Does RTE Radio 1 need a shake up ?

Damien McCool

It's 8 years since R1 had a major shake up. Is it time for an new one ? I think it is. John Murray, Ronan Collins, Arena should go.

Raspberry Fileds

I can't link because of my post count, but there's a very interesting thread which can be found by searching for Should Radio 1 be doing more? in quotation marks.

I think that if you were to design a talk radio station from scratch, you'd be very pleased with Radio 1's schedule. But, having become the baseline, it's now stale.

One needs to separate weekday R1 from weekend R1 when judging the station. There's much more variety on the weekends.

RTE's commitment to the Arts is pitiful during the week: only the catch-all Arena, Arts Tonight on Mondays, God Slot, and Book on One at around 11ish - a fraction of their schedule. Things pick up on the weekend when you've got Doc on One, Sunday Miscellany, History Show, Book Show, Drama on One, but all of that combined is still less than the six hours given to Sport just on Saturdays.

But for Morning Ireland and Marian Finucane, the magazine show format should be killed off. It works for the former because it's almost exclusively news-based and for latter because it's on the weekend. For Today With... and Drivetime, though, having one segment be an interview with a politician and the following be a story, say, about a gardening show only serves the generalist who's tuning in for nothing in particular. I rarely bother tuning in to talk radio any more because I just podcast the minority of it that interests.

BBC Radio 4 is the benchmark. Reproduce some of what it does. Discrete programmes concerning philosophy, science, parliament, etc, as well as more comedy. I am aware that Callan's Kicks and What's it all about? addressed some of those, but they had very short runs. While much of R4's content is produced in-house, a large amount, especially comedy, isn't. It may be the case that R1 struggles to commission good content given that there is not a culture of doing so.

IMO, they should broadcast debates (see Michael Sandel lectures) and a higher-brow equivalent of Liveline (see Any Answers).

Welsh Megaman

Byyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeee!

twinklerunner

R1 can't become an Irish BBC R4, it doesn't have the resources. Personally, I listen to the R4 podcasts and in this way get the best of both worlds. There aren't any RTE podcasts that I download.

Macy0161

Not sure Radio 4 is a fair comparison either. Radio 1 is trying to be BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 2 and 5live all at the same time, hence we get Ronan Collins squeezed in to play music in between two serious current affairs shows, a phone show and then a light show (Mooney) before we get back into the current affairs.

Maybe it's that I'm getting older, but Morning Ireland and Drivetime are my commute choices these days. It's a long time since Newstalk had any balance. The Last Word has gone way down hill in the last year or so - seems more like an extension of Liveline than an actual current affairs programme these days.

Damien McCool

Arena is a ratings disaster. A few years ago they had Dave Fanning on from 7/8 and he had triple the ratings. No idea why they moved him back to 2fm.

Calina

If we could get Radio 1 organised in such away as Marty Whelan gets a gig over there, it's possible we might get some decent music in the mornings without an intercalation of a load of nonsense over on Lyric.

Please do it. You know it makes sense

Dj

If Rte were serious about saving money I think radio 1 would have a different time schedule.
John Murray does an hour of radio between news and breaks it's probably 40 minutes. The same can be said for Ronan Collins. Two news presenters for 45 minutes and Joe Duffy for 1.15.
Compared to newstalk they probably have twice the presenters.

First Up

I'd be happy if their current affairs programmes stopped being a Dick measuring contest, in which they try to out do each other in the number of interruptions they make during interviews and the amount of showboating they engage in.
Subtle they ain't.

bureau2009

If RTE Radio 1 is to get a revamp surely Ronan Collins could be replaced with better presentation and programming?

Glebee

Has Ronan Collins show not got good listership figures???

I could be massivly wrong here though...:o

Expunge

209,000 listeners according to JNLR Quarter 3 2014.
Down from 234,000 a year earlier.

Nor bad for the Hucklebuck, Nuacht and the Weather Forecast, I suppose.

(Figures taken from ilevel.ie)

Glebee

Expunge wrote: »

209,000 listeners according to JNLR Quarter 3 2014.
Down from 234,000 a year earlier.

Nor bad for the Hucklebuck, Nuacht and the Weather Forecast, I suppose.

(Figures taken from ilevel.ie)

Dont forget the Angelus...

Expunge

Dont forget the Angelus...

Oh yes, and the Lahvelahn promo.

The Irish middle classes are made up of many dull, mediocre people who delight in mediocre dullness.

It explains the politicians and mainstream media we have.

Radio 1 (and most of RTE) is a great reflection of this.

Welsh Megaman

Welsh Megaman wrote: »

Byyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeee!

Wow...I'm like Nostradomo or something :pac:

Welsh Megaman

Welsh Megaman wrote: »

Wow...I'm like Nostradomo or something :pac:

Wasn't that the spaceship's name in Alien????