Sir, - While driving to Portlaoise the other day, I realised things have got very confused in RTE radio. A couple of weeks ago I found it strange that on Radio 1 Marian Finucane was talking to a man who collected women's knickers, while on 2FM Gerry Ryan discussed the tribunals. Now Marian was speaking to a man in the UK about his company which provides alibis for people having affairs, while on 2FM Dave Fanning conducted a sensitive interview with a woman who had lost a child. Both stations now cover the same talk-radio territory, with Radio 1 "dumbing down" to compete with ... who? 2FM presumably, which went tabloid years ago to compete with Gaybo. But aren't they on the same side?
This is not a recent thing. Both stations held simultaneous phonein discussions on that speech by Finola Bruton, and both sent people over to interview the cast and audience when Riverdance played on Broadway. It's a safe bet they both covered the recent episcopal utterings on contraception. Any given topic is as likely to be on one as the other. This duplication would be bizarre if applied to the two national TV channels. Imagine two movie review programmes, two quiz-shows, or two news programmes, competing simultaneously on RTE 1 and Network 2. The other stations would be rubbing their hands with glee.
What's needed is to concentrate the talk on one channel. Then RTE will not be competing with itself, the quality will recover, and some of the time-wasting habits and irritating contributors will vanish. 2FM, which was set up to provide an alternative, will then be free to offer what this country has needed for a long time, a quality popular music channel, which relies on its choice of music, not on inane DJs with pretentious accents and silly competitions playing whatever the record companies are trying to sell to 15-year-olds.
For too long the adults of this country have been treated like morons by every major music radio station, even those that allegedly play classic hits (do the advertising standards not apply to a station's title?), as they pump out the same few songs from Robbie Williams or the Lighthouse Family or the forgettable non-musicians who are today's equivalent of Bros or Rick Astley.
Music for 20- to 50-year-olds does not exist during the day, but possibly does at night when those very people are watching TV. Imagine a daytime radio station where every track played was carefully chosen by someone with a feel for music, not a computer, where you might hear Elvis Costello, Steely Dan, Thin Lizzy, Neil Young, Van Morrison, The Specials, Stockton's Wing, Bob Marley, Bob Seger, Jackson Brown, Christy Moore, Gladys Knight, Bryan Ferry, etc., with no smart-alec radio personalities, just DJs for whom the music comes first. Is that too much to hope for? - Yours, etc.,
Sean Doocey, Castle Village Green, Celbridge, Co. Kildare.