The last couple of weeks I thought I was having some trouble tuning in Radio Ireland at lunchtime. Okay, I was hearing the news and current affairs programe, The Way It Is - but I was also hearing constant music behind it.
My first guess was that a new pirate had planted its Jolly Roger in or around 100 FM. But I couldn't figure out why the phenomenon was only happening between 1 and 1.30 p.m. I didn't let it trouble me, because I can live without the show-biz gossip that seems to be the main cargo of this new flagship for the Radio Ireland news service. Then the Radio Ireland people, evidently proud of their efforts, sent me a cassette. And there it was: the music, again, all the time. Surely Radio Ireland would have been able to get around any interference when making a tape? The accompanying press release revealed all: The Way It Is "is the first programme of its kind in the country blending news and current affairs with entertainment against a background of contextual music". Contextual music - cool . . . What that means in practice is that when co-anchor Ian Noctor is talking to the station's court reporter about events in the "Dutchy" Holland trial, there's a sort-of mystery-thriller vibe pulsing away behind their conversation. The same tune accompanies a story about Lee Clegg, but gives way to other sounds for differently-mooded reports.
Personally, I think that's seriously stupid, going well beyond even the noisy space Myles Dungan occupies on Five (Seven) Live (RTE Radio 1, Monday to Friday). Reading between the lines of the press release, though, there's a suggestion that this sort of thing has worked elsewhere around the globe, and that Ginger Productions has helped Radio Ireland import it to these shores. So don't let my fogeyism put you off. Unlike Radio 1's current-affairs output, The Way It Is ain't aimed at your typical Irish Times reader or writer. If you like your news funky, by all means tune in - and you can be sure of hearing all the latest about Gary Glitter and Michael Hutchence.
There's no escaping John Quinn these days, and why would you want to? The book of the excellent radio series in which Quinn interviewed people about their educations is getting massive pre-Christmas exposure, with Bowman's Saturday 8.30 (RTE Radio 1) turned over to highlights of those interviews for the last fortnight.
Meanwhile, another finely crafted documentary has emerged from Quinn the producer: I Am What I Would Be (repeated last Wednesday, RTE Radio 1) is Quinn's heartfelt tribute to trees. Some of it is a bit sappy (ouch), as when Quinn enthuses of one tree "in its growth is its immortality", which strikes me as the opposite of the truth. But this exploration of the biological reality and metaphorical power of forests and individuals trees - including Seamus Heaney's well-worn but welcome reflections on Mad Sweeney and the nightingale - was another triumph for the mighty Quinn.
Playwright Enda Walsh was on The Darkness Echoing (RTE Radio 1, Tuesday), oozing talent, self-confidence and pleasure in his newfound success. One of the most interesting elements of the interview, with Mary O'Donnell, was Walsh's description of Greenhills College in Kilbarrack, Dublin, where an ordinary second-level school seems to have been transformed into a subversive literary academy by teachers such as Paul Mercier and Roddy Doyle. The young writer is evidently fond of "Roddy" and played up his transformative influence; Doyle hooked the teenage Walsh not only on writing but also on drama. "The first play I ever saw was when I was 15 or 16 and Roddy brought us to see a production of Wuthering Heights . . . We threw Maltesers at the poor actors - but it was very exciting." However, the image of the young gurrier and his chocolate-stained conversion to theatre took a bit of a blow a few minutes later in the interview, when O'Donnell said: "Your mother was an actress - the secret is out! - your mother was an actress, wasn't she?"
Walsh stammeringly admitted that indeed "she she she she" had acted in the likes of the Gate and the Peacock, before smoothing himself out and joking about what it would be like to work with her - "all those cups of tea!"
