DICK HILL;Dick Hill who has died aged 71, was a former director of television programmes at RTÉ and general manager of the Cork Opera House. He returned to broadcasting in 1997 as chief executive of Radio Ireland.
In the 1980s, he was tipped as a possible director general of RTÉ, and was one of four applicants shortlisted to succeed George Waters who retired in 1985.
The selection of Waters’s successor provoked controversy, which arose from the presumed political preferences of members of the RTÉ authority. Some concern was expressed, by trade union activists among others, about the way in which the appointment was made.
The controversy escalated when the authority nominated a candidate despite being asked by minister for communications Jim Mitchell to defer a decision until after a review of the station’s operation and efficiency was completed. The authority’s nominee was not approved and eventually Vincent Finn was appointed director general.
Born in Kinsale in 1938, Dick Hill was the son of Warnford and Olive Hill. Educated at Midleton College, he studied physiography and botany at Trinity College Dublin after spending three years as a lab assistant at the Goulding fertiliser plant.
Joining Telifís Éireann as a researcher, he was mentored by Frank Hall on the magazine programme Newsbeat. He next became a producer, working with Eoghan Harris, Lelia Doolan, Brian Cleeve and Brian Farrell on the pioneering current affairs programme Seven Days.
However, following a number of controversial programmes, control of Seven Dayswas in 1968 transferred to the news division. Staff members were assigned to other duties and Hill spent some time as facilities manager.
He returned to more creative work in 1970 when he became head of features, triggering such programmes as Enterprise, The Greening of Americaand Even the Olives are Bleeding. Having served as assistant controller of television programmes in 1978, he became the first programme controller of RTÉ 2.
“I see our obligation as to inform, entertain and to enlighten,” he said at the time. “But we must do this with increasing humility, since the people who are paying the piper must call the tune.”
Programmes he imported to single-channel Ireland included Tomorrow's World, Pennies from Heavenand, in response to popular demand, Coronation Street.
Home-produced productions he commissioned included the folk documentary The Green Linnetand Mike Murphy's America.
After a spell as director of television programmes in 1986, he left RTÉ following a restructuring of the station management. Moving south, he became general manager of the Cork Opera House. There he kept the ship afloat despite choppy economic waters, bringing successful Abbey Theatre productions to Cork.
In 1989, however, he was forced to close the venue for six weeks, and that year resigned and became managing director of CoCo Productions, the corporate television company based in Cork.
The company made magazine programmes for RTÉ, including the Wine Geeseseries, which focused on Irish emigres who made their name in the French wine business.
He ceased to have an interest in CoCo when the company moved to Dublin, but remained active in television production through his Skibbereen-based company Peripheral Vision.
He joined Radio Ireland shortly before it went on air in March 1997. But the listening figures after six months of broadcasting were poor, and the station’s controller of programmes departed. Hill remained, and in January 1998 the station was relaunched as Today FM, with less talk and more music as advised by associates of “shock jock” Chris Evans.
Interviewed in this newspaper in 1997, he described getting to university as his biggest life event. His biggest business break was getting into an IMI management course, he said; his biggest business mistake was not taking the IMI’s advice. His favourite breakfast was a full Irish, coffee and a cigarette, which he compensated for by swimming, sailing and walking.
He had an ear for a good story, his sense of humour was legendary and he was a brilliant raconteur. His interests included cars, boats, fishing, short-story writing, mushy peas, wine, whiskey and slow food. He shared his father’s fascination for local history and when his health allowed it, he enjoyed the cut and thrust of pub conversation.
He spent his last years living in Rushbrooke, Cobh. His family Sue, Richard, Ronan, Catherine, Mary and partner Jan Reid survive him.
Richard de Courcy (Dick) Hill: born August 1938; died January 1st, 2010