RADIO 2002: It seems so long ago that a young, vibrant team set out on a world-beating adventure with hope in its heart. Too soon it became apparent that the preparations weren't right, and while the talent and enthusiasm in a few positions won acclaim, the results turned poor, the punters lacked faith, the manager slipped off early in the new campaign and NewsTalk 106 now walks alone into an uncertain future.
The newish chief executive of the Dublin all-speech station, Aidan Dunne, would probably insist that the season is still young, and late this year he got his vote of confidence from the board in the form of a pricey new marketing campaign. Dunne is a veteran adman who is fond of "a small, perfectly formed audience", but as NewsTalk continues to lose money it could be a case of "be careful what you wish for".
The audience NewsTalk wants is you, the current affairs-fixated Irish Times reader. Since the springtime start-up it has made business and economics the insistent focus of its morning programme, and the suburb-dwelling car-driver has become the rather more populist early-evening obsession. In neither case has it convinced listeners that the competition is not both more authoritative and more entertaining.
Of course, the listener is not always right, and in the case of NewsTalk listeners have been missing decent programming. Even if you don't believe the ratings, it seems "missing" is the word: Dublin builder Mick Wallace, of the famous anti-war and anti-Nice banner, was featured on The Flip Side (NewsTalk 106, Monday to Friday) a week before he turned up on Liveline (RTÉ Radio 1, Monday to Friday), but it was only after the latter appearance that the newspapers picked him up.
In November, presenter of The Lunchtime Show (NewsTalk 106, Monday to Friday) Damien Kiberd indulged in on-air criticism of The Flip Side, but whether his colleagues put it down to "healthy creative differences" or condemned Kiberd as unfraternal, they were faced with the depressing fact that no one in the outside world took much notice. Imagine the reaction to Pat Kenny complaining on-air about how boring Marian Finucane is and you get some gauge for the dispiriting silence.
One hope for NewsTalk, of course, is the departure from The Last Word (Today FM, Monday to Friday) of Eamon Dunphy. The "Big E-D" shuffled off his mortifying coil in late November with a final egomaniacal flourish, fetching in Tony Cronin to join a chorus of listeners in a seasonal "Hallelujah" for Dunphy's contribution to the life of our nation. Navan Man's take on these proceedings was sadly missed, though post-Eamon The Last Word dipped into the Scrap Saturday archives, satirising Dunphy à la Dermot Morgan.
Listeners to Paul Durcan's Radio Diary on Today with Pat Kenny (RTE Radio 1, Monday to Friday) must surely have thought it was a piss-take, too. However, as the weeks went by and the usual glowing praise for the poet's talent poured in, to be read with a straight face by the not-notably-satirical Pat, it became clear that, yes, this was Durcan himself; and all the banal reportage of his day-to-day activities - "the third highlight of the weekend was the bus tour", read with Durcanesque vibrating portent - was meant to be taken seriously.
I still have my doubts that Paul himself meant it that way, and as a post-modern media-schtupping joke the "diary" was far funnier than any of the "sketches" on Tonight with Vincent Browne (RTE Radio 1, Monday to Thursday), where Joe Taylor's Morganesque mimicry was wasted. Still, Browne was a 2002 star - when Pat Kenny was missing for the duration of the World Cup, VB turned the late-morning programme on its head, rendering it spontaneous, light-hearted and, yes, funny.
NewsTalk was less in the news in 2002 than many other local stations. Around the State the licence-renewal process sparked rows and ructions, and the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) came out fighting in defence of its decisions; this was particularly rough in the licensing of a new service for Carlow-Kilkenny, where the BCI (unconvincingly) accused the aggrieved Radio Kilkenny board of misleading statements about the procedure.
Highlight of the year? Oh, all right. Soccer fans know all about Mark Rooney's October goal against Arsenal, when Everton's then-unknown, then-16-year-old scored in the last minute to beat the champions. As it happens, I didn't "see" it until it turned up as "Goal of the Month", but hearing Tom Tyrell describe it on Premiership Live (Today FM, Saturday) was "sight" enough. Shouting to be heard over the Goodison Park din, Tyrell roared: "As long as you live! As long as you watch football! You'll never see a better goal!!" Two minutes later he was apologising for getting caught-up in the atmosphere, but there was no need. Only the most hardened Arsenal fan could have failed to be caught with him, and in that moment's certainty - of communion with the audience and of the power of the mind's eye - was the essence of great radio.