RTE: Late Date

Tim Reilly wrote: »

What about John Kelly as the new host of Late Date ?

No. No. No

Tim Reilly wrote: »

The mystery train was very popular

That was at an earlier time was it?

Could t take Kelly at that hour, Lillian is the woman for that slot, perfectly suited.

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

Kelly certainly has the voice for it. But he'd need to go a bit mainstream if he was to get that slot I think.

Carol Moran for me. She's been doing early mornings recently and the music was brilliant.

That auld Northern accent would annoy people at that hour, I would suggest.

People need to be relaxed before going to sleep.

padd b1975 wrote: »

Ronan Collins to the Late Date slot, and Cathal Murray to take over at midday.

Are you stating that, or suggesting it?

Don't think you'd get Ronan staying up that late these days (dates)!

Cathal Murray is another class presenter, if he was willing to do the nighttime slot.

I think it's good to rest presenters from time to time as even the best can become stale over time with the exception of Larry Gogan.

ford fiesta wrote: »

Will the new presenter of late date weeknights be based in Cork studios when Alf leaves?

I'd say that depends on who gets the gig.

Tim Reilly wrote: »

Late date on weeknights came from Dublin for years with Val Joyce, it only moved to Cork when Creedon got the gig against his will in 2006. As for regional studios, sure Lyric have an expensive hq in Limerick but about 50% + of their presenters are broadcasting from Mountrose.

I would be surprised if Late Date came directly from Cork if certain presenters are on the roster such as: Aonghus McAnally or Fiachna Ó Braonáin as I don't believe that they are based out of Cork most of the time.

However; it has tended to come from the South when Cork based presenters like Alf McCarthy, Lillian Smith or John Creedon are in hot seat.

Of course much of the increased presence of RTÉ Cork came about after the demise of RTÉ Radio Cork (aka RTÉ Cork Local Radio, Cork 89FM) when RTÉ chose to expand the old FM3 Classical Music Service as an opt-out to RTÉ Radio One schedule to make way for a whole new channel called RTÉ lyric fm 96-99FM which would not have gone down very well in Cork at the time as it meant the sacrifice of RTÉ Cork Local Radio after many years of broadcasting to a very high standard. RTÉ promised to deliver other projects to their RTÉ Cork offices and so many radio & tv programmes are now coming directly from Leeside as a result.

Mr Sea Wolf wrote: »

He didn't seem to be doing much except stand in work from 2000 till 2009.

Alf McCarthy did a lot more both inside and outside of RTÉ which some people may/may not recall or perhaps just did not know. I had forgotten about his involvement on some shows because I was either always at work during PM Live (a daytime TV show) back in mid-late '90s and I was often out of the house in the evenings when shows like The Lyrics Board were broadcast. He was also heavily involved with a programme called Down Here With a View To Above which gave a unique Cork perspective at a time when most media and official TV/Radio in Ireland nearly always came out of Dublin 4 apart from occasional short reports from Regional News Reporters here and there. "Down Here With A View To Above" would have given rare critical exposure for almost 30 minutes once a week on prime time RTÉ 1 tv schedules back in the mid-late '80s. If anything Alf probably made it a little easier for other Cork based colleagues to expand into other projects both within RTÉ or at other media outlets at a later stage. Other colleagues included: John Creedon, Tony O'Donoghue, Mary Wilson, Geri McLoughlain, Tim Desmond, Lillian Smith and so on etc; Alf was still doing his hugely popular lunch-time radio show "Cork About Noon" on RTÉ Cork Local Radio in those years too as far as I recall. He worked a lot with people like Donna O'Sullivan, Barry Mescall, Caimin Jones, Dan Collins, Steve Bolger and many more.

Alf McCarthy will be sorely missed once he finishes up for the very last time at 02:00am on Thursday 31st December. I hope Alf has a happy (yet busy) retirement as he sure did Cork, Munster and indeed Ireland some valuable service down through the years.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/features/rte-presenter-alf-mccarthy-hangs-up-his-microphone-for-the-last-time-tonight-373583.html

I want to wish Alf well in his retirement. However, I preferred when Lilian was presenting. I'd love if she returned to presenting the programme on a regular basis.

I used to get irritated at the amount of times Alf ignored my requests but I wasn't alone, he seemed to read out lots of requests but failed to play the tune that was requested. Having said all that I do think that there are lots of lonely/bereaved people who will miss his company and his banter. Over the last few weeks it got a bit much, every second or third note he read out referred to how brilliant he was, every night was a tribute show lol.

Oops69 wrote: »

I'm glad he's going. He was painful to listen to and never played requests so I don't know why people bothered texting him in, akso he's only there a wet weekend , what's the big deal , you'd swear it was the end of an era the way people are ****eing on .
I wish him well in his retirement , hopefully it's a proper retirement and not an "rte retirement " , with plenty of locum jobs and other gigs .

Have to agree Thank god. What's in the pipeline though