Lyric fm's Breakfast show presenter - Marty Whelan.

HugoBradyBrown

Dear All,

While not wishing to doubt anyone's view on a personal level, I am not able to accept that the Irish Times would publish a 'puff piece' on any subject, even in support of an unalloyed public good like RTE Lyric FM, or MITM. If we read the Charter of the newspaper, we will see that its brief is fearless publication of the unvarnished truth, while being beholden to nobody. It is always made clear (as any acquaintance with the subs' desk will inform us very sharply) that anything smacking of puffery must be clearly marked 'Advertisement'. Indeed, the paper of record makes a special point of spurning all so-called 'advertorial' material. Consequently, I cannot accept, in the absence of sight of a subsequent retraction printed in the IT, that the article revealing the surge in MITM listenership figures was anything other than fair, balanced and true reporting, like the remainder of the paper. (It is, unfortunately, possible to read a previous comment in relation to the Irish Times piece as being a "placed puff piece" as a suggestion that the article or its antecedent data source were advanced into print through some dishonourable act; this would be a most unpalatable idea to prompt in the public mind, for at least two obvious reasons.)

And, in following a link provided by another earlier poster on this thread, I found the following by one of the most experienced and respected newspaper editors in the land, Aengus Fanning (who has seen quite a few things come and go in his time). This is in the course of a lament for the enforced retirement of Brendan Balfe. The previous poster, seemingly, posted the link with the aim of promoting an anti-MITM line; one must be so careful with the evidence one adduces.

"I am a daily listener to Lyric FM and while the music is often good and sometimes marvellous, there is a great deal of bland and even inane commentary between the records. (Marty Whelan, George Hamilton, Eamonn Lawlor and Donald Helme are notable exceptions.)"

http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/tv-radio/end-of-an-era-for-our-own-irish-voice-balfe-2334634.html

In relation to Hugo and his 'Spanish Au Pair', as a careful listener, I recall that Soledad is Catalan, and I for one find the regular, almost daily, update quite uplifting, amusing and of a piece with the rest of the programme. There is a certain evident generosity among the RTE Lyric FM listenership in engaging with the presenter, and, as it were, all being in it together. From Doctor Bobbie of Kenmare (whom God preserve!) to Esther of the bottomless movie knowledge to Hugo and his singing wife to Grainne and her continental weather reports and so forth, it's a subset of the one big happy national family that Marty has gathered around the morning radio set.

I think it is to nobody's credit to suggest that Marty is providing a low-rent Terry Wogan spot. Marty's is radio like we have never heard it before; yes, there are influences, and doubtless a master of the medium like Sir Terry Wogan is going to leave his fingerprints on all younger broadcasters, in terms of tone, humour, narratology and so forth. However, I also sense something of the younger Mike Murphy in his radio guise in the programme. There is something, too, of the Gay Byrne of the early 1970's, at the dawn of the GB Show, when it too was light engtertainment. And there is even something of Tommy O'Brien in his rapport with a wide variety of listeners. But none of this is 'low-rent'; in my view, what it is is the integration of pre-existing styles and modes of presentation through the skills, preferences and core competencies of a broadcaster of singular talent, deep musical appreciation and communicative genius. Anyone who can appeal to me and to Mr Fanning, to the Head of RTE Lyric FM and to the tens of thousands of other loyal listeners simply and logically has that je ne sait quoi to animate both a programme and an audience.

I believe I am not relying on an ipse dixit argument, but on a range of both authoritative and impressionistic data sources, and on comment by persons of consequence in the cultural and journalistic life of the country: the Irish Times, the Sunday Independent, the nature of the listener messages to MITM that we hear about, the JNLR figures (for what they are worth in this unusual and particular situation), the results of my own informal focus group work among a large number of close friends, my casual questioning of acquaintances and others as to their radio consumption, and some discussion with experts in the advertising profession who have their finger on the real pulse of the people of Ireland, where it matters.

And if one talks to any young person these days (someone in their 20's or 30's), one will find that the performer most often on their lips today is Tony Bennett. 85-year old Tony Bennett! And why? Because, I believe, MITM has given his music a new lease of life in this country, and it has spread like a musical virus through the population. Yes, of course, people will claim to be too sophisticated to listen to Andy Williams and the rest, but, as with Gloria in days of yore, this is what they actually listen to, on radio, on CD and on their IPods.

At the risk of being repetitive, I would also say that if one considers the people who have been interviewed on MITM, it is unlikely that, for example, young Renee Fleming needs the RTE Lyric FM audience to give her CDs a push in the shops. Similarly, what has Neven, with a waiting list as long as a wet week for the restaurant (and, I understand, for the in-house accommodation too), to gain from the MITM audience?

Some day MITM too will come to an end, and, no doubt, a thread will begin on Boards bemoaning Marty's elevation to the senior radio service. Until then, rather than enduring, let us start to enjoy it, open our minds and learn about other and happier genres of music.

As Vera Duckworth might say: "some people don't know they're born!"

With my best regards,


Hugo Brady Brown


"What I tell you three times is true", Lewis Carroll, The Hunting of the Snark

TimmyTarmac wrote: »

Any of the previous morning programmes since 1999 were better than MITM, and some of them were better than others.
Pre Bing, Phil Collins, Hugo's tedious reports on his Spanish Au Pair (the other Hugo, of course!), 'What are we talking about', Neven's weekly plugs, Matt Munro's daughter plugging the same book twice, Mario Lanza's daughter plugging a concert one suspects she has more than a passing interest in , Marty's low rent Terry Wogan act, Marty's more or less complete ignorance of most things to do with classical music and it's major recording artists etc.


Here we go again. Just because you say a thing a number of times doesn't necessarily make it true. You could be right, but there is no evidence that you are.

That article gave inaccurate figures for average quarter hour listenership among a particular demographic and were never sourced. It was a placed puff piece based on nothing much. If that and your "doorstep opinions" are what you're going on, so much for your sacred data.
I admire the tenacity with which you defend MITM and I hope you and he will be very happy somewhere far away from RTE Lyric FM.
I hope and still believe senior management will soon step in and allow this embarrassing farce and affront to Public Service broadcasting to be ended soon.

tbh

HugoBradyBrown: 45 posts, every one of them a pearl. Welcome aboard sir.

HugoBradyBrown

Dear All,


Sorry for the delayed post, but I have been flat to the boards with other responsibilities lately.

Doomed's extraction of a phrase from a previous post of mine may mislead readers into thinking that the amputated pseudo-sentence below is a fair record of my views. I must clarify that in the fuller sentence I imply that we are, as Voltaire's character has it, in a Leibnitzian 'best of all possible worlds', and that, in such a context, MITM is the best of all possible radio programmes. (Or, as that other philosophe, Miss Peggy Lee, might have it 'Is that all there is?)

I was also struck by the '"Some of my best friends" love MW's radio work' tone of Doomed's comment; this, I think, rather gives the game away. I suspect that some posters here are closet MITM lovers, knowledgeable about his playlists, his timings and running order, and his rolling-in-the-aisles comedy, but who affect disdain in order to breathe artificial life into the anti-MITM argument. The late Susan Sontag would have defined such an aesthetic and rhetorical position as 'camp'.

With my finest,


Hugo Brady Brown

doomed wrote: »

Dear Hugo

"
Dear All,

..... I have no doubt that there could be something better on RTE Lyric FM in the morning than MITM.....

Hugo Brady Brown"



Welcome aboard. We converge, against all odds.

In the spirit of our new found friendship let me offer a couple (plus a bonus) of humble suggestions.

1. Persusion. Telling people they are coarse, degraded or articulately erroneous and in need of enlightenment from, well, you, is not a recipe for success.

2. Perry Como. No. No. No. If you mention him in discussions of music you should be prepared for some negative reaction. It is not a good platform for dispensing ellightenment.

3. Do not claim to speak for the silent majority. Just because they are silent does not mean they agree with you. That should be obvious but if not then reflect on it. I doubt you even speak for the majority of MITM listeners, let alone the much larger Lyric listenership. Friends of mine who actually like MW (I am nothing if not broad minded) would cringe at the very idea that he is an intelligent witty music expert. They like him because he is harmless (or so they thought) undemanding and chirpy and they have some sympathy with him on account of his regular casting to the scrapheap by the RTE mandarins. He's a trouper.

As ever

we are


Doomed

Rebelheart

I just put a poster on my 'ignore' list for the first time. It's fairly crap that, while the posts can no longer be seen, the poster's name appears everywhere there is one of his posts - which is all over this thread now, not to mention in other posts where he is quoted by other posters.

In other words, it's now impossible to avoid this person and his spamming of this thread with long-winded, verbose, flatulent and turgid ráiméis.

---

The case against Marty Whelan being on Lyric FM in the morning:

1. Marty Whelan talks far, far, far too much. On this ground alone, he is wholly inappropriate to Lyric FM.

2. Marty Whelan talks far, far, far too much utter nonsense - rubbish directed not at music lovers but at any bland, boring, creativeless, productively-challenged idle person who wants to hear his/her name, or that of people whom they know, mentioned on the radio.

3. Marty Whelan has absolutely no sense of mood, theme or creative niche in the music he plays. He plays anything and everything. Creatively, culturally and musically he gives nothing of any depth. Just when you get into one mood, he changes it by playing completely incongruous music. On the rare occasion that he plays some refreshing music he destroys it by following it up with horrible, horrible and horribly superficial talk for as long as the music was. It's like talk radio for the Daniel O'Donnell/insert bland boring dim singer fan club. In the best tradition of shallow commercial tabloid drivel, this time slot has now become about Marty Whelan, not the music. It's about a "personality". Turning on Lyric in the morning (or when Gay Byrne is on) is like opening your Irish Times and finding The Sun in the middle of it.


There's no sign of Lyric's management tackling this problem by even suggesting that he change his style. The current set-up is a daily two fingers to all those of us who listen to Lyric for difference, for distinctiveness. The entire culture of Lyric FM is being undermined by the Marty Whelan (and Gay Byrne) "personality" culture.

Rebelheart

TacaFail wrote: »

Did a spell-check in Word on this. Was very mad when I posted. But keep off HB-B

If you change your browser to Google Chrome (or Firefox, apparently) there's an in-built spellchecker each time you post in this little box on Boards.ie.

HugoBradyBrown

Rebelheart wrote: »

If you change your browser to Google Chrome (or Firefox, apparently) there's an in-built spellchecker each time you post in this little box on Boards.ie.

Dear All,

I have been greatly taken aback by what I have read. Some recent posts seem to me to be personalised, hurtful, insensitive and wholly unwarranted qualitative judgements on my expression of my views, which I offered to the readers of Boards in an effort to educate them, to broaden their musical horizons and to moderate their irrational fury directed against a greatly loved radio programme. I am aghast, and will have to consider the situation, and perhaps take advice, in the light of recent contributions.

Hugo Brady Brown

tbh

Dear Hugo

nil carborundum!

Tbh

bbability

Just a little reminder to all that this is a public forum. Everyone including HBB is entitled to their opinion within the rules of the forum. within the rules of course!

mbur

TacaFail wrote: »

Did a spell-check in Word on this. Was very mad when I posted. But keep off HB-B

Listening to Lyric these days is to me like a sea voyage. We start the day in rough water. Mr Whelean takes us on a seasickness inducing musical voyage that only the toughest of constitutions will handle without pain. As to his vocal manifestation, well, the moaning of a strong gale would be better company.

But happily this heavy weather does come to an end. At the sound of ten bells we round the point and sail into the beautiful calm harbour which is Carl Corcoran's "in tempo". The contrast could not be more marked and the relief We feel, as we absorb the sweet sounds that Lyric is supposed to deliver, is like an awakening from a bad dream.

Welcome to Boards TacaFail. HB-B is a boards version of MITM. Hard to take and long winded with it. We who will inhabit this place must endure his inclement outbursts. Encourage him to leave if you like, but don't be too hopeful. You see there are people here who like that sort of thing.

HugoBradyBrown wrote: »

Dear All,

I have been greatly taken aback by what I have read. Some recent posts seem to me to be personalised, hurtful, insensitive and wholly unwarranted qualitative judgements on my expression of my views, which I offered to the readers of Boards in an effort to educate them, to broaden their musical horizons and to moderate their irrational fury directed against a greatly loved radio programme. I am aghast, and will have to consider the situation, and perhaps take advice, in the light of recent contributions.

Hugo Brady Brown

A bit of feed back here and there is a good thing Hugo. I hope we will find more of this new found brevity.

tbh wrote: »

Dear Hugo

nil carborundum!

Tbh

Advice we should all take.

doomed

HugoBradyBrown wrote: »

Dear All,


Sorry for the delayed post, but I have been flat to the boards with other responsibilities lately.

Doomed's extraction of a phrase from a previous post of mine may mislead readers into thinking that the amputated pseudo-sentence below is a fair record of my views. I must clarify that in the fuller sentence I imply that we are, as Voltaire's character has it, in a Leibnitzian 'best of all possible worlds', and that, in such a context, MITM is the best of all possible radio programmes. (Or, as that other philosophe, Miss Peggy Lee, might have it 'Is that all there is?)

I was also struck by the '"Some of my best friends" love MW's radio work' tone of Doomed's comment; this, I think, rather gives the game away. I suspect that some posters here are closet MITM lovers, knowledgeable about his playlists, his timings and running order, and his rolling-in-the-aisles comedy, but who affect disdain in order to breathe artificial life into the anti-MITM argument. The late Susan Sontag would have defined such an aesthetic and rhetorical position as 'camp'.

With my finest,


Hugo Brady Brown

Let me put your mind at rest and reassure fellow defenders of Lyric FM that I have not lost mine and that I still consider MW on Lyric in the same light as bird droppings on a vintage Lamborghini or a bluebottle on my pizza.


Incidentally those people you see rolling in the aisles may not be laughing. Always check for foam.

HugoBradyBrown

Dear All (and Moderator),

Though no supporter of censorship, I appreciate the motivation for the deletion of a post by a vagrant contributor, which considerably lowered the tone of this discussion. (In my view, self-control rather than censorship will serve us better here, as it will society in general.)

I would also wish to say that I greatly value the détente which has characterised more recent posts here, and I believe that, while we have not yet come to unanimity in our views on MITM, we are conducting our debate like civilized men. Indeed, unanimity is no great virtue in itself, and can lead to political and cultural stultification. A measure of tension, both within and concerning MITM, may well be what propels it to even greater creative achievements.

And, please remember that it is light morning radio, spread over a long 3-hour span, and that it meets the needs of a wide community of listeners, in trying commuting situations. It is in effect a mass audience music magazine, not a musicological academic journal.

Having struggled to be brief,

With my best wishes,


Hugo Brady Brown

bbability wrote: »

Just a little reminder to all that this is a public forum. Everyone including HBB is entitled to their opinion within the rules of the forum. within the rules of course!

Almaviva

Dear Fellow Boards Readers, Posters, and Lurkers,


Well I say ‘Hurra’ and ‘Hear hear’ to Mr. Hugo Brady Brown. Or to borrow a word from a rather charming gentleman I had the pleasure to sit beside at a performance of Les Troyens at the Wiener Staatsoper many moons ago – ‘Bravo!’.

Mr Brady Brown, you have won me. And I am the better for it. I am sure the rest of the (minority) who have not seen the Messiah in Marty will shortly follow.

On behalf of the silent majority of non boards posting, Lyric and Marty in the Morning listeners, I tip my hat to you and salute your most excellent crusade against this unfettered vendetta against our glorious prince of the Lyric airways. As that inimitable scamp Immanuel Kant might have so deliciously distilled it : Marty is Life.

If I may be so bold as to take it upon myself, with only our fellow readers’ best interests at heart, to take the liberty of collating for you, an edited summary of the musings of HBB, on the defence of the aforementioned Mr Marty Whelan, and his contribution to the betterment of the lives of the morning radio listening denizens of our little isle. A miniature Diderotan Encyclopédie if you will.

HugoBradyBrown wrote: »

bringing an intelligent, compassionate and witty eye to bear on the issues that really matter to people

The jocularity of Marty’s output makes me think of an aural version of “Ireland’s Own” at its best. He manages to make something both unexpected yet comforting, something ‘rich and strange’, to extend our common debt to Shakespeare.

Throughout his well-knitted three hours, we have music and comment; we have the presenter’s lighthearted, impromptu and virtuosic interaction with the AA Roadwatch people

Marty too does a heroic job in this area of the PSB remit

with his genuine enthusiasm and his patent personal authenticity, what Marty has done is to convert an RTE Lyric FM community into a national radio family gathered around the wireless

professional that he is to his fingertips, Marty is as good as or better than some of his colleagues in his diction

I know for certain that Marty has the pulse of the nation

MITM is the well-appointed antechamber to Berlioz

I, for one, find Marty's intelligent interaction with both his passive and his active listeners one of the glories of RTE's contemporary output

Marty is the happy rooster who gets the nation up with its batteries charged each weekday

mind-opening, too, to listen to the musical suggestions that are played

Marty and team are the pivot on which a large minority of the radio audience turns

Marty would, of course, be an ornament to the John Murray Show, if it were suitably renamed

If the non believers are not swayed then I am dumbfounded.


I will also take this opportunity here to chastise our readers on their uncharitable reluctance to appreciate the true wit of our HBB. I quote an example here again for your delectation :

“An all-day Eine Kleine Vivaldi-Corelli-Tosca radio station would amount simply to aural wallpaper”. Corelli ! Such cruel sharpness ! The Archangel himself ! aural wallpaper ! And just a little wicked, and verging on blasphemy even. But not a LOL, ‘Thanks’, or ROFL in sight. Shame on you Boardsies. If you even deserve that moniker.


On the topic of listener figures, the ad hoc poll attached to this thread can only be read as proof positive that the overwhelming majority of radio listeners are in favour of the enlightened direction that the visionary management at the helm of the good ship Lyric have taken. The figures do not lie.

I now beg the indulgence of our gentle readers, to make one further point on the tangential issue of Boards Postmanship. This noble art, whose antique origins we are sometimes guilty of overlooking, having Ovid to thank for that most elegant and succinct rejoinder ‘Yer Ma’ - ‘Vestri Matris’. Not to mention the misguided musings of some hereabouts on the origins of the ‘Atari Jaguar’ poll option – check out the ‘tweets’ of his time of the 9th century Albanian poet Video Giocus. But onwards. It reeks of the lowest of the low that it seems acceptable to criticise the posting style of our esteemed HBB. Indeed, one could become despondent on the posting skills of our day when we read the snipes being take at HBB’s generous and altruistic efforts to enlighten our views. Ladies and gentlemen of the boards – long, pompous posts are the mark of a true master craftsman poster. To those of you shocked at this revelation, please sit down, take a deep breath, pour yourself a small measure of your favourite tincture (and may I suggest a 15 year old Islay for this purpose). Wordy, endless posts, that wander, repeat themselves, and prompt the reader to give up after a few sentences as his eyes – and mind – glaze over, are where it’s at. I conceded it may by a style that has fallen out of fashion in these days of bad grammar, txt spelling, and generally meagre vocabulary. But this is no reason not to fight the good fight.


So I ask finally :
Continue Mr Brady Brown with this fine endevour !

And remain, to all readers of this finest of threads,

Yours,

Almaviva.

Sandwlch

JNLR for the last 12 months to June 2011.

Average Weekday Yesterday Listenership : 3% (+0)
Share of Listening 7am-7pm : 1.6% (-.1)

Dumb down policy really delivering the results. Well done the management of Lyric. They must be delighted to have 3% of the radio audience listening to a crap radio station rather than 3% listening to a good one. Bonuses all round. The big winners though are the Radio 1 and 2 rejects being parked there at our expense.

Coriolanus

Sandwlch wrote: »

JNLR for the last 12 months to June 2011.

Average Weekday Yesterday Listenership : 3% (+0)
Share of Listening 7am-7pm : 1.6% (-.1)

Dumb down policy really delivering the results. Well done the management of Lyric. They must be delighted to have 3% of the radio audience listening to a crap radio station rather than 3% listening to a good one. Bonuses all round. The big winners though are the Radio 1 and 2 rejects being parked there at our expense.

Those numbers don't count though, Hugo has said time and time again that the people he's talked to clearly like MITM. QED

HugoBradyBrown

Dear All,


There is no question of my ignoring valid statistics, despite tendentious statements to the contrary. I simply raise well-grounded doubts about their validity in this particular case, and I have given my grounds for holding firm to such doubts. I think it would do violence to the patience of readers of this thread for me to recapitulate my arguments, though, if anyone desires me to do so, I am more than happy to. (Almaviva's effort in cherry-picking some of my obiter dicta recently might have been more productively applied to distilling the sense and structure of my arguments, laid out for readers over the past few weeks, as a form of digest of the commonsense side of this discussion.)

I would observe, however, that we simply must not fasten on a figure in the 3% to 5% range, since this is so susceptible to statistical anomalies. The other issues, such as the veracity of subject responses where the issue is clouded by social contempt and by peer pressure, have also to be taken most seriously in coming to a final view on the true listenership figures. (And, for the record, I have recently encountered two radio listeners who do not listen to MITM most mornings; neither person likes the programme. Both admit to being 'tone deaf'. This speaks very loudly to my argument.)

With kind regards,



Hugo Brady Brown

TimmyTarmac

9 am this morning.... 'We all Stand Together' by Paul MacCartney. Chosen by Hugo (The other Hugo). Jesus Wept.
Followed by Handel. Before Hugo's script, a communication from David Mooney. And then of course, Neven 'Daniel O'Donnell' Maguire. The Jerk Circle continues.
In fairness, the Jerk Circle has widened as the JNLR for MITM has increased in the last 12 months, according to RTE. Trying to find by how much.
Maybe the silent or lying 100,000 have finally come out of the closet.

Sandwlch

Lyric audience seems to recover well after MITM signs out.

HugoBradyBrown

Dear All,

I think we must be sincerely grateful to those who have taken the trouble to provide this very positive graphic (Sandwlch on this board). (Incidentally, some references to MITM have been made on another thread concerning the more austere 'Nova' programme, TX on Sundays, and these comments might interest readers here. http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056431809 )

I hope to conduct some analysis of the trace in the course of the day using a stats package, but I have to say that it looks very good from a first glance. I think that while the absolute numbers are likely to be significantly understated, the trend is probably correct and satisfying, and the slope is doubtless by-and-large the same as for the true figures. What we have can be assumed to be a proxy measure for the real state of events. Considering the demographic characteristics of the audience and the ordinary quotidian issues that affect listening, this seems to be a superb performance.

The statistics are the true voice of the process, of course, and the data don't deceive. Building an audience so consistently throughout the early hours of the morning is a win for MITM, for RTE Lyric FM and for ourselves as listeners & TV tax-payers.

Today seems to be a winning day all round!

Best regards,


Hugo Brady Brown

Sandwlch wrote: »

Lyric audience seems to recover well after MITM signs out.

HugoBradyBrown

Dear All,

That post is somewhat tart, if I may say so. I laughed this morning to hear Mart reading out David Mooney's letter, which was genuinely insightful and amusing. (For anyone who missed it, he was adverting to the different treatment men and women get in relation to greying hair. Men are ridiculed for dyeing their hair, while women are commended for 'putting a colour in their hair'.)

It demonstrates the calibre of audience that MITM has attracted, that such potentially fraught linguistic issues can be raised in such a cordial manner, and that we put our thinking caps on to reflect on something in the succeeding hours as our Thought for the Day. Wittgenstein it ain't, but Marty and his audience do follow a nice line in commonplace linguistic philosophy and wit, nobody is offended and it's all to the good!

With respect,

Hugo Brady Brown

TimmyTarmac wrote: »

9 am this morning.... 'We all Stand Together' by Paul MacCartney. Chosen by Hugo (The other Hugo). Jesus Wept.
Followed by Handel. Before Hugo's script, a communication from David Mooney. And then of course, Neven 'Daniel O'Donnell' Maguire. The Jerk Circle continues.
In fairness, the Jerk Circle has widened as the JNLR for MITM has increased in the last 12 months, according to RTE. Trying to find by how much.
Maybe the silent or lying 100,000 have finally come out of the closet.

Dirigent

Sandwlch wrote: »

Lyric audience seems to recover well after MITM signs out.

Bet Niall Carroll smiles when he sees Smarty in the Lyric corridor. :-)

HugoBradyBrown

Dirigent wrote: »

Bet Niall Carroll smiles when he sees Smarty in the Lyric corridor. :-)

Only to the extent that a teacher of the 6th book in the national school would smile at the teacher of the 1st class; the teacher of First has laid the foundations early on for the subsequent flowering at the later stage. The smiling metaphor holds.

And, let us not forget that 'going home time' is invariably less fraught than 'going to work time'. As we return home, a day's research and editing behind us, or whatever, we lapse into listening to RTE Lyric FM. In addition, do not forget that young Niall Carroll is (rightly) esteemed as one of the finest broadcast voices here, and so nobody is in the least ashamed of admitting to listening to his programme, which is not universally the case with MITM. It would take a highly sophisticated sampling scheme to overcome such skewing of the data by extraneous conditions. It is impossible to develop a research instrument that would be so resilient as to be able to correct with confidence for such dispositional factors.


Hugo Brady Brown

ghiertal

TimmyTarmac wrote: »

9 am this morning.... 'We all Stand Together' by Paul MacCartney. Chosen by Hugo (The other Hugo). Jesus Wept.
Followed by Handel. Before Hugo's script, a communication from David Mooney. QUOTE]

I always thought those messages from hugo were literally a figment of martys imagination. Am i wrong here? Would any sane person take that much time out of their day sending a description of his life to marty? The "humour",prose and song selections have marty written all over them really. I'd say it is something he took from old terry wogan broadcasts. Marty delivers an utterly rubbish service for listeners but i don't have a high opinion other presenters eg. niall carroll and liz nolan. Paul herriott is the best thing on lyric, he plays excellent music and rarely prattles on.

HugoBradyBrown

Dear All,

I think that all Marty's connections have to be real, Dr Bobbie of Kenmare (whom God preserve!), David Mooney, Hugo, Grainne, Esther, DeeDee and all the rest. Unless he's Dickens himself resurrected, he could not create such an array of informative and amusing correspondents of such convincing consistency and with such distinct flavour of character.

And I must counter the rider that Ghiertal has appended to her post: it needs to be stated that all reasonable people would agree that Niall Carroll is (as Gay himself has said) the finest young voice on RTE, and that Liz Nolan makes listening to RTE Lyric FM at lunchtime like going to a whale of a party attended by glamorous and intelligent lady academics with higher degrees in music. (Paul Herriott broadcasts on RTE Lyric FM each weekday.)


Hugo Brady Brown

ghiertal wrote: »

TimmyTarmac wrote: »

9 am this morning.... 'We all Stand Together' by Paul MacCartney. Chosen by Hugo (The other Hugo). Jesus Wept.
Followed by Handel. Before Hugo's script, a communication from David Mooney.

I always thought those messages from hugo were literally a figment of martys imagination. Am i wrong here? Would any sane person take that much time out of their day sending a description of his life to marty? The "humour",prose and song selections have marty written all over them really. I'd say it is something he took from old terry wogan broadcasts. Marty delivers an utterly rubbish service for listeners but i don't have a high opinion other presenters eg. niall carroll and liz nolan. Paul herriott is the best thing on lyric, he plays excellent music and rarely prattles on.

MadsL

I always thought those messages from hugo were literally a figment of martys imagination.

I think that all Marty's connections have to be real

Perhaps Marty Whelan is not real, an elaborate False Bowser disguise to fool us all.

HugoBradyBrown

Dear All,


Bad news after midnight tonight from Eamon Lenihan on The Blue. While he was letting us know that he will be standing in for P. Herriott (who will be out celebrating tomorrow; what, he didn't say exactly) for the In Tempo slot later this morning, Monday 31 October, he remarked that he would be meeting Trish Taylor. And this is because Miss Taylor is slated to stand in for our Marty this morning on Marty in the Morning (MITM).

Perhaps Marty will have left a playlist on the desk ... What am I talking about?

By the way, a lovely, lovely Old Time Warp show by Gay on Sunday afternoon almost compensated for our impending loss of the true MITM on Monday. He played a track featuring the late John Skehan reading a true ghost story of his own on the new 3-disc CD set The Irish Voice, produced by our own Brendan Balfe. The (very reasonably-priced) set features thespians, personalities, celebrities and musicians of the past, who were either Irish themselves, or who had Irish connections. As Gay said, it would make a lovely, lovely present at Christmas for anyone with any interest at all in quality radio, or in the actorly voice. It was, he said, beautifully and painstakingly edited and produced by Brendan, and it is a credit to all concerned. (Last week or the week before he mentioned another lovely book that would be an adornment to any coffee table this Christmas or a most acceptable gift for the festive season, the new history of Teilifis by Dr John Bowman, late of this parish. It is beautifully and painstakingly edited and is a credit to John and to the publishers, who have produced a lovely, glossy book. But as Gay said, the only notice that the newspapers are likely to take of the book is a fleeting reference in it to Pat's money, but, as Gay implied, the newspapers are scarcely worthy to wrap Pat's chips!) Gay this Sunday also clarified his views on payments to freelance talent, and this was most enlightening and comforting, and most reasonable; it seems the papers got the wrong end of the stick entirely. I think the show is available on the online 'steam radio', as Gay calls it, for those who need to listen back to check. (Nice piece by Bix, by the way on the show.)


Hugo Brady Brown

Almaviva

HugoBradyBrown wrote: »

Miss Taylor is slated to stand in for our Marty this morning on Marty in the Morning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQx2TWgxX14

HugoBradyBrown

Dear All,


Very slightly tangential to the main thrust of this thread, I know, but I note that it is Marty who is providing the public service announcements throughout the RTE Lyric FM schedule on the Classical Arts Ireland (cai) Met Live in HD relays of operas in picture houses throughout the land.

There, if nowhere else, we can see a sincere commitment to the higher things in musical life, so dear to the hearts of posters and readers of this thread. "Who could ask for anything more?"


Hugo Brady Brown

Dirigent

I must admit I'm really loving Lyric today, with their full scores. It's like going back to the days when Eamon Lawlor used to present the "Full Score" in the afternoon --- I used always refer to that as the Best Sports Programme on Radio!

HugoBradyBrown

Dirigent wrote: »

I must admit I'm really loving Lyric today, with their full scores. It's like going back to the days when Eamon Lawlor used to present the "Full Score" in the afternoon --- I used always refer to that as the Best Sports Programme on Radio!

Yes, I would agree with all of that, and especially about the sport. But come tomorrow, it's back to short and pithy bursts of variety, as we clear the decks and get ourselves out the door to our various mundane tasks on time and with happy grins on our countenances.


Hugo Brady Brown

doomed

Dirigent wrote: »

I must admit I'm really loving Lyric today, with their full scores. It's like going back to the days when Eamon Lawlor used to present the "Full Score" in the afternoon --- I used always refer to that as the Best Sports Programme on Radio!

That is real public service broadcasting. Play all the movements. It might be the only time in a particular work's entire history that an Irish channel plays it in full. Commercially it makes no sense whatever but should be applauded.