RTE has defended the dropping of three classical-music programmes from Radio 1 on the grounds that the station's music should "complement" Lyric FM, the classical station started last year.
One of the shows, O'Brien On Song, has already been replaced on Sunday morning by Mooney Goes Wild On One. The two others, Music For Middlebrows and Sounds Classical, will disappear from Saturday and Sunday evenings at the end of February. Their slots will be filled by music programmes hosted by Philip King and P.J. Curtis.
"With Lyric coming on stream and having a chance to settle, it was an opportunity to reflect on our music programming," Ms Ann Marie O'Callaghan, editor of Radio 1, said.
The formats for the new programmes reflect the success of John Kelly's Mystery Train from Monday to Friday, Ms O'Callaghan said. She called the planned new shows "more popular music programming that would have a broader appeal".
The decision has been criticised as diluting Radio 1's public service ethos. One RTE insider, who declined to be named, said the move towards "complementary" stations, akin to the BBC model, ran contrary to "a very distinctive Irish culture, in which we try to retain a service with a broad appeal for all people, a sort of Irish stew.
Listeners in Britain, who avail of RTE Radio 1 on medium wave and cannot access Lyric FM, will no longer have the option of tuning in classical programmes from Ireland, he said.
The change has been welcomed by others, however, who suggest that the classical-music lobby is noisy beyond its numbers. "I find it odd to have an entire station of Western art music in Lyric FM, plus these programmes on Radio 1," one observed.
The decision is seen by its supporters as strengthening the place of other minority-interest musical forms in the Radio 1 schedule. These include the folk, traditional and international "roots" music likely to be favoured by Philip King and P.J. Curtis.
Another specialist music programme, Theatre Nights, has also been removed from the Radio 1 schedule.
Ms O'Callaghan said Radio 1 would continue to broadcast a regular classical programme, still to be finalised, and also have occasional series focusing on specific musical themes.
"We hope to use people like Kevin Hough [of Theatre Nights] and Fionn O'Leary [of Sounds Classical] for programmes like that," she said.
Des Keogh, the host of Music for Middlebrows, will move to a two-hour programme on Lyric FM, Lyric World Requests, on Sunday afternoons.