Pat Kenny and the Late Late Show production team are set to travel to New York City to broadcast a special St Patrick's Day programme next month.
The idea of doing a show from NYC first came about in the wake of the September 11th attacks, but rather than focus on the tragedy, the programme will be a tribute to the reconstruction of the city. It will feature US and Irish celebrities, as well as those who were instrumental in restoring the city to some semblance of normality in the wake of the attacks. Prominent in the line-up are expected to be firefighters and other Irish people who made a contribution to the relief and reconstruction efforts.
The production team had some difficulty finding a studio in New York that could accommodate both the wide variety of the Late Late Show running order and its 200-strong audience. But a suitable studio was located in the Chelsea area and the programme will be recorded there for broadcast on March 15th. Producer Betty Purcell and researcher Nita Byrne will travel to New York this week to finalise arrangements. It's not the first time the Late Late has been broadcast from New York - Gay Byrne presented a show from the city around 20 years ago.
TV PRESENTER Lorraine Keane is to host a new entertainment show on TV3 later this year. A pilot for the weekly half-hour show is currently in pre-production in Ballymount. The exact format has not yet been finalised, but it's expected to include interviews with celebrities and stories from the showbiz world. Keane has been presenting the entertainment slot on TV3's news bulletins since the station began in September 1998.
RAIDIÓ na Gaeltachta begins its 30th anniversary celebrations on Tuesday, with a visit from the President, Mrs McAleese to its headquarters in Casla, Co Galway. The station, which has a mandate to provide an Irish-language radio service for Irish speakers, first went on air at 3 p.m. on Easter Sunday, April 2nd, 1972. Initially, R n G provided a limited service; it could be received in Gaeltacht areas only for a few hours a day. Today, the station broadcasts 24 hours a day and is available worldwide on the web at www.rnag.ie and www.rte.ieR n G employs 70 people - most are based in Casla, Connemara, but it also has studios and staff in counties Kerry, Donegal, Dublin and Mayo. It plans to mark its 30th anniversary with a series of events, including concerts, throughout the year.
QUICK-WITTED audience members are required for the recording of a new eight-part, comedy radio series at The Shelter, Vicar Street, in Dublin next week. The Comedy Improv Radio Show will be recorded from Monday to Thursday for broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1 later this year. There are still some free tickets available. They can be obtained from improv@rte.ie; indicate which night tickets are required for. The show starts at 8 p.m. sharp and doors will close at 7.45 p.m. Performers include Tara Flynn, Ian Coppinger, Brendan Dempsey, Michelle Read, Joe Rooney and Paul Tylak.
RTÉ HAS launched the first in a series of six books on broadcasting and Irish society with the publication of 2RN and the Origins of Irish Radio by Richard Pine. The chairman of the RTÉ Authority, Patrick Wright commented on the similarity between the problems and complaints facing the station in its early days and today. "We had the issue of the licence fee from the station on one side and the listening public on the other side," he said. "Complaints about the content and standard of programmes, complaints from the politicians of the day about bias in the station, statements in regard to the political stance of some of the announcers and executives, and the accusation of the station being pro-British as against being anti-American. I had to ask myself - does anything really change?"
The five other books in the series (which include studies of Irish television drama, news and current affairs, Irish language programming, Network 2 and music and RTÉ) will be published later this year and in 2003.
AN AMERICAN has been appointed as the BBC's director of television, following the departure of Mark Thompson to Channel 4 last December. Jana Bennett spent 20 years at the BBC before moving to Washington to run The Learning Channel for the Discovery network in 1999. Her most notable achievements came during her stint as head of the BBC science department where she developed award-winning series such as Walking With Dinosaurs, The Human Body and Meet The Ancestors. Bennett's new brief will be to oversee all BBC television output on both terrestial and digital channels. She takes up her new position in April.
mkearney@irish-times.com