A worryingly large number of readers have probably lost interest at this stage, but around this column we're concerned about Radio Ireland's discussions with the IRTC later this week, with a new schedule expected to emerge. No offence intended to any of the other talent at the station, but practically the only programmes that would be widely missed if they became casualties of a relaunch are John Kelly and Donal Dineen's evening music programmes.
And yet it's easy to see how a panicky management might want to see them off, aided and abetted by whispers suggesting that such programmes really belong on one of the RTE stations. Why, people ask, should 2FM be able to rake in the moolah with highly commercial pop pap, while Radio Ireland's shareholders make the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of the music?
Among the many problems with this argument: Kelly and Dineen are near the top of the Radio Ireland pile for market share in the JNLR; and 2FM already uses evenings to provide a different sort of public service.
Eurodance 97 (2FM, Saturday), a dance event broadcast live from a Dublin club and a half-dozen other European venues to an international audience, reminds us that 2FM is a huge producer of live music, delivering Irish-generated sounds to audiences here and elsewhere.
In the evening hours when teenagers are most likely to be tuned in - as the schedules of pirate stations and local commercial outfits demonstrate - 2FM consistently plays tapes of gigs and records by relatively unknown Irish acts on Dave Fanning's show.
Moreover, it does so with relatively little direct subsidy, often relying on rented equipment and corporate sponsorship to piece together these live programmes - many of which are sold on to foreign broadcasters.
Not all of us may care to listen to live shows, but if public service can be defined as serving the nation's music industry at home and abroad, 2FM is doing it in spades.
Neither Vincent Browne's interview with Dana nor his apology for it leaves him covered in glory. Some fans thought Thursday's Tonight With Vincent Browne (RTE Radio 1, Monday to Thursday) was Browne at his Brownest, but while it certainly delivered entertainment, it posed problems as election-time edification.
It wouldn't be fair to suggest - as some have - that Browne was being sexist, because he has dished out this sort of sighing, impatient treatment to men whom he has found evasive, too (John O'Donoghue comes to mind). However, this time, he carried the audible eye-rolling right through the interview, suggesting that virtually every answer from Dana was hopelessly inadequate.
The apology, in which he conceded that Dana was not being evasive when he thought she was, begged an obvious question: what was she being, then?
Thus, having been too tough in person, Browne was too patronising in retrospect. Taken as a whole, his behaviour arguably fell some way short of magnanimous.
The English, on the other hand, displayed touching magnanimity all week. Leading up to Saturday evening, BBC Radio 5 Live could have been renamed "BBC Radio Italy v England", but it wasn't until Friday's late Paper Talk that I heard one journalist slightly deflate the hype balloon with a pertinent comment.
"No one is saying it, but this could be a dead match."
"What do you mean?" the host asked.
"Well, if Scotland fail to beat Latvia tomorrow afternoon, England can go through to the World Cup finals even if they lose narrowly in Rome."
"[Blank stare.]"
Even with something as self-evidently important as a place in France '98 at stake, it never occurred to Official England to hope for a Scottish defeat.
It's not hard to imagine Scotland's attitude if the roles were reversed. In fact, even with nothing at stake for Scotland, that nation's manager Craig Brown confessed he was the only Scottish person hoping for an English victory in Rome - and only because it would perhaps give the Scots an opportunity to avenge a recent defeat.
Magnanimous? Maybe naive is a better word. That word certainly applies to the assurances on the Beeb and elsewhere all week about the super-efficient Roman security arrangements. Why is it in the nature of journalists to believe even the vaguest, most mealy-mouthed promises? The facts unfolded on 5 Live on Sunday morning: many spectators at the big match got in without even having their tickets checked - and, as a consequence of the same non-procedures, many people without tickets strolled in. The carabinieri started treating legitimate fans like cattle when it was too late to prevent trouble.
All in all, another triumph for efficienza Italiana.
