The dynamism

I've been listening to local radio recently. A lot of local radio. The Phonographic Performance Ireland (PPI) Radio Awards 2005 will be presented at a ceremony at the Burlington Hotel next month. I found myself nominated some time ago as a member of the adjudication panel for the current affairs entries and for the overall Station of the Year Award.

So far, it has been an extraordinarily fulfilling assignment. The stack of boxed CDs that came to the house from PPI's organisers looked intimidating at first. But as I have worked my way down through them, I have felt myself on a journey of exploration and valuable discovery. Those of us who live in the capital don't know half of what's going on around this country.

I have done a fair bit of "guesting" on radio down the years. But it's a long time (almost 30 years to be precise) since I worked as a presenter/reporter with RTÉ radio. My boss was the legendary Mike Burns, and my colleagues included Sean Duignan, Kevin Healy, Gerald Barry, Olivia O'Leary, Shane Kenny and others.

We did News at One, News at Six Thirty, Late-Extra (at 11 pm), World Report and This Week on Sundays. The technology was not digitalised as it is today. But the marrying-up between broadcast and telephone technologies had started and the station had re-equipped with light, hand-held voice recorders that afforded reporters flexibility and mobility on the job.

Listening to the CDs that have come in from all over the State for the PPI Awards, I realise that the technology has not altered dramatically. Digital sound quality is clearer than tapes. The advent of the cell-phone has meant that anybody, in any location, can be a "citizen reporter" or a news source. But the fundamental processes of bringing voices to air remain the same.

What has changed – and what has been a revelation to me – is the sheer scale and breadth of what is now being broadcast, and the depth and detail in which local issues are explored on air. Local radio has utterly changed the relevance of broadcasting in people's lives at community level. It has added a rich and valuable dimension to public discourse which simply wasn't there for many decades in the life of this State.

Whether it is the drama of a fire-brigade rescuing a kitten from a tree, or a discussion in depth on an issue of environmental health and safety, the local radio network is playing a valuable role in daily life across Ireland. This may seem a statement of the obvious to younger people who have grown up with the reality. But for those of us who remember an Ireland without it, it is something valuable that must be appreciated.

As I work my way down through PPI's stack of CDs, I am struck again and again by the sheer professionalism and competence of the (mainly) young men and women who research, produce and present the current affairs programmes on the local stations. Yes, there is the occasional solecism, grammatical slip or factual boob. But for the most part they have done their homework, they conduct their interviews with courtesy but with firmness, where necessary. They come across as people who are not only good at what they do, but also enjoy doing it.

There is a complementary relationship between national news media and local news media. That dynamic becomes especially clear when one listens to some of the programming that has been sent forward for these awards. National news and current affairs programming will – naturally – represent issues in broad brush-strokes. But the depth of detail – and often the human dimension – are well represented by the local service, whether it is an issue of health care, crime, the environment or whatever. Ultimately, all news – as Tip O'Neill said about politics – is local. Great matters of state and social upheavals may be recognised in the distance. But the ultimate question is what does it mean for the parish, the town or the district?

Critics of local radio are likely to be people who whizz through an area, tuning in temporarily to the county or regional station. City-dwellers tend to dislike the heavy quota of Country 'n' Irish music that seems to meet with approval from local listenership. And it is true that the sort of programming that I describe here comprises only a small proportion of the local stations' output. There is a lot of Big Tom and Philomena Begley, Larry Cunningham and Gloria with a relatively small amount of current affairs sandwiched in between.

We are sometimes slow in Ireland to give credit to politicians. But one or two in particular are entitled to be recognised for unleashing the potential of Irish broadcasting and for thus creating the healthy plurality of voices that we enjoy today.

Michael D Higgins fought heavy opposition to secure the funding to launch TG4. He was courageous and visionary. And today the station is recognised as providing a special richness to the national broadcasting mix.

Much of the credit for opening up Irish radio must go to Conor Cruise O'Brien. His period as Minister with responsibility for communications is better remembered for his enforcement of Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act but he is entitled to be recognised also as the man who set about diluting RTÉ's broadcast monopoly.

We are all the richer for it. Meanwhile, I'm two-thirds of the way down the stack.

Conor Brady is Editor Emeritus of The Irish Times. He is a senior teaching fellow at the Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business, UCD, where he lectures in modern media