Waking up the nation with a happy head

RADIO REVIEW:IT WAS one of those seemingly random exchanges on the radio that stops you dead in your tracks halfway between a biscuit and a cup of tea. The John Murray Show(RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays) on Wednesday was coming live from the IFSC after a pre-breakfast screening of the Michael Douglas sequel Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. Murray interviewed a hand-picked bunch of commentators. The exchange in question was between Michael Soden, former chief executive of Bank of Ireland, and Dublin City Councillor Bríd Smith, an activist with the People Before Profit Alliance. Smith said the movie "doesn't show you the millions of people who were left unemployed and jobless", though, as a movie, she enjoyed it.

In a crisis, former bank CEOs – especially former bank CEOs – have become de facto philosophers. “We have seeds of greed within us, but at the end of the day, for some strange reason, no matter how much money we have we seem to be insecure,” Soden said. “What we need is some sort of political party that will come forward with a set of values that most of us can buy into.” Smith responded, “Surely, Mr Soden, if the film showed us anything, it showed us that it’s not the political parties that determine the sort of unbridled greed and moral hazard that was dictated by the banks, it was the system of capitalism itself.” Taking some of the wind out of his philosophical sails, she added, “You were head of a bank until 2004, one of the biggest banks in the country, that we’re now bailing out.”

The public could be forgiven for feeling political fatigue after The Breakfast Show(Newstalk 106-108, weekdays) on Thursday. Ivan Yates was giving his guests a nice going-over. He described the budget proposals of the political parties – or lack of them before the Government publishes its own proposals – as a game of "cat and mouse".

Fine Gael’s Leo Varadkar and Labour’s Pat Rabbitte both opened by saying they didn’t create the financial crisis. Varadkar added, “We are prepared to solve it.” Which, in fairness, is what they’re there for. Varadkar said, if the Government came up with a tax they didn’t agree with or like, “we would replace that with a spending cut or a different tax”. That can’t have been music to the ears of the listening public. Rabbitte said, “Whatever it is, Ivan, simple it ain’t.” But Mary White, deputy leader of the Green Party, wasn’t happy with their lack of detail. “I think they are being coy,” she said.Texts came in complaining about the bickering, but that can’t be helped with representatives from three different political parties.

Yates wrapped up the discussion by saying, “I hope the listener is wiser.” Probably not, but no doubt they were entertained.

The new Galway-based early morning show, Breakfast with Hector(2FM, weekdays), started this week with Hector Ó hEochagáin. "We're gonna get this country rockin' again!" he said. Here is his opening monologue: "To all the people of Ireland who are up at the moment, to the parents of the country, to the schoolchildren of this land who get up and tread the byroads and city roads of this land, I say hello. To the bus drivers, van drivers, taxi drivers, Yaris drivers, Corolla drivers and Renault drivers, to the ESB and the PT men, to the reps of this country who buy and sell us, to the agricultural-minded men and women who mind this great land of ours, to the pipe fitters and plumbers, engineers and teachers, I say hello, and the great breadmen and milkmen of this country, I welcome you to this show! It's Hector

Ó hEochagáin, and I’ve been waiting on this day a long, long time.” That could be a superpomomo – a super postmodern moment.

He got a text from a woman who was opening a cafe. “More good news!” Ó hEochagáin hollered. “Somebody’s opening a business in this country!” Aside from his polished stream of consciousness, happy head and energy, Ó hEochagáin has a giddy imagination. By Wednesday he was marking the changing of the eiderdown, “when the women of Ireland change them from a 14 tog to a 36 tog.” He likened this to geese flying south for the winter.

He may yet rescue 2FM from the jaws of irrelevance in the absence of the late Gerry Ryan. And Ryan Tubridy, who is also more at home here, is fortunate to have a lead-in like this. Monday may very well be a moment in Irish broadcasting when a radio star, a real live one, was born.