Hours and hours of sport on RTE1 and NT at the weekend.

Spanish Eyes

I keep an eye on results and I know lots of people enjoy wall to wall sports commentary but honestly.

Sport on RTE 2pm - 7pm, preceded by an hour of Second Captains which has a sports angle.

Sport on NT, Off the Ball 1pm - 8pm.

I realise the Olympics are on, but there is no talk alternative offered by either station (from what I can see) for those who may not want hours and hours of sports coverage on weekend afternoons. BBC sounds and LBC or NPR are my alternatives, but still....

I may be in a minority in the way I see this endless coverage, but I can't be the only one. Wonder what others think?

JeffKenna

I think we should have more sport on the radio.

Back in the day, RTE radio 1s weekend sport would never run longer then 2-6pm on FM, extended hours after 6pm this time of year would be broadcast on Medium wave & later Longwave only. when Medium wave closed in 2008, Longwave took over for a few years but then they realised that many radios no longer had Longwave so extended summer sports hours went on all wavelengths.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058202781/hours-and-hours-of-sport-on-rte1-and-nt-at-the-weekend

[u]There is no talk alternative offered from either station(from what I can see) for those who may not want hours and hours of sports cover on weekend afternoons.......[/u]

The operative

Brendan Bendar

With Kellie Harrington’s Gold win, expect wall to wall coverage for another few days.

The burning question of course will be ‘de Partie’ with Dezzie in the front row of the grid to be the Bull Goose.

NK will be working like a Trojan to get either Dezzie or Marty to man the back of the lorry.

well done Kellie, the hardest part will probably the next few days as you come home.

will be worth it to see who’s mug will be at the plane door beside her on arrival.

Id take a well earned holiday from the mayhem.

SundayNews show "This Week" :

All about Kelly Harrington....

Cheers.

ford fiesta

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117720371#Comment_117720371

Also there are more live Mens/Womens Irish soccer intls. and rugby games on 2FM at weekends and weeknights these past few years (and Drivetime Sports/Game On moving from Radio 1), which was also unheard of.

I guess easier, cheaper and more reliable technology requiring less technicians and OB staff, assists greatly....along with the interest and the increased amount of games being played

dePeatrick

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058202781/hours-and-hours-of-sport-on-rte1-and-nt-at-the-weekend

I have very little interest in Sport so I don’t switch on NT or RTE1 at weekend. Listen to LBC or BBC4 instead sometimes but mostly music at weekend.

flazio

Worth noting as well that people at the games would be using their portable radios (mainly iPod and phones with built-in radios) for commentary on what they are watching. That only really works on FM/MW/LW as the delay from microphone to radio is going to be around 3 seconds at most. Internet radios could be minutes behind the live action and therefore be practically useless for following the action.

Spanish Eyes

Should move the Sports overload on RTE at weekends to one of the lesser listened to stations overall, like Gold, 2XM, Pulse. Leave the so called premier station with an R4 type content for those who are loyal listeners during the week, when sport does not feature as much.

It is a National Broadcaster, so should cater to all. Instead, it caters for 4 music stations and RnaG and kids stuff and forgets about any talk alternative for hours on Sat and Sun. I am not saying they should NOT broadcast sport, just there should be a choice out there.

whisky_galore

Agree. Complete overload of sport sh1te talk inception almost across the board on weekends. Coverage, fair enough but endless lads talking about other lads talking about sport, come on. This is where I flip to music or podcasts.

Imagine my pleasant surprise when NT decided to run a documentary one BH weekend, more of the same please.

wandererz

NT should be renamed Sports Talk.

marno21

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117728593#Comment_117728593

RTE try to cram the BBC equivalent of Radio 2, Radio 4 and Radio 5 Live into one station, RTE Radio 1. As a result, it's going to have a very wide spectrum of content and there being no RTE sports station like 5 Live, sport is going to form a major part of the schedule when there's major events on.

As we move forward, sport's role on Radio 1 will imo become bigger. Radio 4 type content (unless breaking news type content like Today or PM) is easily listened to on demand with no adverts at the listeners convenience. As streaming/podcasts/listen back becomes even more widely used, linear radio's primary draw will be content that has to be listened to live, like sport. It's also fair to say that an All Ireland semi final is a much bigger draw than any other type of content they could have had on yesterday.

Title of Thread should have been Hours and Hours of Sport on RTE 1 and Newstalk

This evening at 4.30pm I switched on Radio 1 for Drive Time.

Guess What the headline item was.

Goody Gumdrops the Olympic Gold Medallist homecoming!! How can the fans see the team??

I turned the dial to Newstalk, which had alternative material to offer, not all is lost!

Furze99

It's not too bad when there's a bit of variety in the various sports covered. But RTE is particular rely far too heavily on the GAA. A little bit is OK, a match here & there but who gives a **** about some Div4 football match with a couple of hundred spectators at most on a fine day. Should be a limit of one GAA match per day imho. Problem is their sports staff know little else - some of the rubbish they come out with when covering so called minority sports is a great laugh.

Howitzer the 5th

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058202781/hours-and-hours-of-sport-on-rte1-and-nt-at-the-weekend

Could you enlighten people as to what exactly you might expect a national broadcaster and its principle commercial talk rival to broadcast instead of copious amounts of sport at weekends? Its the height of the summer post Euro's, Olympic games and in the final stages of the gaa championships allied to domestic soccer, lions Rugby and the onset of the English and European football seasons. These events draw huge listenership due to its obvious draw for people, while many sports are not available for TV access due to satellite cable subscription, so radio holds its own. RTE and Newstalk both discuss political events, current affairs and popular culture fairly broadly on Saturday and Sunday also.

Spanish Eyes

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117739568#Comment_117739568

I am not advocating that RTE/NT discontinue their endless hours of sports coverage, just that an alternative talk option (well in RTE anyway) should be provided. It is a national broadcaster, but the only available alternatives to sports coverage on Saturdays and Sunday afternoons is RTE radio2, Pulse, Gold, and kids. Music and kids, yep. As for RTE covering current affairs at the weekends, OK we have Drivel O'Connor on Saturdays, have you ever listened to it? Not impressed, and it is on 11-1oc, thereafter there is nothing but sport. Sundays, more Drivel, all in the mornings. The one decent bit of current affairs was following the news at one on Sundays. Gone for the holliers, and in its place? Sport related content.

Newstalk is a commercial station, I don't pay for that so they can decide content, but I do enjoy Gavan Reilly's show on Sunday mornings.

Would be nice to have documentaries and maybe archived radio shows, or bought in slots from NPR etc. Not everyone has a smart phone with radio apps. I do, and am fortunate to be able to listen to other things, but I shouldn't have to, I'm paying the license fee and feel all tastes should be catered for.

PsychoPete

I do like having plenty of hours of sport on but I do miss Premier league Live on a Saturday afternoon, I use talksport for that now

I spend a lot of time in the car, and weekend radio is pretty nonexistent for me. I often can only get reliable signal from Newstalk and RTE as i move around the country a bit (and often local stations are reporting on full-length live games). Weekend for me is just listening to podcasts.

Dan Jaman

The highlight of Summer 2020 was the dearth of sport on the radio.

It was great, being able to randomly turn it on without some gas-bag banging on about inane trivialities of some dumb game of heid-the-ba'.

Howitzer the 5th

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117755130#Comment_117755130

Aw bless.... poor diddums. Couldn't have that. Sport? Huh? What an inconvenience!

whisky_galore

I dont see the point of having sports slots in current affairs shows as in Pat K and the On The Record when there's a dedicated show for all that where it can be talked about ad nauseam.

OTR is a great show albeit the presentation is always noticeably rushed.

neris

The wall to wall coverage gets tedious and boring when theres no commentary of a noteable game or event on and its just the inane bumblings of des cahill and who ever gets stuck in studio with him.

flazio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117757124#Comment_117757124

Sponsorship. Sports programming attracts more advertising then current affairs and politics.

whisky_galore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117761402#Comment_117761402

The usual betting/misery industry shilling.

Oink

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117747238#Comment_117747238

Exactly. On Saturday there was a match (presumably the same one?) on RTE1, newstalk, RnaG. There was random pop sh!te on 2FM and whatever the other station is.

During the week it’s either Joe bleedin Duffy or Ray fookin D’Arcy or OMG WhatsHerFace on 2FM.

Bring back Phantom FM and John Kelly.

flazio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117761677#Comment_117761677

Money has no morals.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117761752#Comment_117761752

If you can find someone to pay for it, they will come.

jam17032010

I love sport as do many people in Ireland. I could listen to the content all day long. But I can sympathise with the OP and others who are not that into it.

I think there is room on the dial for a dedicated national sports radio station. Be it a "5 Live" RTE/license fee station or a "Talksport" commercial station, or both.

Let the non sporty people listen to Radio1 and NT at the weekends.

gormdubhgorm

For the majority not into watching sport (mostly women let's be honest) reality TV, celebrity gossip and soaps are their alternative's on telly. On radio for the more discerning non sports fan there are always 'human interest stories' such as The RTE docs on one - on radio or podcast etc. There are tech and history shows on NT. Also lots of RTE history podcasts.

Lost Ormond

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117778954#Comment_117778954

I dont think there is enough demand for a national station dedicated to sport alone. Off The Ball do a lot with their online programming on top of their evening show and weekend shows but there wouldnt be enough here to warrant a full time dedicated station like in UK.

RTE radio 1 only has their few hours on weekends for sport and still is few other options of main stations for those not into sport