I remember a time, in the past, when I used to listen to Lyric FM in the morning. This seems to be increasingly hard if not impossible.
I remember a time, in the past, when Marty Whelan was one of the biggest stars in Irish radio. And then he went to Century.
Century was a good station; I regret that economically it just didn’t make it. However, Marty Whelan was well suited for the morning on popular radio. Less so on Lyric FM in my view.
It seems like you have a choice of two distinct styles of radio in the morning in Ireland; news, or chatter with some music thrown in. There is no easing into the morning any more. And when you switch on Lyric, the so called classical music station, it’s a bit regrettable to be encountering, amongst other things, Paul Brady and Bon Jovi. I don’t hear 4FM playing much in the way of Rachmaninov. And 2FM probably doesn’t play much Tchaikovsky either.
So.
What I’d like is a radio show – on Lyric – that doesn’t play music which is pretty ubiquitous on almost every other radio show in the country. I mean, Bon Jovi get an outting on every local station and most of the other nationals as well. I’d like that music to be classical and easing me into the day. And most of all, I want it presented by someone who doesn’t feel the need to be entertaining and banterful and bashing my ears with drivel in the morning.
In Ireland, this is too much to ask. So, if I am within network connectivity at the relevant time, I listen to YLE Klassinen from Finland. They play mainly music, mainly full works and the music is broken only to tell me what it is and to read the news once in a while.
It’s not that hard.
In the meantime, my view is that Marty Whelan belongs on 4FM.
Marty tries to take up the mantle of Terry Wogan and chatters on inanenly.
You could also try this which eases you in to the day as well…..(as your average dj would say, “More music, less talk” but they practice it if not preaching it.)
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/radio/services/cms/
My wife loves listening to Marty in the morning. I love listening to podcasts in the morning. My son loves talking non-stop in the morning. Podcasts barely get a look in these days..
(Yes, I do love listening to him, but bloody hell, at 7am in the morning I can’t concentrate on Minecraft mod ideas while I’m still bleary eyed!)
I remember a time when you were doing all sorts of interesting things with photoprocessing at 6.30 in the morning Donncha…amazing the impact of children, isn’t it?
It’s an interesting thing with Marty – those who like him, seem to really, really like him. Those who don’t, are absolutely deadset against his show. I actually think that what he does from an entertainment point of view is probably very good. It’s just it’s not maybe the best place for it.
Kevin – I wonder about the wannabe Terry Wogan too and the interesting thing is, I don’t think he manages it.
If you are looking to be eased gently into the day then Marty’s banter won’t fit the bill. Its still probably a bit better than the navel gazing and flogging to death of news stories that goes out on RTE Radio 1 between 7 and 9.
Given the right time and place Marty could be very entertaining – say an evening drivetime programme.
The world is now your oyster when it comes to radio listening (except when driving, but then there’s always podcasts).