RTE has had the TV licence for decades. Like the wicked servant in the parable, it has buried its talents instead of growing them. It's time we all gave ourselves the licence to make TV that some of us would really want to watch. Now it's six o'clock and time for the boinnnngg! - Yours, etc.,
Sir, - Fintan O'Toole's apologia for RTE last week was almost as dull and predictable as an evening in with our national broadcaster. The ancient faith that this Aer Lingus of the airwaves could transform itself from an ugly duckling that lays stale eggs into a swan-like creator of interesting and valuable programmes if only it had another handful of our money would be risible if it wasn't so expensive. Has Mr O'Toole ever actually spent an evening sitting on a sofa watching this group of tired old time servers go through their paces? I've tried to, honestly I have, for minutes at a time, and it's simply unbearable.
Of course, the standard line is that RTE is full of bright, creative, thrusting young people eager to do important and interesting work. The reality is that for years it has taken the best and brightest of its generation and turned them into clock-watching civil servants. They haven't even got the guts to stop playing the Angelus in case some Bishop would give them a bashing! TG4 is where the young people are at now. My teenage kids watch it, in the first national language. Me. I watch TV3 and it's OK. RTE hasn't been anywhere near OK since the glory days of the 1970s when Gaybo's Late Late brought sex to Ireland.
It's time to let the dinosaur die. Instead of funnelling cash into its maw, why not make the airwaves more accessible, instead of less? We could have a TV station in every province, if we dared to give permission. Why not more, genuinely local, stations? Of course most radio stations are rubbish. That's because of the deliberate decision of the IRTC to award licences to the usual gang of "business interests". There are community radio stations that are fun to listen to and offer free speech to all. Why not community TV?
RTE has had the TV licence for decades. Like the wicked servant in the parable, it has buried its talents instead of growing them. It's time we all gave ourselves the licence to make TV that some of us would really want to watch. Now it's six o'clock and time for the boinnnngg! - Yours, etc.,
ARTHUR J. DEENY,
Sandymount Road,
Dublin 4.