The dumbing down of RTE Radio 1

I have noticed that Radio 1 is starting to sound a lot more like Newstalk, Since Clare Byrne took over The Today Show, it has a sponsor and discusses love island, imagine Rodney Rice or John Bowman talking about such fluff back in the day? The Drivetime show too sounds like it's trying to be down with the kids... In a few years time will radio 1 have a music bed under the news bulletins ?

The content has changed on the Today programme after the departure of Sean O'Rourke, taking on a more lifestyle focus. But aside from that, I don't see any change. If anything, there is more political news than ever, including the excellent Brexit Republic and the RTE Politics podcast, as well as coverage of the pandemic which is fairly saturated.

As for Drivetime, I can see no difference in the content at all, except for an increasing amount of content on the environment, like an ecology segment.

It's a channel that is supposed to offer a pretty diverse range of offering to people from all walks of life, and I think they have the balance of politics/ arts/ farming and business/ sport to be pretty much right.

It's always had a light-hearted early-morning (Tubridy, John Murray, Miriam O'Callaghan/ Gay Byrne, even) and afternoon programme (D'arcy, Mooney) for as long as I remember, and of course, Liveline -- so I'm not sure when this station was ever an intellectual platform. If anything, it's become more serious since 2016, and again in the past 16 months, because of recent events.

There should be a place on Radio 1 for some light-hearted material, and in fact there probably always has been.

Beechwoodspark

I have noticed this dumbing down particularly on the Claire Byrne morning show

This show was the flagship news and current affairs offering on RTÉ national radio.

Pat Kenny and Sean o rourke were both excellent news and current affairs broadcasters and the tone was almost always “just right”

PK in particular respected the intelligence of the listener and I fondly recall his interviews with various correspondents (both Irish and international) and journalists such as the likes of Robert Fisk and John Simpson, insightful and intelligent contributions.

There would be regular pieces on history, science, literature (niall mcmonigle for example), drama, etc.

Heady stuff compared to what is often served up these days.

Claire Byrne and her producers for some reason have torn up that legacy.

ford fiesta

Sean O'Rourke also spoke about love island and such topical TV shows of the day.