Lyric fm's Breakfast show presenter - Marty Whelan.

Dirigent

Yvonne23R wrote: »

Hilarious! It seems Marty Whelan monitors Boards.ie : he made an interesting reference to Boards people this morning on his show. No flies on Marty I think. (Hello Marty: I love the show - except Neven, of course!)

Ah, don't tease us Yvonne. What did Ireland's answer to Terry Wogan have to say about his critics? Unlike you I haven't the stomach to listen to his drivel.

(Marty, if you're reading here's a good hint. Play the music and STFU).

europa11

Yvonne23R wrote: »

Hilarious! It seems Marty Whelan monitors Boards.ie : he made an interesting reference to Boards people this morning on his show. No flies on Marty I think. (Hello Marty: I love the show - except Neven, of course!)

Must be the first time I've seen the word "hilarious" and Marty Whelan ever used in the same paragraph.

Was hoping he'd have taken the week off having obviously being honoured by Barcelona Airport.........(hint, it's in the name! read that out "Mart")

europa11

"I Love Paris" played today and yesterday ....for fear of needlessly sending my blood-pressure rising I won't bother checking the playlist lest this is now a daily occurence.

EP mentioned that he received a letter from a listener who claims his missus dances around the kitchen floor whenever it's played on the show. Good news for some flooring contractor if so, as the tiles must be close to worn out by now.

For the love and honour of fck!, is there any Producer on the staff or do they just leave EP the keys every morning to open up the place and give him free rein to inflict his strange and repetitive musical choices on us?

Rebelheart

After the 9am news on Monday 4 February Marty Whelan played country and western music on Lyric FM, this.

This waffling, musically-challenged, self-absorbed individual is sticking up the biggest two fingers at radio listeners in Irish history. This guy on Lyric is a complete pisstake. Seriously.

This is our Summer Palace of Irish radio. He is our James Bruce.

bbability

after reviewing the thread Dirigent is banned for one week. Let me be very clear any name calling of Marty Whelan on the thread will not be tolerated and will result in an automatic one week ban.

doomed

Rebelheart wrote: »

After the 9am news on Monday 4 February Marty Whelan played country and western music on Lyric FM, this.

This waffling, musically-challenged, self-absorbed individual is sticking up the biggest two fingers at radio listeners in Irish history. This guy on Lyric is a complete pisstake. Seriously.

This is our Summer Palace of Irish radio. He is our James Bruce.

Nice colonial reference. Cultural vandalism at its worst.

Why do Irish people put up with such low standards? There is no other country where ****** would be allowed near a classical radio station.

doomed

Time to move on.

I signed up to Boards in 2010 because it looked like the only forum where ordinary people could complain about what was happening to their much loved radio station Lyric FM.

When Lyric was set up it was great, had new knowledgeable presenters and none of the ego driven culture common to RTE. For those of us who genuinely love classical music and see the great composers, singers and musicians as something that makes humankind better, Lyric was a joy and a nice place to be. We could hardly believe it. It was a haven free from the noise and inane babble of much of the radio output.

Then they gave Marty Whelan pride of place in the schedule and suddenly all that we sought to avoid was among us. Somehow the greatest musical talents were secondary to the presenter's "personality". We were expected to swallow a dumbed down diet of MOR and vacuous chatter and like it.

I have nothing against Mr Whelan or Spanish airports generally. He is probably a nice man who has taken his various axings by RTE with good grace and he is a survivor. He has made the most of fairly limited talents and good luck to him. There is even a place in the schedule for the sort of light entertainment show he presents. 2FM leaps to mind and I really hope he makes it back.

The problem has always been not with who MW is but where he is. He simply has no place on a classical/arts radio station and no amount of RTE spin or red and yellow cards on this site will change that. Lyric should not be a consolation prize to placate surplus presenters. If RTE is no longer committed to Lyric then they should have the honesty to say so.

Does this stuff matter? Why do we get all excited about another middle aged bloke presenting a radio show? Well, yes it does matter. Its about conserving something valuable and making some form of protest when it is under threat.

What is wrong with aspiring to something better than MITM on a classical station? Its the only such station we have and every minute of airtime that is filled with MOR ballads, contentless chatter, cookery or reading out listeners letters is time lost from the real pleasure that can be got from great music. Over the years music has maintained my tenuous hold on my sanity.

RTE will point to increased JNLR figures for MITM as vindication of what it is doing. It is nothing of the kind and they know this. Undemanding light entertainment is popular, more so than classical music and if RTE slowly replaced Trish, Liz, Paul Herriot, Tim Thruston and the rest with a few old stagers from the RTE stable doing a bit of chat and easy listening output, the overall listnership would probably go up substantially. Maybe that is the plan after all. RTE3 anyone?

Best wishes to all those (some gone, some banned) who stood up for Lyric and its ethos in this thread. I have enjoyed your contributions and although we never had any power it has been fun resisting in our small way. Good luck in the future. Your dissenting comments are a permanent record that not everyone buys into the pretence that MITM is good for Lyric or that it is bring in a new classical audience.

That's all folks


Doomed

bbability

And there we have it in a nutshell, you are basically saying that Marty Whelan has no place on Lyric because he belongs with the common people and not with the upper class at Lyric.

'What ever happened the separation of the classes?' (King Julian - Madagascar 2 Escape to Africa)

By the way there's one thing posting an honest opinion there's another when people start to name call and persistently abuse the presenter for which is against the forum charter. We are all equal here my fellow poster;)

born2bwild

doomed wrote: »

Time to move on.

I signed up to Boards in 2010 because it looked like the only forum where ordinary people could complain about what was happening to their much loved radio station Lyric FM.

When Lyric was set up it was great, had new knowledgeable presenters and none of the ego driven culture common to RTE. For those of us who genuinely love classical music and see the great composers, singers and musicians as something that makes humankind better, Lyric was a joy and a nice place to be. We could hardly believe it. It was a haven free from the noise and inane babble of much of the radio output.

Then they gave Marty Whelan pride of place in the schedule and suddenly all that we sought to avoid was among us. Somehow the greatest musical talents were secondary to the presenter's "personality". We were expected to swallow a dumbed down diet of MOR and vacuous chatter and like it.

I have nothing against Mr Whelan or Spanish airports generally. He is probably a nice man who has taken his various axings by RTE with good grace and he is a survivor. He has made the most of fairly limited talents and good luck to him. There is even a place in the schedule for the sort of light entertainment show he presents. 2FM leaps to mind and I really hope he makes it back.

The problem has always been not with who MW is but where he is. He simply has no place on a classical/arts radio station and no amount of RTE spin or red and yellow cards on this site will change that. Lyric should not be a consolation prize to placate surplus presenters. If RTE is no longer committed to Lyric then they should have the honesty to say so.

Does this stuff matter? Why do we get all excited about another middle aged bloke presenting a radio show? Well, yes it does matter. Its about conserving something valuable and making some form of protest when it is under threat.

What is wrong with aspiring to something better than MITM on a classical station? Its the only such station we have and every minute of airtime that is filled with MOR ballads, contentless chatter, cookery or reading out listeners letters is time lost from the real pleasure that can be got from great music. Over the years music has maintained my tenuous hold on my sanity.

RTE will point to increased JNLR figures for MITM as vindication of what it is doing. It is nothing of the kind and they know this. Undemanding light entertainment is popular, more so than classical music and if RTE slowly replaced Trish, Liz, Paul Herriot, Tim Thruston and the rest with a few old stagers from the RTE stable doing a bit of chat and easy listening output, the overall listnership would probably go up substantially. Maybe that is the plan after all. RTE3 anyone?

Best wishes to all those (some gone, some banned) who stood up for Lyric and its ethos in this thread. I have enjoyed your contributions and although we never had any power it has been fun resisting in our small way. Good luck in the future. Your dissenting comments are a permanent record that not everyone buys into the pretence that MITM is good for Lyric or that it is bring in a new classical audience.

That's all folks


Doomed

I listen to MITM because he's the best thing on at that time of day.

Sure, his taste in music is suspect - 'islands in the stream' and 'singing in the rain' are just as awful the tenth time you hear them on the way to work with a hangover - but who's better than Marty at that time of day???

If you think his presentation is 'inane', 'contentless' or 'dumbed down' - compare it to what you'll get on every other radio station in the morning - do want to listen to faux-American accents or that moronic abomination, Gift Grub?????

I don't think that 'dissenting comment' should ever be censored but name calling is not dissenting comment; it's bullying, especially as this is a small country and there is not a great degree of separation between us.

Cheer up, doomed - it's not as bad as you think - Marty played Shostakovitch one morning a few weeks ago and I went out and got the CD (and I'm a Philistine)

doomed

bbability wrote: »

And there we have it in a nutshell, you are basically saying that Marty Whelan has no place on Lyric because he belongs with the common people and not with the upper class at Lyric.

Sorry - I tried to close my account today but without success. Will try again tomorrow but you are missing the point entirely. As my Granny used to say "if you can't follow the game don't try to make the rules".

This has nothing to do with upper clases (to which I do not belong in any case) or the common people or those you have chosen to describe as such. Lyric is supposed supposed to be a classical music station. MITM is something entirely alien to that. It shouldn't be there.

Yvonne23R

That is a pity if someone is not able to enjoy what the majority of listeners our agegroup like. But I read in the RTE Guide a couple of weeks ago that there is a lot of interest in the Marty Whelan show.

I saw that someone called Tim Thurston "Tim Thruston". I suppose he would be pleased with that because he is an old man.

The listeners were really appreciating The Blue Book Competition that was running last week. I heard dozens of names being called out.

But best of all was the show on Thursday from Dundrum with Rebecca and Ronan in the same studio with Marty Whelan. You can hear it back on the internet. I specially like Rebecca but Ronan is coming on too as a personality but Rebecca is TV material. I think the show is a talent spotting ground for future stars for when the present older generation retire away. They had some really good Limericks being sent in by the listeners even if a few of them were a bit rough for a family audience in the car. But we all like Graham Norton even when he is being bold so I suppose it's OK. They like Limericks Marty Whelan was saying because the station comes from limerick.

Some of his gags on Thursday were really really good. But I don't think he could be making them all up as he goes along because they are so fast. That is why we think he has a script writer for the jokes and the bunter.

JustAThought

I accidentally heard that programme and it was appalling. Clickety clackey oh me oh my Marty drivelling on about himself & award prizes for f'ing limericks on Andrea Bochelli which started with " there once was a man called Marty"
It was totally cringeworthy. God forbid he talk about the music or play some. It's the endless droning childish drivelling with constantly repeated
Sentences & clauses, mispronounced names & embarrassing jokey namey rhymey dimey statements about everything. Oh - and btw- when you ring to make a complaint the public body that is RTE refuse to take it as a Complaint - ill let
Someone know your " feedback" - its not " feedback I would like to lodge t as a complaint". " I'll let someone know your feedback " ...ab nauseum. If the broadcast Publically funded body does not even have a proper formal process for acknowledging & processing complaints there is little hope . Pester all you want here ; but the cringeworthy internal cheerleading is too transparent. Rte may support nepotism & nurture inadequate & inappropriate standards & sheer unprepared incompetence , but that's not a normal standard; clickey clack not a normal standard clackey click not a normal standard o dearest me did I just say not a normal standard; o me oh my well I mustn't say that again clickey clack, what did I just say oh me Oh my well it's not a normal standard do you know, oh no oh no indeedey, not at all , though I say so myself, no indeedey not a normal standard at all at all. What will I play next on me oh my what all I say to myself, what indeed (droning continues)

<click>.

Peace .

Silence.

JustAThought

JustAThought wrote: »

I accidentally heard that programme and it was appalling. Clickety clackey oh me oh my Marty drivelling on about himself & award prizes for f'ing limericks on Andrea Bochelli which started with " there once was a man called Marty"
It was totally cringeworthy. God forbid he talk about the music or play some. It's the endless droning childish drivelling with constantly repeated
Sentences & clauses, mispronounced names & embarrassing jokey namey rhymey dimey statements about everything. Oh - and btw- when you ring to make a complaint the public body that is RTE refuse to take it as a Complaint - ill let
Someone know your " feedback" - its not " feedback I would like to lodge t as a complaint". " I'll let someone know your feedback " ...ab nauseum. If the broadcast Publically funded body does not even have a proper formal process for acknowledging & processing complaints there is little hope . Pester all you want here ; but the cringeworthy internal cheerleading is too transparent. Rte may support nepotism & nurture inadequate & inappropriate standards & sheer unprepared incompetence , but that's not a normal standard; clickey clack not a normal standard clackey click not a normal standard o dearest me did I just say not a normal standard; o me oh my well I mustn't say that again clickey clack, what did I just say oh me Oh my well it's not a normal standard do you know, oh no oh no indeedey, not at all , though I say so myself, no indeedey not a normal standard at all at all. What will I play next on me oh my what all I say to myself, what indeed (droning continues)

<click>.

Peace .

Silence.

Oh. And IF what the previous Poster has Stated is true ( & I cannot see how it could be) the " scriptwriter" and producer should be fired . It is bad enough that someone is laid a six figure sum for unprofessional, unprepared, verbal intontinence : without this rubbish being financially supported by an equally unstewarded and unaccountable team too. Here is the point everyone is making; what " script". Or does RTE not listen to its own shows? Or are they using the same model as Dáil reporters where the " transcripts" that are issued from the events at Dáil Éireann are never transcribed as they occur; but first have to Be rewritten into intelligible sentences - as much of the time it is simply unstructured, unfinished, meandering waffle with no theme, points or structure.

" your" time may not be valuable : but ours is. Nice man or not, it's not about that.

Yvonne23R

I am glad to see that a couple of resignations from this debating chamber were cancelled today.

I wonder if we would be able to get a common ground here between everyone and get Neven off the Marty Whelan Show by giving him his own program? And we could push to get Hugo moved to a show of his own as well- that would show up if it is Marty himself doing it. Neven should be a natural for television. Like Rick Stein who was on BBC today in the afternoon on BBC One television. I saw Rick did not try to cover music in his cookery and travel show.

Today some of the chat between Rebecca and Marty was only fab. Maybe she should be in the same studio with him and do a twohander with him all through? What do ye think? That way we could have comedy between all the "tracks" Marty plays and not only when the AA Routeplanner comes on?

mbur

I was listening to RTE Radio One the other night. A well spoken gent was playing a selection of music by a well know american writer and singer. I thought the presenter sounded familiar and sure enough at the end it was announced that "..this program was originally broadcast on Lyric FM"..

"Ah ha" I thought. Some things on Lyric are deemed to be suitable to a wider audience.

The show in question was just a regular Lyric FM show presented by a regular staff member. I can't tell you the name of that person but it was not Marty.

RTE's decisions about what Lyric programs are fit for rebroadcasting are very relevant to this discussion. Have they ever rebroadcast any of Marty's output? Thankfully, I don't think they have.

p.s. Bye bye D and D. I'll remember you both for the years of careful, considerate and reasonable comments.

bbability

mbur wrote: »

p.s. Bye bye D and D. I'll remember you both for the years of careful, considerate and reasonable comments.

Eh the same people who used derogatory and abusive words on the forum to describe Marty Whelan

I think not.

Rebelheart

bbability wrote: »

And there we have it in a nutshell, you are basically saying that Marty Whelan has no place on Lyric because he belongs with the common people and not with the upper class at Lyric.

I won't bother wasting my time addressing this paranoid, utterly misconceived nonsense which alas betrays a lamentable sense of judgement once again. Suffice to say it is not about any of this 'class' ráiméis. It is, however, about protecting radio programmes which can stimulate positive emotions, associations, creativity and an appreciation of life and it is about rejecting a replacement radio programme which offers nothing to the listener's senses, emotions and appreciation of life. Lyric in the morning used to enrich worlds through playing alternative music and presenting it in an understated, modest, unassuming manner. It no longer does. In a nutshell, that is the problem. That is the loss to which we are trying to articulate our opposition.


All of this has essentially been explained to you already.

Rebelheart

Without understating things, Marty Whelan's style and persona is a travesty, the ruination of Lyric fm. His existence on that station is a betrayal of the promise at Lyric's inception to cater for a niche market which was ignored by the mainstream. He is the bland, commercialised mainstream - his ubiquitous Tesco ads painfully encapsulate so much of this - and the sole, inescapable reason why that individual is on Lyric FM is because RTÉ has nowhere else to put him. There is no rational reason why this person should be on a station of Lyric's character. He is, in effect, dumped on Lyric FM. In the belief that people can change style and adapt to new environments many people gave Whelan the benefit of the doubt. He did not change his style. That is now the problem.

His abysmal egotistical verbose presentation style where he is first and the music is second is imposed on Lyric's listeners. This "personality radio" is a culture shock for a station which has always put the music first. There are far too many personality-centred radio stations. Lyric is supposed to be different, to be refreshing, to be stimulating. It does not need his facile, vacuous and superfluous talk. It adds absolutely nothing. Nothing. It possesses neither wit nor consolation. It's mere chatter of the worst 'I'm on-air so I must say something, anything' sort. His talking, combined with his ineffably awful, thematically-challenged musical choices is the perfect storm hitting Lyric FM. Not for a minute has Whelan changed his style to accommodate Lyric's listeners. Perish the thought. If anything he is now a bigger waffler playing an even more horrendous mix of country and western, pop and Lord only knows. A decent, humble professional would adjust to the surroundings and get on with things; Whelan, however, wants the surroundings to adjust to his wholly inappropriate style. While RTÉ management obviously bares responsibility for this travesty, it is Whelan who above all must take responsibility as he has not made any attempt to change his style for Lyric's audience. Goodwill towards him at the start - if only because he's a 'survivor' - has long since dissipated because of what can only be described as Whelan's egotism and essential self-absorption. When it comes to presenting music, he's not a 'giver', he's a 'taker'. He is first, the music is second. We are second.


Lyric FM in the morning was escapism for so many of us before a hard day's work. It was escapism, too, from the mundane repetitiveness of the morning news programmes in all their abject dreariness. This show on Lyric destroys the mornings of so many of us who love the calm of 'morning' music, who appreciate the interaction between well chosen music and the crispness of the morning. A presenter who 'gets' the need for that allows us all to be grateful for life that bit more. That sort of presenter is a 'giver' - his/her show is about the music and they are acutely conscious of the emotions which well-chosen music can inspire in us on the way into work in the car. The carefully chosen words, the laconic style, the calm of other presenters no longer exists on Lyric in the morning. There's a gentleness which is gone from morning radio, and we are all the worse for it.

mbur

bbability wrote: »

Eh the same people who used derogatory and abusive words on the forum to describe Marty Whelan

I think not.

That happened. They also contributed over 400 posts in the radio forum over 3-4 years. Without censure AFAIK.

Evenstevens

doomed wrote: »

Sorry - I tried to close my account today but without success. Will try again tomorrow but you are missing the point entirely. As my Granny used to say "if you can't follow the game don't try to make the rules".

This has nothing to do with upper clases (to which I do not belong in any case) or the common people or those you have chosen to describe as such. Lyric is supposed supposed to be a classical music station. MITM is something entirely alien to that. It shouldn't be there.

I don't think Lyric is exclusively classical. If it is then why are there programmes like Movies and Musicals, Jazz Alley, Reels to Ragas, Grace Notes? I'm not a huge fan of Marty's wittering in the morning but I've heard some great pieces of music on the programme that I otherwise wouldn't have. He's harmless. If you don't like it don't listen. Stick on a podcast of the Blue of the Night.

bbability

mbur wrote: »

That happened. They also contributed over 400 posts in the radio forum over 3-4 years. Without censure AFAIK.

No it's called reading the forum rules and keeping your comments within the forum rules. If this keeps up I will lock the thread.

Yvonne23R

Yes I think the debate is getting a little 'out of hand' now, and we need to cool things down. It is good that everyone agrees that Marty Whelan is a trooper and that he has weathered manys the perfect storm in his time. And I see we know that there are many programs like his on other parts of Lyric, like Reels To Ragas, Movies and Musicals, Grace Notes, The Hamilton Scores, Jazz Alley and the Gay Byrne Show. The one they tried for a few years was a flop with Eamonn Lalor - the Full Score it was called. Nobody liked it because it was too long and too heavy. Marty Whelan really gets us wide awake when we hear it coming on. I like to set my clock to match exactly when he will be talking to AA Roadwatch. Especially if he's talking to Rebecca it's really the way to wake up with a grin on your face. We should all try it. It would put the smile on the other side of your face.

born2bwild

Since reading this thread I have changed my attitude to Marty's programme. I still like him, still listen to him in the morning but I fear his musical taste is going to turn me off eventually.
Such a shame because he's a decent bloke - friendly and positive.

pconn062

So just to clarify now, are we not allowed to criticize the show at all? It's just it's very hard to comment on the show without mentioning the host? I've never once used derogatory language when discussing the show. If so, I won't bother posting again.

chasmcb

The comments made about Mr Whelan have been no more severe than remarks on presenters in other threads, like the Mooney Show one for instance, yet they've not led to bans or threats to lock the thread. I see the mod here has previously made a couple of pro-Marty contributions to the discussion and, maybe I am wrong, but his 'refereeing' intervention does come across a bit as though his main issue is with posters' anti-MITM stance per se.

Oh, and Yvonne, "put the smile on the other side of your face" means to make someone disgruntled or hacked off which, indeed, is pretty much what Marty succeeds in doing to quite a few listeners!

Yvonne23R

No that isn't what I meant. I was saying he gives great joy to ordinary people our age who need somewhere to go on the radio in the morning. It's like having Live at Three on early - really early, if you are up at 7, which I am sometimes - and it is a kind of a second sunrise each day.

He gave us a couple of country & western tunes this week and you forget how funny they can be sometimes. We really enjoyed them in this house.

Marty Whelan is very good too for playing a few childrens' numbers coming up to school time as requests or even off his own bat. We all really love them here. The Windmill in Old Amsterdam and Dick van Dyke or The Bug Song with Christopher Lee or something from The Lion King.

But! I know that Neven Maguire is coming tomorrow, but I will make sure it's off for that. The young girl from Danone was good yesterday talking about taking exercise, and losing weight, and making sure we have a breakfast of things like orange juuice and yoghurt and porridge. That is good for us in New Years' Revolutions time.

Rebelheart

chasmcb wrote: »

The comments made about Mr Whelan have been no more severe than remarks on presenters in other threads, like the Mooney Show one for instance, yet they've not led to bans or threats to lock the thread. I see the mod here has previously made a couple of pro-Marty contributions to the discussion and, maybe I am wrong, but his 'refereeing' intervention does come across a bit as though his main issue is with posters' anti-MITM stance per se.

QFT.

bbability

Other members of Boards.ie reported the abusive comments posted by users on this thread. Last week it became obvious that certain users were using phrases and terms to describe Marty Whelan time and time again which was deemed unjust, unfair and basically not adding to the debate. This in turn was a breech of the Forum Charter and certain users received warnings and one user received a one week ban.
Some users who were involved in this breech decided that they weren't happy with the action taken by Moderators, so they closed their accounts. That's as they say their business.
People are free to debate and discuss Marty Whelan and his radio show provided it does not breech the forum charter.
Anymore Back Seat Modding will result in the thread going into "lock down"

So please continue to discuss and debate but dont call Marty and other users of the forum names that might offend other users/readers of Boards.ie :cool:

Yvonne23R

Turning off Marty Whelan now, because Neven is about to erupt into our ears.

But: from what they were chatting about Rebecca and himself I think Marty will be a celebrity guest on the Late Late Show with Ryan Tubridy this evening. I'm going out tonight but I am sure to want to look back at this on the RTE Player. He has such a history Marty WHelan has from the early days on Radio 2 in our time to when he left to join one of the pirates and then when he came back to RTE. I wish he would write a book on how hes been to hell and back radio and TV-wise.

ghiertal

Yvonne23R wrote: »

Turning off Marty Whelan now, because Neven is about to erupt into our ears.

But: from what they were chatting about Rebecca and himself I think Marty will be a celebrity guest on the Late Late Show with Ryan Tubridy this evening. I'm going out tonight but I am sure to want to look back at this on the RTE Player. He has such a history Marty WHelan has from the early days on Radio 2 in our time to when he left to join one of the pirates and then when he came back to RTE. I wish he would write a book on how hes been to hell and back radio and TV-wise.

Is there any particular reason why you post deliberate mistakes Taca?