The Gaybo Revolution

It is no exaggeration to call Gay Byrne a colossus of the Irish broadcasting world. Throughout the latter half of the twentieth century, as host of both The Late Late Show and The Gay Byrne Show, he played a seminal role in the shift in Irish society and culture from the Church-dominated, fearful state of the early 1960s to the modern, multicultural Ireland of today.

Reviled and revered in equal measure, Byrne was ‘the great window-opener’ and a ‘media lay priest’ who shone a spotlight on some of the darkest and most taboo areas of Irish life. Using media articles, letters to Irish newspapers, recent studies of Irish culture, quotes from Byrne himself and a re-examination of his original broadcasts, The Gaybo Revolution explores how Byrne and his programmes provided a forum for popular debate and were catalysts for change in Irish life.

Examining controversies that shocked the nation, such as the Bishop and the Nightie affair, and the Ann Lovett letters, as well as seminal interviews with Annie Murphy, Pádraig Flynn, Gerry Adams and Terry Keane, Finola Doyle-O’Neill takes us on a journey through Ireland’s recent past. The Gaybo Revolution will appeal to anyone who is interested in the evolution of Irish society and culture in the late twentieth century. 

A fantastic read which lays bare much of the journey not just one TV show took but an entire nation on a Saturday night. This is one book that should be 'one for everyone in the audience'.

Author Dr Finola Doyle-O’Neill is a broadcast historian with the School of History at UCC where she lectures in Ireland’s Film and Media History. She has contributed widely to public debates and conferences on Ireland’s media history, and was convenor of TV50, a collaboration between UCC and RTÉ celebrating 50 years of television in Ireland. 

OLD TIME RADIO EIREANN????

I have recently listened to some of the great OTR (Old Time Radio) stations through the 'tunein' app and two thoughts occurred to me. Firstly having listened to so many great programmes from the golden era of US radio, I feel in Ireland we have lost so much great radio from RTE because of the lack of recordings which in turn was due to the lack of finances afforded to the state broadcaster.

The golden era of US radio is usually associated with the late thirties, forties and fifties up to the period when television began to replace radio drama as radio moved more to music and news delivery. On stations such as WNAR, Antioch 1710 or Rumsey Retro Radio you can hear some great dramas such as The Whistler, Suspense or The Lives of Harry Lime (from the Third Man starring Orson Wells), comedy programmes like You Bet Your Life with Groucho Marx, The Jack Benny Show or Abbot & Costello.

Perhaps Irish programmes such as one off dramas or The Kennedy's of Castleross would be worth listening to again. Reviews for Radio Eireann programmes were often flowing with praise and how I would love to hear some of the great Irish actors who appeared on the radio.

Secondly stations in the US such as WNAR are available on line but also on medium wave (AM) as a microstation. A microstation broadcasts locally on very low wattage but they are able to broadcast to niche markets without much big brother controls from the FCC. Perhaps a similar system of low powered transmitters could be employed in Ireland on AM frequencies in around 1500 - 1600 Khz where no Irish stations exist and low power would cause little interference to UK stations.

 http://tunein.com/radio/AM-1710-Antioch-s50924/
http://www.rumseyretro.ca/

The 90th Anniversary of 2RN's first test broadcast

THE IRISH BROADCASTING CARTEL

Irish broadcasting is now in the hands of a very small cartel of businessmen leading to concerns about diversity, impartiality and competition.

The media news cycle has been dominated by ITV's proposed €135m takeover of UTV and UTV Ireland but is this leading to a further dilution of Irish commercial broadcasting, away from a national identity?

Has the competition and choice as regulated for in 1988 being stifled with UTV Ireland now in the hands of the UK market leader and also by TV'3 acquisition by Liberty Global in 2015 for a reported €80m? The TV3 deal included the sale of its sister station 3e which had begun life as Channel 6 only to have its parent company Kish Media swallowed up by the TV3 acquisition. The diversity for both viewers and advertisers has taken a hit.

Liberty Global has been extremely active in the Irish broadcasting market in recent weeks as it rebrands its cable and digital provision service UPC as Virgin Media Ireland. It is one a major player in the Irish market and as ITV takes over UTV, John Malone's Liberty Global has increased its stake in ITV from an initial 6.4% to 9.9% leading to speculation of a takeover bid that would surely bring Ireland's Competition Authority to the table. Liberty's initial investment in ITV had cost €500 million.

Liberty's CEO is Colorado born Irish-American John Malone. He made his fortune in the cable TV provision sector in the United States. Liberty Global's revenue in 2014 was $18 billion employing over 35,000 across fourteen countries.

UTV having divested itself of its television portfolio is still heavily involved in radio broadcasting both north and south of the Irish border and in the UK. UTV Radio operates Q102, 96FM, C103, Limerick 95, U105 and FM 104. As though to prove that the Irish media circle is extremely small, former CEO of FM 104 Dermot Hanrahan purchased the Irish arm of the cinema advertising giant Carlton Screen from ITV renaming it Wide Eye Media.

In radio terms another giant is Denis O'Brien's Communicorp founded in 1989 which operates the commercial nation and quasi national stations Today FM and Newstalk as well as 98FM and Spin FM. In commercial radio in Ireland there are very few single franchise owning firms with many such as Bay Broadcasting and Landmark Media owning more than one radio station.

The third biggest influence presently in the Irish market is Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB. Their provision of satellite TV services and channel opt outs for domestic advertising has fragmented the advertising cash pool being chased by the state broadcaster RTE and commercial operations like TV3 and UTV Ireland. Sky also provide content such as Sky News, Sky One and Sky Sports.

To a lesser extent in the television market but still a major player in terms of advertising sales and creating expensive bidding for sports TV rights is Setanta Sports Ireland. Setanta is 60% owned by MCD promoter Denis Desmond through his Gaeity Investments vehicle while the remaining 40% is in the hands of founders Michael O'Rourke, Leonard Ryan and Mark O'Meara.

The deregulation of Irish broadcasting in the late 1980s dismantled RTE's airwaves monopoly and was created to create choice but as the old adage goes 'its more about the survival of the fittest' leading to consolidation and restricted choice. The choice has become stagnant, even the arrival of a new station like UTV Ireland fails to ignite the market but in terms of viewers choice and advertisers. Ireland is left with a State monolith and three smaller monopolies. This stagnation has led to an acceptance by the public, regulators and legislators that money talks whether it's the sale of broadcasting outlets or the carve up of advertising revenue. The viewers and the listener are the casualties.

Blog Award Listing

The Irish Broadcasting: The Last Post & Chorus

The Irish Broadcasting: The Last Post & Chorus: Following the recent and sad death of a friend and a gentleman Johnny Lyons, it put me to quickly remember some of those in the world of bro...

The Last Post & Chorus

Following the recent and sad death of a friend and a gentleman Johnny Lyons, it put me to quickly remember some of those in the world of broadcasting we have so far lost this year and it seems to be such a sad year and a loss to our broadcasting family.

Johnny Lyons (August 2015)
A gentleman on and off the air, Johnny was a well known voice and authority on sports broadcasting on 98FM and more recently the Premiership broadcasts on Today FM

Liam O'Murichu (June 2015)
Cork born Liam joined RTE in 1964 as editor of Irish language programming. He is best remembered as the host of the bilingual 'Trom Agus Eadrom' and the pre All Ireland shows 'Up for The Match'.

Diamuid Mac An Adhaister (July 2015)
Diarmuid was a familiar face on TG4 and starred as Seamus on that Irish channel's soap opera 'Ros na Run' since its launch in 1992. He can be seen on Youtube in the episode starring Stephen Fry some years ago.

Derek Davis (May 2015)
Larger than life Derek passed away after a short illness. He began his career with American network ABC before moving to the BBC and then onto RTE. He famously presented 'Live at Three' for many years with Thelma Mansfield and twice as host of The Rose of Tralee. In latter years he presented a number of programmes about fishing around Ireland.

Bill O'Herlihy (May 2015)
Bill will be best remembered as the 'referee' on RTE's soccer panel with messers Dunphy, Giles and Brady. Bill began his career with RTE Cork before moving to the newsroom in Montrose and eventually into the sports department where he presented everything from soccer to the Olympics.

Tony Fenton (March 2015)
Tony succumbed to a long battle with illness earlier this year. Antony Fagan as he was born began his radio DJing career with Dublin's pirate radio stations including Sunshine Radio and Radio Nova. He left the pirates and joined 2FM but left the state broadcaster and joined the national commercial station Today FM in 2003 to present the very popular afternoon slot.

Sir Peter O'Sullevan (July 2015)
Although Peter is forever associated with horse racing broadcasts in the UK and especially the Grand National Meeting on BBC and more recently Channel 4, Peter was born in Kenmare, County Kerry.

To all their families and friends we offer our condolences but remember that they have all left us a legacy for future generations.