Sir, - As a longtime radio lover, I'd like to support most of what John Waters said in his column of August 13th. In this age of light, light radio programming, I fear for RTE Radio 1 and the mix of programmes it offers (or offered).
It's not that I haven't groaned over Gay and Pat and Mike on occasion. But at least there, was - something definite to groan about - not just some bland male voice retailing silly mid Atlantic gossip between songs.
There seems to be some law of the air waves that the more radio stations there are, the smaller their range of listener. In Dublin there seem to be dozens of stations playing ads, pop and tabloid news, with a diminishing number (RTE 1, Anna Livia, FM3) producing alternatives. I've nothing against pop in its place (I once was a Radio Luxembourg listener, and sometimes stay my hand on the off button for a Sixties tune) but why a dozen versions of the same thing? Is this advertisers rule?
Even within music radio, stations resemble each other so much that they have to keep repeating their names like a mantra to remind the listeners. Extra radio licences were meant to give more choice, but this hasn't happened. Minorities are only catered to at odd hours - or by crackly foreign stations at the limit of the original range.
There's also talk, and talk. Some of the best radio is spontaneous talk, but so is some of the worst. Talk does need to be edited and is not a substitute for investigative and documentary programmes about specific happenings and issues. RTE Radio has a very respectable audience share. It has a public service duty and should keep on trying out interesting, creative, non commercial things, rather than getting obsessed with delivering slices of audience to advertisers. - Yours, etc.,
Del Val Avenue,
Dublin 13.