When 2RN took to the
airwaves on January 1st 1926, two stations now operated on the
island with 2BE broadcasting from Belfast. As soon as 2BE took to the airwaves
in September 1924, the listening public south of the border demanded a domestic
service from the Irish Free State government. They listeners demanded something
different from apparently British and Unionist slanted output from the Belfast
station. There was a sense of nationalistic pride in the opening of 2RN and
while initially signal power would not see them as competitors to each other,
their competition did however play out on the pages of the most read newspapers
north and south of the border.
An unusual night of
programming took place on both 2BE[1] and 2RN[2] on Friday February 19th,
just weeks after the launch of 2RN. When 2RN began broadcasting in January
transmission times were just two hours, 8pm until 10pm. By the beginning of
February one hour had been added, 2RN now broadcasting from 7.30pm until
10.30pm. Programming from the Dublin station consisted mainly of instrumental
and operatic music which led to complaints appearing in newspapers and trade
magazines and comparisons being made with 2BE and British mainland stations.
On that Friday night, 2RN began with a tuning note at 7.30 allowing listeners both to tune in and identify the station. Two fifteen minutes talks were then broadcasts, the first one on Egypt, the second on savings certificates. From 8pm for the following 90 minutes 2RN relayed 2LO from London. Dublin listeners were treated to the Hungarian String Quartet, Vivienne Chatterton, Soprano who performed a number of Hungarian folk songs and readings by Dorothy Warren.
Meanwhile at exactly the
same time on 2BE in Belfast from 8pm and heavily advertised in both the
Northern Ireland newspapers and the Radio Times, a ‘Concert by the Dublin
Artists’. The Belfast station was clearly audible in Dublin with a stronger
transmitter than 2RN’s at McKee Barracks. The 2BE show consisted of
performances by Gerard Crofts, Baritone, Jean Nolan, Mezzo Soprano and already
a seasoned radio performer on 2RN, Arthur Darley[3], Violinist and the stage
comedian and humourist Jimmy O’Dea[4]. The 2BE proved extremely popular with
listeners, with Dublin listeners complaining about both the content of the
relay from London and the quality of the rebroadcast. The Belfast Newsletter
reported,
‘A
troupe of instrumentalists give a concert this afternoon at the 2BE studios
when many popular musical numbers will be included. A select quartette of
Dublin artists (two vocalists, a violinist and an entertainer) are visitors at
the station this evening, when an astonishingly comprehensive programme of
Irish folk and other music will be broadcast between 8 O’Clock and 9.30.’
It was important for the new medium of broadcasting that listeners could read the schedules in the daily newspapers. There was an antipathy towards the Unionist leaning Belfast station from Dublin newspapers. This manifested itself when the two broadcasters clashed for listeners on that Friday. The Evening Herald published its ‘Broadcasting’ schedule but to divert attention from the obvious attraction of ‘Dublin Artists’ for Dublin listeners, they purposely inserted the 2RN schedule into the middle of the 2BE programme. It was an attempt to draw readers and possible listeners to the 2RN broadcasts rather than Belfast, it was commercial sabotage.
[1]
440m Medium Wave
[2]
390m Medium Wave
[3]
Played on 2RN’s opening night broadcast on January 1st 1926 and died
December 1929
[4]
Identified in the papers as James O’Dea
No comments:
Post a Comment