IN HIS recent article on Radio Ireland, Michael Foley, the Media Correspondent of The Irish Times, posed the provocative question: "Is there anyone out there listening?" The answer is most definitely yes.
In the absence of reliable research figures - not due until next month - the anecdotal evidence is that Radio Ireland is a leader in public debate. So far, the reaction of our audience and the commentaries from media correspondents are that Radio Ireland, since it came on air, has brightened the airwaves with new presenters and innovative programme ideas. The stream of political, cultural and community figures entering Radio Ireland's studios early in the morning is evidence of that.
Radio Ireland also gauges the audience response from reactions to both its Daybreak and The Last Word programmes. Emily O'Reilly, Mark Costigan, Anne Marie Hourihane and Eamon Dunphy have become household names in national broadcasting, and that in a very short time span. John Kelly, Cliona ni Bhuachalla and Donal Dineen are essential parts of the daily radio listening.
The answer again to Michael Foley's question is yes, the public is listening to us. Radio Ireland, on the day of its general election count coverage, received an extraordinary number of listeners' calls from all over the country with comments, inquiries, support and encouragement.
We were first into the field as broadcasters, fulfilling an important public service that our audience acknowledged. The full range of Radio Ireland's responsibilities as a national broadcaster was realised in the day-long coverage of the general election count from 41 constituencies which began at 9 a.m., with the first tally 20 minutes later and with Ted Nealon calling the election result accurately at 1.15 p.m., two hours before RTE TV came on air.
As a young service, we managed in the time available to us to mark and meet the challenge of covering the general election and the count countrywide. This is not the action of a radio station whose "only strategy" as Michael Foley headlined it, "now seems to be more music and getting Gerry Ryan for £1 million".
Radio Ireland is a national broadcaster, not a song-and-dance emporium. Radio Ireland's consistent contribution to the national broadcasting culture has been in the classic three-fold engagement which any national broadcaster in any civilised country throughout the free world undertakes - information, education and entertainment. All of these weaves in the seamless robe of public service broadcasting are absolutely of priority to me as controller of programmes at Radio Ireland.
Music has a function at Radio Ireland as it has in RTE but to suggest that Radio Ireland has retreated from the vision set for it by John McColgan is grotesque, absurd and unwarranted.
Radio Ireland is about the establishment in the public interest of an alternative voice to that of the other national broadcaster, so that pluralism can be established on the national airwaves. With that aim in focus, the test of Radio Ireland's bona fides must rest in the first instance with its news and current affairs programmes.
Radio Ireland's newsroom provides an international and national news coverage of exceptional character and our current affairs programmes Day break, The Last Word and Sunday Supplement are, in my view, innovative in character and information-led. In the weekday schedule, this strand of programmes accounts for close on six hours of daily broadcasting.
Talk programmes such as Cliona are encouraging people to put a shape on the national debate. A crucial element in this process has been the willingness in Radio Ireland's broadcasting policy to identify what constitutes the sphere of the post-moral referendums era and to acknowledge the right of the public to speak out about sexuality, religion, nationalism and in particular to secure the individual's right to respond to all of these issues as a member of the community.
I WOULD point to just two examples in Radio Ireland's talks programmes of innovative broadcasting: the Talkback section of Daybreak and Anne Marie Hourihane's deftly scripted Man of the Match in The Last Word.
The latter is an innovative radio creation of what The Irish Times has achieved with the Martyn Turner cartoons. The daily Talkback feature realises our ambitions to provide community access to national policy-makers and moulders of public opinion.
Radio Ireland has consolidated and confirmed new broadcasting talent both in its public affairs and general programmes. The resonance of John Kelly's Eclectic Ballroom has to be acknowledged. New talents, new music and not the list of the "usual suspects" have been a characteristic of Radio Ireland's schedules. Its programmes are produced and led by young broadcasters. They have opened up the airwaves to the young and they are responsive.
The suggestion that Radio Ireland is now in the same position as Century Radio is bizarre at least, and inaccurate. Radio Ireland is a programme-led broadcaster whose engagement with the audience and whose commitment to the terms of its licence from the IRTC have been underlined both by its programmes and by the personal commitment of its chairman, John McColgan.
I am frankly surprised by the reported attitudes of those advertising agencies mentioned in Michael Foley's article. We have had no such response ourselves from the media marketing sector. On the contrary, the sector has been enthused by the nature and scope of our scheduling and has been particularly impressed by the readiness with which major public figures and institutions have been prepared to participate in Radio Ireland's programmes.
Radio Ireland is here for the long haul. By the end of our first year on air we expect to secure our forecast 10 per cent of the market share. We will have established Radio Ireland as a competing national broadcaster with RTE and consolidated the availability of national broadcasting pluralism and choice.
