The introduction to the item on Books Abroad (BBC Radio 3, Saturday) was thoroughly BBC.
The chosen subject was the new "regionalism" in Spanish literature, with a growing trend toward publication of poetry, novels and stories in languages other than Spanish - Galician, Catalan, Basque, etc. And our host was duly dismissive: "last year it was nationalism, this year it's regionalism," he said, and referred repeatedly to the development as "the latest fashion".
The now-obligatory variation on PC-bashing was also present and correct: "the new linguistic correctness" is behind all this proliferation, apparently.
And who had Books Abroad lined up to explore this funny little fad, then? - "the Irish writer Colim TOY-bean, himself no stranger to debates about national identity". Indeed.
It's good to see that the dreaded linguistic correctness has not reached the bowels of the Beeb, at least as regards pronouncing Irish names. Perhaps a little more modesty about national identity - if not, heaven forbid, a full-scale debate - is called for in the metropolis.
Colm Toibin's report seemed just fine to this non-specialist, it should be said, and included the lovely sounds of revived Galician. It was just the intro that rested so uneasily on the ear.
This summer, opportunities for this column to escape the cultural confines of our own capital had been, sadly, limited. However, a bit of travel and a few helpful cassette senders have allowed me to enjoy just a little taste of the vitality of local radio outside benighted Dublin. I could even understand the accents.
As I have discovered before, that vitality is often best expressed in sports coverage. And within that category, there is no better expression of local identity, knowledge and pride than on summer Sundays when the GAA is up and running. Thus, Clare FM was the place to be tuned into last weekend for the thrill of victory, and Radio Kilkenny for the agony of defeat.
In fact, one of the oddities of this mostly dismal summer has been lovely Sundays. The most notable exception, on the August Bank Holiday weekend, found your radio reviewer enjoying a barbecue and watching the children get drenched from inside a relatively spacious Co Kildare shed.
However, the day was brightened considerably by CKR's coverage of "Judgment Day 3", the second Meath v Kildare replay, blaring from a radio in the corner. The Carlow-Kildare station proved conclusively that you don't need Micheal O Muircheartaigh to capture the atmosphere in Croke Park; as with the great Micheal, it was astonishing to hear, during the few pauses in breathless commentary, that this was a poor match!
Better than TV, to be sure, and CKR included no less than Barney Rock and Jimmy McGee in its beefy commentary team to ensure its coverage would be second to none. Unless you were a Meath supporter, you would have had to agree that a certain partiality even gave the station an advantage over RTE.
What a difference it was to tune in this past Sunday to BBC Radio 5 Live for Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester United, the first Sunday match of a new English Premiership season. Compared to Croke Park, White Hart Lane offered virtual dead air, in spite of Mark Lawrenson's best efforts to fill it.
However, even in the hurling hotbed of Tipperary, Man United claws its way to cultural and commercial hegemony. Tipp FM's mid-morning man, Seamus Martin, acknowledged as much when he recently took on the English club's spokesman, Ken Ramsden, in a good, tough, interview about the dreaded new strip.
Many listeners will be weary of this argument, but they are unlikely to include parents of young United supporters, who have - count 'em - two more new tops to crave this season. The strange status of a football club, which is both a business and an icon for a sort of extended family, was captured in Ramsden's astonishing comment that "we have no argument" with people who don't buy every new strip.
This benign pater familias is not, however, telling the kids how much money United makes from each shirt it does sell - that's "commercially sensitive", seemingly. Ramsden did say the club's revenues divide three ways, roughly evenly: gate receipts; merchandise; TV/sponsorship. So someone out there should be able to do the sums.
