Could this be a sexual revolution? No, it's RTÉ Radio 1's new schedule

Launching a schedule of such magnitude on Ireland’s most-listened-to station is a huge gamble, but the early signs are encouraging, writes Gareth O'Callaghan.

Today with David McCullagh RTE

Listening to RTÉ Radio 1 yesterday as the station rolled out its first new schedule in 26 years, I was reminded of Abraham Maslow’s words: “In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or step back into safety.”

Considering the station’s ratings announced in recent days — 1.3m listeners every week, and the first choice for 35- to 54-year-olds — it’s a brave move to introduce a dawn-to-dusk shake-up. At least, that’s what I was expecting.

My clock radio sprang into life at 6.55am. Salt-N-Pepa’s raunchy Let’s Talk About Sex was playing. For a moment I was back in Chandra’s nightclub on Cork’s Grand Parade. My wife leapt out of bed and threw a towel over the statue of the Sacred Heart. Maybe I was tuned to another station. Nope, it was Radio 1.

"Could this be a sexual revolution attempting to overthrow old radio traditions?" I asked myself. After all, we were promised the biggest change to the station since 1999. The answer was a definitive no.

At 7am, Morning Ireland’s Audrey Carville and Justin McCarthy made it sound, in their warm under-caffeinated styles, as though it was just another Monday — much as when the show started this month back in 1984 with David Hanly and David Davin-Power. I breathed a sigh of relief.

It’s a given that morning radio sets your temperament for the day. Listeners — especially in the sensitive ears of breakfast diehards — don’t like change. A strange voice on your radio first thing is like discovering the milk is sour, or there are no filter papers for the percolator.

And so I waited for the first of the changes at 9am. Mid-morning on Radio 1 has always been the backbone of the station — home to big names over recent years, including Pat Kenny, Sean O’Rourke, and Claire Byrne.

Big shoes to fill — and no problem to David McCullagh, who sounds as though he has found his true vocation. He made the show very much his own on day one.

RTÉ Radio 1 Today with David McCullagh.

An interesting choice of guest to kick things off was the modern-day Moses of media training, Ivan Yates, who frequently challenges my blood pressure — “the best back-channeller in the business”, as he described himself.

Ivan Yates.

While Yates has done nothing wrong or broken any laws, the interview quickly became a bumpy ride of mostly self-indulgent vindication of his hurt ego, and an unfortunate choice of words when he told McCullagh he got more publicity last week than DJ Carey.

Yates’s torment quickly paled compared with McCullagh’s next guest. Damien Douglas’s 30-year-old twin daughters, Una and Ailish, have Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome, and function as nine-month-olds due to the rare disorder. Damien and his wife, Mary, are their full-time carers. It was heartbreaking to listen to.

McCullagh showed that his demure style on Six One was only one facet of his versatility, and I look forward to hearing more of him in the days ahead.

Oliver Callan has made radio his natural home, and he shone in his new two-hour slot.

RTÉ Radio 1 presenter Oliver Callan.

Liveline has been going through a “rest period” since Joe Duffy’s departure last June, RTÉ said last week — losing 20,000 listeners, according to recent ratings.

Kieran Cuddihy brought that rest period to an end.

RTÉ Radio 1 'Liveline' presenter Kieran Cuddihy.

Annette was first up, talking about our “third-world health system”. On Sunday, her mother had to wait for over six hours for urgent treatment in an anteroom in casualty at Sligo University Hospital, despite a sepsis diagnosis.

By the end of the show, the Kilkenny man sounded like he’d been there for years.

But there’s much more to Cuddihy than he let out. Hopefully he’ll get a chance to go up a few gears to where he’s used to in the coming weeks.

RTÉ Radio 1's Louise Duffy.

Louise Duffy moves from midday to 3pm, and hers is a voice perfectly suited to late afternoons. It’s gentle; and when it comes to the music, she knows her stuff.

RTÉ Radio 1's Drivetime presenters Katie Hannon and Colm Ó'Mongáin.

Back to news and caffeine at 4pm. Katie Hannon and Colm Ó Mongáin replace Sarah McInerney and Cormac Ó hEadhra, which, for me, was the most questionable change in the schedule. The latter became a winning combination in their five years on Drivetime, with an ability to mix tough interviews while teasing out their differing views on lighter topics.

The high point of the show was Hannon’s chilling interview with Annie Farmer, a victim of Jeffrey Epstein when she was a 16-year-old teenager, who later turned whistleblower.

Only time will tell if the new duo is a good working match.

Allowing for first-day nerves, it was a good day for RTÉ. Launching a schedule of such magnitude on Ireland’s most-listened-to station is a huge gamble.

It takes a new radio show two years to find its feet. Six new shows back-to-back in the space of 12 hours is unheard of. That said, these are the new voices of Radio 1. 

What would Arthur Murphy’s Mailbag have made of it?