The bland interviewing the bland
RTÉ Radio’s listenership figures continue to slide. I wonder why? Here’s a possible symptom.
Where once we started our weekend with the political satire of Scrap Saturday, now we have soft focus interviews with “prominent people”. Harmless stuff, and guaranteed not to put anyone’s nose out of joint. Why, just this morning we had a lovely interview with the wife of a prominent politician who just happens to be leading his party’s annual conference this weekend. Coincidence or what? RTÉ as ever, glad to help our poor misunderstood politicians to get their message across. And, by the way, thanks for the license fee increase lads.
Ah yes, public service broadcasting at its best.
Mark Waters marked time at 10:53 am on February 17th, 2007 .
It might also be that the figures are calculated on the basis of live listenership, not on the basis of the total number of people who listen through downloads or internet etc…so while I agree with you on the public service broadcasting bit, it would be great if the numbers were gathered on the basis of how people actually listen, not how the broadcasters would like them to!
Mark, sorry…no, it can’t be guaranteed not to put anyone’s nose out of kilter. My nose is seriously out of kilter. Can I have my money back? You reckon I’d get it? No, I didn’t think so.
What is happening with RTE is symptomatic of what is happening with the country as a whole. It’s dumbing down wholesale on the news coverage and analysis side. But have you seen any of our print media lately? Any of our daily newspapers? Are they any better? And we’re pandering to the culture of celebrity rather than achievement, hence interview with whichever politician’s wife it was that I missed this morning. Time was, they were ignored. Personally I still do ignore them but apparently I’m a changeling anyway.
Annette, my understanding of the JNLR survey is that it is on the basis of interviewing 15000 people. I suspect that when people are asked whether they listened to Radio 1, the odds are regardless of whether they listened online, via a download or via their car radio, they’ll probably say yes - I reckon the figures are not that far out of kilter really.