THIS radio year was genuinely dominated, like few before it, by the antics of those who pass for celebrities down at Montrose. That's because, this time around, the consequences of the gossipped about rivalries passed out of the snugs and into the schedule.
If swapping weekday time slots with Pat Kenny was supposed to ease Gay Byrne into radio retirement, then Gaybo hasn't heard. In retrospect, Gay following Pat with a light music show was about as likely as Gay handing Pat his Friday night TV niche; so Gay keeps on talking, just spinning the odd platter.
And if moving to the higher rated time was supposed to give Pat a softer approach to go with his sharp wit, there's not much sign of that either. For both men, as for the neglected Marian Finucane, it's largely a case of "as you were" (unseemly rows about who would front the Christmas Eve show aside).
But there was one significant casualty in this heavilyhyped donnybrook. Joe Duffy was made a scapegoat for RTE Radio 1's predictable loss of listeners to local radio. He was admirably open when he gave out about this turn of events, but that wasn't enough to keep him among the big boys (one wonders did it count against him).
Now the morning schedule is weaker for Duffy's absence both Kenny and Byrne sound studio bound and even a bit lonely. And Joe has dusted himself off to challenge Richard Crowley for RTE's "Comeback Kid" moniker.
His contribution to Daily Record has been well noted, especially those atmospheric bench side reports from the Reynolds libel trial. But, in truth, he has hardly set this programme alight, and Myles Dungan doesn't need a foil.
The Joe Duffy Show on Saturdays is where his wit and populist instincts flourish. The format music, chat and humour from an outside location - is not new: he did it himself for Gaybo, and Two Forty Five also adopted it last season.
However, he has saved it from the harmlessness that often afflicts such material by remembering that this is the old Scrap Saturday slot, and filling it with some sharp political satire. And he has used "ordinary people" as his programme's source, rather than as background noise - in the process reminding us that we don't need RTE celebs (or programmers) to do our thinking for us. We're smarter than them anyway.