The leaders of the bland

THERE was a time when, in order to know what programme was on the station currently known as "2FM" you had to look up a newspaper. Fifteen years ago, when it was still known as "Radio 2", the schedule of the second national radio service contained an arts show called The Audio Visual show; a traditional show, Call the Tune; a Saturday album show called The Outside Track; and a number of idiosyncratic shows like House of R n B, and The B.P. Fallon Orchestra. Nowadays it comprises a list of names: Michael Cahill, Ian Dempsey, Aidan Leonard, Barry Lang, Tony Fenton and, eh, Dusty Rhodes.

It now seems unbelievable that, in those pre modern days of the 1980s, we could hear, on a nightly basis, programmes of blues, jazz, country, rhythm n blues, soul and rock n roll. Nowadays, with the exception of Dave Fanning's 8 p.m. slot, the programmes are indistinguishable other than by the name of the presenter.

It is tempting to lament these changes on the obvious basis that they represent a diminution in the quality of Irish radio. But because the current "mix" has been "decided" by market values, it must amount - must it not? - to the democratically ordained choice of the listening public. To criticise it is therefore "elitist". To suggest that what we had before was better is to wish to "foist" one's own preferences "down the necks" of the public. There is an answer to this, to do with the rights of minorities and the dangers of majoritarianism, but it is not an argument that meets with any favour in the current competition centred environment.

In every other area of the media, it is presumed proper to strive for at least some notional balance. Sports programmes, for example, tend to divide their time between football, swimming, horse racing and so forth.

The problem, as my late colleague Bill Graham used to repeat, is that pop music is not taken seriously. The present treatment of pop music on radio, for all the pseudohipness of the presenters, is deeply cynical and patronising towards those whose life's aspirations are best expressed in the music they relate to.

The state of music radio in Ireland is another example of the pernicious sway of the erstwhile radical generation of the 1960s, who have held the reins of power too long. Rather than hand over to the next generation, they sit in their offices poring over market research and watching MTV with growing incomprehension. They are obsessed with Young People and "what they want". It never seems to occur to them that what Young People want is to have their intelligence respected and their appetites stretched to enable them to want what they need.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the Irish public was, without question, starved of decent music programmes. This, one could charitably decide, was because we had not yet woken up to the modern world. Then, for one brief flowering, we were given the kind of music radio that was beyond our wildest dreams. Nowadays, do we not long for the variety of the old sponsored programmes from the dark 1970s days of Radio Eireann? Put simply, what has happened is that we have moved from one form of cultural centralism to another, pausing for a brief breath of democracy on the way.

In a rather interesting way, this trend mirrors the pattern in our political culture and climate. In the radio sphere, we have moved from the dictatorship of the mediocre to the dictatorship of the market, and in "real" life from the stagnation of pseudo traditionalism to the stagnation of pseudo populism. The condition of our media, which have moved from one form of poverty, to a brief season of plenty, and back to an even more stultifying form of poverty, preshadows a process which is only just beginning to manifest itself in the wider society. The 1960s generation began with nothing, but had everything given to them. And now that they have all but finished their stewardship, they have left us with nothing once again.

It will, of course, be observed by those who seem to consider their role in RTE as being the public defence of the indefensible, that I have ignored what no doubt they consider the "flagship" programme on 2FM. I was, as it happens, going to write about Gerry Ryan, but when I tuned in during the week he was running a competition in which listeners were invited to complete the slogan: "Picking your nose in public is disgusting because... " I decided not to bother. I know I should lighten up, that I am what Gerry Ryan would call a boring old fart.

I know this is not considered coarse or ignorant in the way it might have 10 or 15 years ago. I know that it is some form of ironic comment on the nature of post modern society. I know that it is the kind of thing the menopausal male media managers believe those Young People want.

But I would give my right ear to be able to switch on one morning and hear the voice of P.J. Curtis.