Lyric fm's Breakfast show presenter - Marty Whelan.

pinkypinky

*headdesk*

You mean he wasn't on this morning and I missed it?! Damn. :mad:

HugoBradyBrown

Dear All,

Sadly, Marty was away this morning as feared, and, though the replacement programme was pleasant, it somehow doesn't quite set one up for the day in the same way. One is thrown back on one's own resources to a greater extent. (It brings home to me that Marty is really for getting up to; other broadcasters in RTE Lyric FM are for staying in bed to. That may be the crucial difference: if one has to be up and out, Marty is your man; if one can have a leisurely cappuccino and face the prospect of a return to the linen and eiderdown, anything will do. This analytical distinction may prove to be a valuable tool in coming to a final view on 'Marty in the Morning'.)

In relation to a recent post, I think that it undermines any argument to base it, however partially, on any statement from a politician from a disgraced political party that by action and inaction destroyed a country and that stole the future from rising generations. Nevertheless, it is clear that RTE Lyric FM is a hotbed of creativity; consider Nova on a Sunday evening; consider the phone-in requests to Liz at lunchtime; consider the experiments with writers' input in the Quiet Quarter; consider the magnificent and prize-winning documentary on Canteloube; consider Gloria; consider Marty's brainteasers; consider the interviews with musicians; the list goes on and on.

Incidentally, professional that he is to his fingertips, Marty is as good as or better than some of his colleagues in his diction, and in his pronunciation of the admittedly difficult names of composers and performers. One of his much better-regarded colleagues is notable for using a 'generic foreign' pronunciation of any non-English word or name, and mangling anything from east of Harwich; despite this, neither listener criticism nor internal remedial action on the part of RTE Lyric FM's pronunciation unit is evident in this other case. I remain to be convinced that Marty is not being held unfairly to a far higher standard than others.

With all good wishes as we come towards a common understanding,



Hugo Brady Brown

mbur

Trish Taylor sat in for Marty this morning. Thankfully the well copyrighted American song book was set aside for a while.

I enjoyed most of what I heard but sadly Trish suffers the same annoying vocal habit that so cripples Marty's vocal presentation. I am referring to the practice of taking short rasping intakes of breath directly into the studio microphone. Both Marty and Trish should perhaps listen and learn from their peers in the studio. Both the traffic and news presenters this morning managed to avoid this elementary failing.

I am not an expert but I dare say a raised hand or slight movement of the head may help if breath control will not suffice.

I wish them well.

Maggie McGaggie

If listening to Howard, Neven Maguire's local shopkeeper, rabbit on about caps is your idea of what to get up to then you are welcome to it. This is really dreadful rubbish. It seems as if MW has transferred Open House(his old ret afternoon show) onto Lyric FM. Disgraceful stuff. Total self-indulgence from MW. Tried to listen to entire 3 hours. Not possible. What the hell is going on in rte? Is there any quality control, what vision do they have for Lyric? Everyone there should be sacked and a whole new team drafted in from the colleges of Ireland. People who are not tainted by the relentless commercialism of rte. Hugo, you are welcome to Blacklion, MacNean, Howard, sommeliers, trout, verdi, buble, Neven,MW and whatever other garbage MW comes up with.( I can't believe he has only been on there for one year, it feels like 5)

Maggie McGaggie

Come Celebrate our 1st Birthday live from MacNean House and Restaurant on Friday October 7th...

Join us live this coming Friday morning October 7th, live from MacNean House and Restaurant, Blacklion, Co. Cavan when we'll be celebrating our 1st Birthday On-air in the company of Neven Maguire and his Team.

Marty will be chatting to some local food producers and we'll get the history of one of Irelands best known restaurants plus lots of great music. So pop in and say hello as we blow out the candle from the Highlands of North West Ireland!.

Neven Maguire

Fridays with Neven Maguire...

Tune in every Friday morning at around 9:10am to hear Neven Maguire the award-winning chef of MacNean's House and Restaurant, Blacklion, Co Cavan.
Each Friday Neven will join Marty with some great recipes, preparation tips and some suggestions that will make the perfect meal for family and friends.


This is from RTE Lyric Fm website. I presume rte are being paid for this coverage or is it Marty who is getting a backhander for it. Does anyone have details on this arrangement. Why the hell is Lyric being hijacked for this purpose?

HugoBradyBrown

Dear All,

Well, having spoken to half a dozen people at the market this morning, I know for certain that Marty has the pulse of the nation. The Master Craft Butcher from Ashbourne who told us that scrag-end of lamb is a a perfect cut for slow roasting seemed to have started a run; not even the late great Marguerite Patten thought of that. Apparently it sold out completely in the market before 10 am as a result. But this is only part of the story.

As for Neven and Lyric, one might as well ask about Neven's involvement with the Journal. In my opinion, both of these are likely to be unpaid pro bono initiatives on his part to promote Irish food, the best, most toothsome and most seasonal food in the world. Think of what he is now doing for the market for grass-fed beef, with the distinctive fat that becomes evident in the shops in May. And I , for one, was moved to seek out an 'Irish breakfast for a fiver vacuum pack' this morning. (I might anticipate the criticisms, though, and agree in part about the porridge question; it was giving it away to ask if porridge was made from oats, wheat or barley. However, on other days the questions can be quite taxing.)

Consider also the difficult job Marty had integrating the News, AA Roadwatch, the many and various guests who had to be put at ease, the music, the time-checks - all the while consuming a hearty breakfast made by Neven's fair hand. It is this mimesis of the listener experience, I think, that gives that sense of freshness and normalcy to the programme. And isn't it a great peg for the music to avail of anniversaries; it removes any sense of the programme being simply one tune after another. In my view, Marty should be doing more OBs, not fewer. There are so many festivals around the country these days that, if he and his team had the energy, we could all experience it vicariously, with the benefit of informed reviews of the experience. RTE Lyric FM is here digging into a rich potential seam of material for a new and highly creative variant on Public Service Broadcasting. You don't get anything like it on the BBC. Yet. And then, of course, the Irish Times would come to see it for what it really is, doubtless running to positive photo features of MITM in the Saturday magazine!

And over the course of this past week, following the resuscitation of the criticism of Marty in the Morning, I think I must have asked up to a hundred close friends about their morning habits, and I find that most, if not quite all, are alert to what is available from RTE Lyric FM. Only the most monkish seem to steer clear of the happiness, the jollity, the savoir vivre of the show.

With my sincere regards,


Hugo Brady Brown

bureau2009

Maggie McGaggie wrote: »

Nobody could complain about his personality

No, nobody except the entire nation.

Maggie McGaggie

HugoBradyBrown wrote: »

The debate on Marty in the Morning still gathers moss, I see.

The founders of RTE Lyric FM, if they were to see the playlist of last Monday (and I am sure that they have no difficulty seeing it, if they wish to), would probably applaud it for being the sensible and rational response of a stable radio station meeting the needs and preferences of an Irish audience. The nub of the issue lies elsewhere. What I might term the 'Continuity RTE FM3 Music' audience seems to have difficulty in accommodating itself to the reality that drive-time radio listening is different from evening and late night concentrated listening. The old pre-Lyric service was not on air during drive-time; programming of the same kind is still broadcast by RTE Lyric FM at the time that FM3 Music broadcast. In the early days of Lyric FM, admittedly, experiments were conducted with more demanding music across the schedule; this was revealed to be a mistake, and to be unwelcome both to the great Irish public and to the experts in the advertising profession.

I am also adamant that there isn't an audience in Ireland of the size necessary to justify some form of a resurrected BBC Third Programme broadcasting to a nation enduring long commutes to work, or getting the children out to school. People might claim in surveys that they would listen to serious classical music at such times; their behaviour will show this to be self-delusion on the part of the vast majority.

Consider, also, the experience of concert promoters in Dublin and throughout the country, putting on fine concerts and recitals. Only the best known musical lollipops, or the most famous performers will guarantee an audience. Otherwise, the supposedly music-loving public in Ireland will stay away from concerts in their droves. See, for example, the pleading advertisements for the 'last remaining seats' even at the Wexford Opera, where the very best is available. We the people tend to flatter ourself about what we like and what we listen to; in reality we are, most of us, rather ordinary, rather pedestrian and rather sane in our tastes. Buxtehude near bedtime; Tony Bennett at breakfast, and so forth.

Marty in the Morning is giving us what we want, when we want it: amusing, light, undemanding, uplifting broadcasting. It is functional radio, not 'Wigmore Hall FM' broadcasting to a tiny if cultivated minority. And sometimes the masses are sensible.


Hugo Brady Brown

There seems to be two main points to your argument Hugo. Firstly, you believe that there isn't a big enough audience to justify the old Lyric Fm service, of symphonic, chamber, opera etc. and you believe that the existing Lyric listenership prefer to have celebrities such as Marty, Gay, Frank McNamara etc. hosting a mixture of easy listening and classical favourites. How the hell MW got a job on Lyric beats me because in my opinion he has no interest in this area. I also believe that he would play no classical music if he thought he could get away with it. Hugo, you are trying to divert the argument away from the areas of greatest import by using anecdotal and unverified evidence. You question the listenership surveys and insist he has a far higher total.

Secondly you say that people don't want to be subjected to demanding pieces of music in the morning. I wholeheartedly disagree. There is nothing i would like more than to tune in to hear a movement from a symphony or chamber music. At this time in the morning i don't want to hear somebody yapping, making smart comments or being a jackass. Most of the other(admittedly biased) contributors on this forum agree. People like you are keeping that oaf on Lyric by entering the competitions.

Classical music has always been a minority interest here, to use this as an excuse for dumbing down the service is not valid. A lot of people worked very hard, against the naysayers, to get this station up and running. It was not intended as a half-way house for undesireable RTE personalites. There are plenty of cooking shows, why does Lyric Fm need to be a showcase for Blacklion. If BBC Radio 3 decide to copy Marty's format i will eat my hat. Finally, has Marty increased the market share for Lyric? I haven't done research but it most certainly does not seem to be the case.

goingpostal

Maggie McGaggie wrote: »

Come Celebrate our 1st Birthday live from MacNean House and Restaurant on Friday October 7th...

Join us live this coming Friday morning October 7th, live from MacNean House and Restaurant, Blacklion, Co. Cavan when we'll be celebrating our 1st Birthday On-air in the company of Neven Maguire and his Team.

Marty will be chatting to some local food producers and we'll get the history of one of Irelands best known restaurants plus lots of great music. So pop in and say hello as we blow out the candle from the Highlands of North West Ireland!.

Neven Maguire

Fridays with Neven Maguire...

Tune in every Friday morning at around 9:10am to hear Neven Maguire the award-winning chef of MacNean's House and Restaurant, Blacklion, Co Cavan.
Each Friday Neven will join Marty with some great recipes, preparation tips and some suggestions that will make the perfect meal for family and friends.


This is from RTE Lyric Fm website. I presume rte are being paid for this coverage or is it Marty who is getting a backhander for it. Does anyone have details on this arrangement. Why the hell is Lyric being hijacked for this purpose?

This shoddy arrangement can be summed up with one word - nepotism. Everyone's a winner! Except you, the license payer!! Remember, hand over your 160euro at your local post office to support this orgy of back-scratching!! Or we will lock you up in the big house!! Be a good peasant now, you hear?? All I know for sure is that, lately, Neven Maguire, with his big pigs' head on him, has been harder to avoid than a dose of the clap in a Bangkok brothel.

HugoBradyBrown

Dear All,

My knowledge of Bangkok brothels is so exiguous as to be scarcely worth considering, so I must leave this point to be disposed of by those who are better equipped and more experienced in such matters than I. However, I think that if Neven can attract five thousand people to Monaghan town on an October Thursday evening, he has some magnetism and self-evidently deserves his place on RTE Lyric FM. And Marty's enthusiasm on air for all that is best in Irish food culture is of a piece with Marty's intense joy at so much of the best of Irish music. On Wednesday last, for example, he played a transcendent work by Micheal O Suilleabhain; this is music that has everyone touched, both the scholarly audience who fully understand what is going on in Professor O Suilleabhain's music, and the rest of us who simply feel the authenticity of the Irish soul transmuted into musical form. Who else but Marty (and Al) is going to bring such radio premieres to our attention in primetime?

I would also argue that, far from being indifferent to 'classical music', Marty is clearly an enthusiast. Not, perhaps, a professional musician, but an enthusiast like all the other listeners who repeatedly respond to surveys that they "like all kinds of music, including light classical," or some equivalent formula; he is, in other words, a typical RTE Lyric FM listener. One need only recall how Marty seems to glow on air when he recalls operatic performances he has himself attended: Nabucco in Verona, Butterfly in Milan, Les Mis in London, Carmen in La Fenice, Sweeney Todd in Dublin. In such cases, his evident honesty and guilelessness and his lack of pretension and affectation become crystal clear to the receptive listener. We are moved, we become, in the privacy of our own kitchens, musical putty in his hands. From the plink-plonk of Chopin through the wonders of Mozart to the linguistic and musical dexterity and, yes, profundity of the Songbook, Marty is our sure and reliable guide.

He also leads people in his lighthearted way through the forbidding thickets of 'classical music', where others might strive to erect a barrier of bow ties, stuffed shirts and the esoteric knowledge of when and when not to applaud in classical concerts, in order to keep the rest of us in our places. Was there anything better to illustrate this educative function of MITM than in this morning's broadcast from Blacklion: Marty played the opening of the 'Te Deum by Charpentier, which was fine and fair enough. Marty, however, expertly sugared the pill by letting us know that this was the music from the Eurovision, and whetted our appetites by reminding us that next year the Grand Prix will be competed for in Baku in Azerbaijan. And, again, to be inclusive rather than exclusive, he reminded us us that this is where the boxing is to be held. This is not guff or simple chat: Marty is acting as an interstitial lubricant for the audience, leading us on to accept and appreciate what we not already know. I rather think that if he were to run a spot of music used in great advertisements, he might lead people even further on: Beethoven seen through Tweed perfume; the Hovis ad; the Fruit & Nut Case of Frank Muir; the list is potentially endless. One might call this 'building an audience."

I am encouraging other contented members of the MITM and RTE Lyric FM audience to contribute their thoughts to this Board. Unfortunately, to date, some of even those who most enjoy it say 'it's only a radio programme, not revealed truth', or words to that effect.

With my best wishes,


Hugo Brady Brown

Sandwlch

Maggie McGaggie wrote: »

There seems to be two main points to your argument Hugo. Firstly, you believe that there isn't a big enough audience to justify the old Lyric Fm service, of symphonic, chamber, opera etc. and you believe that the existing Lyric listenership prefer to have celebrities such as Marty, Gay, Frank McNamara etc. hosting a mixture of easy listening and classical favourites. How the hell MW got a job on Lyric beats me because in my opinion he has no interest in this area. I also believe that he would play no classical music if he thought he could get away with it. Hugo, you are trying to divert the argument away from the areas of greatest import by using anecdotal and unverified evidence. You question the listenership surveys and insist he has a far higher total.

Secondly you say that people don't want to be subjected to demanding pieces of music in the morning. I wholeheartedly disagree. There is nothing i would like more than to tune in to hear a movement from a symphony or chamber music. At this time in the morning i don't want to hear somebody yapping, making smart comments or being a jackass. Most of the other(admittedly biased) contributors on this forum agree. People like you are keeping that oaf on Lyric by entering the competitions.

Classical music has always been a minority interest here, to use this as an excuse for dumbing down the service is not valid. A lot of people worked very hard, against the naysayers, to get this station up and running. It was not intended as a half-way house for undesireable RTE personalites. There are plenty of cooking shows, why does Lyric Fm need to be a showcase for Blacklion. If BBC Radio 3 decide to copy Marty's format i will eat my hat. Finally, has Marty increased the market share for Lyric? I haven't done research but it most certainly does not seem to be the case.

Maggie. Resist. Stop feeding him.

Maggie McGaggie

Sandwlch wrote: »

Maggie. Resist. Stop feeding him.

I'd love to know why Marty is so popular on lyric. He annoys me way more on the morning slot because i never listen to lyric at midday and the request show is utter rubbish anyway, so i never got upset about it. He seems to have built up a huge fanbase but i am at a loss to figure out how. I can see why Marty's personality is attractive to many people but he simply not suitable.

I was hoping Hugo might explain the attraction of MITM but most of the answers are gobbleygook. There has to be some arrangement with Blacklion because Neven is on his webpage and Marty is constantly promoting. It is about as far away from the original vision for Lyric that you could get. I could only presume that Hugo is a Lyric listener, so how did he survive without Marty before. Marty was on 2fm for years. It just beggars belief. I would love for other Marty devotees to answer these questions, particularly serious classical music fans. I don't know if i am wrong for not taking to Marty because at the moment i feel a milion miles away from it.

marienbad

HugoBradyBrown wrote: »

Dear All,

My knowledge of Bangkok brothels is so exiguous as to be scarcely worth considering, so I must leave this point to be disposed of by those who are better equipped and more experienced in such matters than I. However, I think that if Neven can attract five thousand people to Monaghan town on an October Thursday evening, he has some magnetism and self-evidently deserves his place on RTE Lyric FM. And Marty's enthusiasm on air for all that is best in Irish food culture is of a piece with Marty's intense joy at so much of the best of Irish music. On Wednesday last, for example, he played a transcendent work by Micheal O Suilleabhain; this is music that has everyone touched, both the scholarly audience who fully understand what is going on in Professor O Suilleabhain's music, and the rest of us who simply feel the authenticity of the Irish soul transmuted into musical form. Who else but Marty (and Al) is going to bring such radio premieres to our attention in primetime?

I would also argue that, far from being indifferent to 'classical music', Marty is clearly an enthusiast. Not, perhaps, a professional musician, but an enthusiast like all the other listeners who repeatedly respond to surveys that they "like all kinds of music, including light classical," or some equivalent formula; he is, in other words, a typical RTE Lyric FM listener. One need only recall how Marty seems to glow on air when he recalls operatic performances he has himself attended: Nabucco in Verona, Butterfly in Milan, Les Mis in London, Carmen in La Fenice, Sweeney Todd in Dublin. In such cases, his evident honesty and guilelessness and his lack of pretension and affectation become crystal clear to the receptive listener. We are moved, we become, in the privacy of our own kitchens, musical putty in his hands. From the plink-plonk of Chopin through the wonders of Mozart to the linguistic and musical dexterity and, yes, profundity of the Songbook, Marty is our sure and reliable guide.

He also leads people in his lighthearted way through the forbidding thickets of 'classical music', where others might strive to erect a barrier of bow ties, stuffed shirts and the esoteric knowledge of when and when not to applaud in classical concerts, in order to keep the rest of us in our places. Was there anything better to illustrate this educative function of MITM than in this morning's broadcast from Blacklion: Marty played the opening of the 'Te Deum by Charpentier, which was fine and fair enough. Marty, however, expertly sugared the pill by letting us know that this was the music from the Eurovision, and whetted our appetites by reminding us that next year the Grand Prix will be competed for in Baku in Azerbaijan. And, again, to be inclusive rather than exclusive, he reminded us us that this is where the boxing is to be held. This is not guff or simple chat: Marty is acting as an interstitial lubricant for the audience, leading us on to accept and appreciate what we not already know. I rather think that if he were to run a spot of music used in great advertisements, he might lead people even further on: Beethoven seen through Tweed perfume; the Hovis ad; the Fruit & Nut Case of Frank Muir; the list is potentially endless. One might call this 'building an audience."

I am encouraging other contented members of the MITM and RTE Lyric FM audience to contribute their thoughts to this Board. Unfortunately, to date, some of even those who most enjoy it say 'it's only a radio programme, not revealed truth', or words to that effect.

With my best wishes,


Hugo Brady Brown

Hello Hugo, I am late to this thread so before I starting taking it seriously can I ask , are you for real or just taking the piss ?

Marienbad

Maggie McGaggie

marienbad wrote: »

Hello Hugo, I am late to this thread so before I starting taking it seriously can I ask , are you for real or just taking the piss ?
Marienbad

He is either a regular listener or a sadist because i tried to listen to full show this morning as it was supposed to be a special edition and only mananged snatches .The whole show seemed to be about MacNean and Neven. It was a complete shambles. I also see that Marty launched Neven's book a few years back so Marty is probably stuck in Neven's pocket one way or the other. He has podcasts of all Neven's recipes on his webpage and mentions Blacklion here too.

Another way Marty irritates is his repetition of phrases "It all to the good", "It's special" , "We like to look after you" etc. ad nauseum

mbur

The Cuckoo is a near passerine bird more interested in food than singing. She is a lazy mother who lays her egg in a passerine birds's nest. The cuckoo chick is nurchured by the song bird host, who is blissfully unaware of the duplicity. The deception is completed when the invader ejects the mother's chicks from the nest.

Is it any wonder that Marty, the well paid grocer's mouthpiece, wants to turn the once beautiful Lyric FM into a cookery/foodie show. It's not about music it's about selling mutton.

Maggie McGaggie

mbur wrote: »

The Cuckoo is a near passerine bird more interested in food than singing. She is a lazy mother who lays her egg in a passerine birds's nest. The cuckoo chick is nurchured by the song bird host, who is blissfully unaware of the duplicity. The deception is completed when the invader ejects the mother's chicks from the nest.

Is it any wonder that Marty, the well paid grocer's mouthpiece, wants to turn the once beautiful Lyric FM into a cookery/foodie show. It's not about music it's about selling mutton.

Looking around on the net i see that Marty is great pals with John Masterson, who produced Open House, and now has a PR company. Guess who is on the list of company clients. Only the bould Neven along with Marty's co-presenter of Open House Mary Kennedy. God almighty as if his outrageous salary and undeserved position are not enough he has to do a favour for mates as well. Talk about an insult to the integrity of the station.

The name of the company is Purcell Masterson

Maggie McGaggie

Thinking about it more, the barefaced cheek of MW to have a 3 hour advertisement for Blacklion on his radio show. I actually would put money on Neven Maguire being paid to appear each week on it. To hear MW's refrain of how difficult it is to get a booking at MacNean and the quality of the food there has really put me off him. What in the name of God is going on out in Lyric that this can be let to take place? I couldn't find a playlist for Friday's show, they were probably all too busy gorging themselves to put one up. Suffice to say there wasn't much music played, but i suppose what would you expect on a classical music station.I will be writing a formal letter of complaint to the head of Lyric Fm.

mbur

Maggie McGaggie wrote: »

I will be writing a formal letter of complaint to the head of Lyric Fm.

You might like to try writing to Clare Duignan. But she is probably in the loop as well.

HugoBradyBrown

Dear All,


The delightfully, indeed evocatively, named 'Marienbad' wondered whether I was genuine or a fake. I am real; cogito ergo sum, as the philosopher said to the mathematician. Another concerned RTE Lyric FM listener wondered what a listener to MITM did before Marty came to the station; I suppose the answer to that is that I got along with what was there. I liked the Full Score with Eamon Lawlor in the afternoons, for example, but I took it for granted that listener research mst have shown a greater public appetite for the smaller and more varied morsels served up by John Kelly. (I see how contagious the culinary metaphors are!) I do recall the great and wonderfully chatty mornings with that intriguing American gentleman, Tom Cran; he was every bit as lively as Marty, and just as interactive with the listeners. This, I think, will show that RTE Lyric FM has form in engaging on-air talent that can provide a gay and carefree start to the otherwise dismal day. Then Tom from Minnesota, now Marty from Dublin.

The question of explaining the appeal of Marty to the bulk of the RTE Lyric FM listenership is a harder one. The Angelic Doctor once said that while he understood 'time', if he was asked to explain it he was stumped (or scholastic words to the same effect). I regret if my existing efforts appear to be gobbledegook, but I shall try to compose a few thousand crisp words on the topic and post them as soon as I can. I imagine that few genuinely open minds would need such explication, but every effort will be made nonetheless.

I should say at this point that this discussion is in places getting perilously close to carrying a statement that could be contrary to the financial interests of those who choose such freedom in commenting on the motives or interests of people of irreproachable character and of unsullied professional standing. Anything written here that might appear to lessen any such person in the esteem of right-thinking people is something that it would not be prudent to post on this indelible forum, if I may offer some potentially valuable advice without fee.

I am entirely confident that RTE Lyric FM's availing of the services of Neven is above board (and, unfortunately, also above Boards, if I may say so). The difficulty, I suppose, is demonstrating that such altruism on the part of Neven and the resto (the altruism that is the mark of the new Ireland that is developing, I should have thought) is untainted by any pecuniary or other personal interest. From what I hear, Neven's fine resto needs no advertising; while I have never been there, it seems to me that the provision of crowd control is the only possible charge that could fall on the Exchequer, if the Gardai needed to keep in order a restless queue of hopeful diners awaiting cancellations. Logically, there can be nothing in this for Neven, except a young gifted artist sharing his enthusiasm with the nation, and availing of the good offices of a slightly more mature but equally gifted broadcaster, who is willing to facilitate him. On a 'cui bono' test, the sole winner would seem to be the RTE Lyric FM listener.

With my best regards,


Hugo Brady Brown

HugoBradyBrown

Dear All,

I should have remarked that the story about the caps, related by Howard from Blacklion, was a most interesting and intriguing one. I have been racking my brains ever since to try to recall what Hollywood mogul was making a film in Cavan or Fermanagh at that time; it's unlikely, I suppose, that it was David Lean on his way down to Dun Chaoin to film his tale of old-fashioned adultery, though they certainly used at least 26 caps of the old fashioned wide style in Ryan's Daughter. (And wasn't Maurice Jarre's music from that simply heavenly on 'Movies and Musicals' this afternoon!)

Marty turned the moment gold, though, when Howards wasn't able to provide the name of the film, by pointing out that one of his regular listeners is an authority on film, and that if anyone knew what it was, it would be she. That, I think, gives an indication of the close-knit community that Marty has fomented through his brief window into our lives. (This is the listener who gave new life to a TV film about the Vatican Pimpernel recently, when she sent a tape of it in to Marty. It's not Almodovar, admittedly, but it is another respectable aspect of the cineaste's interest.)

And tomorrow (Sunday) we have the new run of Gay's lovely, lovely programme; equally loved by the common listener, and, I imagine, equally criticised by the more elevated listener with tendencies towards choler. The sole downside of Gay's return is that the reshuffle of the schedule had cut Frank's time in half, so that we have him only on a Saturday. (His 'Spot the Tune' this afternoon was, I think we will all agree, practically unanswerable, yet, it seems, thousands got it right.)

And this reminds me that during Friday's first anniversary celebrations Marty said there were around 400 000 entries for the competition for dinner plus B&B for two at Neven's (as I tend to call it, I'm afraid) with a copy of the book signed by both Neven and Marty. 400 000 entries on the computer suggests two things to me: high listenership, certainly, but also listeners who were prepared to put their money where their mouth was and to text or email in multiple times. I am not so green as to imagine that MITM surged to 400 000 listeners in Ireland on the day. Mind you, I am told that his large international online listenership is not counted in the figures. The crew of a South Korean trawler operating in the South Atlantic are, apparently, among Marty's most loyal listeners through their satellite connection.


With kind regards,


Hugo Brady Brown

marienbad

Dear Hugo Brady Brown,

Ok then, you are for real , and I can see from a quick google of your name that you have ''form'' in stirring the pot, not that I in anyway disapprove, after all the complacency of the national broadcaster must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of a few D.J's . But to get rid of the likes Petroc Trelawney and Eamonn Lawler and replace them with Marty , John Kelly and that pompous ass Gay Byrne is not just a step too far, or even a bridge to far, it is a veritable gulf , an unbridgeable chasm, a drop in class and knowledge of such magnitude, of such depth that it should not have been undertaken without providing a parachute to everyone in the audience.

As patriotism is deemed to be the last refuge of the scoundrel , so it seems Lyric is now the refuge of the has been the never was and the plain useless .But when all seems lost hope appears ( or so LOTR tells us) and I remember that once upon a time I had a homungus cd collection. So I say fcuk Lyric . Ma put the kettle on while dig out a bit of Wagner.

Your in Cliches

Marienbad ( of the Baden Baden Marienbads)

P.S it my my understanding that virtually every classical music station in the english speaking world never exceeds 5% of the available listeners. Lyric achieved that and it will not be exceeded , not if you want to continue be a classical station . No amount of dumbing down, celebrity presenters and their chefs will change than . So why bother ? Why set out on this venture at all and in such a short time morph into the RTE of the 1950's and 60's ? Makes one wonder is there anyone at the tiller in RTE

HugoBradyBrown

Dear All,


I agree that Eamon Lawlor and Petroc Trelawney are fine broadcasters. Mr Lawlor is still on RTE Lyric FM, presenting the Friday concerts, for example, as well as working heroically on the Freemasons' Young Musician Competition.

Petroc Trelawney is another case entirely. It seems to me that he is engaged pretty exclusively by the BBC, presenting on BBC Radio 3. His broadcasting background is nearly as varied as Marty's, if one cares to look into it. However, he is a deeply informed commentator on music performance in particular, as we can hear most days on radio. The interesting thing, though, is that the BBC evidently treats him as too forbidding for the general public in high audience programming: see how he is used and not used in the coverage of the BBC Proms. When they are broadcast on BBC Four, Mr Trelawney is usually in the box, knowledgeably and amiably discussing music at a relatively serious level with two other musicians or experts. The discussion gives the impression of being relatively unprepared and free-flowing, but it is analytical and somewhat demanding. Yet, once the BBC Proms move on to BBC Two (and not just on Last Night), Mr Trelawney is dropped, and some figure who knows only as much about music as I do myself is used, simply because, unlike me (and unlike Mr Trelawney), he or she is a well-known TV 'personality'. The evening that follows is usually one of gushing 'celebrity talk' with the 'celebrity guests', who are out to show that there is no real harm in 'classical music'. (This is, needless to observe, the diametric opposite of how Marty takes things on MITM on RTE Lyric FM.)

I would, of course, love to have Mr Trelawney on RTE Lyric FM, but if he is thought to be too much even for a BBC Two audience, I imagine that we can whistle for him here.


With kind regards,


Hugo Brady Brown

Almaviva

marienbad wrote: »

Dear Hugo Brady Brown,
Ok then, you are for real , and I can see from a quick google of your name that you have ''form'' in stirring the pot,

Unfortunately I cant take those post for real at all and the 'stirring the pot' view is too compelling to take the posts seriously. Some here are being drawn into a side show for the entertainment of one crank. It might just be the overly polished, affected, and deliberately faux pretentious writing style that gives that impression. But I think not.

Back to Lyric itself. It seems to be on a constant downward slide in quality. It used to have a clearly superior and better thought out program than Classic FM. Unfortunately it is now inferior - and that is a low low.

HugoBradyBrown

Dear All,

As I listen to Gloria this morning, I cannot accept that RTE Lyric FM is on a downward trajectory. I also feel moved to observe that if a discussion group confines itself to the monotony of unanimity in the views expressed, it might as well not exist. Far from being a 'crank', as intimated by another contributor, I am simply offering a contrary opinion from those of the local majority here. The fact that mine are consonant with the views of the silent majority of RTE Lyric FM listeners may make my expression of these opinions unbearable for some.

On a small matter of fact, I may have left readers with the impression that Petroc Trelawney had never broadcast on RTE Lyric FM. I know that he did; I suspect that these broadcasts might have coincided with in-house training courses for RTE Lyric FM staff.

I conclude by urging an openness to all opinions, even those that people have not yet been converted to. It is disappointing to find that any view outside the prevailing 'party line' on this discussion Board should be excoriated as the outpouring of a 'crank'.


With kind regards,


Hugo Brady Brown

HugoBradyBrown

Dear All,


For what it's worth, Trish Taylor in the past few minutes has played "Yellow", a work by the English pop group Coldplay. In the context of the pleasant music magazine programme that she is presenting this is unexceptional and is deserving of no censure. However, it would be unwise of Marty to imagine that he could follow suit; were he to play the same piece, the discharges of incandescence from this Board might cause RTE Lyric FM to go off air.

(Last Friday's playlist for the celebration programme from Blacklion is on the RTE Lyric FM site, incidentally.)

With kind regards,


Hugo Brady Brown

doomed

Now isn't this fun? At least arguing about what Lyric should be about is better than nothing. People care enough to write to RTE. Mind you, having done it myself, all you get is a standard letter telling you that they are right and you are wrong.

For me RTE did something really laudable when they set up Lyric. That it emerged at all from the fairly stagnant small pond that is RTE was a miracle in itself. It was a total departure from the incestuous big-fish-in small-pond celebrity focussed sort of radio that we had become used to. They gave us well informed often unknown presenters (in some cases professional musicians - good god are we mad?) who felt the music was more important than they were and wanted to share it with the audience, programmes that didn't have the presenters name in the title (compare with RTE1 where your name stays even while you enjoy a well deserved 8 week break) and they played music thay knew had only minority appeal. It was public service broadcasting and a noble venture.

Slowly but surely it is sinking back into the RTE morass. Lyric has become something of a musical annexe where surplus personalities or those needing some ego recuperation can be housed. "No. Don't worry about the classical stuff its only a minority interest- you play what you like, you are the star".

Part of the remit of a public service broadcaster is to provide that which would not come about otherwise. Hence, for instance, the superb documentaries that RTE produces. The point is that the tastes of those who like crooners, the great american songbook and Phil Collins are already catered for not alone by the existing RTE channels but the various local and national commercial stations.

The reasons advanced by RTE for what they are doing tend to be pretty dodgy as well as patronising. They argue that they are seeking to broaden Lyric's appeal. What that actually means is getting more people to listen to the brand and if that means changing the remit of the station then so be it. The fact of the matter is that more people like MOR than classical or jazz and by pitching for that market of course you can grow the audience, particularly during a timeslot when there is a lot of talk radio, not least Morning Ireland.

After all, more people go to pubs than libraries but the way to increase footfall in a library is not to start selling beer.

Maggie McGaggie

HugoBradyBrown wrote: »

Dear All,


For what it's worth, Trish Taylor in the past few minutes has played "Yellow", a work by the English pop group Coldplay. In the context of the pleasant music magazine programme that she is presenting this is unexceptional and is deserving of no censure. However, it would be unwise of Marty to imagine that he could follow suit; were he to play the same piece, the discharges of incandescence from this Board might cause RTE Lyric FM to go off air.

(Last Friday's playlist for the celebration programme from Blacklion is on the RTE Lyric FM site, incidentally.)

With kind regards,


Hugo Brady Brown

Hugo, you seem to believe that if Marty Whelan were to play a pop song on his radio slot it would be brought to the attention of all and sundry on here. The truth is that he plays pop songs everyday. I agree that Marty is the consummate broadcaster and the talking inserts with MW can be very entertaining, but he overdoes it. Marty is very witty but at this time in the morning is not what people are looking for.

I do not believe that you can compare MW and Trish Taylor, here are a few reasons why Marty has fifteen hours on Lyric Fm, Trish has 4(?). The midweek breakfast hours are the most important of the week and are a statement of intent, signifying what the station stands for.Trish may have a similar broadcasting background to MW but she sticks to the classical repertoire whereas Marty subverts it. MW doesn't have any interest in classical music whilst Trish love of Mahler and Mozart is constantly on display.

You may have a point about the excessive criticism of Marty but on here you will also see others complaining about John Kelly,Gay,Frank McNamara and other celebrity hosts who could not find a place on mainstream RTE and were shoehorned into Lyric. Marty is the greatest excess.

You refuse to acknowledge any potential arrangement between Blacklion, MW and Purcell Masterson. You have posted a number of times since i first posted this allegation,in my opinion, to try and divert attention. If my allegation does prove to be correct then it could have ramifications for Marty because he would be using his position and public resources to advertise a private operator.

HugoBradyBrown

Dear All,


I am sorry if readers were expecting me to deal with an allegation about improper influence in RTE Lyric FM; I had thought it best to allow such statements to die where they dropped, since if such comments were ventilated further or encouraged, contributors might find themselves some morning in the near future attending as interested parties the call-over in the President’s Court down at the Four Courts. I have no particular insight into RTE’s intentions or aims, so it is perplexing that anyone should imagine that I might be better placed than any other ordinary listener to interpret the philosophical underpinning of MITM. My views of the actions of RTE Lyric FM derive only from a consideration of the evidence in the light of logic and likelihood.

In passing, I would like to advert to another base comment that was reduced to writing on this Board recently. It is, in my view, cruel, crude and untrue to state that Neven has a pig’s head. He is a fine, good-looking, happy, successful, popular and contented young man; his winning smile could, I suppose, unnerve people who did not have his virtues in the same measure. I think it is a statement that might well be withdrawn, with an apology to the young man.

RTE operates under a strict ethical behaviour code (publicly available), applied to individuals, to programmes, and to the station as a collective entity. Anything that had even the suspicion, or the mere appearance, of impropriety would be snuffed out at birth. I am entirely confident of the professionalism of the personnel in RTE, and of a dedicated and responsible management, that in MITM, as in everything else that they do, RTE is beyond reproach.

Marty has from time to time told us that it is next to impossible to get a table in Neven’s, so there is no logical basis for allegations of anything underhand. There is no utility in what some seem to be hinting is ‘free advertising’; it would be akin to advertising a U2 concert: a pointless, futile act and a waste of money. What has Ireland’s most gifted and most successful chef to gain personally, professionally or commercially from making himself available to Marty’s listeners at the (for a chef) ungodly hour of 9.05 am every Friday?

Neven’s work seems to me to be intended simply to encourage the housewife to buy seasonal Irish produce, to satisfy the family with the best food in the world, and to boost domestic agri-business. Who could find any fault with any of that?

Boards commentators may be too jaded or jaundiced in their views to recognize free-flowing altruism when they come across it. However, in his altruism, Neven is a touchstone of the new Ireland that is taking shape in the wreckage that we are picking our way through.

In relation to the caesura in MITM that is marked weekly by Neven’s arrival, in my own experience professional musicians do not listen to music incessantly; they listen intently for a time, and then they do or enjoy something else. I suspect that as much as anything, Neven’s input into the programme on a Friday, whether he be in Blacklion or in Buenos Aires at the time, is intended to provide a respite from the ceaseless music. It allows the ear to rest and the mind to consider other things. Thus restored, we can relapse into music again at 9.25, while mentally making our shopping list for the weekend ahead. This is, I suppose, the essence of intelligent programme-making; Marty won’t win the Prix Italia, I know, but a craftsman of the airwaves deserves credit nevertheless.

On the comparison between the airtime demanded of Marty and of Trish Taylor, it should be observed that MITM is hardly intended for people who are going to listen to the entire three hours. In this sense, Marty’s actual contact hours with any one listener are likely to be little more than Miss Taylor’s.

And finally, to be clear, I am not seeking to divert attention down rabbit holes. There is self-evidently no arrangement of advantage in MITM. Neither is there any advertising. It is RTE Lyric FM and its listeners who are the beneficiaries of the talents of one of the world’s great chefs. Given his success, there is nothing he could gain from the interrelationship. When, as doubtless will be the case, young Neven is snapped up by the French Laundry or El Bulli Nou, the listenership will regret his departure in the knowledge that he gave so much to us while he was among us.


Very sincerely yours,



Hugo Brady Brown

Sandwlch

Folks, stop rising to the bait.

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

HugoBradyBrown

Dear All,


Since I informed myself recently about the unusual meaning of 'troll' in Internet usage, I am struck by how my modest comments, expressed in the most moderate language, have been characterised repeatedly as 'trolling'. I think that a community of comment or an 'invisible college' of this sort would need to conduct a searching self-examination if it were to lash out at a reasoned contrary view in this way. It also suggests to me that, if the argument I am making stands up, as clearly it does, the only remaining avenue of attack is the blunt ad hominem instrument. This has previously been wielded at the presenter of MITM, though, if I say so myself, I think I undercut all such criticism at an early stage, at least in the minds of right-thinking people. I also think that to seek to demean a person's comments as 'flowery' or 'faux' when a person is simply seeking to express ideas with some precision is simply to go, as you might say here, 'off point'.

To confine oneself to conversation only with people who agree with one is to choose to live in a very limited and limiting world. "Audi alteram partem" could be a good motto for more than regional newspapers.


With my sincere good wishes,


Hugo Brady Brown