Lyric fm's Breakfast show presenter - Marty Whelan.

ghiertal

In fairness we probably shouldn't be having a go at mw, he is only doing what they want.If the producers in lyric wanted a solid base of classical music interspersed with other forms then it's easily achievable.Reading an interview with Lorcan Murray(who presents a drivetime show on lyric at the weekend) in this weeks Limerick Leader, i learned that his favourite band is AC/DC. He did not mention classical music at all in quite a lenghty interview.It seems that to many presenters lyric offers a convenient, facile post.

Oh yeah, i can beat Bruce Springsteen for unusual song selections by mw because one morning i had the misfortune of hearing Barry Manilow's "Copacabana", which was preceded by a Mozart overture.

doomed

ghiertal wrote: »

In fairness we probably shouldn't be having a go at mw, he is only doing what they want.If the producers in lyric wanted a solid base of classical music interspersed with other forms then it's easily achievable.Reading an interview with Lorcan Murray(who presents a drivetime show on lyric at the weekend) in this weeks Limerick Leader, i learned that his favourite band is AC/DC. He did not mention classical music at all in quite a lenghty interview.It seems that to many presenters lyric offers a convenient, facile post.

Oh yeah, i can beat Bruce Springsteen for unusual song selections by mw because one morning i had the misfortune of hearing Barry Manilow's "Copacabana", which was preceded by a Mozart overture.

Listened to Lorcan Murray yesterday. I know he has no background in classical music and it may not be his thing but he does a professional job and presents the music without any of the "I'm an RTE personality and great gas altogether so listening to me must be more entertaining than Mozart" nonsense.

Aglomerado

ghiertal wrote: »

.

Oh yeah, i can beat Bruce Springsteen for unusual song selections by mw because one morning i had the misfortune of hearing Barry Manilow's "Copacabana", which was preceded by a Mozart overture.

Yuck.

That is CRIMINAL!:mad:

Flicks

I agree. I too am a Springsteen fan, even been to a few concerts ! but when I play Bruce I don't expect to hear Brahms. It,s not impossible to mix genres, but it,s difficult. John Kelly can do it, but Marty cannot. QUOTE=Aglomerado;70067668]H had Bruce Springsteen playing this morning! ?????? Followed by a movement from Bach's Second Brandenburg Concerto. I love the Boss just as much as I love Bach, but that's a strange playlist for radio!

Van Morrisson's Moondance earlier this week as well.

Also I wish he'd shut the f up about Winning Streak. I hate being reminded of that sh!te.

He'd be better on an afternoon slot on Rte Radio 1 or something. He's a pleasant fellow - just not suited to the breakfast show on Lyric![/QUOTE]

MidlandsM

TimmyTarmac wrote: »

Maybe you'd like to expand on this one, Midlands M? What's the problem? Not enought Black Puddin Country n' Irish or not enough Phil Collins for your taste?

lol........thanks for that. It's the elitist nonsense here posted about Marty or the music etc, that makes me think its a waste of electricity even more - serving an elitest 3 or 4% of the country.
Seeing as you eluded to country and irish, if the truth be known they'd get more than the 3 or 4 % of listeners if they closed and relaunched with that kind of station.

Almaviva

MidlandsM wrote: »

lol........thanks for that. It's the elitist nonsense here posted about Marty or the music etc, that makes me think its a waste of electricity even more - serving an elitest 3 or 4% of the country.
Seeing as you eluded to country and irish, if the truth be known they'd get more than the 3 or 4 % of listeners if they closed and relaunched with that kind of station.

Serving a small portion of the population does not mean elitism!

If anything Lyric stimulted listening to less popular forms of Music.

The purpose of Lyric FM was to provide minority music programming (classical, movies, jazz, sacred, opera) to a small, but far from miniscule portion of the population, not served in general by the rest of radio broadcasting in Ireland.

Accusations of elitism seem to be the knee-jerk response of people criticisng those who are disappointed with the change in direction from Lyric FM away from its original mission. The aim of Lyric was not to apeal to the biggest audience, but to offer an alternative to what was already available. Over the last few years it has lost this distinct identity, and betayed its purpose.

It seems RTE doesnt care, or worse, its judgement is so poor, it doesnt even realise what has happened to it.

I haven't listened to Lyric in a year. It sounds like I am missing nothing.

MidlandsM

...so I'm right. It is a waste of electricity.

TimmyTarmac

MidlandsM wrote: »

It's the elitist nonsense here posted about Marty or the music etc, that makes me think its a waste of electricity even more - serving an elitest 3 or 4% of the country.
Seeing as you eluded to country and irish, if the truth be known they'd get more than the 3 or 4 % of listeners if they closed and relaunched with that kind of station.

Yep. I'd agree with you about the audience that RTE could get playing the Black Puddin stuff. But, to my mind, that's not really the issue. It's access to top quality music - classical and specialist, live and recorded - to those of us who don't other access it. There is something in the region of 200,000 - 250,000 people who us it ( Correct me if I'm wrong with those numbers).
Not a waste of electricity to us.
If RTE persist in the Marty Whelan route ( and to some extent John Kelly), they might as well put Declan Nurney on a feckin non-stop loop.

Cole

He played Dolly Parton the other morning, "Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Joleeeeeeene"......

I bet yawl loved that. Yeehaw Marty!:D

TimmyTarmac

As I type this, I'm still in shock. I just put MW on to hear Phil Collins sing a Dusty Springfield song followed by a Chopin Polonaise - back to back.
Fookin unbelievable. Would many of you think there is any kind of an audience for a radio show that mixes, the likes of Phil Collins, Shirley Bassey and Val Jaysus Doonigan with Chopin, Verdi and Beethoven? There must be some reason to this.
Is this thing mad or am I?

Aglomerado

It's mad. Remove him now!

pinkypinky

I also accidentally tuned in this morning - urgh. Ok, quite seriously then, what can we do? I know a few people have written to Lyric, myself included, and have had response saying "you're wrong, people really like him". I don't set much store in internet petitions. I doubt the Irish Times would publish a letter about this.

Thoughts?

telecaster

lyric was a great haven in the morning from all the yammerhead djs. marty is very much getting in the way of the music.

I'm not hugely against the diversity in his playlist but I'd sign any petition that gives us more music and less marty.

The perfect DJ should be like the best sports officials....staying out of the way and merely facilitating the entertainment that people have tuned for.

Barname

Dear Lyric,

I have 6 stations on my preset

for years in the AM I listened to Lyric

since MW has been bawling in the AM and being generally creepy, I have removed Lyric from my presets

I no longer listen to Lyric

Well done Lyric

Good work MW

Almaviva

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[MOD EDIT]: POLL ADDED & MERGED WITH EXISTING THREAD. We don't need two threads on Marty Whelan.

looksee

I don't very often wander onto the radio forum, but I am so irritated by Marty Whelan on Lyric that I came in intending to ask the same question as the poll.

He talks far too much. No, not talks, prattles. And he swallows chunks of sentences so it's impossible to hear half of what he says. He usually manages to lose the vital word in the title of a piece of music - something on the lines of ...concerto in murfle.

I still listen because I like Lyric music, but I get very fed up listening to the interminable, largely indeciphrable, chatty waffle that he goes on with.

looksee

Barname wrote: »

Dear Lyric,

I have 6 stations on my preset

for years in the AM I listened to Lyric

since MW has been bawling in the AM and being generally creepy, I have removed Lyric from my presets

I no longer listen to Lyric

Well done Lyric

Good work MW

Absolutely agree. Recently I have been swearing at whoever tuned out RTE1 and replaced it with 2FM on my car radio. Must remember to retune it when I am not actually driving so I can switch off the incoherent babble that is Lyric.

doomed

pinkypinky wrote: »

I also accidentally tuned in this morning - urgh. Ok, quite seriously then, what can we do? I know a few people have written to Lyric, myself included, and have had response saying "you're wrong, people really like him". I don't set much store in internet petitions. I doubt the Irish Times would publish a letter about this.

Thoughts?

I wrote to them as well - got the same response. Broaden remit, lots of people like it, etc. By that logic they could have a soccer phone in instead of Opera Night and it would get a much bigger audience. What part of specialist music station do they not understand? If they don't want Lyric give it to someone else to run.

looksee

I wrote and expressed my opinion, though I didn't get a reply yet. I suppose the fact is that he has a contract and Lyric are not going to say 'yes lots of people don't like him on Lyric, as soon as his contract has finished we will boot him!'

looksee

This is the first paragraph of the reply I got from Lyric:

Thank you for your e-mail. I am sorry to read that Marty’s breakfast programme is not to your taste and I note the comments which you make regarding his style of presentation and music content. However, whilst acknowledging the points that you make, I must inform you that we have received feedback from many other listeners to say how much they enjoy the programme, Marty’s presentation style and choice of music. As I’m sure you can appreciate, it’s simply not possible for all of our programmes to be enjoyed by all of our listeners – people have their personal preferences and personal dislikes. All we can hope is that you may enjoy a number of our other programmes.

There was more but it was just more of the same - economic climate, niche programme etc. Why not just turn it into another 2FM if that is the only criteria!

The point that interested me was that this is obviously a standard pfo - for a start I didn't mention the content, just the presenter. And they are not going to type an individual screed to every person that writes in.

Presumably they have one of these for every programme, does that mean they still count the negatives/positives or is it a complete waste of time, and they just go on the mysterious 'listernership' numbers?

pinkypinky

I binned my response - but I'd say it's a carbon(electronic) copy of what I got.

Almaviva

Facebookers doing their bit to try to restore order to the airwaves:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=132252176826362

Tom2010

I too sent a letter to the Head of Lyric Aodan O Dubhghaill and whereas I received no succour at least I thought I had the satisfaction that he took the trouble to reply, well it seems it was very little trouble just a trip to the photo copier because it was word for word exactly the reply sent to Looksee above, I thought they had a tiny bit more respect for listeners notwithstanding the fact that we fork out €160 a year for their general well being. Is there a way we can see the actual Listenership figures for the station I would be very interested to see how the juxtaposition of MR with Liz Nolan really did effect listenership in the morning and at midday. Well of course I should have realised just how arrogant and aloof they have become in RTE. I have never gone back to Lyric in the morning and I used to so enjoy Liz Nolan and Trish Taylor. Isn’t it amazing how RTE feel compelled to call shows after the “star” that presents it and in the case of the clown Marty it also has to be an alliteration i.e. “Marty at Midday” & “Marty in the Morning”, this presumably rules him out of an evening slot or does anybody have any suggestions how the brains in RTE could solve that one. Of course it does allow for a “Marty in the Middle of the Night”.

bureau2009

Got a problem with Marty Whelan on Lyric?

I have a HUGE problem with Marty Whelan - anywhere.

HOW ON EARTH do radio & TV bosses think he is "good"? I can't bear the man, even on the Tesco ads.

Marty Whelan should never be let within miles of a TV or radio station. For a brief period he had no contract or programmes and I thought to myself broadcasting bosses have it right. How wrong I was.

If I were Taoiseach I would order the deportation of Marty Whelan to Antarctica on a permanent basis.

Tom2010

I’m also curious as to how some of the Radio Critics or the Classical Music fraternity, or indeed anyone with a respect for good music other than Pop, have not commented publicly on this attempt of making a” Pigs Ear out of a Silk Purse” of a good music station, or have the?. Also if Aodan O Dubhghaill says in his photo copied” personal” replies that the station is getting a lot of letters of support for the new “Smarty” version of classical music how come we are not getting any hint of this on Boards or other Forums

Sandwlch

The Classical Music folk on Boards gave up on Lyric FM months ago:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055764276

Id love to see that mythical correspondence to Lyric supporting its revamp......

doomed

Tom2010 wrote: »

I’m also curious as to how some of the Radio Critics or the Classical Music fraternity, or indeed anyone with a respect for good music other than Pop, have not commented publicly on this attempt of making a” Pigs Ear out of a Silk Purse” of a good music station, or have the?. Also if Aodan O Dubhghaill says in his photo copied” personal” replies that the station is getting a lot of letters of support for the new “Smarty” version of classical music how come we are not getting any hint of this on Boards or other Forums

What would a pro Marty letter look like? "hello. I find the news depressing so I don't like Morning Ireland. I don't like classical music but I tuned into Lyric and was pleasantly surprised to find that there was really very little. Just easy listening and that nice chatty man from the lottery. Isn't he a hard ticket all the same? Can you play Tony Bennett please Marty? My budgie loves it".

paddins

I also e-mailed the station - The first paragraph is below:

Note - the subject title was: "FW: Morning Show" - how blatant is that!

"Thank you for your e-mail. I am sorry to read that Marty’s breakfast programme is not to your taste and I note the comments which you make regarding his style of presentation. However, whilst acknowledging the points that you make, I must inform you that we have received feedback from many other listeners to say how much they enjoy the programme, Marty’s presentation style and choice of music. As I’m sure you can appreciate, it’s simply not possible for all of our programmes to be enjoyed by all of our listeners – people have their personal preferences and personal dislikes. All we can hope is that you may enjoy a number of our other programmes"

paddins

I have also removed Lyric as a preset station!

TimmyTarmac

According to the JNLR, the people have spoken.
From what I can see from the RTE press blurb, Marty Whelan's show reaches 19,000 every morning while the most listened to show is Classic Drive which reaches 50,000 each evening!
Now, maybe the time of day has something to do with it, but on those figures, there seems to be a much bigger appetite for a show which only plays Classical Music. Am I right?
I know these numbers are subject to spin, but that seems to be the message.