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RTÉ Radio 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 noon.
- Liveline with Joe Duffy - phone-in discussion from 13.45 until 14.45.
- Five Seven Live - rolling news between 17.00 and 19.00.
Reception
Today RTÉ Radio 1 is available in Ireland on FM, 567 kHz MW, 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 and mediumwave, 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 mediumwave/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 Telewest 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. Occasionally, the version of the World Radio Network carried on this service is replaced by "RTÉ Radio 1 Extra", which carries additional content for DAB listeners.
The station's tuning signal since 1936 has been the air O'Donnell Abú *, 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 5.30 each morning (between 2.00 and 5.30, apart from the hourly news bulletins, Radio 1's output is made up of selected repeats from earlier programmes).
2006 changes to the station
In late May 2006, RTÉ announced serveral dramatic changes to RTÉ Radio 1's schedule *, among these being:
- Five Seven Live to be replaced by Drivetime (working title) from 17:00-20:00, to be anchored by Mary Wilson from 17:00-18:30 featuring news and current affairs. Sportscall, which follows Five Seven Live, will become a segment of Drivetime from 18:30-19:00, with Dave Fanning presenting an arts based segment from 19:00-20:00
- John Creedon to replace Val Joyce as presenter of Late Date, the late night music show.
- Derek Mooney moving to the afternoon slot, with a new programme from 15:00-17:00.
- Rattlebag, the arts programme presented by Myles Dungan will be cancelled, as will the evening music programme The Mystery Train.
The proposed changes have 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, which will be in competition with Radio 1 for speech based listeners.
External link
"RTÉ Radio 1"