The Dear Frankie tune was even better.
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That must have been on during the time in my life when I had to actually work. A radio programme I suspect but I have to confess to having never known anything about it.
At lunchtime daily, a daily staple of my primary school years while having the dinner.
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You never heard Harbour Hotel, written by Lee Dunne which ran for at least 15 years on the only radio station in the country?
Correct and right. Strange how work and jobs can interfere with things.
I couldn’t tell you a single thing about it but I’ve read some of Lee Dunne’s stuff.
The most iconic tune i associate with an RTE radio show - The original theme tune for RTÉ’s Seascapes was “Sailing By” by Ronald Binge
Surely Gay Byrnes theme was the most memorable RTÉ Radio theme?
Declan Lynch: ‘Could Liveline not have nailed down a new theme tune… or keep the one that worked perfectly well for 40 bleeding years?’
Radio reviews
Declan Lynch
Responding to an Irish Independent query, an RTÉ spokesperson said the new Liveline theme music is just a “placeholder”, with a new jingle to be announced next year.
I know there’s terrible things happening in the world and we might be tempted to skip over any controversies that arise in the killing fields of daytime radio jingles, but still…
Morning Ireland (RTÉ1, weekdays, 7am) in its majesty sensed the national significance of “retiring” the Stockton’s Wing tune Over the Moors, which we’ve been hearing on most weekdays since the mid-1980s.
Audrey Carville spoke to the Wingman, Mike Hanrahan, who was philosophical about the change, appreciative of “quite a few dinners and a few drinks” the tune had paid for, over the years – and respectful of the courtesy call from RTÉ to say they were stopping it.
In the style of the ancient troubadour, he maintained that “you can’t knock” the new theme music, because whoever wrote it “will get a few bob”, but clearly he didn’t think it was much good. And rightly so. Which is interesting, because later in the day we were reading about it just being a “placeholder”.
Now we reach the dark heart of this affair, because no matter how much you want to move on and worry about various global catastrophes, you are drawn back to this nagging thought: after all the months wasted trying out different Liveline presenters, and losing loads of listeners in the process, could they not have nailed down a new theme tune or – just go with me on this – keep the one that has worked perfectly well for 40 bleeding years?
It gets darker. Speaking to the Irish Independent about “a wider planned refresh of the RTÉ Radio 1 imaging and sound”, the spokesperson added: “This refresh will be integral to the repositioning of RTÉ Radio 1. This reimaging project began early-stage scoping over the summer.”
The RTÉ Concert Orchestra was mentioned, but I’m afraid some of us couldn’t get past the “refresh”, the “reimaging project” and especially the “early-stage scoping”.
I know corporate gobbledygook rules the world, but surely the most massive executive bonus should go to the one who’d stand up at the meeting and say: “Blue-sky thinking here, but how about we take a rain-check on the early-stage scoping and just keep playing Stockton’s Wing for, like, the next 40 years?”
As it turns out, we’re taking away some positive learnings from the early-stage scoping of the actual presenters of the new schedule. David McCullagh, Oliver Callan (RTÉ1, weekdays, 11am) and Kieran Cuddihy have given no indication that they’ve been doing anything with their lives up to this point, apart from smoothly presenting the Today programme, a two-hour 11 o’clock show, and Liveline (RTÉ1, weekdays, 1,45pm) respectively.
Maybe it does take months of corporate machinations to make it all sound so effortless, so we’ll hold off for a moment on further scepticism about the “re-imaging project”.
Yet the things that stood out for me about this first week of the “refresh” were the kind of things that involve the “talent” exercising personal judgment. I would identify two items in particular: Callan’s opening monologue on Tuesday, and Cuddihy’s handling of a call about the rise of racist violence in this country.
Callan spoke about “the British right-wing press” launching this “amazing campaign” against the BBC to portray “lefty bias” over various matters including Donald Trump. Callan did not apply the dead hand of “both-sidesing” to suggest wrongly that this “right-wing” campaign is being conducted in good faith.
Cuddihy spoke to Naeem Iqbal, a Portlaoise businessman who has represented Fianna Fáil, about an assault on two men in the town in the early hours of last Saturday. As Naeem talked about the growing waves of racism against Muslims, Cuddihy noted a new wave of it coming into Liveline, on WhatsApp. But he made no mention of “legitimate concerns” of the WhatsAppers; he wasn’t “starting a debate” here.
Presenters need to be able to make these editorial judgments – increasingly we find democratic institutions are only as strong as the individuals who can make such decisions. Eventually it all comes down to the “talent”.
And perhaps it always has done – even before the time of Stockton’s Wing.
Liveline was buzzing with footix and female footii in the aftermath of last nights heroics.
It wasn’t all joy however. Young Michael is a Ronaldo fan and Mummy moved Heaven and Earth to secure the tickets. Michael, in hindsight, may have misjudged the mood of Paddy Footix and arrived at the Aviva clad from top to bottom in CR7 shite.
It was jocular enough early doors, mild abuse and some light profanities (banter) but as the evening progressed the vitriol ramped up and the comments became nastier. Mummy was backed up by Mummy II who was also appalled that her Oisín was ridiculed and was the recipient of lurid suggestions. The ladies were rightly disappointed that their little pets (clad in CR7 shit) were ridiculed, sneered at and assorted stuff. Oisín was cute enough to decide on the Dort that he wasn’t wearing that CR7 shit again.
The moral of the story, well 2 really:
Do not worship false Gods.
Young Oisín will want to toughen up before the U-14 championship starts.
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Or he’ll end up like his uncle Walter…… a f*ckin hairdresser
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I was on the receiving end of a version of this myself at Ireland v Malta on May 28th, 1989 up in the back corner of the Havelock Square end beside the railway. As I sat on the steps 35-40 minutes before the start of the game, lovingly perusing the match programme, my CR Smith Celtic jersey was remarked upon by some older supporters with heavy Dublin accents.
“Ya support Celtic do ya? Ah we wouldn’t be too keen on Celtic, now. We’re Rangers men.”
“No yis don’t” says I. “Oh yeah, big Rangers man so I am” says one of the men.
I cited the previous week’s SFA Cup final when Celtic had beaten Rangers 1-0 to rub their noses in it and demostrate to them that Celtic were BETTER than Rangers, but they defiantly pointed to Rangers’ emphatic league championship victory, the goalscoring exploits of Ally McCoist and Graeme Souness’s expert player-management to rub my nose in it.
I wasn’t overly familiar with the concept of craic with adults at that age and thought they were serious.
Perhaps they were serious.
Mary from Buttevant rang in today to voice her disapproval of Kellogs not selling All Bran anymore. She sounded very indignant and not a little bit constipated.
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They were talking about vaping in schools yesterday and had the principal from a school in Gorey describe at length a vaping alarm system he had acquired for the school toilets (3 days suspension if you’re caught).
I was tempted to phone in and tell the nation that when I was in school in Mount Sion there was a smoking room for the sixth years, where the sixth years could go and have a fag in peace at break time and lunchtime. There’d often be a lad there (Harry Condon) practicing away on the guitar with the fag tucked into the neck. The fags were acquired from Seanie Browns shop across the road beside the Barracks for 2p (inclusive of one red match). Seanie was an evil little man who bore a striking resemblance to the child catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
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Passed away a couple of years ago if I’m thinking of the same fella.
I think they used to come in from South Kilkenny. I think he had a younger brother.
Edit. Looked at RIP there. Same fella. That made me sad. The first gig I was ever at was Harry Condons band Airforce in the St Paul’s Community Centre.
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Yep he was from Slieverue, didn’t know him but I know a few who did and they were fond of him, quite the character apparently.
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We used to get singles from a little sweet shop owned by a woman who looked like a tiny witch. Blue overall, big wart on the nose and a fag hanging out the side of her mouth. Appearances were misleading. She was a lovely woman. She used to do wafers with a big blast of ice cream in the middle.
Michael Bond was our principal and his office was near the jacks and there was always a haze and whaft of smoke down that way. The boyos would go in to that one just to annoy him.
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The show earlier had female massesses ringing in about male clients looking for ‘a happy ending’.
It’s rife apparently.
There was a general discussion about men being very forward and direct on dating sites as well.
I am sure there are a few on here who fall into that boat.
You know I’d be lying if I said literally every person who read the above post didn’t immediately think of @HBV.