9 to 5. The influence of the station overall on me has meant that I've been to the NCH more often in the last two years that to cinema in the last ten years, which for me is evidential proof that Lyric has a place to play in the culture of the country.
When the announcement came about switching Liz with Marty, I was nervous. I was learning so much from Liz's own deep and personal understanding of the classical pieces that I feared I'd miss out. But fair is fair and Marty, Maura and Al have raised their game to provide a very enjoyable and alternate morning show which for me bridges the gap between the serious but repetitive tones of the Radio One's of the airwaves and the mind-numbing drivel of the commercial stations.
As for listener numbers, I don't know where these pollsters get their figures from because almost everyone I know has made the switch to MITM by now and what's more, are really enjoying radio again! Maybe it's a hankering back to the days when Mike Murphy set the tone for the day when there was only Radio one. And therein for me at any rate lies the issue. Lyric is a 'something' radio station. It's for forty-some-things or fifty-some-things or possibly older-somethings. And so what, we pay our license fee too, so why shouldn't we have a station that meets our needs too!
As for the mixture of easy listening & classical on MITM, isn't variety the spice of whatever, you can't please all of the people any of the time and we're all endowed with the ability to simply switch off if we so wish.
More power to MITM, there are lot's of people (although a minority) enjoying the morning show. As a life long holder of minority opinions, I'm going to keep listening, and if you don't like that, I don't particularly care.
p.s. well said Hugo!!!
p.p.s just listening to MITM now I've realised what exactly he brings to the proverbial table, it's a sense of community. The show genuinely makes the listeners feel connected to it and through it, to each other. Now that's what radio is really all about!!
Well that's my tuppence worth anyway.0 -
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DavidMooney wrote: »Reading some of the replies to Hugo's and others opinions, I'm reminded why I stopped reading the Boards a few years ago. Why is it that just because someone disagrees with your opinion or something is simply to a different taste, that the author is vilified for having the nerve to raise their head above the parapet.
So whomever wishes to disagree with my opinion or even (and I can't think why anyone would) reprimand me for using my real name rather than a non de plum can go right ahead. I'm still going to express my opinion matters which are thus;
I discovered Lyric a few years ago when searching the wavelengths for an alternate to the incessant and depressing talk of the economic down turn. The so called serious stations be they the state broadcaster or the supposedly independent variety, simply tried to be more clever in out doing each other's morning coverage. It became a battle of who could score the most points by sounding more clever than the interviewee. So I gave up! I stumbled across Liz Nolan's programme, then Paul Herriot's and discovered that I was learning something about classical music, which I'd not had an opportunity to before. Moreover, I was enjoying it. Though my working routine began to interfere with my listening ability, I thoroughly enjoyed Liz's breakfast serial as well as the occasional coffee concert.
When Marty first joined Lyric on the lunch time show, I confess that at first I did wonder if it was just an alternate Ronan Collins show to fill in the hour. However, happily I was proven wrong as Marty did bring a new and refreshing approach which served to lighten the tone of Lyric around midday. I was more than happy to listen to the Lyric schedule right through from 9 to 5. The influence of the station overall on me has meant that I've been to the NCH more often in the last two years that to cinema in the last ten years, which for me is evidential proof that Lyric has a place to play in the culture of the country.
When the announcement came about switching Liz with Marty, I was nervous. I was learning so much from Liz's own deep and personal understanding of the classical pieces that I feared I'd miss out. But fair is fair and Marty, Maura and Al have raised their game to provide a very enjoyable and alternate morning show which for me bridges the gap between the serious but repetitive tones of the Radio One's of the airwaves and the mind-numbing drivel of the commercial stations.
As for listener numbers, I don't know where these pollsters get their figures from because almost everyone I know has made the switch to MITM by now and what's more, are really enjoying radio again! Maybe it's a hankering back to the days when Mike Murphy set the tone for the day when there was only Radio one. And therein for me at any rate lies the issue. Lyric is a 'something' radio station. It's for forty-some-things or fifty-some-things or possibly older-somethings. And so what, we pay our license fee too, so why shouldn't we have a station that meets our needs too!
As for the mixture of easy listening & classical on MITM, isn't variety the spice of whatever, you can't please all of the people any of the time and we're all endowed with the ability to simply switch off if we so wish.
More power to MITM, there are lot's of people (although a minority) enjoying the morning show. As a life long holder of minority opinions, I'm going to keep listening, and if you don't like that, I don't particularly care.
p.s. well said Hugo!!!
p.p.s just listening to MITM now I've realised what exactly he brings to the proverbial table, it's a sense of community. The show genuinely makes the listeners feel connected to it and through it, to each other. Now that's what radio is really all about!!
Well that's my tuppence worth anyway.
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You mean ?? don't you.Maggie McGaggie wrote: »?
How can anyone seriously compare MITM with Paul Herriot et al. and sayMarty did bring a new and refreshing approach which served to lighten the tone of Lyric
Our first time poster is taking the proverbial methinks. The tone at Lyric was pretty good before Marty and is good for me still (when I tune in after ten am). Our FTP friend makes no mention of the attempts to turn lyric into a cookery channel which I note seem to have been abandoned. Thank General Operating Device for that. (or maybe it was you Maggie)
One can only hope that MITM's musical choices will drift away from the more banal 'moving forward' so to speak.
This week I heard a devotional work by the Cambridge singers immediately after Bernard Cribbins' "Right said Fred" (a most evocative work ha ha). Well done Marty for being totally unpredictable or is that our new found 'lightened tone'. It was a joke right?
For my money (2 cents) Marty's musical choices are way behind everyone else on lyric. But to give him his dues, what he plays is often well ahead of the competition in the given time slot. What I do when the bad news on morning report is too much or when John Murray has mammy on, is to tune in to lyric with the volume really low. That way I am not bothered with the chat but if anything good comes up I can safely turn up the volume.
I accept that there may be people who love Marty and hang on his every word. I am just not one of them.0 -
References to Liz Nolan are interesting. Liz proves that classical music can be presented by a really knowledgeable music professional in an accessible way. You get the sense that she is sharing something she loves. Its about the music.
MITM on the other hand is about the presenter (reflecting the cult of personality that permeates RTE 1 and 2FM) and is slowly morphing into a typical RTE magazine programme. Nothing wrong with that sort of show and people like it but 2FM is surely the home for it.0 -
I have to laugh at Mr. Mooney's reference to Marty bringing a sense of community. He does that alright. As long as everyone's ego is being stroked and a little mutual masterbation is engaged in between host and the 'nosferatu' who contribute the tedious Terry Wogan style e-mails or look for the gawdawful musical muck that takes us that little bit further away from Lyric's musical and artistic mission.
Unfortunately last Saturday was another low for Lyric when it came to the appalling self indulgence of some of the presenters there.
Not sure if anyone else heard it but during Frank MacNamara's show, he managed to play a request - for his dead mother. He played an arrangement of a Richard Tauber song that his mother very much liked. It was, of course, his own arrangement and recording of the piece. He read the lyrics of the song over the music. It would have been his late mother's birthday on that day.
I do not wish to belittle Frank MacNamara's obvious sadness but for the luvva Jaysus!!!
Someone in there needs to get a handle on this. Fast.
RTE Lyric fm is a specialist music and arts service not a vehicle for the personal whims of some of it's presenters who happen to have a profile a little higher than others.0 -
Dear All,
Lest readers imagine that this is an everyday occurrence, it should be pointed out that Saturday was Frank's mum's 80th birthday, and this was her favourite piece. As he indicated, she played it time after time. As a once-off moment, it was appropriate, since, as well as being an intensely emotional moment for the presenter, it was simultaneously an increasingly rare opportunity to hear a popular classical-style arrangement by one of Ireland's leading composers. It was both uncynical and, in fact, rather guileless. There are producers in Light Entertainment who would give their eye teeth for moments like that, I can assure you!
Otherwise, it was as usual a tight, well-integrated two hours of music-driven radio, for listening to while catching up on the household chores, or while travelling to or from Lidl. It was not pretending to be "Weekend With Webern".
Hugo Brady BrownTimmyTarmac wrote: »I have to laugh at Mr. Mooney's reference to Marty bringing a sense of community. He does that alright. As long as everyone's ego is being stroked and a little mutual masterbation is engaged in between host and the 'nosferatu' who contribute the tedious Terry Wogan style e-mails or look for the gawdawful musical muck that takes us that little bit further away from Lyric's musical and artistic mission.
Unfortunately last Saturday was another low for Lyric when it came to the appalling self indulgence of some of the presenters there.
Not sure if anyone else heard it but during Frank MacNamara's show, he managed to play a request - for his dead mother. He played an arrangement of a Richard Tauber song that his mother very much liked. It was, of course, his own arrangement and recording of the piece. He read the lyrics of the song over the music. It would have been his late mother's birthday on that day.
I do not wish to belittle Frank MacNamara's obvious sadness but for the luvva Jaysus!!!
Someone in there needs to get a handle on this. Fast.
RTE Lyric fm is a specialist music and arts service not a vehicle for the personal whims of some of it's presenters who happen to have a profile a little higher than others.0 -
Where does contributing to an otherwise interesting thread end, and spamming a thread begin?
The thread is turning into a personal blog.0 -
I haven't read the thread but when I saw the poll it crystallised for me why my dial never ever seeks Lyric anymore. I was an on and off "regular" listener when commuting. But now I realise I haven't listened in months and any time I have tuned in and heard yer man MW I run for cover to any other station. Maybe rte don't care - maybe it's all part of a grand plan.
Actually the other person who put me off Lyric was Gaybo - having avoided him for decades on TV and Radio I thought it was cruel to inflict him on Lyric. I don't even know if he stil broadcasts but recently I was having an MRI on a Sunday and when the technician offered to give me a radio station on earphones I initally plumped for Lyric
but then I remembered that there was a small chance of being stuck with GB for the 20 minutes and instead went for the almost equally unpalatable choice of Dunphy. I'd have had to have the scan redone if Gaybo came on!!
I'm not a mad classical music purist by any means but I found the intelligent, measured Lyric presenters a welcome relief from the big egos of the more commercial stations. Well RTE have crucified anyone like me by using Lyric as a retirement home for the failures. I now have no RTE stations on my dial.0 -
Dear All,Rebelheart wrote: »Where does contributing to an otherwise interesting thread end, and spamming a thread begin?
The thread is turning into a personal blog.
There really does seem to be an implication that any contribution to this thread that does not either denounce Marty's radio work, or that does not sink into an abyss of vulgar abuse, amounts to an abuse of this forum. I myself would be inclined to allow a thousand opinions to bloom; if, however, we are unable to read views that differ from our own in a democracy and on a public forum on the Internet, perhaps we should simply pass over them and remain contentedly encased in the carapace of our rigid opinions.TimmyTarmac wrote: »I have to laugh at Mr. Mooney's reference to Marty bringing a sense of community. He does that alright. As long as everyone's ego is being stroked and a little mutual [Deleted on grounds of taste] is engaged in between host and the 'nosferatu' who contribute the tedious Terry Wogan style e-mails or look for the gawdawful musical muck that takes us that little bit further away from Lyric's musical and artistic mission.
There is, of course, no accounting for taste, but I, for one, find Marty's intelligent interaction with both his passive and his active listeners one of the glories of RTE's contemporary output. Ask in any supermarket queue, in any doctor's waiting room, at any interval in any concert venue, outside any school any morning, in any Post Office queue, before any government office hatch, in any NCT venue - anywhere people of a certain age gather - , and the response will be broadly the same: Marty is the happy rooster who gets the nation up with its batteries charged each weekday. And what a pleasant, cultured, inoffensive way it is to start the day!
It is mind-opening, too, to listen to the musical suggestions that are played; last Friday, some children (the NCH and Wexford Opera audience members of the future, let us not forget) asked for Ronnie Hilton's 1965 classic "A Windmill in Old Amsterdam". That brought a uniform smile to the face of the nation, I can tell you. (So also with "You Were Always On My Mind", sung by Willie Nelson: these musicians, too, have their story to tell.)DavidMooney wrote: »
But fair is fair and Marty, Maura and Al have raised their game to provide a very enjoyable and alternate morning show which for me bridges the gap between the serious but repetitive tones of the Radio One's of the airwaves and the mind-numbing drivel of the commercial stations.
As for listener numbers, I don't know where these pollsters get their figures from because almost everyone I know has made the switch to MITM by now and what's more, are really enjoying radio again! Maybe it's a hankering back to the days when Mike Murphy set the tone for the day when there was only Radio one. And therein for me at any rate lies the issue. Lyric is a 'something' radio station. It's for forty-some-things or fifty-some-things or possibly older-somethings. And so what, we pay our license fee too, so why shouldn't we have a station that meets our needs too!
As for the mixture of easy listening & classical on MITM, isn't variety the spice of whatever, you can't please all of the people any of the time and we're all endowed with the ability to simply switch off if we so wish.
More power to MITM, there are lot's of people (although a minority) enjoying the morning show. As a life long holder of minority opinions, I'm going to keep listening, and if you don't like that, I don't particularly care.
p.p.s just listening to MITM now I've realised what exactly he brings to the proverbial table, it's a sense of community. The show genuinely makes the listeners feel connected to it and through it, to each other. Now that's what radio is really all about!!
And the sense of community at its best that David Mooney mentions is plainly palpable on MITM. In a society where audiences are fractured for technological reasons and for reasons of social stratification, Marty and team are the pivot on which a large minority of the radio audience turns, and he succeeds in attuning people to his positive way of thinking in a way that sets them up for the day. Is it any wonder that so many hundreds text and email the programme each day?
David Mooney's recollection of Mike Murphy's virtuoso use of morning radio is also perceptive and to the point. This was in the 1980's, before the baleful arrival of 'Morning Ireland', first just for an hour, and then by degrees intruding ever earlier, and driving fine talents like Maxi into ever more nocturnal Nosferatu-ish broadcasting hours. (While never one to pay too much attention to the broadcasting and communications theories expounded by former Fianna Fáil minister Mr Ray Burke, I would tend to agree with him that there was even in the late 1980's far too much talk on Raidió Éireann.) 'Music, music, music' is the answer, with lively linking by sparky and chirpy on-air talent. Now that RTE Lyric FM has got the balance just about right, some people seem to be seeking after a diet of tracks without commentary or linking speech. This would be, as the movie has it, "A Bridge Too Far"; (good theme music to that, too, by the way).
Also, I sense that, far from being, as one poster wrote in an unguarded (and, I imagine, now deeply regretted) moment an "oaf", Marty is probably more intelligent and more cultured than the vast majority of the listeners, readers and posters. We lesser beings ought to be grateful to have him expending his sweetness on us; we perhaps perceive his abilities only, as it were, through a glass darkly, but we do, at least, sense that with him we are in a community of the musically sensitive, led by a leader of high intelligence and experience.
In closing, I suppose, in my very humble opinion, "we should not presume to come to" our radios trusting in our own cultivation or excellence, but with a spirit of humility, accepting what highly trained presenters, fortified by the knowledge and experience of production teams with considerable mental hinterlands and supported by a sophisticated and listener-responsive organization, place before us.
With the greatest possible respect,
Hugo Brady Brown0 -
HugoBradyBrown wrote: »Dear All,
There really does seem to be an implication that any contribution to this thread that does not either denounce Marty's radio work, or that does not sink into an abyss of vulgar abuse, amounts to an abuse of this forum. I myself would be inclined to allow a thousand opinions to bloom; if, however, we are unable to read views that differ from our own in a democracy and on a public forum on the Internet, perhaps we should simply pass over them and remain contentedly encased in the carapace of our rigid opinions.
There is, of course, no accounting for taste, but I, for one, find Marty's intelligent interaction with both his passive and his active listeners one of the glories of RTE's contemporary output. Ask in any supermarket queue, in any doctor's waiting room, at any interval in any concert venue, outside any school any morning, in any Post Office queue, before any government office hatch, in any NCT venue - anywhere people of a certain age gather - , and the response will be broadly the same: Marty is the happy rooster who gets the nation up with its batteries charged each weekday. And what a pleasant, cultured, inoffensive way it is to start the day!
It is mind-opening, too, to listen to the musical suggestions that are played; last Friday, some children (the NCH and Wexford Opera audience members of the future, let us not forget) asked for Ronnie Hilton's 1965 classic "A Windmill in Old Amsterdam". That brought a uniform smile to the face of the nation, I can tell you. (So also with "You Were Always On My Mind", sung by Willie Nelson: these musicians, too, have their story to tell.)
And the sense of community at its best that David Mooney mentions is plainly palpable on MITM. In a society where audiences are fractured for technological reasons and for reasons of social stratification, Marty and team are the pivot on which a large minority of the radio audience turns, and he succeeds in attuning people to his positive way of thinking in a way that sets them up for the day. Is it any wonder that so many hundreds text and email the programme each day?
David Mooney's recollection of Mike Murphy's virtuoso use of morning radio is also perceptive and to the point. This was in the 1980's, before the baleful arrival of 'Morning Ireland', first just for an hour, and then by degrees intruding ever earlier, and driving fine talents like Maxi into ever more nocturnal Nosferatu-ish broadcasting hours. (While never one to pay too much attention to the broadcasting and communications theories expounded by former Fianna Fáil minister Mr Ray Burke, I would tend to agree with him that there was even in the late 1980's far too much talk on Raidió Éireann.) 'Music, music, music' is the answer, with lively linking by sparky and chirpy on-air talent. Now that RTE Lyric FM has got the balance just about right, some people seem to be seeking after a diet of tracks without commentary or linking speech. This would be, as the movie has it, "A Bridge Too Far"; (good theme music to that, too, by the way).
Also, I sense that, far from being, as one poster wrote in an unguarded (and, I imagine, now deeply regretted) moment an "oaf", Marty is probably more intelligent and more cultured than the vast majority of the listeners, readers and posters. We lesser beings ought to be grateful to have him expending his sweetness on us; we perhaps perceive his abilities only, as it were, through a glass darkly, but we do, at least, sense that with him we are in a community of the musically sensitive, led by a leader of high intelligence and experience.
In closing, I suppose, in my very humble opinion, "we should not presume to come to" our radios trusting in our own cultivation or excellence, but with a spirit of humility, accepting what highly trained presenters, fortified by the knowledge and experience of production teams with considerable mental hinterlands and supported by a sophisticated and listener-responsive organization, place before us.
With the greatest possible respect,
Hugo Brady Brown
if you really are interested why not read and think about what's being said (see my attempt above) rather than trying to bludgeon people into agreeing with you. We aren't trying to argue with you or anyone else just giving our opinions - hope that's still allowed?0 -
trishasaffron wrote: »if you really are interested why not read and think about what's being said (see my attempt above) rather than trying to bludgeon people into agreeing with you. We aren't trying to argue with you or anyone else just giving our opinions - hope that's still allowed?
Dear All,
I cannot fathom how anyone could misconstrue my mild efforts as any kind of attempt to bludgeon anyone into agreeing with me. I am merely offering to shed some light onto the written effusions of a self-reinforcing, wholly wrongheaded campaign against the work of one of the finest broadcasters in the land: the opinions range from the most degraded and coarse to quite thought-provoking and articulate expressions of erroneous thinking. Mine are presented in the interests of enlightening and clarifying, and, since my views are consonant with those of the vast majority of the RTE Lyric FM audience, there is a rather strong probability that they are well-founded and fair-minded.
With sincere good wishes,
Hugo Brady Brown0 -
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since my views are consonant with those of the vast majority of the RTE Lyric FM audience
Thank you Hugo. Says it all about you really. Without one scrap of evidence, you claim to speak for the majority. Good man!
Back to the topic. What with Marty's willful refusal to follow a coherent music policy with no sanction from above and Frank MacNamara playing his own music by way of a request for his deceased mother, it's now time for the Director General, Mr Curran to become directly involved.
The options as I see it are:
Fix it.
Shut it down.
Make arrangements, using the same portion of the license fee as is used at present, with a serious outfit to run Lyric into the future.0 -
TimmyTarmac wrote: »Thank you Hugo. Says it all about you really. Without one scrap of evidence, you claim to speak for the majority. Good man!
Back to the topic. What with Marty's willful refusal to follow a coherent music policy with no sanction from above and Frank MacNamara playing his own music by way of a request for his deceased mother, it's now time for the Director General, Mr Curran to become directly involved.
The options as I see it are:
Fix it.
Shut it down.
Make arrangements, using the same portion of the license fee as is used at present, with a serious outfit to run Lyric into the future.
Dear All,
"Coherent music policy" again raises the foreboding spectre of Five Year Plans and Musical Commissars. I feel much more comfortable leaving the playlist and running order in RTE Lyric FM in the hands of those who know what they are doing, and not having the radio station at the beck and call of all and sundry.
We may cast our minds back to the fable of "The miller, his son and his ass" (attributed to Aesop, but whose earliest known written source is Ibn Said al-Maghribi, C13); by listening to the advice of all and sundry, who had little or no real knowledge or interest in the issue of how to transport the animal, the miller lost his ass. Similarly, if RTE Lyric FM is to be buffeted by calls to change its tack by every Tom, Dick & Harry in the agora, the coherent musical output that it provides at present would be dissipated in a drunken stagger of incoherence and irrelevance.
My knowledge of the RTE Lyric FM audience is from doorstep opinion and it agrees with the substance of an article some time ago in The Irish Times, which reported a surge in listenership and, by implication, listener satisfaction with MITM. I am not in the habit of concocting my own data. I believe that arguments should be based on data, and, to that extent, data are sacred.
I would again appeal to the large and hitherto silent majority of RTE Lyric FM listeners to make their voices heard on this forum, lest the argument should appear to be lost by default.
The reference in the quoted post to the DG reminds me that a poster to this thread some time ago had sent off a snorter to the Head of RTE Lyric FM or, perhaps, even to the very DG himself. It's been a while and my curiosity was piqued: any word yet?
With all good wishes,
Hugo Brady Brown0 -
HugoBradyBrown wrote: »Dear All,
Lest readers imagine that this is an everyday occurrence, it should be pointed out that Saturday was Frank's mum's 80th birthday, and this was her favourite piece. As he indicated, she played it time after time. As a once-off moment, it was appropriate, since, as well as being an intensely emotional moment for the presenter, it was simultaneously an increasingly rare opportunity to hear a popular classical-style arrangement by one of Ireland's leading composers. It was both uncynical and, in fact, rather guileless. There are producers in Light Entertainment who would give their eye teeth for moments like that, I can assure you!
Otherwise, it was as usual a tight, well-integrated two hours of music-driven radio, for listening to while catching up on the household chores, or while travelling to or from Lidl. It was not pretending to be "Weekend With Webern".
Hugo Brady Brown
I wonder on what authority you made the statement emboldened above Hugo, you with your no connection with MITM etc. Just who are these producers of whom you speak please?
You might get them to perform a service for us all.
If Marty is so beloved by the nation as you claim, it follows that this small special interest music station with only 3-5% of the listenership is too small a vehicle for his considerable talents. Perhaps he should be on RTE1 at say nine am. John Murray would surely gladly give way in the national interest. You just need to stop wasting your time on the unfortunate grumblers on Boards and start talking to your producer friends who are able to get these things done.
Good luck.0 -
I did also wonder about these Toothless Wonder Producers from this fairy tale place called Light Entertainment. Sounds like some office in the BBC circa 1973 where embedded, effette, Oxbridge educated Soviet Spies are looking for the next Morcambe and Wise.
And lo and behold - we have them! Whelan and MacNamara! If this was only 1973, they'd be in big demand.
Ah well, a I write this, we've just been treated to Paul Simon, a Tchaikovsky waltz and Edmundo Ros. 1973 indeed!0 -
Just looking to see what "music" was played today, you know the bits that help pad out Marty's repartee. The albums from which the pieces are drawn are incredible. The recession must be biting deeply at Lyric, because "The Only Opera Album You'll Ever Need" is getting a great outing. The thing is that with Marty that title rings truer than ever. Many of the other pieces are taken from compilation albums. Does a day ever go by where Marty doesn't play Puccini? His knowledge of opera is limited to three composers, Puccini, Verdi and Bizet.
The main problem with Marty is that he has a negative impact on the rest of the output. I listen much less, since Marty arrived, throughout the day than i used to because i have simply gotten out of the habit. Marty has generated a sense of community, there is now a whole community of people who have been alienated from Lyric. The main thing i loved about Lyric was been drawn into listening to composers i hadn't heard before. I only got into listening to classical music about 5 or 6 years ago, but i loved being introduced to new composers.
I am by no means an expert in classical music but what am i going to get out of listening to Marty Whelan's show. I am never going to hear a new composer. I remember recording Wagner's Ring 5 years ago and hearing Rautavaara on Nova. I heard numerous new composers on Carl Corcoran's show. If i wanted to listen to banter and not music i could listen to Hector on 2fm. Someone listening to classical music shoudn't outgrown Lyric in the space of 5 years. It's hard to imagine what anyone new to the genre would take from MITM.0 -
Dear All,
I went to Cambridge myself; the usual derogatory term is 'chinless wonder'; Edmundo Ros is still greatly admired and he lived to be 100; Light Entertainment is the marrow in the bone of any public broadcaster; that we should be so lucky to find another Eric Morecambe or Ernie Wise; fears of Soviet spies are anachronistic; embedding by the effete is more likely to be found in luvvie opera circles than among lovers of the likes of Bing Crosby's "Straight Down the Middle"; Paul Simon features on RTE Lyric FM from morning to the Blue of the Night, so why pick on MITM? Having disposed of such a succession of implied and stated canards, one feels at this stage like calling out: "Next!" (Or, perhaps, "Seven!", as Len says on Strictly!)
Ah yes, the proposal that Marty should move up to Radio 1. The suggestion (which I imagine is intended as an incendiary one directed at readily combustible readers of this Board) that Marty should replace John Murray in fact has clear and present merits. However, it immediately brings us hard up against the constraints of reality: what do you do when you have a superfluity of talent in a broadcaster? We have only a limited number of services. Listeners have only a limited number of hours in the day. Marty would, of course, be an ornament to the John Murray Show, if it were suitably renamed. But what then to do with John?
John Murray did sterling work on 'The Business', as we all know, and could return there. But then we recall Emma McNamara, yet another in a seemingly endless supply of young, creative and searingly intelligent comperes in Donnybrook. The logic of the problem is perhaps becoming clear even at the back of the class: Radio Centre is like a Chinese Puzzle - move Marty into John's place and everything else must shift, and someone gets bumped off the end of the bench.
Once people greeted each other in the canteen with a hearty "Leave it Mrs O'Brien!"; here, lets just "Leave it to Marty".
Yours ever,
Hugo Brady BrownTimmyTarmac wrote: »I did also wonder about these Toothless Wonder Producers from this fairy tale place called Light Entertainment. Sounds like some office in the BBC circa 1973 where embedded, effette, Oxbridge educated Soviet Spies are looking for the next Morcambe and Wise.
And lo and behold - we have them! Whelan and MacNamara! If this was only 1973, they'd be in big demand.
Ah well, a I write this, we've just been treated to Paul Simon, a Tchaikovsky waltz and Edmundo Ros. 1973 indeed!I wonder on what authority you made the statement emboldened above Hugo, you with your no connection with MITM etc. Just who are these producers of whom you speak please?
You might get them to perform a service for us all.
If Marty is so beloved by the nation as you claim, it follows that this small special interest music station with only 3-5% of the listenership is too small a vehicle for his considerable talents. Perhaps he should be on RTE1 at say nine am. John Murray would surely gladly give way in the national interest. You just need to stop wasting your time on the unfortunate grumblers on Boards and start talking to your producer friends who are able to get these things done.
Good luck.0 -
Rebelheart wrote: »Where does contributing to an otherwise interesting thread end, and spamming a thread begin?
The thread is turning into a personal blog.
This thread has jumped the shark. No debate, just spamming and mocking people who are actually serious about Lyric. Don't know if anyone is moderating it but it is pointless to contribute anything so this is my last post on here for the foreseeable future.0 -
Dear All,
My suspicion is that my efforts to provide some moderation in this discussion may have been misinterpreted as some form of 'spamming', though, with respect, I would suggest that the proposal to replace John Murray with Marty on our first channel may not have been intended seriously, and could even have been intended to rile choleric readers. (I accept that neither may have been the case and that it could just have been a fanciful notion expressed maladroitly.)
In an open forum of debate, being "serious about (RTE) Lyric" FM cannot be held to mean sticking to one particular 'party line', no matter where it might emanate from. If a group of people have a novel view of how the station should develop, it is proper that they should articulate their agenda in appropriate language and in a structured manner, and thus seek to convince the experts of the tenability of their position. Few campaigns in democratic societies are won by hectoring or insulting those the campaigners seek to convince.
I am as serious as any other reader or listener; the simple position, however, is that my 'being serious' about RTE Lyric FM seems to differ from that of the local vocal majority here. However, my 'being serious' is on all fours with the views of the silent majority of people who are 'serious' about RTE Lyric FM, the tens of thousands of contented listeners.
I (and we) simply realise that seriousness does not always and necessarily mean gloom, sombreness, exclusivity and cliquishness. I (and we) believe in cultural and musical democracy, and in the possibility of all lyrical music right across the spectrum being great, whether that is Mario Lanza or Perry Como, Andrea Bocelli or Michael Bublé, the Celtic Tenors or the Andrews Sisters. This is what RTE Lyric FM should and does provide; MITM may just be unusual in touching all the musical bases in the course of the three-hour musical tapestry that it weaves for us each day.
I would suggest that people who seek to move and influence readers of this Board (and RTE management) should do so by civilized, well-formulated argument. I have no doubt that there could be something better on RTE Lyric FM in the morning than MITM in present contingencies; I cannot imagine what that might be, but if someone were able to set out what it might be in comprehensible terms, some progress might be made.
Dreaming nostalgically of a half-remembered but actually unreal Golden Age of broadcasting is one of the besetting weaknesses of our age group; radio in fact has never been better. As the great Noel Purcell once said to Gay on the Late Show, "these are the Good Old Days!".
And it is better to fight the good fight than to give in, even when the arguments seem unanswerable. Comments are always welcome, and they can change our views.
(Mind you, it's good to see that for at least one poster, the "foreseeable future" extended only from 21.19 to 21.33. Reminds me of the Chicago Futures Exchange, somehow. Welcome back to Boards, Maggie McGaggie!)Maggie McGaggie wrote: »This thread has jumped the shark. No debate, just spamming and mocking people who are actually serious about Lyric. Don't know if anyone is moderating it but it is pointless to contribute anything so this is my last post on here for the foreseeable future.
[Note: by 23.00 on 24/10/11, the second post by Maggie McGaggie alluded to, timed at 21.33, had been deleted; a pity to see that Orwellian touch, amending the historical record. Ministry of Truth, perhaps.]
With my compliments,
Hugo Brady Brown0 -
I have no doubt that there could be something better on RTE Lyric FM in the morning than MITM in present contingencies; I cannot imagine what that might be, but if someone were able to set out what it might be in comprehensible terms, some progress might be made.
Any of the previous morning programmes since 1999 were better than MITM, and some of them were better than others.
Pre Bing, Phil Collins, Hugo's tedious reports on his Spanish Au Pair (the other Hugo, of course!), 'What are we talking about', Neven's weekly plugs, Matt Munro's daughter plugging the same book twice, Mario Lanza's daughter plugging a concert one suspects she has more than a passing interest in , Marty's low rent Terry Wogan act, Marty's more or less complete ignorance of most things to do with classical music and it's major recording artists etc.
Here we go again. Just because you say a thing a number of times doesn't necessarily make it true. You could be right, but there is no evidence that you are.the simple position, however, is that my 'being serious' about RTE Lyric FM seems to differ from that of the local vocal majority here. However, my 'being serious' is on all fours with the views of the silent majority of people who are 'serious' about RTE Lyric FM, the tens of thousands of contented listeners.
That article gave inaccurate figures for average quarter hour listenership among a particular demographic and were never sourced. It was a placed puff piece based on nothing much. If that and your "doorstep opinions" are what you're going on, so much for your sacred data.My knowledge of the RTE Lyric FM audience is from doorstep opinion and it agrees with the substance of an article some time ago in The Irish Times, which reported a surge in listenership and, by implication, listener satisfaction with MITM. I am not in the habit of concocting my own data. I believe that arguments should be based on data, and, to that extent, data are sacred.
I admire the tenacity with which you defend MITM and I hope you and he will be very happy somewhere far away from RTE Lyric FM.
I hope and still believe senior management will soon step in and allow this embarrassing farce and affront to Public Service broadcasting to be ended soon.0 -
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HugoBradyBrown wrote: »Dear All,
..... I have no doubt that there could be something better on RTE Lyric FM in the morning than MITM.....
Hugo Brady Brown
Dear Hugo
Welcome aboard. We converge, against all odds.
In the spirit of our new found friendship let me offer a couple (plus a bonus) of humble suggestions.
1. Persusion. Telling people they are coarse, degraded or articulately erroneous and in need of enlightenment from, well, you, is not a recipe for success.
2. Perry Como. No. No. No. If you mention him in discussions of music you should be prepared for some negative reaction. It is not a good platform for dispensing ellightenment.
3. Do not claim to speak for the silent majority. Just because they are silent does not mean they agree with you. That should be obvious but if not then reflect on it. I doubt you even speak for the majority of MITM listeners, let alone the much larger Lyric listenership. Friends of mine who actually like MW (I am nothing if not broad minded) would cringe at the very idea that he is an intelligent witty music expert. They like him because he is harmless (or so they thought) undemanding and chirpy and they have some sympathy with him on account of his regular casting to the scrapheap by the RTE mandarins. He's a trouper.
As ever
we are
Doomed0
This discussion has been closed.
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