FRANK HALL

Frank Hall was born in Newry, County Down in 1921. After a brief unsuccessful attempt at becoming a musician he moved south of the border to Dublin. He began his journalistic career in 1947 working for Independent Newspapers. He started working for the paper’s picture desk but in the early 1950s began writing a Saturday night dance column ‘Tempo’ for the Evening Herald then in heavy competition with the Evening Press. Under the pseudonym Frank Lee, he began the Evening Herald’s first diary which became known as ‘Going Places’. He also wrote a regular record review column for the paper under the by line Rick O’Shea. Frank interviewed the Beatles on the occasion of their visit to Dublin for a concert in Abbey Street and famously reacted after the interview that he believed that their popularity would not last.

He started in the RTE News room in 1964 presenting a topical programme called 'Newsbeat' but is most famously remembered as host of the political satire show Halls Pictorial Weekly that also starred Eamon Morrissey and Frank Kelly. The show ran from 1971 until 1980 broadcasting almost 250 episodes. In an interview Frank revealed that the programme was recorded on a Thursday with the crew in studio from 10am until 8.30pm that night. The show was the edited and broadcast the following Thursday. A far cry from Jon Stewart’s Comedy Channel ‘Daily Show’ that is on air today. It is said that during the halcyon days of \Hall Pictorial that Frank single handily kept comedy alive on RTE television. The show was set in the fictional town of Ballymagash and Frank trawled the local and provincial newspapers to get the funniest stories. An ensemble of characters appeared on the show with Frank and they themselves became household names like The Minister for Hardship and Cha and Miah, two Cork wits who knew everything about nothing. (A Youtube clip of Cha and Miah can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyDWLSrbzUw&feature=channel&list=UL) The show is thought by many political commentators as a major part of the downfall of the Liam Cosgrave led Fine Gael/ Labour coalition Government of 1973 – 1977. His depiction of a Dickensesque Minister for Hardship, played by Eamonn Morrissey satarized the then Government seriously damaging its public perception. In the 1977 General Election Fianna Fail’s Jack Lynch swept to power with one of the biggest majorities seen in Parliament. Franks depiction of local county councils is still referred to today as the ‘ballymagash’ style. Frank Kelly when asked about the controversial axing of Halls Pictorial Weekly said that the then RTE controller of Programme Muiris MacConghail had taken the final decision and had persuaded Frank to give up the show after twelve years on the air. His fame never phased him. He counted one day that he had met a school friend from Newry who had been working at a border customs post until the IRA blew it up. When they met his friend asked him ‘what are you into?’ to which Frank replied ‘television’, ‘Is that making them or selling them? Came the reply proving that Frank’s fame was struggling to travel even around the island.

‘Ballymagash’ was a short lived reincarnation of the show in January 1983 broadcasting on Monday nights. Location filming for the series was done around Summerhill in County Meath. In keeping with the times, the show’s fictional town had its own pirate radio station. He was host for one season of the Late Late Show in 1964 when Gay Byrne briefly departed to broadcast in the UK. The critics were not kind to him and only relented when the show reintroduced the panel to the show.

In the mid 80s he was presenting a Sunday Night programme called Hall and Company but would leave RTE to take up a new role on behalf of the State. Frank was appointed the Irish Censor replacing the late Dermot Breen then leaving the position to Sheamus Smith in September 1986. During his time at the Censors Office Among the films banned by him was Monty Python's Life of Brian, which he described as "offensive to Christians and to Jews as well, because it made them appear a terrible load of gobshites". Frank passed away in September 1995 following a heart attack. He was married to Aileen Kearney and was survived by Aileen and their five children Don, David, Geraldine, Vivienne and Julie

The publishing of his will showed that he had left an estate valued at £257,098. RTE Archives section of Frank Hall can be found at http://www.rte.ie/archives/people/289754-frank-hall/

IRISH BROADCASTING IN 1930s

Broadcasting in Ireland in the 1930’s was strictly controlled by the Government and the Department of Posts and Telegraphs with Eamon DeValera as Taoiseach from March 1932 and the Minister in charge from 33-37 was Gerry Boland. 2RN continued to broadcast but 6CK was closed due to financial difficulties. A high powered sixty kilowatt transmitter was installed in Athlone to cover the entire country and was due to go on the air in 1933 but the Government sped up plans and the transmitter went live for the Eucharistic Congress held in Ireland in 1932. Eamon DeValera officially opened the station known as Radio Athlone on February 6th 1933. Radio Athlone began life on 413m but the Lucerne Conference altered that to 513mMW. In 1937 the service was renamed Radio Eireann. Sponsored programmes were the popular medium for advertising in the early days of radio broadcasting. Advertising revenue became increasingly important to cover the cost of the Athlone transmitter. The first sponsored programme, featuring Euthymol toothpaste, was broadcast on 31 December 1927. Through the 1930s, Independent Newspapers sponsored "Slumber Hour", PJ Carroll, makers of Sweet Afton cigarettes, sponsored "Sweet Afton Varieties", The Savoy Cocoa Company sponsored the "Savoy Minstrels", and The Blackrock Hosiery Company, "Rock Revellers". "The Irish Hospitals' Sweepstakes" programme, sponsored by the Irish Hospitals' Trust to promote the sale of tickets for the Irish Sweepstake, and "The Walton's Programme", Leo Maguire sponsored by the Dublin music shop of that name, became among the best-known and longest-running sponsored programmes. On St. Patricks Day 1939 following the acquisition of a one hundred watt short wave transmitter for £7,500, Radio Eireann began short wave broadcasts on 19.85metres. With the outbreak of the Second World War these transmissions ceased but was relaunched with transmission of the News Bulletins aimed at North America. The service was discontinued in 1952. Over several days in February 1936, twenty tunes were played for listeners to Radio Athlone. The purpose was to let the listeners select a suitable identification tune signal for the Irish national station. By a large majority, the tune selected was "O'Donnell Abú". In all, 968 letters were received. There were 260 votes for "O'Donnell Abú". The 1926 Wireless Telegraphy Act was supposed to be a deterrent but one young man in Limerick would break all the rules. Jim O’Carroll attended the Technical Institute on O’Connell Avenue in the city. He had a keen interest in electronics and while experimenting built a crystal receiving set that allowed him to listen to 2RN, the BBC and with improvements he began to listen to Short Wave broadcasts from America and Australia. In 1935 O’Carroll added an oscillator to his receiving set and turned it into a transmitter that was powerful enough to be heard all over the city. After testing its limitations O’Carroll had to find a home for his new station as living with his sister was not the ideal location for secrecy. He eventually found a location on the third floor at the home of his friend Charlie O’Connor at 84 Henry Street. The station now named The City Broadcasting Station (CBS) went on the air playing gramophone records and announcing what movie was showing in the local picture houses. On air most nights from 7 – 11pm on 520m the station continued with Billy Dynamite (O’Carroll) and Al Dubbin (O’Connor) at the controls broadcasting a mixture of speech, gramophone records, relayed programmes from American radio and even swimming lessons on the radio. The station continued from February to October with the only change being the location. The station moved to the home of Michael Madden at 25 Wolfe Tone Street who had been providing the batteries for the station. The station went from strength to strength and was the first station in Ireland to carry a paid commercial when the Wolfe Tone Dairy began to advertise its products. On October 31st, Halloween while Michael Madden was on the air, the station was raided by the police and an engineer from the Post Office Walter Dain. Madden was arrested and the equipment confiscated. Following a court case in February 1936 Madden was convicted and fined £1 and 2 guineas costs. During the case Garda Lenihan said that, ‘during the illegal broadcasts names were mentioned and scandalous remarks used’. It would be the first conviction under the 1926 Wireless Telegraphy Act. August 14th 1938 Michael O’Hehir’s first Radio Eireann broadcast All Ireland semi final between Loais and Kerry (Worked on GAA matches until 1985)

MARCONI & THE DIGITAL SWITCHOVER

With the arrival of digital TV for everyone on October 24th 2012 perhaps we will take a moment to connect it past broadcasting advances in Ireland. In the late 1800’s and early part of the 20th century, Marconi, son of an Irishwoman Annie Jameson was the main motivator for the globalisation of radio broadcasting. Marconi’s invention of wireless telegraphy revolutionised global communications with many of the experiments conducted from the edge of Europe in Galway and Kerry. The basic elements of a telecommunication system are:

A transmitter (information source) that takes information and converts it to a signal for transmission - A transmission medium over which the signal is transmitted - A receiver (information sink) that receives and converts the signal back into required information

For example, consider a radio broadcast. In this case the broadcast tower is the transmitter, the radio is the receiver and the transmission medium is free space. Often telecommunication systems are two-way and devices act as both a transmitter and receiver or transceiver. For example, a mobile phone is a transceiver. Telecommunication over a phone line is called point-to-point communication because it is between one transmitter and one receiver, telecommunication through radio broadcasts is called broadcast communication because it is between one powerful transmitter and numerous receivers. Marconi’s means of communications over his wireless telegraph system was by Morse code, a series of dots and dashes created by American Samuel Morse. There were two variants, a dot or a dash and digital television is based on the same principle 1’s and 0’s as in the binary code. Television signals can either be analogue or digital. In an analogue signal, the signal is varied continuously with respect to the information. In a digital signal, the information is encoded as a set of discrete values, the binary code.

The three examples is how we identify the transmission of the word 'HELLO'.

The difference between a digital signal (top) and a analogue signal(bottom) with the advantage being that a digital signal can be repaired whereas an analogue signal can not.

The Irish Broadcasting: BRIAN FARRELL

The Irish Broadcasting: BRIAN FARRELL: Brian was born in the Manchester, UK in January 1929 but moved to Ireland in 1939 where he was enrolled in Colaiste Mhuire in Dublin. Af...

BRIAN FARRELL

Brian was born in the Manchester, UK in January 1929 but moved to Ireland in 1939 where he was enrolled in Colaiste Mhuire in Dublin. After leaving school he initially studied to join the priesthood but quickly discovered this was not the life for him and left to become a commercial traveller. In 1955 he enrolled in UCD and later graduated. While attending Harvard University in the United States on a scholarship grant he met Marie Therese whom he married in April 1955.

Paralleled with an academic career he was writing for the Irish Press newspaper and commentating on events of the day on Radio Eireann. He joined the television service when it opened in 1962 and remained an integral part of the stations current affair output until his retirement on 2004. He presented many news and analysis programmes including Broadsheet, '7 Days', 'Frontline' and 'Primetime'. He was the main anchor for the stations election and budgets coverage and was lead commentator on many of the State events including funerals and heads of state visits. He covered 10 general election campaigns and counts for RTE TV.

On RTE TV’s first full day of transmission January 1st 1962, Brian Farrell appeared as a presenter of the current affairs programme ‘Broadsheet’. In 1966 he began lecturing in UCDs Department of Politics but also in that year he along with Brian Cleeve and John O’Donoghue began presenting the current affairs programme ‘7 Days’ on RTE Television. The show continued until 1976. In October 1980 ‘Today Tonight’ began with Farrell as the main presenter. Today Tonight stayed on air until August 1992 when a number of separate programmes replaced that main current affairs output. In 1993 and 1994 he began hosting a half hour interview show broadcast on Sunday evenings at 6.30pm titled ‘Farrell’. In 1992 RTE again began providing one main current affairs programme titled 'Primetime'. Brian did not join 'Primetime' until 1997 and then stayed with the show until his retirement in 2004.

In 1968 Brian won the first of two Jacobs Award for his hosting of the 7 Days programme while a second arrived for his coverage of the 1977 General Election results programme. In 1979 he was RTE’s main anchor for their extensive live coverage of Pope John Paul II’s three day visit to Ireland.

In 1983 one of his many book published was a biography of former Fianna Fail Taoiseach Sean Lemass.

In 1994 Brian announced that he was leaving his post of Professor in the Politics Department of UCD to take up the post of Director General of the Institute of European Affairs.

He served as chairman for a number of years until 2000 as Chairman of the Arts Council.

PADDY CROSBIE

Born in Dublin in October 1913, Paddy will always be associated with 'School Around The Corner' when his radio programme and later a television series visited schools around the country interviewing the pupils of the school whose answers were the life blood of the show. He was educated at St. Paul's Christian Brothers School on Dublin's Brunswick Street, a school affectionately known as 'Th Brunner'. He then went to St Patricks Training College and UCD where he graduated as a teacher. He began teaching in his old school 'The Brunner' in 1934 achieving the role of headmaster before retiring from the teaching profession in 1978.

Having got his break by writing scripts for the likes of Noel Purcell at the Theatre Royal, he joined Radio Eireann in the 1950's and his newly created show began in 1953 with his old CBS school on Brunswick Street being the first to be featured. His creation 'The School Around the Corner' (the original SATC 'Sex and the City')stayed on radio until 1966 while on television it began on January 2nd 1962, the second day of broadcasting for the new station. The premise of the school was that the host would visit local schools and interview students on a wide range of topics often leading to some hilarious exchanges.

Apart from SATC, Paddy hosted 'Back To School' and 'Tug O'Words' which was billed as a battle of wits between boys and girls on RTE TV. He was a regular guest on Gay Byrne's RTE chat show 'The Late Late Show'. He traveled the country with his SATC show creating a variety show around the main content.

He presented the show until 1973 and it has been recreated by Ulster Television and RTE with Gerry Ryan as host on RTE from 90-94 and Frank Michell in Northern Ireland from 1995 - 2005. Paddy passed away suddenly in September 1982 leaving behind a wife Peg and seven children. GERRY RYAN HOSTS SCHOOL AROUND THE CORNER FOR FURTHER READING CHECK OUT THIS EXCELLENT DEDICATION TO PADDY CROSBIE http://schoolaroundthecorner.posterous.com/

HERO TURTLE- DUBLIN

Known in Europe as the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, the original title of Ninja first appeared in 1981 as a comic created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. In October 1988 the first animated TV series was shown on US television and spawned a number of animated and live action TV series, four films, stage shows, comics, toys and advertising opportunities. The first series was animated in Dublin at the Murakami/Wolf Studios located in Montague Lane, Dublin 2. The studios were operated by American born Jimmy Murakami and Oscar winner Fred Wolf. They were joined by Charles Swenson and they produced many of the iconic animated TV series including the TMHT, James Bond Jnr and Budgie the Helicopter. Animators in Dublin marveled at the detailed artwork required for the TV series in 1987. The animated company was later known as Fred Wolf Films and are now based primarily in Burbank California.