Lyric fm's Breakfast show presenter - Marty Whelan.

Expunge

I still tune in most days after 10 when it's classical, with some very good concerts at 11.
It was a mistake to turn it on this morning before 10 when I was assaulted by by Cliff Richard speaking and singing.

There were also 'hilarious' limericks on the subject of the presenter's moustache sent in by his cretinous fanbase.

While it was a mistake to turn it on before 10 am, it is interesting to hear how licence fee money is being spent on what is supposed to be a music and arts station.

Onthe3rdDay

Expunge wrote: »

I still tune in most days after 10 when it's classical, with some very good concerts at 11.
It was a mistake to turn it on this morning before 10 when I was assaulted by by Cliff Richard speaking and singing.

There were also 'hilarious' limericks on the subject of the presenter's moustache sent in by his cretinous fanbase.

While it was a mistake to turn it on before 10 am, it is interesting to hear how licence fee money is being spent on what is supposed to be a music and arts station.

Hold on now, A bit of respect, Cliff knew Beethoven personally. I think RTE and indeed Marty are confused, not all things Old are classical.

mbur

Cliff had a nice promo on Wednesday. RTE 1 John Murray no less. Cliff's three favorite songs were played and they included Elvis with 'Heartbreak Hotel', Deep Purple's 'Smoke on the Water' and his own 'Move it'.

Can't see much point in Cliff going on Lyric after a gig like that. For every person 'listening' to Marty there are 10 of us tuned into J Murray.

DEFTLEFTHAND

I hadn't pulled a full sock in years, I was a good fighter in my early youth. When Cliff came on this week I demolished my Bush radio with one swift blow, it fell to the ground dead and gave no resistance.

I frightened several loved ones in my vicinity but I needed to get that out of my system, I can always buy another family radio.

jmcc

So Cliff bumped all that Tony Vivaldi and Dennis Moriconne music from Marty's MOR schedule?

Regards...jmcc

Sandwlch

Marty himself is indeed rubbish at presenting classical music. It is not even arguable, and he probably wouldnt dispute it himself (even running a game tongue in cheek 'defence' of himself here for a while) - the real villain in this debacle is the director of Lyric FM, Aodan Doughaill(?). Has he ever even attempted any public defence of the destruction he has caused ?

Onthe3rdDay

Sandwlch wrote: »

Marty himself is indeed rubbish at presenting classical music. It is not even arguable, and he probably wouldn't dispute it himself (even running a game tongue in cheek 'defence' of himself here for a while) - the real villain in this debacle is the director of Lyric FM, Aodan Doughaill(?). Has he ever even attempted any public defence of the destruction he has caused ?

The director of Lyric FM probably didn't have a choice in the matter. Marty was probably forced on him. I think we'd all understand the decisions of Lyric and RTE better if we realise that's it's not run as a democracy or a company, but it's closer to the model of the old Soviet empire.

Lyric is Poland in the early 80's but there's no Solidarity to offer resistance.

July Rain

It was Clare Duignan who got Marty the gig on Lyric, She is gone from RTE now though.

jmcc

Happen to be working this morning and listening to Lyric FM is a pleasure. No Martydom cheeky chappy noise - just good music.

Regards...jmcc

pinkypinky

jmcc wrote: »

Happen to be working this morning and listening to Lyric FM is a pleasure. No Martydom cheeky chappy noise - just good music.

Regards...jmcc

I was really excited there for a minute: and then I remembered yesterday was Sunday. :cool:

jmcc

WTF? Country and Western? I thought my radio was broken as the channel was Lyric FM but the music was wrong. Then the babbling bozo started with his stream of irrelevance and I knew it was the disaster zone that Lyric had become.

Regards...jmcc

Yvonne23R

There was a good piece on Lyric today in the Sunday Times and especially on Marty Whelan and George Hammilton. Good to see people coming around.

DownBeaten

Yvonne23R wrote: »

There was a good piece on Lyric today in the Sunday Times and especially on Marty Whelan and George Hammilton. Good to see people coming around.

The only "good piece" about that pair would be their dismissals.

Yvonne23R

DownBeaten wrote: »

The only "good piece" about that pair would be their dismissals.

Please look at the article in the Sunday Times and you will see that isn't true.

DownBeaten

Yvonne23R wrote: »

Please look at the article in the Sunday Times and you will see that isn't true.

It seems to be behind a paywall and I don't subscribe to comics. Could you summarise what the article says?

bbability

Marty is doing a fine job I must say. Great JNLR book last year!

Onthe3rdDay

Yvonne23R wrote: »

There was a good piece on Lyric today in the Sunday Times and especially on Marty Whelan and George Hammilton. Good to see people coming around.

I read that article as well as did the person that handed the paper to me (don't normally get the Sunday Times) Not quite sure what the aim of the piece was but it certainly wasn't praising Lyric nor Marty. In fact it seemed to be a negative piece, with the last paragraph a little more upbeat to bring some balance into it.

The person that gave me the paper agrees with me, but will think I'm being a bit soft on Lyric and it's many failings.

I don't know what the situation with quotes from the Sunday Times is because it is behind a paywall. However, one of the more notable lines is "blaming it all on Whelan is wrong" That's a fair enough comment, the people that put him there are ultimately the one's to blame.

Many of the positive comments seem to come from Lyric itself. It looks like a publicity piece for Lyric that went wrong, having journalists talk to others that have a interest in classical music was probably a bad idea.

But it's a filler piece as such. There's nothing of importance in it, nor anything that will damage Lyric any further.

Expunge

I had a look at that article by the journalist, Mel Clarke. A mess of a piece in my view. It could be summed up in this way....

Yes, Marty's show is an infantile insult on a national arts and music channel. But wait! Is it his fault?
Let's get quotes from the UCD professor of music, Harry White and Mel Mercier of UCC music dept. Yes it's very bad, they say, there should be more loooong discussions of an academic nature with people like us! It's no Radio 3 after all.

A quote from a contemporary composer (forget his name): it's very good when Bernard Clarke is on playing atonal, unlistenable contemporary music, like mine! The rest is crap.

Quotes from Head of Lyric and some other Lyric toady: What are ye on about? It's fab. Listener numbers don't lie. It's not Marty's job to educate people, that's everyone else's job on the station. You can take out your brain between 7 and 10am and then put it back in after that! Anyway, sez the boss, I get more complaints about John Kelly than I do about Marty!!!!

The annoying, w**keristic phrase, 'art music', was used a lot and there were pictures of the mustachioed opera 'expert', George Hamilton, Mylene Klass and David Mellor.

Rupert Murdoch was very proud!!!!

DownBeaten

Is the Yawnovision due shortly? Surely we're due a Whelan-free week where Lyric breakfast is handed back to professional presenters?

Onthe3rdDay

DownBeaten wrote: »

Is the Yawnovision due shortly? Surely we're due a Whelan-free week where Lyric breakfast is handed back to professional presenters?

That's not entirely fair. You can have professionals at all levels in various industries. For example Some people are bicycle couriers. They deliver packages from A to B. Then there are those that Drive Large Trucks, they also Deliver goods from one destination to another. Generally having those two people swap jobs would lead to chaos.

Marty is the right person for another station. At the moment listeners are getting lost in Transit.

DownBeaten

Onthe3rdDay wrote: »

That's not entirely fair. You can have professionals at all levels in various industries. For example Some people are bicycle couriers. They deliver packages from A to B. Then there are those that Drive Large Trucks, they also Deliver goods from one destination to another. Generally having those two people swap jobs would lead to chaos.

OK, but Whelan, the truck driver and the cyclist have one thing in common. They like to hum along to the tune.

Agreed, he's a perfect match for the likes of 2FM/Today FM/one of the many local stations where his cheeky chappie chat, bad jokes and musical ignorance would be appropriate. But those of us who want to listen to (mostly) classical music have few alternatives. And this is not an attack on the eponymous presenter, it's a criticism of RTE & Lyric management that seem to think that chasing transient ratings is appropriate for a station that was created to be different from the dross.

jmcc

bbability wrote: »

Marty is doing a fine job I must say. Great JNLR book last year!

Whelan couldn't cut it at 2FM so they fired him. They fired him because he wasn't bringing in the numbers and the audience couldn't relate to someone who had been popular for a brief time between four thirty and four forty-five on a wet Saturday afternoon in 1980. Now the creeping moronicism of RTE management is trying to turn RTE1, 2FM and Lyric FM into some kind of anodyne home for friends and family of RTE rather than fulfilling any remit to provide entertainment. Lyric was a good station but the sub room-temperature management and being used as a dumping ground for RTE/2FM failures has destroyed it in the mornings. There are times when I wonder if 2FM stands for too f*cking moronicised in some hybrid texting/management speak and then, on listening to that dire breakfast show on Lyric, I realise that they are one short.

Regards...jmcc

ziggyman17

DownBeaten wrote: »

Is the Yawnovision due shortly? Surely we're due a Whelan-free week where Lyric breakfast is handed back to professional presenters?

eh, unless I am mistaken Marty gets paid to present the show each morning, If you don't like his show then simply do not tune in to listen,

yosser hughes

Yvonne23R wrote: »

Please look at the article in the Sunday Times and you will see that isn't true.

If you actually read the piece and understand it then I don't know how you could interpret it as complimentary to the running of Lyric or Marty Whelan et al. It is an attack on the dumbing down of the station and how it is being run.
You are either being disingenuous or you have difficulty with basic comprehension.

Yvonne23R

Yes but as Deep Throat said in Nixon, "follow the money." By which I mean that the people are showing loyal to Marty Whelan's show and he has now an audience that would nearly fill Croke Park according to the Guide. It's "slow and steady" as the turtle said to hare that wins the ratings race.

jmcc

Yvonne23R wrote: »

Yes but as Deep Throat said in Nixon, "follow the money." By which I mean that the people are showing loyal to Marty Whelan's show and he has now an audience that would nearly fill Croke Park according to the Guide. It's "slow and steady" as the turtle said to hare that wins the ratings race.

He's a 2FM failure and now he is trying the 2FM schlock on Lyric with the aid of the management who want to make all RTE stations equally low-brow.

Regards...jmcc

Onthe3rdDay

Yvonne23R wrote: »

Yes but as Deep Throat said in Nixon, "follow the money." By which I mean that the people are showing loyal to Marty Whelan's show and he has now an audience that would nearly fill Croke Park according to the Guide. It's "slow and steady" as the turtle said to hare that wins the ratings race.

At this rate of Growth he'll have a bigger audience than some of the local Breakfast shows in 4 or 5 years time!:) (not so much of an over exaggeration)

At this rate it'll take 5 years to reach 100,000 listeners and watch out Morning Ireland, He's likely to overtake you in 2047 give or take a few years.

Slow and steady Growth eventually Gets you fired (Sorry given a new project) on RTE...ask Hector!

Sandwlch

yosser hughes wrote: »

.
You are either being disingenuous or you have difficulty with basic comprehension.

That's 'Yvonne' you are dealing with !

Yvonne23R

Sandwlch wrote: »

That's 'Yvonne' you are dealing with !

And that's 'Sandwich' we're dealing with.

evolving_doors

I don't know ...at first I hated Marty then I likened him to a bit of chewing gum whilst in the car while driving.... Easy on the ear, just waffle..with bland music thrown in...Then things move on when he's finished...

I think he fulfills the function of 'easy listening' down to the tee.. and if that's Marty's brief then he does it perfectly, he can;t be chastised for it. What type of program WOULD work at that hour of the morning...Reels to Ragas/Blue of the Night/John Kelly... naaa.

Now Gay Byrne... good sweet cheesus would you just play the goddam tune and stop all the preaching about bad drivers... just shuddup and plaaaaayyyy the tuunnee gay pleeeeaasseeee.