Technological University Dublin ARROW@TU Dublin Masters Applied Arts 2013 Tuning In: Key Audience Issues for Public Service Broadcaster, RTE Radio 1 (1995-2012) Patrick Hannon Technological University Dublin, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://arrow.tudublin.ie/appamas Recommended Citation Hannon, P.: (2016). Tuning In: Key Audience Issues for Public Service Broadcaster, RTE Radio 1 (1995-2012). Masters dissertation. Technological University Dublin. doi:10.21427/D7MW48 This Theses, Masters is brought to you for free and open access by the Applied Arts at ARROW@TU Dublin. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters by an authorized administrator of ARROW@TU Dublin. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License To The Dublin Institute of Technology March 2012. Tuning in: Key audience issues for public service broadcaster, RTE Radio 1 (1995 -2012). By Patrick Hannon B.Sc. (Hons) Thesis submitted for the award of M.Phil. (Master of Philosophy) Supervisor: Dr. Brian O’ Neill School of Media, College of Arts and Tourism Dublin Institute of Technology January 2013 Abstract This thesis explores listener loyalty to public radio in Ireland where radio listenership is one of the highest in Europe. Critical to this study is exploring the notion and understanding – from the listeners’ perspective – of Public Service Broadcasting (PSB), in particular, the complexities of the concept as it is understood and operated by RTE Radio 1. A qualitative inquiry with twenty-three participants representing the audience and RTE management was carried out. Underpinned with an extensive quantitative inquiry to map the listening audience in the Dublin market place, the project sets out to answer four key research questions. What are the underlying trends for listening to Irish public service radio? How does Irish public radio attain and hold listener loyalty? What do listeners perceive as the value of public service radio? And, do core opinions and perceptions on public service broadcasting change over time? While acknowledging the differences in scale, the thesis draws upon comparisons of the PSB model as it pertains to BBC network radio. The study’s findings provide new insights into the listener’s relationship with radio – its programmes and its presenters. It concludes with a series of suggestions to re-invigorate the concept of PSB on behalf of the licence fee payers in Ireland. i Declaration I certify that this thesis, which I now submit for examination for the award of M.Phil (Master of Philosophy), is entirely my own work and has not been taken from the work of others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my work. The thesis was prepared according to the regulations for postgraduate study by research of the Dublin Institute of Technology and has not been submitted in whole or in part for an award in any other Institute or university. The work reported on in this thesis conforms to the principles and requirements of the Institute’s guidelines for ethics in research. The Institute has permission to keep, to lend or to copy this thesis in whole or in part, on condition that any such use of the material of the thesis be duly acknowledged. Signed: _______________________________ Dated: _______________ Candidate ii Acknowledgements I would like to firstly thank the participants who kindly gave so generously of their time in the interviews conducted for this research project. Their answers provided such rich insights into the world of radio broadcasting from the unique perspective of the listener. I would also like to thank the library staff in DIT Aungier Street that were so helpful with my enquiries and requests for dissertations, inter-library loans and other hard-to- get documents. I would particularly like to express my thanks to Israel Chidavenzi and Anne Ambrose. Without the kind help and support of my learned supervisor Dr Brian O’Neill, this thesis would not have reached this complete stage. Brian gave advice and encouragement at each and every stage. Grateful thanks also to my external examiners – Dr Kevin Rafter (DCU) and Professor Guy Starkey (University of Sunderland). I would like to thank my wife Eileen and our children for their understanding and forbearance during any periods of my absence. Thoughts of Zoe and her older sister Kim kept me spurred on - making this project all the more meaningful and rewarding to see it accomplished. iii Explanation of terms/abbreviations used All-Adult Listeners aged 15-years or over. AIRPI Association of Independent Producers of Ireland. BAI Broadcast Authority of Ireland BBC British Broadcasting Company. BCI Broadcast Authority of Ireland (regulatory body before the BAI) FCC Federal Communications Commission GPO General Post Office. Home Local Local independent-commercial radio station operating in county or city area (e.g. 98FM, East Coast FM, Clare FM). JNLR Joint National Listenership Research. NPR National Public Radio Ofcom Independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries. PSB Public Service Broadcasting. Quasi Almost national in coverage. Limited availability of FM frequencies to enable the station to achieve 98 percent coverage. Reach refers to the penetration of radio into the universal population at large. The measure is used to refer to the percentage of the population who listened to at least some of a programme or station during a day or week. iv Explanation of terms/abbreviations used (continued) Replenishers This term refers to those who may have an interest in speech radio, but tend to be slightly younger and lighter listeners than that of the RTE Radio1 core audience and are therefore important to the regeneration of RTE Radio 1. RTE Radio Telefis Éireann . Share A figure expressed as a percentage and is concerned with the actual audience that listens to one or more stations - the actual proportion of a market accounted for by a particular service. It is calculated by adding up the amount of time spent listening to the different stations and expressing figures for each station as a percentage of all listening. v Timeline of key events in Ireland’s broadcasting history Jan 1922 BBC Ltd is formed with John Reith as its first General Manager. The Station is known as 2LO 1 Jan 1926 2RN began broadcasting from 36 Little Denmark Street, Dublin 1925 Seamus Clandillion was appointed as the first Director of Broadcasting 26 April 1927 Cork studio opens from the former Women’s Gaol in Sunday’s Well with a 1kw transmitter known as 6CK 1927 Mairead Ni Ghrada appointed as Woman Organiser 31 Dec 1927 First sponsored programme for Euthymol toothpaste 1928 2RN moves to its new headquarters in the General Post Office (GPO) vi Timeline of key events in Ireland’s broadcasting history (continued) 1932 New 60kw transmitter (later boosted to 100kw) installed in Athlone to cover broadcasting of The Eucharistic Congress 1933 Radio Luxembourg begins English language service 1935 Dr T.J Kieran transferred from the Department of External Affairs to succeed Sean Clandillion as Director of Broadcasting 1936 O’Donnell Abu chosen as 2RN’s new identification signature tune 14 Aug 1938 Michael O’Hehir to become known as the ‘voice of Gaelic Games’ gives his first match commentary 1942 First broadcast of Desert Island Discs on BBC Home Service 16 May 1945 Taoiseach Eamon de Velara responds to Winston Churchill Oct 1947 Mobile recording unit with disc recorder introduced Dec 1949 Tape recording introduced at Radio Éireann studios vii Timeline of key events in Ireland’s broadcasting history (continued) 15 Aug 1950 Angelus bells first broadcast to mark the Feast of the Assumption and Holy Year 1951 First broadcast of The Archers, the world’s longest running radio soap 1 Jan 1953 Maurice Gorham appointed as Director of Broadcasting 1953 Popular Irish dancing programme Take the Floor presented by Din Joe begins 14th April 1955 Daily soap The Kennedys of Castleross begins June 1960 RTE established under the Broadcasting Authority Act 1960 and 2RN becomes Raidio Éireann 1 Dec 1961 First edition of the RTV Guide published 10 Dec 1961 The News Service moves from Henry Street studios to new Montrose studios at Donnybrook viii Timeline of key events in Ireland’s broadcasting history (continued) 31 Dec 1961 Telefis Éireann begins on New Year’s Eve 6 July 1962 The Late Late Show goes on the TV for the first time intended as a summer ‘filler’ 1966 Radio Dublin founded by Ken Sheehan begins pirate broadcasting 1967 BBC Radio 1, 2, 3 and 4 commence leaving behind the Home and Light services 1971 Telefis Éireann begins broadcasting in colour 2 April 1972 RTE Raidio Na Gaeltachta commences broadcasting from its main studio at Caskla in Connemara 24 Sept 1973 Live radio broadcasting begins from the new Radio Centre at Montrose ix Timeline of key events in Ireland’s broadcasting history (continued) May 1977 RTE provides a one-week local radio experiment Dublin’s Liberties on VHF 2 Nov 1978 RTE launches its second television channel, RTE 2 31 May 1979 RTE Radio 2 launches 31 May 1979 Marian Finucane presents the first edition of Women Today on RTE Radio 1 9 Sept 1980 ‘Super pirate’ Sunshine Radio commences broadcasting from the Sands Hotel, Portmarnock, County Dublin March 1982 The Gerry Ryan Show begins as a tabloid three-hour mid- morning show Sept 1982 ‘Super pirate’ station Radio Nova commences broadcasting 16 June 1982 Unabridged and uninterrupted 30-hour reading of Joyce’s Ulysses on Radio 1 x Timeline of key events in Ireland’s broadcasting history (continued) 1984 Morning Ireland begins at 8.00AM on RTE Radio 1 1985 Frankie Byrne presenter of The Jacobs Programme (or Dear Frankie as it was also known) presented the last show after 22 years on air 1988 Radio and Television Act, 1988.