The future of RTE Radio 1 LW

Quackster

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

The thing they've been doing lately of taking 80s pop songs and tacking string arrangements onto them "for the over-40s" makes me want to projectile vomit.

That's the RTE Concert Orchestra. The National Symphony Orchestra sticks to the serious stuff. So that between them, they're catering for all tastes. They're the only two professional orchestras in this country, which puts us in the ha'penny place compared to many other European countries.

Money very well spent IMO.

Quackster

Quackster wrote: »

That's the RTE Concert Orchestra. The National Symphony Orchestra sticks to the serious stuff. So that between them, they're catering for all tastes. They're the only two professional orchestras in this country, which puts us in the ha'penny place compared to many other European countries.

Money very well spent IMO.

Yes I agree, I'd rather loose Marian Finucane....... or at least make her work for her shocking salary, she could be good at other things but her time on radio does not justify her salary unless she'd doing other things I do not know about ?

Dacia1300

Deleted User wrote: »

Yes I agree, I'd rather loose Marian Finucane....... or at least make her work for her shocking salary, she could be good at other things but her time on radio does not justify her salary unless she'd doing other things I do not know about ?

I have tuned in to RTE 1 while she was on a couple of time in the last month or so. Her voice is more or less gone. Not only does that sound very unprofessional at best, it actually makes for pretty uncomfortable listening. Time to pension her off methinks...

Dacia1300

Dacia1300 wrote: »

Time to pension her off methinks...

No RTE are only interested in getting rid of the older males........

Oscarziggy

Looks like they want some feedback ---
https://www.rte.ie/radio1/mass/
Regards

Lol RTE are anti religion, they're trying their utmost not to have to broadcast Maas.

The Angelus isn't even the Angelus any more it's a bell ringing to video. Now I'm not religious fanatic but there is an audience for it at the same as there is an audience for Joe Duffy, unfortunately but RTE are anti Catholic also.

Hotblack Desiato

Quackster wrote: »

So that between them, they're catering for all tastes.

Reminds me of the line "What kind of music do you have here?" "Oh, we got both kinds. We got country *and* western."

Between them they cater for a tiny fraction of the audience.

Hotblack Desiato

Deleted User wrote: »

Lol RTE are anti religion

They're the Iona Institute's best friends in the media, any time someone on RTE might have mentioned anything about any kind of social change they then have to invite Iona on and let them make their remarks unchallenged for "balance"

Then someone made a fair comment of "homophobia" and RTE's lawyers were rushing around to Iona with a big cheque faster than they could blink

Strange how an anti-religion broadcaster has religious services every week on radio and TV despite the tiny audience, Angelus twice a day on radio and once a day on TV

The Angelus isn't even the Angelus any more it's a bell ringing to video.

You mean it doesn't have the religious picture any more? It never did, on the radio, does that make the radio Angelus any less of a catholic call to prayer?
It's a recording of bells rung for a specific religion's call to prayer and even carries the name of that call to prayer, yet people deny that it is a catholic call to prayer

It's funny how we see it as weird that muslim countries do this sort of thing, RTE are doing the exact same, promoting the RC faith as a "state religion" using the licence fee, and in a republic that is unacceptable.

the same as there is an audience for Joe Duffy, unfortunately but RTE are anti Catholic also.

Joe Duffy, he's another great fella for having priests and all sorts of religious types on all the time, spouting nonsense unchallenged with the obvious approval of Joe. Unless they're the wrong sort of religion, then they get branded "cults" and have him tut at them...

There is demand out there for a lot of genres and types of programming which are never and will never be seen on RTE. They stick to what they know and the same presenters decade after decade.

RTE is pretty much completely irrelevant to anyone under the age of at least 50.

Former Former

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

They're the Iona Institute's best friends in the media, any time someone on RTE might have mentioned anything about any kind of social change they then have to invite Iona on and let them make their remarks unchallenged for "balance"

They are obliged to do this. They have no choice in the matter.

The hatred some people have for RTE is genuinely terrifying but ironically enough they're the people most in need of it.

Former Former

Former Former wrote: »

They are obliged to do this. They have no choice in the matter.

The hatred some people have for RTE is genuinely terrifying but ironically enough they're the people most in need of it.

how so ?

I don't hate RTE at all but I do hate what it's being turned into.

I wish it could be better.

Former Former

[Deleted User] wrote: »

how so ?

I don't hate RTE at all but I do hate what it's being turned into.

I wish it could be better.

Because up above we saw a vicious attack on RTE despite total ignorance of why the particular situation exists. That's a pretty dangerous combination and without reasonable and balanced media, these things snowball badly.

We all wish RTE could be better but it's badly hamstrung by many factors outside its control.

Hmm, a lot of the issues exist because the director general is giving it a good helping hand.

dxhound2005

It's 11 years now since RTE got an increase in the licence fee, and that was just a €2 increase. I have not noticed any change in the quality of the output which I listen to and watch over that time.

I have no idea how good or bad Marian Finnucane is on a consistent basis, being only a very occasional listener. But many of those who are avid listeners on Boards (down to being able to describe her every wheeze and cough) are reporting that she is a really really bad broadcaster. The Radio forum is where most of these critics reside. Which is a strange conundrum for me to understand, being a person who avoids listening to things I don't like. Would they like to have her doing 4 hours on Saturday and Sunday to get more value out of her for their licence fee money?

BTW and going back on topic, it seems only one other person on the thread apart from me ever listens to 252.

Hotblack Desiato

People who have good FM reception don't need to listen to 252, but that's not the point. It's not and was never intended to be for mainstream reception within Ireland.

Dacia1300

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

People who have good FM reception don't need to listen to 252, but that's not the point. It's not and was never intended to be for mainstream reception within Ireland.

True but it can act as a failsafe network & can be used to broadcast alternative content, not unlike BBC R4 in the UK

Dacia1300

RTE 1 could be a great station, that is if they were bothered.

I listen to Morning Ireland for the news. Sometimes I find Callan’s Kicks funny but it’s got nothing on Scrap Saturday.

As regards AM broadcasting, I really do think that an Irish station along the lines of R5 Live or Talk Sport, using the 567 transmitter would do very well. I certainly would listen to it. But I can’t see it happening unfortunately...

Dacia1300

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Lol RTE are anti religion, they're trying their utmost not to have to broadcast Maas.

The Angelus isn't even the Angelus any more it's a bell ringing to video. Now I'm not religious fanatic but there is an audience for it at the same as there is an audience for Joe Duffy, unfortunately but RTE are anti Catholic also.

I’m not in the least bit religious myself. I’m not going to get bogged down into a conversation about religion because I don’t think that it is really all that relevant to this thread.

Having said that, I do think that the religious programming should be continued for people who 1) live in isolated areas & can’t get DAB, 2) Might not be physically well enough to actually attend Mass in person, or 3) Do not have a car, access to public transport, or somebody to give them a lift.

I know plenty of these people who have worked hard & paid their fair share all their years. Surely they deserve better than to be left cut off???

Oh & to everyone who thinks that internet radio is some sort of magical panacea, try using one in rural Ireland...

Internet radio consumes bandwidth us country folk without fixed line internet shouldn't really have to use.

I can't get DAB here.......

Why should people have to buy DAB radios for a few RTE stations ? no other station transmits on DAB in Ireland or likely to.

Dacia1300

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Internet radio consumes bandwidth us country folk without fixed line internet shouldn't really have to use.

I can't get DAB here.......

Why should people have to buy DAB radios for a few RTE stations ? no other station transmits on DAB in Ireland or likely to.

First it was DAB, now it’s DAB+. E-waste is a bad enough environmental problem as it is without effectively forcing people to buy new receivers every couple of years and throwing away the old one because it’s no use to anyone.

I wonder if the Nordic people in their beautiful socialist utopian society have actually considered the cost of running several thousand DAB transmitters when about 5 or 6 MW transmitters would have done the same job...

Dacia1300

Dacia1300 wrote: »

First it was DAB, now it’s DAB+. E-waste is a bad enough environmental problem as it is without effectively forcing people to buy new receivers every couple of years and throwing away the old one because it’s no use to anyone.

I wonder if the Nordic people in their beautiful socialist utopian society have actually considered the cost of running several thousand DAB transmitters when about 5 or 6 MW transmitters would have done the same job...

It's also the fault of the electronics companies, make a new radio, stick Digital on it and people will snap it up and they get to sell a new radio, however if they had FM and decent AM coverage people would also buy them, real AM radios with big ferrite antennas when people are tuning they might actually hear something and might not think AM is useless after all.

The Classic 928 looks like a decent radio and has LW,MW and FM. Performance wise I couldn't comment.

I suspect in reality very few people listen to AM radio in Ireland and if people can only buy crappy radios with AM then people won't buy them.

Very few companies sell radios with Shortwave too.

It's a real shame too because it could get people listening when they tune around they hear something they like, you can't do that with internet radio, I mean yes you can find many stations but you're far less likely to stumble across a new station because you won't be scanning the bands like you can on a multiband radio.

I often hear stuff on AM and Shortwave that I find interesting which I would not find in an internet radio because I can't scan stations like on a normal radio.

If you make radios that have no MW,LW and SW then people are not going to know about them and perhaps that's the plan in the first place ? to keep people ignorant of the fact that they can hear transmissions from a far without the internet ?

There's a good few people in work that don't listen to radio outside the car and a few of them that I've talked to never even heard of Shortwave, they go around with their headphones on all day streaming spotify.

This is what most people want now, spotify, I listen to spotify a lot too because I can't listen to AM in the i3 due to interference from the electric motor due to the carbon fibre chassis other than that I would. I listened to MW a lot in the Nissan leaf. A shame really because the i3 has the 49 meter shortwave band too which is quite good when you're stopped, there's no interference. BMW disabled AM by default but I was able to hack it back on haha.

I sometimes listen to the U.K stations on Tune in but it's not nearly as easy as having a dedicated AM radio in the car, I listened to the U.K stations a lot more in the Leaf and other cars. But I do listen to them in work, mainly BBC R wales, and Essex and BBC R 4 and sometimes BBC R Ulster.

When I'm home I can't listen much to radio these days with 2 small Children you could hardly hear anything but I do sometimes get to listen to BBC R 4 on Long wave.

I would listen to a lot more domestic radio if they only had the content I desire, what I do not like about Irish FM is that most of the music played is deplorable, an instant turn off. Pop or whatever a lot of that modern crap they play and DJ's that talk utter crap like on 2FM, most of the old DJ's are gone replaced with 20 something who couldn't make up an intelligent conversion of any description and they team up in pairs as some kind of comedy act that would wreck your head trying to be funny but far from it.

Then you got news every 30 mins on so many stations and adds that annoy me. hearing the same headlines every 30 mins all day long is irritating to say the least, yes news is important but not every 30 mins repeat repeat repeat.

The local country stations are bombarded with Irish Country music in the evening, South East, KFM, KCLR which is worse than deplorable, so many one man band crap who are only making this horrid music solely for the money and have absolutely no interest in the music, there are exceptions of course , there is some good stuff too but it's the minority and the local stations have to play some Irish music which is fine but come on not the cheese that is played a lot today !

RTE face a difficult time, a digital first campaign is not going to attract the youth and crap DJ's and crap music isn't going to help and Dee Forbes needs to wake up to this, if she thinks she is going to attract the Spotify addicts then she is sadly mistaken. If she thinks having a more diverse RTE with less Irish, less white and less Male is going to help then she is also sadly mistaken, Ireland is still 99% White Christian so RTE needs to cater for the majority and not the few.

RTE Need to think very carefully for the future and they're using public funded money as a crutch to survive because without public money I sadly do not think RTE would survive but unfortunately like a lot of state funded organisations it can mean a lot of waste, why think up of a decent plan to make RTE much better when it's easier to just take public money and then blame the government because they're not getting enough Public money to further waste ?

Dee can justify the ridiculously high salaried to certain RTE presenters all she wants but the reality is that RTE did themselves a lot of damage by bullying DJ's and other high profile public figures in RTE who left.

RTE lost a lot of good people and this is the main reason they are in the trouble they're in.

What RTE don't understand is that most people like familiarity and they like to hear the DJ they have heard for years and replacing them with 20 somethings is not a good idea, people like a good DJ that can relate to the working man have a bit of craic and banter and still be able to make an intellectual conversation.

One of the first things I would do with Radio 1 is ditch Live Line and Joe Duffy or perhaps move him to a later scheduled, this program is full of depressing whinging and moaning and this prime time slot needs something a lot more uplifting.

Sorry that was rather long post.

Johnboy1951

Deleted User wrote: »

Lol RTE are anti religion, they're trying their utmost not to have to broadcast Maas.

The Angelus isn't even the Angelus any more it's a bell ringing to video. Now I'm not religious fanatic but there is an audience for it at the same as there is an audience for Joe Duffy, unfortunately but RTE are anti Catholic also.

I see no reason at all that any religious content should be on the main channels.
For those with religious bent, move all that to a dedicated radio channel and have the different religions 'call to prayer' broadcast at the specified times; mass and other religious ceremonies broadcast for those who would like to attend but cannot for various reasons.
The state broadcaster should not be seen to be promoting religion in any form on its main stations, IMO.

Johnboy1951

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

I see no reason at all that any religious content should be on the main channels.
For those with religious bent, move all that to a dedicated radio channel and have the different religions 'call to prayer' broadcast at the specified times; mass and other religious ceremonies broadcast for those who would like to attend but cannot for various reasons.
The state broadcaster should not be seen to be promoting religion in any form on its main stations, IMO.

The state broadcaster should provide programming for everyone , people who want Maas on the radio or TV are also paying their license and entitled to receive this content if there is a demand for it and there is, the fact you or I may not really care about it is our problem, though it doesn't bother me, if it's only once a week. I would certainly not begrudge someone a little bit of time for their programming once a week, the elderly, sick and disabled etc, I'd certainly not ever take away something that's important to the more vulnerable in our country.

I'd rather they broadcast mass than liveline which is just moaning and whinging , terrible depressing stuff altogether but liveline has a large audience so again, they're giving people what they want, moaning and whinging, I don't listen to it , if I'm in my Mothers sometimes the show is on not much I can do about that I'm hardly going to tell her to turn it off.

Yes it's good to highlight certain things but overall the show is very depressing and it needs some uplifting, I don't know how Joe isn't depressed out of his head at this stage listening to that crap, " Joe , Joe, terrible country bla bla."

Anyway, LW 252 would be a good place for religious content and Liveline. But I would like them to open 567 MW again because MW radios are much more common. It would also free up time on FM.

RTE want us all on apps........

If I remember correctly, RTE used to use MW for other content but 252 just transmits what's on FM, strange. I'm nearly sure Maas was on MW 567 and not on FM , I think I remember my Grandmother listening to it on MW.

Johnboy1951

Deleted User wrote: »

The state broadcaster should provide programming for everyone , people who want Maas on the radio or TV are also paying their license and entitled to receive this content if there is a demand for it and there is, the fact you or I may not really care about it is our problem, though it doesn't bother me, if it's only once a week. I would certainly not begrudge someone a little bit of time for their programming once a week, the elderly, sick and disabled etc, I'd certainly not ever take away something that's important to the more vulnerable in our country.

Read my post again ..... I did not suggest they should not broadcast the content as you seem to have interpreted the post.

I suggested they should move all that content to one radio channel.
They could do the same with the TV content - on one of the channels presently broadcasting test screens or so.

I'd rather they broadcast mass than liveline which is just moaning and whinging , terrible depressing stuff altogether but liveline has a large audience so again, they're giving people what they want, moaning and whinging, I don't listen to it , if I'm in my Mothers sometimes the show is on not much I can do about that I'm hardly going to tell her to turn it off.

Yes it's good to highlight certain things but overall the show is very depressing and it needs some uplifting, I don't know how Joe isn't depressed out of his head at this stage listening to that crap, " Joe , Joe, terrible country bla bla."

Anyway, LW 252 would be a good place for religious content and Liveline. But I would like them to open 567 MW again because MW radios are much more common. It would also free up time on FM.

RTE want us all on apps........

If I remember correctly, RTE used to use MW for other content but 252 just transmits what's on FM, strange. I'm nearly sure Maas was on MW 567 and not on FM , I think I remember my Grandmother listening to it on MW.

dxhound2005

Longwave has separate programmes on Sunday mornings, including religious services. Also on DAB.

Hotblack Desiato

Deleted User wrote: »

If she thinks having a more diverse RTE with less Irish, less white and less Male is going to help then she is also sadly mistaken, Ireland is still 99% White Christian so RTE needs to cater for the majority and not the few.

Blinkered much?

Was Ireland ever in its history 99% Christian, I doubt it, there was always a small number of Jews, non-religious and others, unlikely that these numbers were always less than 1% combined

Ireland today is 83.5% Christian according to the census, but most of these people are little more than box-tickers, and they're certainly not tuning in to religious services on RTE.

That's not to say these services should be removed, but it's foolish to claim that it's anything other than a very minority interest these days.

Having the Angelus intrude every day can't be justified. For some reason nobody thought our national broadcaster needed to do this until over 30 years after independence. Up until the 1950s Ireland was far more Catholic than it is today, and there was no Angelus.

Oh and Ireland is 91.7% white according to the census, but I've no idea what that's supposed to have to do with broadcasting.

Deleted User wrote: »

The state broadcaster should provide programming for everyone

What are they providing which under-50s actually want to watch or listen to? Very little. 2FM is a failure, RTE2 is a failure, Radio1 and RTE1 are for pensioners.

Hotblack Desiato

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

What are they providing which under-50s actually want to watch or listen to? Very little. 2FM is a failure, RTE2 is a failure, Radio1 and RTE1 are for pensioners.

RTE can't compete withe the likes of Netflix, youtube or Spotify to name a few it's just not going to happen, they're a dying breed no matter what they turn RTE into.

You tube is in for big changes which will have massive implications for a lot of people, sure a VPN will unblock most of the content but most of the content if not all in the beginning will be blocked in the E.U but that's a matter for another thread. It's the people not able to pay for VPN or know how to unblock I feel sorry for.

I don't think RTE can give what the under 50's want the content and quality of programming just isn't there, is Fair City the best they can do ? because I think it's a shockingly bad program with worse than bad actors.

I honestly don't know anyone who watches it. My mother might on occasion but she got fed up with it a long time ago.

Without state and some sponsorship there's no way fair city would have ran for as long as it has, Christ Glenroe wasn't as bad.

Regarding the religious side of things, I couldn't care less one way or the other. I would feel bad for those who would no longer be able to see Mass on TV if it were banned but then again why would they , It's just other programming. if Maas is on people don't have to watch it like any other program they're not interested in.

If RTE want to survive then they'll have to convince the Government to block Spotify, youtube, netflix etc etc, how likely is that ?

Ireland is too small and we haven got the quality of actors and budget other countries do , imagine more programming with fair city style acting and scripts ? Jesus no.

Ever since the internet got a lot faster and the like of Netflix came online a lot of TV Networks suffered.

I see a future when RTE are no longer there because if they can't provide what the public want then there is no reason for them to exist and pumping millions more into the company isn't going to change things as long as there are alternatives.

TV has changed a lot since I was Child in the 80's, in School everyone watched the same Children's programs, Bosco to name one, then the adults watched Dallas in their droves, I don't think there'll ever be a TV program as popular as Dallas a lot of younger folk just couldn't imagine. TV has changed so much but the greatest change has been the internet and smart phones.

In the 90's we had Atlantic 252 on LW, a great station and I miss it to this day. Most of my school listened to it and back in the day you would have people calling up from your school to the local station asking to play songs and to say hi to your mates or some girl you fancy lol.

Does anyone do that today ? call up the station from the local school ? of course you wouldn't give your last name if there was a Girl involved but everyone knew anyway and you got a slagging next day lol.

Those were the days. And worst of all the internet has ruined a lot of the humanity out of entertainment, a lot of people don't want to listen to a DJ fewer requests sent in and I doubt school children call in these days.

All this digital entertainment is removing people more and more from human interaction.

Perhaps I'm getting old.

Hotblack Desiato

Deleted User wrote: »

I would feel bad for those who would no longer be able to see Mass on TV if it were banned

Nobody was talking about "banning" it. Removing something is not banning it. Nobody is proposing to remove it, either.

a lot of people don't want to listen to a DJ

That's because they spout endless annoying nonsense, or even worse try to be "funny".

fewer requests sent in and I doubt school children call in these days.

How were they listening to the radio in school, and pre-mobile-phones how were they calling in?

Hotblack Desiato

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

That's because they spout endless annoying nonsense, or even worse try to be "funny".

That's usually true but there are still good ones, I'd like DJ's to be able to play their own music of choice these days and to talk less sh1t but that's mainly because idiots are selected to talk sh1t because they might think it's what younger people want to hear and I'd actually find that insulting that younger people don''t want to hear an intellectual conversation.


How were they listening to the radio in school, and pre-mobile-phones how were they calling in?[/QUOTE]

NO , what I meant was people would call the local radio station in the evenings to play a song they want to hear or to say hi to their school mates or a Girl/Boy they fancy, ( a secret admirer lol ) but it was all rather fun. Friends would be over at the house and they'd listen to the station and hear all the craic from the local school , obviously there's be many people from different schools but you'd call in anyway hoping to either hear your name called on air. You wouldn't really be interested in adding the school but they'd ask you what school your were in and add that to it.

Something like " hi to all the people in 5th year in Colaiste xxxx from xxx , please play xxxx from xxx"

Or "hi to Mary xxx from 5th year Colaiste xxxx from secret admirer" ah it was a bit of craic, I'd like to know do they still do that ? I don't get to listen to the local station in the evenings these days.

Back in the 90's at least down my way the CB channels were full people talking and having fun, today you can hear farmers and some older locals all the younger people are on facebook, it's a bit sad really that humanity is more and more eroding away into 10001111000111100

CB was a lot of fun, and can still be today, it's really easy to get on air, HAM radio bands are packed.

Dacia1300

@Mad lad, those were the days...