The World Cup - there, I've said it - hasn't even started yet and already there's a backlash. For every strip of media flannel about the competition, there seems to be a ream of complaints about its dominance of the airwaves.

Perhaps any antidotes on offer for soccer hysteria should be welcomed. However, let's get some perspective: for most of the next month the world's biggest sporting event will assault us televisually with the grand total of two matches a day. Sure, for some people that's two too many, and on some days it will be three, but compared to Olympian saturation it's really rather modest.

As for radio, while there's plenty of (mainly absurd) talk about the World Cup - with Irish stations nearly as England-obsessed as those from across the water - the games themselves are mainly where you'd expect them to be. Such is BBC Radio 5 Live's football fetish that the station is willing to drop through the divisions for evening matches during the regular season, so obviously the World Cup looms largest.

Also in Britain, Talk Radio - which usually "firewalls" sport for the benefit of a less obsessed, more gender-balanced audience - is covering dozens of matches, with the likes of Sky Sports' Andy Gray signed up to comment.

While this obviously reflects, in part, the participation of England and Scotland in this summer's matches, the station is counting on the cup's marketing muscle to deliver TV-less listeners to games such as Romania v Colombia.

Irish radio, however, seems to have taken the view that the World Cup is more a spectacle than a sporting event. That is to say, while the interest is wide, it's shallow; punters who will happily glue themselves to the telly for the evening matches will be equally happy to watch edited highlights of the afternoon games - rather than listen eagerly in cars and workplaces to the action as it happens. Perhaps, in the absence of Ireland from the competition, this view is correct. But I'm not sure; the effect of "globalisation" on sport means that a significant minority of fans here can not only name most of the Italian, German, Brazilian or Argentinian players, but have regularly watched them play in European leagues and built up strong affinities with them. If half the folk going around Dublin wearing Ronaldo replica kits had to listen to Brazil v Scotland on radio tomorrow afternoon, RTE could pull a respectable audience.

Moreover, arch-globaliser Rupert Murdoch has helped make soccer on radio an attractive alternative to going to the pub or paying his Sky subscription fees. In short, lots of listeners actually care about the World Cup and appreciate soccer on the radio. And yes, I'm stuck working evenings for most of the first round.

Compare RTE's protective attitude toward its schedule in the face of France '98 with the annual summer agony BBC Radio 4 inflicts on its loyal multitudes of non-cricket-loving medium-wave listeners. Are any words in the language surer to wound than "Test Match Special"?

Yet again, for the last five days FM-less Radio 4 listeners in Ireland have been forced to bite their knuckles in frustration as they read through the attractive daytime programme listings in The Irish Times knowing that, alas, these were not meant for the likes of them. And they can't even count on the cricket - England v South Africa this time - ending when advertised.

Yes, if the action goes on, so too do the lazy comments about the lovely clouds, the amusing pigeons and the declining standards of sportsmanship among today's cricketers. Pick of the Week? The Archers? Sorry.

Surely this is the sort of thing from which 5 Live was put on this earth to spare us?

Then again, traditions die hard at the Beeb. The Exchange (Tuesday), being a phone-in, is probably ones of those programmes old Radio 4 listeners dread will creep across the schedule, but on last week's evidence it's keeping the upper lip stiff. The topic was stress, particularly in work, and a woman - her voice breaking - told of the effect her husband's stressful job had on her family. Presenter Robin Lustig interjected "Obviously you're feeling quite emotional about this" - and promptly cut her off.

Eat your heart out, Marian.