Lyric fm's Breakfast show presenter - Marty Whelan.

jmcc

mbur wrote: »

I wouldn't mind the music so much.

For me it is more the interruption to the flow of music. The other presenters seem to have a deep appreciation of the music and it comes through in how they present it. With Marty, it seems that the music is only there to interrupt his one-way chats with his audience.

With the good presenters, there's a flow to the music in that even their introductions don't interrupt the general flow of the music theme. Some of the work I do involves periods of intense concentration where I am desperately searching for a clue (mapping the internet and similar stuff) so Marty's cheeky chappy rambling tends to irritate.

Later on I was listening to M on his own and it occurred to me that he was like a madman talking to himself. It was only towards the end of his burbling when he told a joke about two dead women that I felt he was actually trying to communicate with an 'audience'. Strange days indeed.

Almost like a Boards.ie thread. I'm glad I missed that programme.

Regards...jmcc

jmcc

Unfortunately I managed to listen to a few minutes of that show this morning. Have to listen to the Goldberg Variations to restore my calm. It is difficult to tell RTE1/LyricFM/2FM apart these days.

Regards...jmcc

limnam

jmcc wrote: »

Unfortunately I managed to listen to a few minutes of that show this morning. Have to listen to the Goldberg Variations to restore my calm. It is difficult to tell RTE1/LyricFM/2FM apart these days.

Regards...jmcc

Lyric is very identifiable just tune it at 10.01am

jmcc

Beethoven's Sixth. Calm restored after the mayhem of Marty. LyricFM is a Classical Music station once more.

Regards...jmcc

SaveOurLyricFM

Now that we seem to have an opportunity for calm discussion, has anyone out there any ideas as to how we can help LyricFM restore its early morning service to something approaching its mandate as a serious music station? Lets brain-storm it for a bit? For example, could M.Whelan be sent on a classical music appreciation course? How about he takes an on-line course e.g. Coursera , and shares his experiences as he goes along with the radio audience. This would an honest and educative approach that could be worth listening to. Thoughts?

Frank Grimes

Not playing things like the theme music from Wonder Woman like he did a few weeks ago would be a start...

DownBeaten

SaveOurLyricFM wrote: »

Now that we seem to have an opportunity for calm discussion, has anyone out there any ideas as to how we can help LyricFM restore its early morning service to something approaching its mandate as a serious music station? Lets brain-storm it for a bit? For example, could M.Whelan be sent on a classical music appreciation course? How about he takes an on-line course e.g. Coursera , and shares his experiences as he goes along with the radio audience. This would an honest and educative approach that could be worth listening to. Thoughts?

Good idea, but methinks you're flogging the proverbial dead horse. Whelan wears his musical ignorance on his sleeve, and this is tolerated by Lyric management.

Expunge

Music appreciation course???
After a wet weekend in Verona and the promise of a few tickets to the opening night of Wexford Festival, this lad thinks he's an operatic expert.

Lyric is fatally holed beneath the water. Judging by the RTE 5 year plan and it's designation of 'core' and 'complimentary' services (which includes Lyric and the RTE Orchestras), the powers that be in Montrose appear to be looking for an out strategy for expensive stuff like Classical music. Of course, they still have the paw out looking for more licence fee.

The irony is that the three who have contributed most to it's demise thought they knew better by NOT playing much, or any, classical music - Marty Whelan, John Kelly, Gay Byrne. Oh yes. These fellas know better. Instead of maybe acquiring a little bit of knowledge or being guided by some of the experienced old hands who still must exist in there, they bluster it out and treat a thousand years of music with distain.

Talk about bullying ego running riot!

Three presenters who are not wanted elsewhere in RTE have between them ruined an arts and music network and have been allowed to do so.

jmcc

SaveOurLyricFM wrote: »

For example, could M.Whelan be sent on a classical music appreciation course?

As long as it is a one-way ticket.

Regards...jmcc

Onthe3rdDay

Expunge wrote: »

The irony is that the three who have contributed most to it's demise thought they knew better by NOT playing much, or any, classical music - Marty Whelan, John Kelly, Gay Byrne. Oh yes. These fellas know better. Instead of maybe acquiring a little bit of knowledge or being guided by some of the experienced old hands who still must exist in there, they bluster it out and treat a thousand years of music with distain.

Three presenters who are not wanted elsewhere in RTE have between them ruined an arts and music network and have been allowed to do so.

I.m not fond of any of the shows but I can see some logic for Gay Byrne and John Kelly. Gay has an audience and putting him on for half the Sundays of the year isn't an entirely bad idea. BBC Radio 3 also has Jazz programmes which wouldn't be to my taste but again a few hours here and there for different tastes not catered for elsewhere is fine.

They swiped John Kelly from Today FM and have never known what to do with him. His show is very different but again his show has been the highest rated show on Lyric a lot of the time. He plays some very unusual pieces but never the theme to Wonder Woman.

That brings me to Marty. He plays music that is unsuitable for the station. He's on 5 Mornings a week at the very most important time for any station. He literally scatters the listener ship to the four corners of the world.

There has always been some choice for most people when it comes to radio. Even in the old days if you didn't like RTE Radio you could listen to BBC radio 2 or BBC radio 4. Decades later most people (not all) can find a way to listen to what they choose. There are plenty of stations on the Radio, Satellite or the internet, not forgetting CD's and MP3,s

The clock radio by my bed hasn't been tuned to Lyric for a long time. It's the same for many others.

I would not be surprised if we go back 20 years in the next 12 months and Lyric turns into an FM3 type service. broadcasting from 7 in the evening to 7 the next morning. The Daytime line up is changed to bring Marty's friends in.

jmcc

Onthe3rdDay wrote: »

The Daytime line up is changed to bring Marty's friends in.

So it is being mangled into 'Music for Low-Brows'? At this stage most people who would have listened to the station in the morning have probably changed to something better.

Regards...jmcc

Onthe3rdDay

jmcc wrote: »

At this stage most people who would have listened to the station in the morning have probably changed to something better.

100 percent agree... Now all they have to do is say no one is listening to the station, it needs a revamp. Leave Marty on in the Morning because he's one of the strong elements, Make others during the day play more Middle of the road music just like the breakfast show and Maybe give Ronan Collins a two hour show at lunchtime.

Figures will rise slightly and everyone will say what a success!!!

Obviously this might not happen at all but the introduction of Marty in the Morning should never have happened either.

DownBeaten

Onthe3rdDay wrote: »

100 percent agree... Now all they have to do is say no one is listening to the station, it needs a revamp. Leave Marty on in the Morning because he's one of the strong elements, Make others during the day play more Middle of the road music just like the breakfast show and Maybe give Ronan Collins a two hour show at lunchtime.

And completely abandon the USP it once had by turning it into a 2fm for the slightly older generation. That seems to be the strategy RTE "management" have for it all right, poles apart from the distinctive music & arts role envisaged when it started just over 10 years ago. Sad.

real rocker

Lots of technical problems on Lyric breakfast this morning. Marty is broadcasting from Westport train station as part of Big Music Week with a very dodgy link which has broken down at least 3 times in the past hour. Why are such things always so problematic for RTE?

Frank Grimes

real rocker wrote: »

Lots of technical problems on Lyric breakfast this morning. Marty is broadcasting from Westport train station as part of Big Music Week with a very dodgy link which has broken down at least 3 times in the past hour. Why are such things always so problematic for RTE?

And that's a bad thing? :pac:

real rocker

Frank Grimes wrote: »

And that's a bad thing? :pac:

I see your point Frank - my concern is about the marring of live music ops. for the Irish artists being presented. Marty is, as usual, all over the place.

jmcc

real rocker wrote: »

Lots of technical problems on Lyric breakfast this morning. Marty is broadcasting from Westport train station as part of Big Music Week with a very dodgy link which has broken down at least 3 times in the past hour. Why are such things always so problematic for RTE?

Perhaps God is a Lyric FM listener and even he dislikes Marty's wibbling?

Regards...jmcc

Expunge

Even without the technical fcuk ups, which seem to be part and parcel of too many RTE Radio broadcasts, it was the usual Whelan Omnishambles.

Awful, Awful stuff from the National Broadcaster.

To talk about an earlier point, I'd say the revamp that Onthe3rdDay and others talked about is probably on the cards as soon as they (management) can get away with it.
The music of RTE Gold with the superannuated personalities we know and loathe so much, maybe a bit of classical after 7 pm.
Niall Carroll, Liz Nolan, Trish Taylor and some others better learn something about the Bay City Rollers and Joe Dolan fast or they'll be looking for another job!

SaveOurLyricFM

Below is an extract from RTE's "Freedom of Information Act 1997 sections 15 and 16 reference book" in which it purports to describe Lyric's output. I can't reconcile MITM's output of 3 hours, 5 days a week with this description. On the issue of FoI, concerned people might find it useful to lodge some considered FoI rquests with RTE to try to elicit what exactly their policy is on Lyric and what they might have in store for it. FoI requests can be emailed to Lyric's FoI Officer who is -
Julie Knight
RTÉ lyric fm
Cornmarket Square
Limerick.
Telephone: 061 207359
E-mail: julie.knight@rte.ie



I imagine any public body that receives a number of FoI requests around a particular area or topic would have to take notice. The type of thing that could be sought through FoI are copies of complaints about its output , which would be anonymised before release of course, but which would nonetheless give an indication of opinion out there. One might even look for a copy of M Whelan's contract which should be accessible (except for the fees bit I imagine). The possibilites are endless.

"RTÉ lyric fm
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times New Roman][FONT=Times New Roman,Times New Roman]RTÉ lyric fm is RTÉ's classical music and arts channel, catering also for opera, jazz, movies, traditional and world music. Its schedule of mainly accessible classical music throughout the day is enhanced with weekly live concerts by the RTÉ performing groups, celebrity recitals and live or recorded major Irish musical festivals." [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times New Roman]http://www.rte.ie/documents/about/foi-book-2012.pdf[/FONT]
[/FONT]

SaveOurLyricFM

I note from the RTE FoI document that records to do with "RTÉ's internal reviews or analysis of broadcast programmes" are also excluded from FoI. That's a very restrictive provision. We should be able to see for example RTE's internal review of the defamatory 'Prime Time Investigates' programme that led to the axing of the programme. In relation to Lyric and MITM, why can't we see what RTE itself thinks of the show?
As the FoI legislation is currently being reviewed I would urge all to see that this restriction in respect of RTE is lifted. http://per.gov.ie/wp-content/uploads/Freedom-of-Info-Bill-13.pdf Its fair enough that FoI should not interfere with the deliberative process in respect of RTE's internal reviews of its programmes. However, once such a review is completed these records should be open to release. We each pay EURO 160 per annum to RTE remember! Brendan Howlin, Minister for Public Expenditure & Reform is the relevant minister to contact about this webmasterper@per.gov.ie.

Onthe3rdDay

SaveOurLyricFM wrote: »

"RTÉ lyric fm
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times New Roman][FONT=Times New Roman,Times New Roman]RTÉ lyric fm is RTÉ's classical music and arts channel, catering also for opera, jazz, movies, traditional and world music. Its schedule of mainly accessible classical music throughout the day is enhanced with weekly live concerts by the RTÉ performing groups, celebrity recitals and live or recorded major Irish musical festivals." [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times New Roman]http://www.rte.ie/documents/about/foi-book-2012.pdf[/FONT]
[/FONT]

The word in that description that saves Marty is Movies. Any track on a Movie Soundtrack would be within the remit of Lyric in theory.

mbur

Onthe3rdDay wrote: »

The word in that description that saves Marty is Movies. Any track on a Movie Soundtrack would be within the remit of Lyric in theory.

Don't see anything there about prattling on about cooking or reading letters from some bloke named Hugo. Marty does lots of that. Heavy breathing into the mic doesn't get a mention either. He is doing less of that these days but I still have no idea what he is saying (or why) most of the time.

But movies, how Marty must love movies. It's almost as if he has been given the remit to justify the inclusion of the word while the others get on with the rest of it. Seem fair, but three hours, five days a week at breakfast time is waaaaaay to much. My suggestion would be to give Marty the "Early Morning Movie Music Show". 4am to 7am should do nicely.

Onthe3rdDay

mbur wrote: »

My suggestion would be to give Marty the "Early Morning Movie Music Show". 4am to 7am should do nicely.

Sadly that would interfere with Lyric's overnight service, which is actually a BBC Radio Production.

honeybear

I have to say that I really enjoy listening to Marty on the way to work. His mix of music suits me (don't like his "jokes"). I think that he is very good with requests. He seems a genuinely nice guy. He was away for 2 mornings a few weeks ago and his sub wasn't a patch on him, imo. Marty in the morning fan

SaveOurLyricFM

I don't begrudge anyone enjoying listening to M Whelan, though why anyone wants to subject themselves to his clownish waffling is frankly beyond me. What I have a problem with is that they do this through the medium of LyricFM for 15 hours a week. This deprives those of us with an interest in hearing the music the station is mandated to promote, of their preference. What about my desire to hear serious music presented by a knowledgeable presenter on my way to work? Whelan is a MOTRer, an anaemically pale imitator of Terry Wogan who could fit in on any number of radio stations but he most definitely is not suited to Lyric. Apart from his witless banter, he simply knows nothing about the music the station was established to promote. Whelan on Lyric is akin to the BBC deciding that Dave Attenborough should be replaced by Dick and Dom, two fellas not exactly renowned known for their knowledge of natural history. I have no intention of imposing my preferences on listeners to RTE Radio1, FM2, Radio na Gaeltacht, RTE Pulse, RTE 2XM, RTE Gold etc.; why is it deemed Okay for MOTR and eejit repartee to infiltrate Lyric during the peak listening hours?

pinkypinky

I heard a rumour he's off air this week.

Is it true? Is it safe to tune in?

Nope - apparently it's Niall Carroll.

honeybear

pinkypinky wrote: »

I heard a rumour he's off air this week.

Is it true? Is it safe to tune in?

Nope - apparently it's Niall Carroll.

I've converted my Mum to listening to Marty in the mornings. She mentioned today that Marty was off air last week due to a bereavement in his family.

Expunge

Yet another new low for Lyric fm this morning......
Marty Whelan playing the music of and in conversation with Cliff Richard.

2 sad talentless old men with hair plugs.
Ideal programming for tone deaf people.

Shut down Lyric. It's over.

jmcc

Expunge wrote: »

Yet another new low for Lyric fm this morning......
Marty Whelan playing the music of and in conversation with Cliff Richard.

2 sad talentless old men with hair plugs.
Ideal programming for tone deaf people.

Shut down Lyric. It's over.

Well Cliff Richard was popular once. Back in the 1950s or so. Can't understand why Lyric would have him on but then it is Whelan's show - the relentless dumbing down of a once great station.

Regards...jmcc

DownBeaten

Is Lyric still broadcasting? I gave up on it a year or two back when it changed from a music and arts channel to become a personality platform.