The Weekend On One With Brendan O'Connor

Oh I thought people were asking for them to fix the error, not just cut it out.

I’m not sure if you know how layered audio works but you can remove one file (the incorrectly played file in this case) and leave the “live” feed intact. What happened in this case was a pre-recorded piece was played over the live feed - this can be removed seamlessly with minimal effort. You can do this with very basic audio software on a pc or Mac, or even your phone. To NOT do it in this case given the tech and software they have in RTÉ is nothing but laziness/sloppiness.

I'd have bigger questions why it wasn't picked up on a monitor and corrected much sooner.

I'd guess the podcast is recorded from a stereo feed from the broadcast mix and there's no 'clean' version of the broadcast without the inadvertent overlapping audio.

The podcast audio file could be processed to compensate for any compression, limiting, automatic gain control. The Week in Politics audio file could be time synced, volume matched and subtracted from it. It might not end up with a totally seamless 'clean' version of the podcast but should be able to reduce the Week in Politics component to little more than very low level background noise. There might be some audio artifacts or chirps left that would need further filtering.

It should be possible to clean it up but might dpend on whether the podcast is meant to be an accurate representation of what was broadcast (warts and all) or if it would justify the effort.

" ....... and on sound today, no-one ".

I didn't expect President Bill Clinton to turn up on my headphones this morning.

Sounds in great form publicising his latest venture.

A few interesting things to say about politics too.

He's the same age as Trump.

https://www.rte.ie/news/us/2025/0607/1517234-bill-clinton/

Starting with GAA, WTF? I’m out, this is supposed to be a news/current affairs segment, not GAA. There’s more than enough GAA on RTÉ.

Just tuned in there to a great over and back about an article on housing by (I think) Conor Skehan.

"He says we need to rethink the way we do housing"

"So, what should we do?"

"I can show you the article"

"I've read it and he doesn't have any answers"

LOL

I don’t think anyone on the panel this morning was a renter……they’d more likely be concerned with CGT on the sale of second and third properties.

If only Skehan had been given some kind of opportunity to actually fix these problems, some position of influence in the housing sector, perhaps;

https://www.ontheditch.com/conor-skehans-company-awarded-more-than-1-million-public-contracts/

All noted GAA pundits.

You just happened to hear the the single economist with a unique viewpoint. And you saw through his wrong headed thinking. So no need to worry that anyone else would believe him. It is not a demonstration of a general problem in this case. And fair play to that radio station for letting him have his say, going against every other economist.

BOC off again!

Its beyond a joke at this stage.

Why not just give Dearbhal the job?

BOC is meant to be on 250k a year, that's obviously if he works every weekend.

But seriously, he must be out more than he's in this year.

I appreciate he's not getting paid when he's off, but sure rte have to pay Dearbhail to cover him nearly every weekend.

If it was any other job, his boss would be saying "do you want this job or not?"

Have to agree with you there D.

Hi- a question on the 250/338k figure you quoted? I thought his figure was €250k. What makes up the additional €88k?

Yes, I’ve heard that theory - cap them at €250k but require them to work much less and/or give more holidays but the money is guaranteed regardless.

The top line figures only tell part of the story here - we need “fee per show” figures to see what increases/decreases have happened over the last few years.

If for example Presenter A was getting €250K in 2024 for 45 weekends/90 shows and is now getting €250K for 30 weekends/60 shows he’s actually getting an increase in fees but RTÉ will likely say the cost was neutral - which is some spin, but they have lots of previous on this.

Being more devious you could even work a press release to say something like:

“Presenter B was paid €250k in 2023. They’re now being paid €200k in 2024, which is a 20% reduction, significant saving to the broadcaster and taxpayer, and a commitment to our ongoing efforts to reduce costs etc.” while leaving out that they presented 150 shows in 2023 and 100 shows in 2024, ergo getting significantly more per show - €1,666 in 2023, €2,000 in 2024.

Crude example for sure but the point holds.