AFTER all the hype and the leaks RTE's new radio schedule came on air yesterday without so much as a whimper. No trumpets, no chorus, just Morning Ireland starting at 8 a.m. rather than returning to its old 7.30 start.
It was a sign of what is to come: less news, less current affairs, more music and less of the "sameness" that research showed listeners dislike on RTE radio.
So Morning Ireland, the most popular programme on Irish radio, started by being cut by half an hour. Next week, Richard Crowley will rejoin the team after a summer on Morning Edition, that mix of music and current affairs intended to keep audience numbers up during the slack summer period.
The most hyped alteration in the autumn schedule is the changing around of Pat Kenny's morning slot with Gay Byrne's. Kenny even got Gay Byrne's old studio.
Pat Kenny came on after the news for nearly two hours. This programme, the RTE press release promised, would see "Pat broadening his horizons" with features, light entertainment, outside broadcasts, sport and "contemporary easy listening music".
Unfortunately, we got some of that old "sameness" the market research had objected to, with a package on the All Ireland hurling final, which had already been covered on Morning Ireland.
Other than the different time slot, it did not seem very different from the old Pat Kenny Show, now called Today With Pat Kenny. There was the same emphasis on the presenter, rather than the content; there was the same reliance on the studio interviews.
Gay Byrne's show will now start at 11 a.m. on each of three mornings later in the week. Yesterday it was Gareth O'Callaghan's turn. Gareth has been on all summer with his mix of light chat, easy listening music and competitions. This was no different from what we have been used to all summer, which is no harm at all, but it was hardly the radical change we were expecting. Marian Finucane was also back with Liveline, with the usual phone in.
The new schedule is the result of market research. It also is a response to the problem of the rising age profile of Radio 1's audience in the face of the competition expected from Radio Ireland when it comes on air next spring.
The new lighter mix seems familiar, and of course it is, because it is what we heard when Radio Ireland was making its submission to the IRTC for the new national licence last January.
And Gareth O'Callaghan played a piece by Handel and wondered aloud if "George Frederick Handel realised he would be played 240 years later on the Gareth O'Callaghan programme".
The answer, Gareth, is no, he did not.