The changes to RTÉ's radio schedules were defended last night by Ana Leddy, head of RTÉ Radio 1. "We are making these changes to increase the audience for high-quality radio," she said.
Last week, it was announced the station had decided to drop the afternoon arts show Rattlebag and the Mystery Train music programme, and that there would be a late-night arts programme at 11pm, which, Ms Leddy said last night, "gives us the freedom to explore the arts in an edgy, more experimental way".
She was speaking before presenting this year's PJ O'Connor Radio Drama Awards at the RTÉ Radio Centre in Dublin. "One of our aims is to help more people to know about the arts; to hear about shows, events and productions of all kinds; to be encouraged to try new experiences, whether on the radio or television, in the theatre or cinema, at a gallery or exhibition.
"So, we're going to seek out more stories . . . and we're going to put them on air - in our main daytime programmes, in a new listings show in the early evening and in a late-night arts programme."
RTÉ may be defending the decision, but the Arts Council is understood to be taking the dropping of Rattlebag very seriously. Director Mary Cloake said there would be a meeting between the Arts Council and RTÉ shortly "and this [the fact that Rattlebag/an arts programme] will no longer be part of the RTÉ Radio 1 daytime schedule from September, will be an urgent priority item on the agenda".
RTÉ's guiding principles state the station is "mandated to facilitate or assist contemporary cultural expression and to encourage or promote innovation and experimentation in broadcasting".
Some commentators point out that, although it has healthy listenership figures, because Rattlebag is just 45 minutes, it doesn't have the same scope as other programmes for indicating audience "reach", as it can only sample the number of listeners over a shorter period of time than longer programmes. In the new schedules, there is a trend for longer programmes or "bunching" programmes under one umbrella.
In the PJ O'Connor Awards presented last night, first prize of €3,000 for a 30-minute play was won by Philip Doherty, a 23-year old teacher from Cavan town, for his play Mysterious Ways.
William Fingleton, from Dublin but living in Beijing, was first runner-up prize in the 30-minute section, for Four-And-Twenty Blackbirds. Michael Timms, from Bray, was second runner-up for The Sorting Office of the Universe.
The winner of the 15-minute radio play award was Shay Linehan, who has recently returned from working in Africa to live in Dublin, for his play, Kerry Plates.