There's going to be a special season of programming on RTÉ in the new year to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the launch of Telefís Éireann, now RTÉ One, which launched on 31st December 1961.
They've put up a number of programmes from the past on the RTÉ Player now - of particular interest to presentation fans is a Mailbag from March 1987 which includes a report on the 1987 RTÉ logo and some criticism of it. The RTÉ public affairs manager who appears on the programme to defend the new logo is funny in hindsight, when he declares that the aims were to get a logo which worked on TV and could be used for both RTÉ1 and RTÉ2. In fact it lasted just over another 18 months on air and, although it continued to be RTÉ's corporate logo until the present one was introduced in 1995, was relegated to print usage only from that October 1988 when RTÉ2 was renamed Network 2 and RTÉ1 got a new logo which didn't feature the St Brigid's Cross at all. It never worked on air and looked dated from the day it was introduced.
:-(
A former member
Eire never got TV until 1962? I
Did there have access to BBC and UTV during the 1950s - 1962,
They've put up a number of programmes from the past on the RTÉ Player now - of particular interest to presentation fans is a Mailbag from March 1987 which includes a report on the 1987 RTÉ logo and some criticism of it.
The RTÉ public affairs manager who appears on the programme to defend the new logo is funny in hindsight, when he declares that the aims were to get a logo which worked on TV and could be used for both RTÉ1 and RTÉ2. In fact it lasted just over another 18 months on air and, although it continued to be RTÉ's corporate logo until the present one was introduced in 1995
, was relegated to print usage only from that October 1988 when RTÉ2 was renamed Network 2 and RTÉ1 got a new logo which didn't feature the St Brigid's Cross at all. It never worked on air and looked dated from the day it was introduced.
That looks like an earlier stage in the form-up of the RTÉ2 ident of that era, which didn't feature the St Bridget's Cross. The corporate logo had the St Bridget's Cross overlaid over the "T". The RTÉ1 version did feature the St Bridget's Cross, but it then morphed into the "1".
It was horrible looking, dated even when it was introduced, and lasted a total of 20 months on air. Even as a corporate logo it only lasted 8 years and looked horrible by 1995. Thankfully they learnt with its replacement, which looks as fresh today as it did when introduced sixteen years ago.
The legacy of the failed 1987 branding is that after 1988, RTÉ had a mad mismatch of logos and every service had a completely different logo. It was worse than the BBC in that some services during that period (Network 2, 2FM, FM3, and RnaG) didn't even have the "RTÉ" initials in their name and those that did tended to have it in a nondescript font. Only in 1995 did RTÉ start rectifying this and even then didn't really take it seriously until 2003-4 or so.
I caught some of The Entertainers programme on RTÉ Player this afternoon (only watched first 10/15 minutes, had to go out) but it was quite interesting, especially the contribution from Dara O Briain about an edition of The Late Late Show with Gaybo on the phone to a competition winner, with the winner telling Gaybo her daughter had died the following day, and how he and the guests reacted, quite interesting stuff, something you'd never see on British Television.
Eire never got TV until 1962? I
Did there have access to BBC and UTV during the 1950s - 1962,
Parts of the Republic near the border and along the east coast would have had access to BBC/ITV services through the use of very large aerials. Dublin in the 1960s looked like a forest of TV aerials and apparently was an aircraft navigation hazard. Hence the early arrival of cable in Ireland, Dublin had a huge percentage of homes past by cable by the 1970s when cable TV in the UK was still limited to a small amount of wired broadcast relay services.
I caught some of The Entertainers programme on RTÉ Player this afternoon (only watched first 10/15 minutes, had to go out) but it was quite interesting, especially the contribution from Dara O Briain about an edition of The Late Late Show with Gaybo on the phone to a competition winner, with the winner telling Gaybo her daughter had died the following day, and how he and the guests reacted, quite interesting stuff, something you'd never see on British Television.
Quite, but then The Late Late Show in general is without parallel in the UK - there's been nothing here that is so long lasting, universially popular and influential.
I've seen very little Irish telly but what really surprised me when I have is how much live chat and discussion they have on a daily basis. And what they do have, in particular I'm thinking of their equivalents of This Morning (on in the afternoon) and The Wright Stuff are much less tabloidy.
Their TV channels are national but they feel like a very big regional broadcaster in the best possible way. Some of Ireland's biggest TV and radio stars are much more famous in their home country than their equivalents are here. Watching them as a foreigner I really get the feeling of being an outsider looking in and it's quite fascinating for someone who's grown up on British telly to see how parochial it seems, again something you don't get here
Last edited by Inspector Sands on 3 January 2012 2:24am
Parts of the Republic near the border and along the east coast would have had access to BBC/ITV services through the use of very large aerials. Dublin in the 1960s looked like a forest of TV aerials and apparently was an aircraft navigation hazard. Hence the early arrival of cable in Ireland, Dublin had a huge percentage of homes past by cable by the 1970s when cable TV in the UK was still limited to a small amount of wired broadcast relay services.
Aren't/weren't there quite a few unofficial microwave(?) services retransmitting British TV channels into the west of Ireland?
