Dial FM for lyric
This weekend 25 years ago, a new national radio station came into being. And RTÉ lyric fm is still reeling in the listeners. Donal O’donoghue dials in
On May 1, 1999, I was sandwiched into the back of a car travelling from Dublin to Kerry. Ahead of us was a two-day hike linking Killarney and Kenmare and back – no Camino but still a wondrous walk with the mighty Macgillycuddy’s as company. at date from a quarter of a century ago is etched into the brain because for the duration of the journey south, the radio was tuned into a brand-new radio, RTÉ’S lyric fm. “Let’s give it a whirl” said Mick, the driver. And I wondered if it was possible that one could listen to classical music for four hours? And if you did, would you come out the other end sporting a leather-elbowed cardigan and chewing on a pipe?
But lyric fm, we soon realised, wore a coat of many colours. Like the Cork Jazz Festival, it was not just for the purists but all others as well; from the man who likes a bit of Ennio Morricone to go with his Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, to the listener who believes Bublé can go toe to toe with Old Blue Eyes, and why not a bit of blues and rock for the pot as well? Anything goes, as personi ed by Moustachioed Marty in the morning, the Saturday matinees of movies and musicals with Aedín Gormley or the unlikely destinations of the Mystery Train with John Kelly.
I listen to lyric fm and have the plastic moustache (Marty Whelan’s calling card) to prove it. In the car, amid the pell-mell of the city, the dial is o en tuned to 92.6FM to dampen any potential road rage impulses. Not sure if it works but I’m not alone. According to the most recent JNLR gures (February 2024), lyric fm has racked up 22,000 new listeners and there’s a lot of driving in the shows with Lorcan Murray’s Classic Drive, Evelyn Grant’s Weekend Drive and John Kelly at the wheel of his locomotive, taking you to places where other shows rarely go (and in the company of music-loving guests like Michael D. Higgins and Cillian Murphy).
Lyric fm shoots and o en scores, at least with the punning titles, among them e Hamilton Scores (hosted by the veteran footy correspondent George Hamilton) and e Full Score with Liz Nolan, while the latest addition to the team, the gregarious Simon Delaney, takes up residency on Sunday a ernoon, in a slot where the late, great, Gay Byrne once ran the rule over what’s jazz and what ain’t (none of your funny music or plastic moustaches hereabouts). But I listen to lyric to be surprised and entertained and see how long Marty can talk entertainingly about nothing and to hear music that takes me to places I’ve never been but feels like home.