WITH Teilifis na Gaeilge preparing to go on air by the autumn, there's a bristling debate in progress about whether it will succeed. Those favouring the station, whose £2 million studios are being built at Baile na hAbhann in Connemara, believe it's only right that Irish speakers should have their own outlet in the modern world's most powerful medium.
Opponents cannot see how the puny budget £10 million a year after the initial £16 million startup outlay - can provide programming of a quality that will lure sufficient viewers away from the kaleidoscope of television outpourings available nowadays via satellite and other means. The opening schedule of two hours programming a day - an hour of it to be supplied free by RTE - is a meagre aperitif from which viewers can be expected to develop an appetite for whatever main course lies ahead when and if the station expands.
I seem to recall that similar doubts were expressed about Raidio na Gaeltachta when it was set up in 1972. Yet now, 24 years later, that speciality station, established to serve Gaeltacht dwellers, has developed into a successful broadcasting entity. Its transmissions have not become ghettoised within the Irish speaking enclaves but cover the entire island. RnaG has listeners in Belfast as well as Ballyvourney.
While it has a core listenership of about 100,000 in the Gaeltacht areas, 250,000 people in other parts of Ireland tune in with varying degrees of regularity. Some people outside the Gaeltacht Pale may have a poor command of Irish, yet tune in because they are well disposed to the language and may wish to improve their knowledge of it. A large number of these listeners are ardent supporters of RnaG for its mainstay diet of Irish music, the biggest of any station in the State. Its music slots are endlessly diverse with everything available except English lyrics.
Aine Hensey, a Dubliner living in Inagh, west Clare, who hosts the weekend music show Beal Maidine, says that while the station started almost exclusively as a service for people in the Gaeltacht, it has long since had to broaden its activities. "There's a great resurgence of interest in Irish all over the country, as can be seen, for instance, in the spread of Gaelscoileanna everywhere," she points out. "And outside the Gaeltacht, in places like Dublin, there's a very large Irish speaking public who have to be catered for.
Two out of three of our listeners would be living outside the Gaeltacht. So what we have is a regional radio station that has to be a national station as well."
You could say that Raidio na Gaeltachta was born on the wrong side of the blanket, as it had its origins in the pirate broadcasting activities of the 1960s and 1970s. The idea was sown by Radio Caroline which, from its anchored base in the Irish Sea, showed like minded buccaneers how easy and cheap it was to open an illegal radio station. The Gaeltacht Civil Rights Movement quickly realised that a pirate Irish speaking station would be an effective way to publicise its demands, one of which was for a legal Gaeltacht station.
Saor Radio conducted its illicit broadcasts from a caravan primarily based in Rosmuc, though often on the run to confuse the authorities. The Fianna Fail government of the day realising "if you can't beat em, join em", set up Raidio na Gaeltachta and instantly made the pirate caravan redundant.
The headquarters of RnaG are located at Casla, in Connemara, where the transmitting tower has become a familiar part of the landscape and will soon be joined by the Teilifis na Gaeilge mast five miles away. There are stations in Ballydavid, Co Kerry; Gweedore, Co Donegal; Castlebar, Co Mayo; and Dublin. The station also has facilities for broadcasting from the Aran Islands. A staff of some 50 to 60 are employed in broadcasts from the various stations for 11 1/2 hours every day.
Weekday programmes begin at 8 a.m. with Adhmhnaidin, a lively and well informed news and current affairs show anchored by Tomas O Ceallaigh, a Corkman who can be considered the David Hanly of RnaG. Recently, a new phone in show called Do Bharuil, hosted by Norita Ni Chartuir, has been setting the RnaG switchboard alight between 9.15 and 10.30 on weekday mornings.
Aine Hensey, who also does public relations work for the station says it has become a very important pail of national life. She is constantly amazed at the number of public figures who can handle themselves with confidence in an Irish interview.
People like swimmer Michelle Smith and the assistant manager of Shamrock Rovers, Terry Eviston, are regular interviewees on RnaG, and some politicians capable of more than a cupla focal seem to be more forthcoming in Irish than they might be in English. The station has pulled off more than a few scoops which triggered follow ups from "Big Brother" RTE.
"I can't understand why, but politicians seem to be more open and off their guard when they're speaking in Irish," says Aine Hensey. "An awful lot of them are more than willing to use Irish if it means they get a chance to broadcast.
She doesn't regard the onset of Teilifis na Gaeilge as presenting a form of competition for RnaG. "Rather I think the two stations will complement each other," she says. "There's no reason why they can't work together side by side and co operate with each other. Anything that raises the profile of Irish in one medium isn't going to do any harm to other Irish media."
So, as it gets ready to go on the air, Teilifis na Gaeilge can take heart from the success story of its radio sister in the Gaeltacht. The big difference, of course, between the two is money. If is relatively cheap to put out radio shows but with television you are quickly into telephone numbers. With the help of RTE, which is already complaining about the cost of its proposed contribution to Teilifis na Gaeilge, the new station may be able to sustain two hours of broadcasting a day. If it hopes to get bigger, though, it will need more money and lots of it.