Ill-informed criticism arrives on schedule

AS Director of Radio Programming for RTE, I welcome the opportunity to rebut the avalanche of ill informed criticism to which Radio 1's new autumn schedule has been subjected. All of it is purely speculative, since no one has yet heard a syllable broadcast on any of the programmes.

Since it is the proposed change in the morning schedule which most seems to have exercised our critics, I shall deal first with this.

I've read many gleeful pieces along the lines that simply "swapping" the Pat Kenny and Gay Byrne shows is akin to re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

This will be no simple swap. Firstly, the new morning programme to be presented by Pat Kenny the team of producers and researchers who will work on this will be given a brief to ensure this programme will neither ape the old Pat Kenny Show, nor the Gay Byrne Show, which for so many years proudly carried the flag of the Radio 1 schedule.

Similarly, the new Gay Byrne Show will be a different vehicle for its presenter than the one he has graced for nearly three decades. It will run from 11.00 to 12.30 on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. (It is common knowledge that it is at Gay Byrne's request that he is not to be on air for the full five days in any schedule week.)

I am on record as saying that I concur with some critics of our former schedule when they said the bias towards running stories being carried on all our programmes, from Morning Ireland through the Gay Byrne Show, the News At One to Liveline and on into Today at Five and The News At Six Thirty, was too similar. But this is not to imply any criticism on my part of the teams or the presenters on any of these programmes. It is simply an (admiring) acknowledgement of their broadcasting "edge". If a story is current and interesting, no researcher, producer or presenter worth his or her salt can resist it.

And we do have the best. In RTE Radio I believe we are lucky enough to have the sharpest, most experienced, most competitive and most highly motivated presenters and production and technical teams in the business, all of whom could hold their own in any radio station in the world. It is this very professionalism which has led to the similarity between programmes. All presenters and producers in the daytime schedule want to cover all stories better than anyone else.

While this is admirable, I believe the constant reiteration of the same subjects, even when the treatment encompasses new developments, has led to listener fatigue.

Consequently, the first 50 minutes of the new morning show to be presented by Pat Kenny will not concentrate on running stories or current affairs, to allow listeners toe draw breath after Morning Ireland. And the new Gay Byrne Show has been placed in the Light Entertainment area which will mean an entirely new format for this show too.

THESE changes have been presented as "panic reactions" to forthcoming competition from Radio Ireland.

I have to say, with hand, on heart, that were there no competition at all in prospect, never mind what faces us daily from 21 highly professional local stations, these changes would have been made anyway as a result of exhaustive research. Over the past two years, I conducted intensive internal consultations with a formal programme review group and staff. And when the results of this exercise were coupled with the findings from a long series of focus group researches conducted by an independent market research company, the results were clear. A schedule change was imperative if we were to hold our market share.

And on the matter of markets share, RTE Radio retains over 56 per cent of all listeners, against 44 per cent for the combined independent radio sector. This percentage is the envy of most of my public service broadcasting colleagues in the European Broadcasting Union. RTE Radio 1 in terminal decline? I think not.

Speaking of public service, critical concentration so far has been on the morning schedule, the so called swapping of those deck chairs. I point out that Radio 1 takes its public service remit very seriously and we have paid huge attention to the so called minority programming in the evenings. Specialist music programmes ... arts ... education ... drama ... documentaries and features programmes for the disabled, the disadvantaged and our emigrants. All, which I know from my letters tray, held very dear in the hearts of devotees. All now examined in minute detail and in this new schedule revamped where necessary.

There is another running criticism that we are still hearing the same tired old voices.

Marian Finucane, a tired old voice? Pat Kenny? Gay Byrne? Des Cahill? Myles Dungan or Richard Crowley?

If you were running a public service radio station which was in the formidably competitive environment RTE faces daily, would you fire? (Conversely if you were running one of RTE's competitors, whom would you try to tempt away?)

Although it is a sad fact that we have to turn away the vast majority of the hundreds of talented people who wish to join RTE Radio annually, I can assure you we are constantly and permanently trawling for new voices and talent. We have a permanent training unit which, coincidentally, has just completed the training of 20 new producers, now available as vacancies arise. These people will provide the nucleus of the new and fresh ideas which will fuel the schedule into the next millennium.

Our problem with new talent and ideas, however, is that the schedule is finite. There are only 24 hours in a day and seven days in a week. (For instance the insertion of an hour long current affairs phone in programme hosted by Vincent Browne at 10 p.m. has resulted in the displacement of Ireland Tonight by one hour (Ireland Tonight's loyal listeners are most put out.)

EVERY large organisation in Ireland periodically attracts critical attention. Because of its high visibility and accessibility and its place in the national culture and consciousness, RTE attracts more than most. Believe it or not, we welcome legitimate criticism, however robust. It is what keeps us honest.

But I have to say the sustained barrage to which this proposed new RTE Radio I schedule has been subjected is unprecedented in my experience. It is also unfair. I would ask those columnists and critics who have rushed to judgment, to wait, please, until our new programmes have actually gone on air.

On a lighter note, I was highly amused to note that at a time during which the beef crisis and all its ramifications were exercising high minds in this country and abroad, when crime was rampant, when Ireland was on the point of assuming leadership of the European Union, front page reports in our Irish newspapers concerned Gaybo and Pat. Radio 1. Part of what we are. I couldn't have bought such publicity.