Weeknight Late Date

Red Fred · 20-04-2016 11:32PM #1

With Alf McCarthy now almost 4 months "retired" from the Late Date post, when will RTE finally decide on a permanent replacement. Aonghus MacAnally and Lillian Smith seem to be regular weeknight stand-ins, but for how long, nobody seems to know. Even Lillian has commented on-air that she is not sure how much longer she will be filling in for. Surely Alf's retirement wasn't a surprise to RTE?

Euphoria Intensifies · 21-04-2016 03:19PM

Maybe they're waiting until the rumoured summer exodus from 2fm to pick a permanent host?

ford fiesta · 21-04-2016 07:00PM

Lillian has 'left' Radio 1/Late Date twice in the past 1.5 years and over the past few weeks she once again has returned to Late Date.

Alf announced his leaving a good 3-4 months before his final show last December.

I wear socks · 21-04-2016 07:26PM

Whatever happened to Cathel Murray since he left weekend mornings ?

I wear socks · 01-05-2016 12:39PM

Has anyone noticed the way the have gotten rid of continuity announcers from weekday evenings and now included the book on one as part of late date?

Trebor176 · 01-05-2016 08:00PM

I wear socks wrote: »

Has anyone noticed the way the have gotten rid of continuity announcers from weekday evenings and now included the book on one as part of late date?

I wonder what the reason for that is. It's only occurred within the last couple of weeks. The Book On One appears to be part of Late Date now, but I could be wrong. It's the impression I'm getting anyway.

Lilian has been appearing more on Late Date since January, and she had a good stint for the few weeks, which was very welcome. She still appears now and again, perhaps if either Aonghus or Fiachna aren't available. But, her stints are short and she will usually sign off at the end saying she will be on again somewhere at some point, but we never know. Coming up to the summer break, I'm sure she'll be on Risin' Time as well as Late Date.

SPDUB · 03-05-2016 05:33AM

Trebor176 wrote: »

Lilian has been appearing more on Late Date since January, and she had a good stint for the few weeks, which was very welcome. She still appears now and again, perhaps if either Aonghus or Fiachna aren't available. But, her stints are short and she will usually sign off at the end saying she will be on again somewhere at some point, but we never know. Coming up to the summer break, I'm sure she'll be on Risin' Time as well as Late Date.

She did say a few weeks ago that she would be presenting Rising Time sometime during May

I wear socks · 04-05-2016 10:09AM

Afaik both late date and the weekend on one are now without permanent presenters, is this a new way of doing things at radio 1 ? Will this become a trend with other slots ?

ford fiesta · 04-05-2016 10:58AM

I wear socks wrote: »

Afaik both late date and the weekend on one are now without permanent presenters, is this a new way of doing things at radio 1 ? Will this become a trend with other slots ?

...so is 'Through the Night' which is presented by continuity. I heard Gerry Ryan's brother, Mike Ryan, introducing the programmes for 2 nights in a row, around 3 weeks ago.

Though Paul Moriarty (Ex Radio Nova) seems to be on 'Weekend on One' and 'Through the Night' the most.

Red Fred · 05-05-2016 10:57PM

Fiachna will be filling in for Ronan Collins for the next two weeks, so expect to hear more of Lilian on Late Date.

I wear socks · 05-05-2016 11:26PM

God that Fiachna guy is f cking terrible, they should put Creedon filling in for Collins, I'd say he'd enjoy being back on daytime after 10 years.

Euphoria Intensifies · 06-05-2016 06:14PM

Ah Fiachna's not that bad. He's easy to listen to and plays decent enough stuff.

Red Fred · 06-05-2016 06:56PM

Heard him read a text a month or two ago from a listener who basically said he was boring and rubbish. Shay Byrne had a post on Facebook about a message he got basically slating him. He said it's a regular thing. Suppose there's lots of cranks out there - just listen to Liveline!!

Trebor176 · 09-05-2016 05:12PM

Will Leahy will be presenting Late Date all this week. Lilian said she will be on Risin' Time on Friday morning and all next week.

I wear socks · 09-05-2016 05:15PM

He'll be tired in court all week so

ford fiesta · 09-05-2016 05:48PM

Trebor176 wrote: »

Will Leahy will be presenting Late Date all this week. Lilian said she will be on Risin' Time on Friday morning and all next week.

Does Lillian make her Cork accent stronger on purpose when she says "Live from Cork" (kind of in the style of Bill O'Herlihy)??... it is annoying!

I wear socks · 09-05-2016 05:55PM

I think it's pretty ridiculous that Late Date is now hosted by however happens to be free on a week by week basis, why didn't they just keep Alf on like he wanted ?

Joe_ Public · 10-05-2016 11:51AM

I get the impression RTE see the late night slot as an inconvenience and hope to spread enough apathy that they can eventually drop it and start the re-runs at midnight. Nothing would surprise me anyway.

Incidentally, was just doing some googling and was reminded that at the same time they got rid of the incomparable Val "Airs and Races" Joyce in 2006, they also jettisoned John Kelly and Donal Dineen and decided to give Derek Mooney and Joe Duffy "more exposure", which, alas, did not mean stripping them bollok naked and tying them to the RTE mast.

Red Fred · 10-05-2016 08:11PM

Joe_ Public wrote: »

I get the impression RTE see the late night slot as an inconvenience and hope to spread enough apathy that they can eventually drop it and start the re-runs at midnight. Nothing would surprise me anyway

Maybe they should just relay RTE Gold from 12 onwards.

I wear socks · 10-05-2016 08:24PM

Actually I thought that might have been their plan for the future when they did that on Xmas eve.

ford fiesta · 10-05-2016 09:49PM

Red Fred wrote: »

Maybe they should just relay RTE Gold from 12 onwards.

..and relay it on RTE 2FM before 12

SPDUB · 21-05-2016 07:13AM

Well during the week we got Aonghus till Wednesday then Will Leahy ( with no advance notice from Aonghus )

According to Will it will be Jim Lockhart on Sat and Sun then Lillian on Mon

He said he is sure they will be have him back at some point later this year

Trebor176 · 21-05-2016 12:22PM

SPDUB wrote: »

Well during the week we got Aonghus till Wednesday then Will Leahy ( with no advance notice from Aonghus )

According to Will it will be Jim Lockhart on Sat and Sun then Lillian on Mon

He said he is sure they will be have him back at some point later this year

From what I heard of Will last week and the last two nights, he had a great choice of music. I'm not saying that the other presenters don't play a good choice. They do, but his playlists stood out for me for some reason. I've never heard Jim Lockhart on the airwaves before, so it will be interesting to hear what he plays.

Anorak34c · 21-05-2016 01:21PM

They should give the gig to Donal Dineen

ford fiesta · 21-05-2016 02:12PM

Will plays more well known music, than Lillian.

Red Fred · 22-05-2016 06:24PM

Was listening to Late Date on the Irish Radio Player app last night and in the description for the show it says it is hosted by Cathal Murray. Cathal has also tweeted in the past week that he will be back on air very soon but didn't specify where. Putting 2 and 2 together I would guess it will be on Late Date.

Losty Dublin · 23-05-2016 05:13PM

Trebor176 wrote: »

From what I heard of Will last week and the last two nights, he had a great choice of music. I'm not saying that the other presenters don't play a good choice. They do, but his playlists stood out for me for some reason. I've never heard Jim Lockhart on the airwaves before, so it will be interesting to hear what he plays.

I actually thought that a lot of what he played is too much like commercial daytime output; the sort of music that Late Date is not about.

Joe_ Public · 23-05-2016 05:18PM

Losty Dublin wrote: »

I actually thought that a lot of what he played is too much like commercial daytime output; the sort of music that Late Date is not about.

Fully agree. He seemed to play an awful lot of 80s chart stuff, at least when I was listening. Nothing wrong with that, I grew up with and love 80s stuff, but it's not for that slot.

I like Jim Lockhart. Picked up at 4 or 5 new songs from him over the weekend that'll I'll be adding to my playlist, that's as much as I'd get from Will in two months.

Anorak34c · 23-05-2016 07:01PM

Late date has bloated in recent years, in the begining it was only 55 minutes long.

Red Fred · 23-05-2016 11:29PM

Lillian's name came out of the hat to present tonight's show.

Trebor176 · 24-05-2016 08:36PM

Red Fred wrote: »

Lillian's name came out of the hat to present tonight's show.

She'll be on tonight and tomorrow night as well. I'm guessing that Fiachna will be back on for the rest of the week and weekend. As Lilian put it last night, she'll be on until Wednesday "and that will be it." Usually when she's on her final night of a current run, she will usually say something along the lines of that she doesn't know when she'll be on again, but that she'll pop up again somewhere, some time.

Weeknight Late Date

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