The silence is deeper and darker than the hole in which RTÉ finds itself amid revelations of payments to departing Late Late Show host Ryan Tubridy. On and on it goes. And then, finally, the void between the end of Morning Ireland and the start of Radio 1’s Ryan Tubridy Show is filled by a voice.
But not Tubridy’s. He’s off the air, and who knows when he’ll be back. Instead, it’s Oliver Callan, who presumably would rather not be considered Tubridy’s Mini-Me (Tiny Tubs?) but occupies just that role as he fills in for the absent host. At one level, you have to feel for Callan, who has the impossible task of taking over from Tubridy as new details regarding the presenter’s salary threaten to plunge RTÉ into one of the biggest crises in its recent history.
[ RTÉ director general Dee Forbes suspended as fallout deepensOpens in new window ]
“A very good morning friends,” Callan says, with as much chipperness as he can muster. “A bit of a weird Friday I must concede. This is the last place I expected to be less than 24 hours ago.”
He continues that the “wider media” enjoys a “good old RTÉ scandal” and that “boy, did RTÉ serve one, with a flake on top and a sprinkle of shambles”.
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Callan is walking a tightrope. He’s fronting the Ryan Tubridy Show when Ryan Tubridy’s financial arrangements with the national broadcaster are under public scrutiny. As Callan says, he can’t ignore it. But he understandably does not wish to spend the entire 56-minute broadcast banging on about it.
But maybe he should have banged on about it. Instead, there are jokes about how working for RTÉ is like “being involved in a mini-private episode of Succession – phones buzzing who’s going to get the blame for this”. Callan reminds listeners, too, that researchers and others on the show – the “ordinary decent staff” – have “been working away like they always do... they are on the receiving end of this”.
And that is that, just about. He reads the morning headlines – Tubs from wall to wall – but then starts warbling about the merits of rock bands Iron Maiden v Blur (both are playing over the weekend) and then interviews a woman running a food company in Galway.
This is followed by an item on “bring your dog to work day”. Nobody mentions Tubridy or suspended RTÉ director Dee Forbes. How RTÉ gets past Tubridy-gate remains to be seen. But the first post-Tubs Ryan Tubridy Show demonstrates the extent of the challenge facing Montrose.
[ Hidden transactions meant Ryan Tubridy’s pay cut was a third of what RTÉ promisedOpens in new window ]
Licence-fee payers are angry and feel more questions need to be answered. Bring your dog to work banter just won’t cut it, and, for all Callan’s good work and undoubted professionalism, the sense throughout the broadcast is of an embattled institution circling the drain and picking up speed as it nears the bottom.
