RTE 2's 40th birthday

Mondo from Dublin

They haven't marked their birthday in about 20 years and I highly doubt they will next month either but here is their first nights schedule https://scontent.fdub3-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/fr/cp0/e15/q65/44452544_2320622754832668_946582677182480384_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&efg=eyJpIjoidCJ9&_nc_ht=scontent.fdub3-1.fna&oh=e5d86be2b569acb78c85a13d123a5e7d&oe=5C85A40D

Harry Palmr

I remember it well, we were so excited! Watched it all including the Irish premier of a 10 year old film 90% British telly was the big selling point - a place you could watch Oh No, It's Selwyn Froggitt! and Sorry (plus programmes like The Unknown War, Shock of the New and Connections of course)

Digifriendly

Wasn't it due to RTE2 beginning broadcasting on Thursday that there was no proper OB coverage of Munster's famous win over the All Blacks on the Tuesday?

Elmo

Mondo from Dublin wrote: »

They haven't marked their birthday in about 20 years and I highly doubt they will next month either but here is their first nights schedule https://scontent.fdub3-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/fr/cp0/e15/q65/44452544_2320622754832668_946582677182480384_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&efg=eyJpIjoidCJ9&_nc_ht=scontent.fdub3-1.fna&oh=e5d86be2b569acb78c85a13d123a5e7d&oe=5C85A40D

Did they mark it in 1998? I know Network 2 became the host channel for RTÉ TVs 30 years in 1991/1992.

h7nlrp2v0g5u48

The first movie they showed on launch night was Bullitt with Steve Mc Queen now classed as having been one of the best car chases ever to be screened in a movie. Also in it's schedule was the 70s cop show The Streets of Sanfrancisco with a young Michael Douglas and Karl Malden remembered for the massive nose he had also for a great theme tune.

Elmo

https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/double-trouble-how-rt-faced-the-wrath-of-a-nation-40-years-ago-37459160.html

Few issues but indo look back

Elmo

One of the big pre-launch hopes and predictions for RTÉ 2 was that it would provide late-night weekend entertainment. Closedown on the night of the grand opening came at 11.35pm and downcast viewers settled in for the next future of broadcasting to arrive in the shape of the VCR.

Actually a number off issues with that report, I start with the last one, AFAIK late night TV in the UK (BBC1, 2 and ITV) until the mid-1980s.

https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/bbcone/london/1978-11-02
https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/bbctwo/england/1978-11-02
https://www.transdiffusion.org/2018/06/26/tonights-anglia-tv-in-1978-2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Network

The End would be RTÉ2's, then Network2, start on Late Night TV on Friday and Saturday, starting early 1990s.

Elmo

Instead, its arrival led to a huge surge in households and entire estates paying to have cable installed so they could have back their BBC and ITV no matter what cultural imperialism came with the bundle.

It is such a loaded statement. Cable had begun in Dublin long before the arrival of RTÉ2. The consolidation of cable companies helped to market the technology, RTÉ provided RTÉ Relays to different parts of the County, with a variety of other local operators. Better reception to the BBC, UTV and the arrival Channel 4 follow by Satellite TV helped, along with the arrival of MMDS and Sky Satellite.

Arthur Daley

Think they marked 10 years in 1988, and then promptly renamed the channel to Network 2.

RTE2 seemed to be a very stuffy place in the first ten years, don't think it's image was the best. Then with Network 2 in 1988, it somehow got a bit of edge. Coinciding with an uptick in the economy in 1988, and a bit more confidence around the country in general. Programmes like Nighthawks, the first showing of Italian soccer in 1990, a handy, concise late news show around 10.30/11 and then the End came along around 1994. It was a successful rebrand.

RTE2 has some decent stuff up until maybe 10 years ago, but it does seem to have got lost in the last decade. I'd hardly have it on apart from the football.

Elmo

Arthur Daley wrote: »

RTE2 seemed to be a very stuffy place in the first ten years, don't think it's image was the best. Then with Network 2 in 1988, it somehow got a bit of edge. Coinciding with an uptick in the economy in 1988, and a bit more confidence around the country in general. Programmes like Nighthawks, the first showing of Italian soccer in 1990, a handy, concise late news show around 10.30/11 and then the End came along around 1994. It was a successful rebrand.

The second key demographic that the new station was created to serve was that social strata known today as 'young adult'. Ireland had experienced a mini-economic boom in the 1960s. Compared to the wild abandon of the Celtic Tiger it was modest stuff, but it meant that for the first time since the foundation of the State, Irish school-leavers in the 1970s weren't forced to head straight for the cattle boat out of the country.

This is where the 2nd Demographic came in, when it became Network 2, RTÉ weren't concerned with that demographic, save for a few shows like MT USA, I think aired on RTÉ1 first, while I vaguely remember TOTP airing on RTÉ1 also, as did Dempesy Den, Pajo etc etc, RTÉ2 catered little for Yuff TV in its first 10 years.

Elmo

The showband industry announced they would mount a picket of RTÉ 2's opening ceremony, although on the night the promised placards were thin on the ground.

Bizarrely this article talks about a so-called protest by the Showbands yet forgot to mention a Irish Language Protest on the opening night.

AwaitYourReply

Elmo wrote: »

This is where the 2nd Demographic came in, when it became Network 2, RTÉ weren't concerned with that demographic, save for a few shows like MT USA, I think aired on RTÉ1 first, while I vaguely remember TOTP airing on RTÉ1 also, as did Dempesy Den, Pajo etc etc, RTÉ2 catered little for Yuff TV in its first 10 years.

I never recall MT USA going out on RTÉ 1 all those years ago - if memory serves me correct I think it was a 3 hour long show on Sunday afternoons on RTÉ2 and later they repeated the same edition late on Friday nights on RTÉ2. This was all pre-"Network 2" days. In fact, after Vincent Hanley passed away, MT USA was cancelled and was eventually replaced by music video show called "Finding Fax Future" which had no presenters. I remember Dempsey's Den with Ian Dempsey on RTÉ1 (originally had no Zig+Zag etc;) which came on at 4:00pm straight after "Live at 3" with Derek Davis & Thelma Mansfield. Top of the Pops was on RTÉ2 but following the re-brand to "Network 2" TOTP moved across to RTÉ1 for a few more years but the show was dropped altogether by RTÉ long before the weekly edition was eventually cancelled by BBC TV. Coronation Street was also moved from RTÉ2 to RTÉ1 around same time that Network 2 was launched in Autumn 1988. RTE2 in the early days included some high brow programming strands like Festival, Opera, Screen International along with light entertainment in the form of Blankety Blank, Wogan, This Is Your Life, A Country Practice, Tomorrow's World, The Streets of San Francisco, Minder, Cheers!, The Virginian, Flash Gordon, Magoo on 2, Quick Draw McGraw Show, Wimbledon Tennis Championships fortnight

Network 2 became the channel aimed at youth audience which led to Dempsey's Den expanding by starting earlier and finishing later on weekdays and the channel also focused on sports output with shows like "Sports Stadium" on Saturday afternoons also transferred from RTÉ 1 to Network 2. New aussie soap "Home and Away" would become a staple fixture and "Nighthawks" with Shay Healy was also a unique show for the channel with interviews & music performances in a café and "Network News" would replace the programme Newsnight.

Elmo

AwaitYourReply wrote: »

I never recall MT USA going out on RTÉ 1 all those years ago - if memory serves me correct I think it was a 3 hour long show on Sunday afternoons on RTÉ2 and later they repeated the same edition late on Friday nights on RTÉ2. This was all pre-"Network 2" days. In fact, after Vincent Hanley passed away, MT USA was cancelled and was eventually replaced by music video show called "Finding Fax Future" which had no presenters.

I was reading an article from the RTÉ Guide about MT USA starting up on Twitter KillianM I think? I never saw MT USA or remember it. I always assumed it was replaced by The Beat Box and later 2TV.

I remember Dempsey's Den with Ian Dempsey on RTÉ1 (originally had no Zig+Zag etc which came on at 4:00pm straight after "Live at 3" with Derek Davis & Thelma Mansfield. Top of the Pops was on RTÉ2 but following the re-brand to "Network 2" TOTP moved across to RTÉ1 for a few more years but the show was dropped altogether by RTÉ long before the weekly edition was eventually cancelled by BBC TV. Coronation Street was also moved from RTÉ2 to RTÉ1 around same time that Network 2 was launched in Autumn 1988.

Only remember TOPT being on ONE, but only a vague memory I think their was a dispute at the BBC and RTÉ never returned it when the BBC returned it? Could be wrong but interest to know if this is the case, as such The Fanta Chart Show on Sratch Saturday slightly replaced it following by Top Thirty Hits.

Coro St moved to RTÉ ONE during the Barelona Olympics and remained there until it moved to TV3/VMT one.

"Nighthawks" with Shay Healy was also a unique show for the channel with interviews & music performances in a café and "Network News" would replace the programme Newsnight.

Nighthawks eventual replaced by about 10 (well at least 3) Jerry Ryan Vehicles, and then the arrival of Later on 2 as part of N2. Think dropping Newsnight which seems like a world news service with reports from BBC and ITN as a huge leap backwards when both NETWORK NEWS and NEWS2 where largely RTÉ NEWS on 2.

Never understood the idea of Marketplace on Network 2, eventually subsumed into Prime Time.

AwaitYourReply

Elmo wrote: »

I was reading an article from the RTÉ Guide about MT USA starting up on Twitter KillianM I think? I never saw MT USA or remember it. I always assumed it was replaced by The Beat Box and later 2TV.



Only remember TOPT being on ONE, but only a vague memory I think their was a dispute at the BBC and RTÉ never returned it when the BBC returned it? Could be wrong but interest to know if this is the case, as such The Fanta Chart Show on Sratch Saturday slightly replaced it following by Top Thirty Hits.

Coro St moved to RTÉ ONE during the Barelona Olympics and remained there until it moved to TV3/VMT one.



Nighthawks eventual replaced by about 10 (well at least 3) Jerry Ryan Vehicles, and then the arrival of Later on 2 as part of N2. Think dropping Newsnight which seems like a world news service with reports from BBC and ITN as a huge leap backwards when both NETWORK NEWS and NEWS2 where largely RTÉ NEWS on 2.

Never understood the idea of Marketplace on Network 2, eventually subsumed into Prime Time.

No idea if the reason RTE removed TOTP was as a direct result of a dispute with the BBC - I would think that RTÉ would still have purchased a lot of material from major broadcast organisations like BBC and ITV so; they needed to keep some avenues open when negotiating other programme rights for BBC programmes shown on RTÉ.

There were quite a lot of programmes that got shifted around between the two RTÉ TV channels which came about as a result of RTE2 being re-branded as Network 2 in the Autumn of 1988. Top of the Pops & Coronation Street had been on the original RTE2 channel line-up since it's inception in Nov 1978 I suspect. Top of the Pops definitely moved from RTE2 to RTE1 some years before Barcelona '92 Olympic Games. It was eventually dropped by RTE1 at some stage in the 90's probably due to lower audience figures as MTV and MTV Unplugged would have shown Top Of the Pops formula to be outdated with it's target audience with competition from cable & satellite tv stations. Top of the Pops did NOT usually permit bands or artists to perform their act live as vast majority were mimed and if and when they were ever allowed to perform live on TOTP it was a rare exception and a very big deal as the presenter would then saying performing LIVE for us this week! Hence the appeal of MTV Unplugged back in the 1990's as it made the weekly TOTP weekly chart show look like a dinosaur to audiences.

Selection of Pop Music Shows aired on RTÉ tv included:
Top Of The Pops (BBC production)
Non-Stop-Pop (Gerry Ryan)
MT USA (Vincent Hanley aka Fab Vinny)
Finding Fax Future (no on-screen presenters)
MegaMix (Feargal Sharkey & Flo McSweeney?)
Rock Steady (Channel4/RTÉ?) (Nicky Horne/Dave Fanning)
Hotline Video Request Show (usually over Christmas Holidays Barry Lang/Ian Dempsey)
The Beat Box (Barry Lang, Ian Dempsey, Simon Young, Peter Collins, Theresa Lowe?)
Larry Gogan's Golden Hour (short-lived tv version of his 2FM radio segment)
2TV (Dave Fanning?)

No idea if the reason RTE removed TOTP was as a direct result of a dispute with the BBC - I would think that RTÉ would still have purchased a lot of material from major broadcast organisations like BBC and ITV so; they needed to keep some avenues open when negotiating other programme rights for BBC programmes shown on RTÉ.

RTE2 original late news programme from 1978-1988 was Newsnight with presenters like Dermot Mullane, Hugh Moran, Janet Martin etc; it was a superior service that was broadcast on weeknights in comparison to the dumbed down Network News/News on 2 that would follow with the Network 2 rebrand. You got more BBC/ITN/Channel4 News reports and more input from RTÉ News Foreign Correspondent Andrew Shephard. The replacement service did not go out on Friday nights following some industrial dispute with unions which I think may have led to "Late News Extra" going out after The Late Late Show on Fridays as previously RTÉ 1 only had a short "Late News" summary before bedtime each night but once RTE2/Network2 no longer had proper late news programme on Friday nights it led to some creative thinking.

"Marketplace" was a business/economics type programme and I think this was where I first recall Dobbo (Brian Dobson) as one of the presenters. An earlier version was probably "Public Account" which had Pat Kenny (and Pat Cox?) as presenters. Prime Time came directly out of "Today Tonight" which went out on RTÉ 1. First presenter was Olivia O'Leary but she was unhappy that the show would only go out once a week (i.e.) Thursday nights and she resigned if I recall. Miriam O'Callaghan had been doing some work in Ireland for BBC Newsnight and came to Prime Time with ex-Sky News/BBC veteran presenter Michael McMillan from Northern Ireland and it had many presenters like Brian Farrell, Mark Little, Richard Crowley etc;

Elmo

Always thought their was an internal BBC dispute that put TOTP off air for a year or so, when it returned to the BBC it was dropped by RTÉ.

Hotblack Desiato

Didn't happen.

AwaitYourReply

Elmo wrote: »

Always thought their was an internal BBC dispute that put TOTP off air for a year or so, when it returned to the BBC it was dropped by RTÉ.

My last memory of RTÉ broadcasting TOTP was on RTÉ One on Fridays around 7:00pm and I believe this was dropped altogether by RTÉ during the '90's.

TOTP as a weekly UK Top 40 chart show continued on BBC TV until around 2006 with a nostalgic final edition that included past presenters from BBC Radio One such as veteran host Jimmy Savile switching out the lights for the final time. TOTP schedule slot on BBC became erratic in it's final years as it switched time, day and with dwindling audience numbers it was transferred from BBC One to BBC Two so it had clearly lost it's mojo! Top Of The Pops still continued on BBC on Christmas Day with it's annual festive edition and you also have the Top of the Pops 2 (TOTP2) often screened on BBC Two, BBC Four and UKTV channel, "YESTERDAY" occasionally on weekends.

Elmo

RTÉ/Network 2 had a sit-com Monday to Friday at 9pm, up to the mid-1990s? Though I know Friends went out at 8:40 on Tuesday night when it first started, before they started the Comedy Night on Mondays.

Hotblack Desiato

The only memorable thing about early RTE2 was the amazingly garish magenta and yellow graphics.

AwaitYourReply

Elmo wrote: »

RTÉ/Network 2 had a sit-com Monday to Friday at 9pm, up to the mid-1990s? Though I know Friends went out at 8:40 on Tuesday night when it first started, before they started the Comedy Night on Mondays.

I would guess that some or all of these comedy shows namely: Cheers!, Frasier, Roseanne, Seinfeld, Home Improvement, Friends, may have all featured in this slot at some point in the Network 2 schedule in the 1990's decade.

AwaitYourReply

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

The only memorable thing about early RTE2 was the amazingly garish magenta and yellow graphics.

Oh yeah - RTÉ was so tight in those days that when normal transmission ended at night, the Test Card for RTÉ1+RTÉ2 would be displayed for a short while and was often accompanied by a loud constant beep for a few minutes and then it would be switched OFF altogether and you may have dozed off to sleep on sofa only to be woken by fuzz on the tv screen with static noise! You'd rush over to turn it off in case it woke your parents! HaHa happy days and more innocent times if you were stuck in two channel land in many parts of the country! And if you wanted more entertainment at home late on a weeknight before 1988 then you had either pirate radio or RTÉ Radio 2 with "Night Train" with Mark Cagney(M-F)/Mike Moloney(WKDs) until 01:50am.

If you wanna re-visit the experience and have a giggle, just take a look at the below clip captured on YouTube of RTÉ2 wrapping up! LOL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DGoakb8jYE

AwaitYourReply

Elmo wrote: »

Actually a number off issues with that report, I start with the last one, AFAIK late night TV in the UK (BBC1, 2 and ITV) until the mid-1980s.

https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/bbcone/london/1978-11-02
https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/bbctwo/england/1978-11-02
https://www.transdiffusion.org/2018/06/26/tonights-anglia-tv-in-1978-2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Network

The End would be RTÉ2's, then Network2, start on Late Night TV on Friday and Saturday, starting early 1990s.

"The End" was presented by rotating presenters from what I recall. One was Seán Moncrieff (now NewsTalk 106-108FM) and the other was Barry Murphy (one of the three Après Match comedy performers)

https://www.rte.ie/archives/2015/1215/753677-welcome-to-the-end/

I remember watching "Night Club" which used run right through the night from around 1988 on HTV Wales (ITV in Wales). Programmes included: Prisoner Cell Block H, Married with Children, ITN News Headlines etc;

http://www.hhg.org.uk/close.html

Hotblack Desiato

No I mean like the start of this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju6RFrkSKyw

Looked even more garish on the CRT TVs of the time which most people turned the colour knob up more than they should, to get value for money out of their colour TV licence :pac:

The big surprise was that it took them more than a minute to get the first words of Irish in!

From your closedown video Await Your Reply :

I remember Night Light, it was shockingly bad!

A little bit of in-vision continuity, which would have been a rarity by then.

Jaysus, Garda Patrol just before bedtime, were they trying to kill off pensioners with fear or what? I remember it at about 7:30 on a Sunday on RTE1.

Bitta jazz piano over scenes of the Burren and we're gone... PM5544 and colour bars and 440Hz tone... they spent many more hours in those days 'broadcasting' test cards than they did content. But on the plus side every fiddler in Ireland had a ready source of an accurate A note to tune to...

AwaitYourReply

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

No I mean like the start of this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju6RFrkSKyw

Looked even more garish on the CRT TVs of the time which most people turned the colour knob up more than they should, to get value for money out of their colour TV licence :pac:

The big surprise was that it took them more than a minute to get the first words of Irish in!

I remember Night Light, it was shockingly bad!

Night Light used often make me laugh

Garda Patrol was brutal altogether and did little to reflect a modern image of our police force.

In later years they used promote DJs coming up on RTÉ Radio 2FM if viewers were not ready just yet to go to sleep! Gee thanks a million, we'll stay up late so!

I recall those even earlier days when RTÉ2 first started too! I remember the Fruit+Veg market prices they used read out on Fridays when RTÉ2 used commence broadcasting during early evenings on weekdays. They used give comparisons of prices between Dublin, Cork & Limerick if memory serves me correct! On Sat/Sun RTE2 started during afternoons.

The customary as Gaeilge used be mandatory for TV Continuity Announcers at start and end of the day's broadcasting on RTÉ1+2.

Looking back at these clips tells a lot about Ireland in those days. If you went out to a pub or dance, you had to stand for the national anthem if music was played at the venue at this would be the last piece of music heard that night - no exceptions! People were always expected to conform to set standards in those days! Different times indeed

Hotblack Desiato

I can't find a video on youtube, but the big magenta and yellow RTE2 logo used to flip over into lots of small RTE2 logos. There must have been a mechanical model of this somewhere in Montrose, like the old fashioned BBC globe! It certainly wasn't computer generated.

The video I posted here looks like it really did for the first few seconds, until the actual start of transmission. The next bit (which ends with the big 2 zooming in) I first thought was a digital Youtube fake, but it's quite possible that RTE paid for a few seconds of digital (by 1978 standards) animation for their big day. The hue and saturation don't match up to what they usually had.

Hotblack Desiato

My mother worked in the Dept of Agriculture in the 60s before she got married (and as a result, made redundant), she knew yer man who did Mart and Market and everyone used to call him "Egghead" :pac:

Somehow or other our prim and proper Protestant neighbour a couple of doors down in our low-to-medium rent ex-council Dublin suburb got wind of this appelation years later and was not impressed! It turned out he was a second cousin twice removed or some other bolloxology degree of relation of hers. Small world, eh!

AwaitYourReply

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

I can't find a video on youtube, but the big magenta and yellow RTE2 logo used to flip over into lots of small RTE2 logos. There must have been a mechanical model of this somewhere in Montrose, like the old fashioned BBC globe! It certainly wasn't computer generated.

The video I posted here looks like it really did for the first few seconds, until the actual start of transmission. The next bit (which ends with the big 2 zooming in) I first thought was a digital Youtube fake, but it's quite possible that RTE paid for a few seconds of digital (by 1978 standards) animation for their big day. The hue and saturation don't match up to what they usually had.

I think what you are looking for is on below clip at around 03:38
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNurVNZMf_A

AwaitYourReply

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

My mother worked in the Dept of Agriculture in the 60s before she got married (and as a result, made redundant), she knew yer man who did Mart and Market and everyone used to call him "Egghead" :pac:

Somehow or other our prim and proper Protestant neighbour a couple of doors down in our low-to-medium rent ex-council Dublin suburb got wind of this appelation years later and was not impressed! It turned out he was a second cousin twice removed or some other bolloxology degree of relation of hers. Small world, eh!

Mart & Market did the livestock prices presented by Michael Dillon on Thursday evenings and was probably always repeated on Sunday mornings! They did same with "Landmark" an agricultural/rural affairs programme and a few other home produced shows.

Elmo

It's funny how that logo gets slack when the RTÉ 1 logo is this



watching too much making the murder.

lgs 4

Elmo wrote: »

It's funny how that logo gets slack when the RTÉ 1 logo is this



watching too much making the murder.

What year did that 2 logo appear ,is that RTE 2.

Elmo

The last image there is a US TV station which featured on Making the Murder.

RTE used its corporate logo on screen from 1961 - 1978, 1986 - 1988 (bit longer for RTÉ afaik), 1996 - 1997 (Network TWO) but 1996 to date RTÉ ONE and 2004 to date for both channels.

The RTÉ logo here is from 1978.