RTÉ Radio 1
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| RTÉ Radio 1 | |
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| Broadcast area | National - Ireland |
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| Frequency | 88.2-90.0, (87.8 northeast) MHz FM and 252 kHz LW Digital terrestrial television DAB |
| First air date | 1 January 1926 |
| Format | Mixed network |
| Owner | Radio Telefís Éireann |
| Website | www.rte.ie/radio1 |
RTÉ Radio 1 (Irish: RTÉ Raidió 1) is the principal radio channel of Irish public-service broadcaster Radio Telefís Éireann and is the direct descendant of Dublin radio station 2RN, which began broadcasting on a regular basis on 1 January 1926.
Station 6CK, a Cork relay of 2RN, joined the Dublin station in 1927, and a high-power transmitter at Athlone in County Westmeath opened in 1932. From the latter date the three stations became known as Radio Athlone, later being renamed Radio Éireann ("Irish Radio") in 1937.
Like most European national stations at that time, Radio Éireann attempted to satisfy all tastes on a single channel. It broadcast a mixed schedule of light entertainment and heavier fare, Irish language programming, and talks. Sponsored programmes, which also featured in the schedule, tended to be lighter in tone and more popular than the programming made directly by Radio Éireann itself.
Radio Éireann began FM transmission in 1966, and was renamed RTÉ Radio later that year. When, in 1979, RTÉ established a new rock and pop station under the name of RTÉ Radio 2 (now RTÉ 2fm), the original RTÉ Radio channel was renamed once again and became RTÉ Radio 1.
Radio 1 broadcasts a mixture of news, current affairs, features, arts coverage, drama, sport, music (from popular music favourites through country and traditional to world music and jazz), and general entertainment. Major weekday programmes include:
- Morning Ireland - the station's flagship news programme, on air from 7.00 to 9.00.
- The Tubridy Show - talk-based entertainment with Ryan Tubridy following the news at 9.00.
- Today with Pat Kenny - a lively current affairs magazine, broadcast between 10.00 and 12.00.
- Liveline with Joe Duffy - phone-in discussion from 13.45 until 15.00.
- Drivetime - rolling news and talk (sport, popular culture, music and arts) between 17.00 and 20.00.
Its sports coverage includes Drivetime Sport with Des Cahill Monday to Friday 18.30 to 19.00, Friday Sportsnight (during the FAI National Football League (Ireland)|National League]] season), Saturday Sport with John Kenny from 14.00 to 18.00, and Sunday Sport with Adrian Eames (Winter) and Jimmy Magee (during the GAA Championship season).
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[edit] Reception
Today RTÉ Radio 1 is available in Ireland on 88-90FM and 252 kHz LW. It is also available on the web and from the Astra 2D, Eurobird 1 (which are co-located at 28E) and Hotbird satellites and at nighttime also on the mentioned medium- and longwave frequencies in Europe. Listeners outside Europe can hear a selection of RTÉ Radio 1 programmes on the WRN service.
The FM versions of the station differ from those broadcast on longwave, with significant additional sports coverage on the latter, as well as other changes. The MW and LW versions are also known as RTÉ Europe. Both versions of the station are carried at 28E (as is the case with the similar split of BBC Radio 4), and only the longwave version is carried on Hotbird. Both versions are available in the UK and Ireland on Sky Digital, RTÉ Radio 1 on channel 0160, and RTÉ Europe on 0142, with RTÉ Europe also being carried on Virgin Media cable in the UK.
DAB broadcasts of the station began in the east of the country (on the Clermont Carn and Three Rock Mountain high power transmitters via the RTÉ DAB Multiplex) on 1 January 2006.
RTÉ Radio 1 has been carried on shortwave in DRM during specific events, including the All Ireland finals
The station's tuning signal since 1936 has been the air O'Donnell Abú [1], although since the advent of 24-hour broadcasting in 1997, the tune has been played just once a day, as a prelude to the start of the day's live broadcasting at 05:30 each morning (between 02:00 and 05:30, apart from the hourly news bulletins, Radio 1's output is made up of selected repeats from earlier programmes).
[edit] Closure of Medium Wave frequencies
The Medium Wave transmitters of RTÉ Radio 1 were shut down at 15:00 on 24 March 2008. The main transmitter was based at Tullamore and broadcast on 567kHz. A lower powered relay in Cork at 729kHz was also in service. Before 1975, the 567kHz service originated from Athlone [2]. AM transmissions continue on Long Wave 252kHz from Summerhill, Co. Meath. Since the closure, Second Helpings programmes at the weekend have been limited to digital broadcasts only. Since LW is now almost identical to FM, some have suggested[weasel words] that Second Helpings be reintroduced on LW.
[edit] 2006 and 2007 changes to the station
In January 2006, Ana Leddy was appointed Controller of RTÉ Radio 1. Following this, in late May 2006, RTÉ announced several changes to RTÉ Radio 1's schedule [3], among these being:
- Five Seven Live was replaced by Drivetime from 17:00-20:00, anchored by Mary Wilson from 17:00-18:30 featuring news and current affairs. Sportscall, which followed Five Seven Live, became a segment of Drivetime (Drivetime Sport) from 18:30-19:00, with Dave Fanning presenting an arts based segment (Drivetime with Dave) from 19:00-20:00
- John Creedon replaced Val Joyce as presenter of Late Date, the late night music show.
- Derek Mooney moving to the afternoon slot, with a new programme (provisionally titled Afternoon Ireland, but eventually named simply Mooney) from 15:00-17:00. The Friday programme is dedicated to wildlife, as Derek Mooney's previous programme was wildlife show Mooney Goes Wild on One.
- Rattlebag, the arts programme presented by Myles Dungan was cancelled, as was the evening music programme The Mystery Train.
- A "Radio Investigative Unit" [4] was created and headed up by Philip Boucher-Hayes[5] with a brief to break major stories.
The changes attracted much comment within the Irish media, with many linking them to the award of an Independent National Radio contract to Dublin station NewsTalk 106 (since renamed Newstalk), which is now in competition with Radio 1 for speech based listeners. The majority of the changes came into effect on 4 September 2006, although the mid-afternoon schedule changes did not begin until October 2006, as the new Derek Mooney programme was not yet ready to begin airing. This led to the cancelled Rattlebag programme having to air several weeks of highlights in order to fill the schedule. Previously, RTÉ Radio 1 did not typically make major, if any changes to its schedule from year-to-year, the last major revamp being upon the departure of Gay Byrne in 1999.
On 4 July 2007, the station announced yet more changes to the schedule, with effect from September 2007:
- Tonight with Vincent Browne was cancelled, to be replaced with an as-yet-untitled current affairs programme at 23:00
- A new daily arts programme, to be presented by Vincent Woods and to be aired at 20:00.
- Features moved to 22:00.
The cancellation of Vincent Browne's programme, which had a cult following for its reinactment of proceedings at tribunals, attracted much comment.
RTÉ Radio 1 technically broadcasts 24 hours a day, however from 02:00 until 05:30, RTÉ Radio 1 has only live hourly 2 minute news summaries with the remaining hour being filled with edited repeats of shows already broadcast that day on RTÉ Radio 1 e.g. Today with Pat Kenny.
[edit] External links
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