Madam, - I am writing to protest in the strongest possible terms at RTÉ's plans for the summer schedule which, it seems, may well extend into the autumn schedule also.
As an avid listener to RTÉ Radio 1 for many years, I am to be deprived of my two favourite shows - Marian Finucane and Pat Kenny - in one foul swoop.
It would appear that this decision arose from the figures released in February which showed a drop of just under 10 per cent in listeners to Marian Finucane and Pat Kenny. Apparently Ryan Tubridy has increased his listenership by 19,000, though the base figure is not published so we are in the dark as to how good this increase really is. Kenny's loss of 31,000 and Finucane's loss of 26,000 are still greater than Tubridy's gain of 19,000, which shows that a significant number of these wayward listeners have not gone to Tubridy anyway and are net losses to RTÉ. This makes the decision to effectively have two frivolous RTÉ 2s and no RTÉ 1 for more serious discussion and analysis in the morning schedule all the more silly.
Ryan Tubridy's show is very different in style and content to the two shows it is replacing. Given the demographics of our country and the growing apathy to politics and current affairs generally among younger people, it is hardly surprising that some listeners are going away from these two shows.
However, RTÉ's response, which is to ignore the 90 per cent plus loyal listeners in favour of the 10 per cent minus disloyal listeners, makes absolutely no sense. Worse than this new summer schedule is the possibility that we will be left with a much diluted autumn schedule, with no Marian and possibly one hour of Pat Kenny. This means that these changes, which seem to be driven by a mind-set more in keeping with a private broadcaster are, in effect, permanent.
Since when was public service broadcasting about popularity anyway? I think the management in RTÉ need to seriously re- define their mission statement to reflect this new ethos so that that we, the public, through our politicians, can decide if RTÉ's advantage of the revenue from licensing fees should continue.
You can add one more ex-listener to the list if this insane scheduling goes ahead. - Yours, etc,
BEN MEEHAN, Raheny Dublin 5.