The Late Late Gay Byrne Irish Television Thread

Anyone can edit that.

Got a bit excited there lol

RTE Radio Centre is not being sold. Where in the article does it say RTE Radio Centre at Montrose in Dublin is part of the sale of their site? It doesn't. They are not abandoning their radio production centre for RTE Radio 1 and RTE 2FM.

"The land expected to go on the market currently accommodates the radio centre.

RTÉ insiders said it was ‘almost inevitable’ that this land would be sold as it is directly adjacent to the site purchased by Cairn Homes.

They added that it would be unfeasible to continue to broadcast from the radio centre when largescale development is taking place metres away. ‘You can’t broadcast live radio when you have industrial pile-drivers going into the ground right beside you all day every day,’ said one staff member. ‘No amount of sound-proofing can deal with that all the time'."

So, where does RTE Radio plan to move to?

It's all speculation at this stage. We will have to wait until the official announcement, a few weeks from now.

I don't see RTE moving out of their radio centre. Cork studios are expendable, sorry, they are - RTE Radio Centre with their 13 studios is essential, and the Irish government would have a heart attack if RTE came to them to say they were going to close the radio centre down. Where would RTE Radio 1, 2FM, and all the other radio production move to? There is no alternative place.


RTE will sell some land, the Montrose estate is vast, RTE purchased large chunks of it over many decades, starting off with their original purchase when they were simply named Telefis Eireann in 1959 (not airing until Dec 31st 1961), I believe 25 acres was purchased in 1959 for Telefis Eireann.

One thing that is on my mind right now is that if RTÉ decide to close down their Radio Centre in future; they couldn't just ask the planning agencies here to propose a new building for it because they might not afford to do so because of issues with their finances. I think that RTÉ could move their Radio stations into the main building at Montrose by doing a cheap refit job from one of their current TV studios. If that Radio Centre closes in 2020 because of the construction work of the new houses by Cairn Homes with no proper back up plan to move or close some of their radio stations because of low listenership figures; they're honestly screwed. Obviously some of the radio stations like Lyric FM & RNaG are based outside of Dublin. But what I'm talking about are the futures of RTÉ 2XM, RTÉ Pulse, RTÉ Jr radio & RTÉ Gold. Will they still continue after the RTÉ Radio Centre is closed by 2020?

RTE Radio Centre is not closing in my opinion. It would be truly utter madness on the part of RTE who have prided themselves on an excellent radio network, indeed there are many in the media who feel RTE still consider radio superior to television.


You mention the possibility of them refitting a television studio at RTE for radio - that won't happen, as there is not enough room in the television centre for it. The main studios are used and would not suit any kind of refitting. The purpose of the radio centre was to have television and radio production all in one campus, which they managed to organise by 1974 when the radio centre went into full operation mode.

The only other possibility is that they convert a section of their administrative building into new radio studios - however this would cost more money that RTE don't have and can't afford to waste, hence the possible sale of land at Montrose. So, moving out of the radio centre is out of the question, as it is financially idiotic and there are no alternatives for RTE Radio to move to.

Ireland AM is on the air 20 years today.
No massive celebrations, but a mention at every TOTH.

It actually started on the 20th September 1999. 20th September 2019 is a Friday.

The first thing said this morning at 7am was “we’re on the air 20 years today!”.
Why not leave it until Friday then if that’s the actual launch anniversary?