Ray D'Arcy has long since left The Den - he was replaced about four years ago by Damien McCaul. Ray D'Arcy is now the morning DJ on the Independent National Radio station Today FM (where he talks *far* too much about useless stuff, but sin sceal eile!).
Six-One's reduction to a half hour lasted a mere four weeks this summer (it used to be around three months!). Hopefully this is the last summer RTE cut their news output.
So I take it the new look RTE ONE launched at 6pm then! I'm surprised no one in the Church objected to RTE dropping the Angelus for a promo. (It was back today).
Great RTE ONE ident into the news - it features a guy selling a newspaper which then morphs into the RTE gallary! No St. Bridget's Cross in this set though, that particular ident would have been ideal to include one (on one of the screens perhaps). I suppose you can argue that the "glowing line" effect on the RTE ONE logo makes it kind of a cross...
There would appear to be four idents in use on RTE ONE. A wee bit disappointing.
What did annoy me about the previous set (of which there were c. 40 in total) is that during the 5pm-8am period, the same five or so idents were played over and over, night after night. Mainly, I suspect, because they were the only ones with the '888' subtitles caption burned on to them. Why they can't stick the '888' alongside the programme classification labels they put at the start of every programme I don't know.
I notice the picture quality on the new idents seems a little soft as well.
After days of picture alignment issues when switching to the news studio, it has finally been sorted today.
Definitely not a fan of the new news studio presentation. The blue/red/white backdrop which is in shot most of the time, is awful - like something from ten years ago. Should be replaced with large screens, allowing use of slow moving imagery perhaps...newsroom images, or whatever...
The window insets are overly complicated looking...and messy...and again, just don't look good.
The CSO element used at the start of the Nine O'Clock bulletin doesn't appear to work very well. Tonight, part of the white lighting from the set came through on the image. It was patchy on Monday night too.
The closing credits have been a bit of a disaster on some bulletins, with text being cut off. Not sure I like the way the text is so tightly encased within those boxes.
Music is good...maybe a little dramatic. Quite similar to Sky in style.
The issues with news pres are very frustrating. RTE do such a superb job on graphics and set design generally. News though, is always such a let down. I cannot believe that the good work on News 2 has been scrapped in favour of this.
Newspaper/Gallary - Starts with a newspaper being sold in "extra, extra, read all about it fashion" - the newspaper then morphs into the RTE gallary.
Cyclists/Motorbikes - Some pedal cyclists in old garb morph into motorbikers (quite cool ident actually)
O'Connell St Old/New- O'Connell Street in "the rare oul times" morphs into modern O'Connell St, compete with Spike!
Another ident with a sort of castle.
Another ident with fishing rods. These two may be the same ident, I can't quite recall...
Yes, seems there is only a couple at the moment. Hopefully like in 2000 there will be more launched (they only launched with twelve, it was Christmas before they got up to fourty). They are all of really good quality IMO, especially for RTE.
Could someone explain to me what the Den is and what channel it broadcasts on. From the look of their schedule its on all day, surely this wouldnt be the main channel would it? Dont they have a daytime lineup?
The Den is the children's strand on Network 2, RTE's second channel.
It began in the mid-1980s under the title "Dempsey's Den", it was presented by Ian Dempsey (now the breakfast time DJ on Today FM). It originally ran from 3pm to 6pm (not sure, but it may have originally ran on RTE 1 for a year or so). During the first or second season, puppets Zig and Zag appeared and that bolstered the strands popularity. They were to remain staples of the strand for years.
After a couple of years, Dempsey retired to return to radio and was replaced by the then-unknown Ray D'Arcy. A new puppet, Dustin the Turkey (an out-and-out Dub with political pretensions with "The Poultry Party") appeared also. Concidently, Demspey and D'Arcy now DJ on the same radio station Today FM, with D'Arcy having the morning slot straight after Dempsey!. Ray also presented the schools quiz "Blackboard Jungle". Towards the end of D'Arcy's tenure, the long running preschool strand Bosco ("wasn't that a lovely story!") was finally axed and The Den took its hours. During the D'Arcy era, the programme was first known as "The Den" and then when Zig and Zag left (and were replaced by Socky and their dog Zuppy), "Den TV".
Around 1998 Damien McCaul took over as presenter. With the relaunch of Network 2, Den TV was madeover as "Den 2" (a play on the new "N2" logo, one of the Den 2 idents resembeled the N2 tunnel ident of the time). It was extended from being an afternoon strand to an all day strand, resulting in the abolition of schools programmes on RTE and the other parts of the N2 daytime schedule (mainly repeats). In 2002, the "The Den" brand inexplicably returned.
Sorry to pick holes, rdd, but Ray was known before The Den, he presented the teens show Jo-Maxi before joining The Den, so he was known as a kids presenter. And Dustin I'm sure was around in the time of Dempsey, I remember then Mary Robinson came to The Den, in 1990, and Dustin and Dempsey were there. I reckon it was Christmas 1989 when Dustin first appeared, Dempsey didn't go until 1992 or 3.
fanoftv, of course we do, and have since 1953, when the BBC Belfast transmitter started. Granted the geography is in our favour. Most border areas can get the 4 main UK terrestrial signals off air from transmitters
and cable and MMDS co's rebroadcast the channels around the country. BBC is available on Sky Digital. UTV and Channel 4 are not on Sky, but are available on MMDS and Cable, along with BBC 1 and 2.
As I said, for terrestrial reception, the geography works in Ireland's favour. Only parts of Northern Ireland and west Wales can pick up the Irish channels off air, blame the mountains! NTL cable in Belfast show RTÉ 1 and Network 2, and you'd have to have an Irish subscription to Sky Digital to receive the 4 channels in Britain, which are not easy to get. They are not free-to-air or FTV, like BBC and ITV are, is its not best practice here.
From the shots and capture I've seen, thank goodness RTÉ have updated the RTÉ ONE idents. Even though I'm now living within perfect reach of RTÉ transmitters (in Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh), I can't pick up RTÉ/TV3/TG4 in my flat!
Not fussed on the new RTÉ news look, yet again it looks like a pale imitation of what the BBC has been doing for years. And using Futura - very 1990s!
As for the Den - was there a period when Zig & Zag (who left in around 1991) and Dustin appeared on screen together? I might be wrong with this, but Zig & Zag were still around whenever Ian Dempsey (also a Today FM DJ now, he was poached from 2FM a few years ago) was replaced by Ray D'Arcy (I think this was in 1990), and only left the Den full time just before the Big Breakfast started in 1992. Socky only came in later in the 1990s, probably around the time Emma Ledden became the daytime presenter.
But, saying that I couldn't receive RTÉ after moving from Derry at the end of 1989, by then it was still Dempsey's Den and Zig & Zag I can't be 100% definite.