The Late Late Gay Byrne Irish Television Thread

There were a lot of households getting UK TV well before Cable, The signals on VHF 405 used to go a very long way. It was far easier to pick them up it seems. Dublin, the east coast and the border counties were all watching TV in the 50's. Dublin papers were publishing TV listings from the mid 50's and there were an estimated 20,000 sets in the republic in 1958.

It's one of the great tales that RTE likes to tell that Television came to Ireland with RTE, and that was true for about half the country, but the other Half had access to TV almost 10 years earlier. And as time went by that access increased year by year. By 1990 almost any house that wanted UK TV could have it either directly, by Cable, MMDS or Deflector.

Been enjoying the chat about RTE2's anniversary. The early RTE2 hours cited by JK Derry - five hours a night during the week, with an earlier start at weekends - aren't a million miles away from what BBC2 was offering at the time, although the latter had OU programmes, Play School and odd OBs and adult education outside those times.

That sample schedule from a Saturday in early '79 is fascinating - just one twenty minute home grown production, with the rest UK/Hollywood imports. And that's a very mainstream line-up, too - Gen Game and Mind Your Language would probably both have been top ten shows in Britain at the time. Wilde Alliance was an excellent adventure/drama from Yorkshire. The big band show may look an oddity to modern eyes, but big bands were more recent in 1979 than punk or disco are now. Anyone over, say forty, would be at least somewhat familiar with them.

Finally, I have to ask about BBC2 audio appearing during RTE2's launch - how on earth?...

The insertion of the exit poll into ‘The Late Late’ last night seemed a touch bizarre even considering the eccentricities of Irish broadcasting.

RTE Television Centre in Dublin had access to BBC1, BBC2 and ITV channels so they could air live simulcasts or rebroadcast UK shows, and also provide these channels to their commercial cable television network at the time. This meant audio and pictures from the BBC and ITV were available at the centre, and an idiot technician probably pressed the wrong button and hey ho they got BBC2 audio for a while.

Isn't it the case that when TÉ (RTÉ at that point?) launched a TV service in 1961 they initially broadcast in the UK 405/50 line standard because so many people in the areas covered by the first transmitters in Ireland had already bought 405-line sets to watch the BBC (and ITV) ? Presumably these areas launched first because there were already audiences with TV sets ready and waiting to receive Irish television ?

This was an understandable move - but put it slightly at odds with what was becoming the dominant European standard (as by then 625/50 was the agreed pan-European line-standard for new services?)

It was only a year or so later that TÉ introduced 625 broadcasts - presumably to areas where TV was new and people hadn't been able to receive the BBC (and ITV) beforehand?

Did RTÉ initially run in 405/50 internally for the first year or so - or were the 405/50 transmitters always fed via (at that point optical) standards converters? (Multistandard 405/625 studio equipment was feasible at that point I believe)

AIUI RTÉ launched their 625/50 services before BBC Two launched in the UK - so 405/625 dual-standard sets were presumably not widespread at that point.

Co-incidentally. Buried deep in the election of the President, and the blastphemy referendum, there was another broadcasting referendum related one which may interest some around here.

The Angelus peel of bells, broadcast on RTE at 12.00 and 6.00pm and whether they should not bother with it anymore - currently (as I type) 68% have voted to keep it.

That was an opinion poll question... The Angelus has nothing to do with the constitution (thank whatever God you want!) There are a lot of non religious people out there that would want to keep it for the simple reason you can look at the BBC News at Six, or UTV live to see the headlines, Then turn over to RTE 1 for the Six One a minute later.

Irish people who couldn't get the BBC in the sixties and Seventies should be very thankful for the Angelus. It was a fixed point at 6.00pm. If it wasn't there, RTE might not have come on until 7 during the Summer... If you go back over the schedules, it was often the first thing on RTE television in the summertime.

It used to close a lot earlier than midnight on Sundays. In fact, there were a few 10.50 closedowns (and possibly earlier). However, for the first few years, RTE2 was a great station especially if you were stuck with RTE Television only. It offered a real choice, but by 1983/4 it was obvious that there were money problems at RTE, with reduced hours on both stations and a huge amount of programmes that were either repeats, Cartoons from the Eastern Bloc (always the same twenty it seemed) or Short Films from the National Film Board of Canada.

Around 1978 RTE seemed to be on the air almost as much as BBC1 (Durning the Autumn and Winter Months) and sometimes stayed on air a lot later regularly going past 1am. That seemed to stop sometime in 1979 as there was a dispute between Management and Unions about broadcasting beyond Midnight.

Their Summer Broadcast hours were always nuts up to the mid 80's when for about 4 months in the year weekdays often didn't start till 5.15 and They shut up Shop as early as 11.15.

Yes, if WiKi is to be believed, RTE went to native 625 line working, summer 1962, after initially launching on 405 lines.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/405-line_television_system

Richard Louge's now defunct website had chapter and verse on this ISTR

Yep - but was the first year of 405-line only transmission accompanied by 405-line production, or was it 625 production standards-converted to 405? Wikipedia skirts that issue. (Standards conversion was possible - the BBC had to do it for years before to handle 625 line Eurovision contributions to the UK)

I'd imagined they ran 405 native to keep the quality up - but that's just a guess.

I suspect so too, and that's how I interpret what Wiki says, but just my gut feeling

Found Richard Louge's site in the Wayback machine (Nothing conclusive either

https://web.archive.org/web/19990203165256/http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk:80/rlogue/405.htm

Would I be right in thinking that RTÉ's second channel hasn't celebrated *any* of its milestone birthdays?

It didn't celebrate its 10th birthday in 1988, as it had just rebranded as Network 2. Or its 20th in 1998, as it had just transformed into a channel aimed mainly at younger viewers. Or its 21st the following year - the traditional age of adulthood, celebrated by a not insignificant number of ITV stations.

I certainly don't recall it celebrating its 25th in 2003, during its brief period as the clumsily-named RTÉ Network 2. Nor do I recall it doing anything for its 30th in 2008, when it was lost in the world of crazy green rooms (plus the recession had just started).

So I'm not at all surprised that it appears to be doing nothing for its 40th. Mind you, I'm not disappointed either - the channel's current image isn't one that suggests that the channel even acknowledges its history, let alone be proud of it (compare and contrast with BBC2 and its new image).

One would think that it would *have* to celebrate its 50th in some way in 2028. But, of course, the TV landscape won't be the same then as it is now...