Radio should up its game and kick sport into touch – even if it’s only for one hour

IN recent weeks, there’s been much talk of broadcasting and all-male line-ups, and things that are OK to say on live radio and things that are not – but let me throw this into the mix.

Why, oh why, is there no talk radio of any kind to be found in Ireland on a weekend afternoon that isn’t utterly devoted to sport?

I wish to be clear here: I am not wholly averse to sport and I have nothing whatsoever against sports fans.

I watched the All-Ireland like everyone else the other weekend. I like to watch a bit of tennis.

I will occasionally tune in to rugby or soccer and find it entertaining.

I positively enjoy athletics (but it’s hardly ever on, so the depth of my fandom has never been tested).

But sport is not a top interest of mine. It’s not even a top five or top 10 interest of mine.

Largely, in short, I can take it or leave it.

The rest of you are very welcome to your obsession – I do not begrudge you it. Instead I will leave you to your ecstatic highs and your desperate lows – it all looks like great fun.

The fact is that I have those emotional swings as well but they are triggered by different things. Each to their own, as people say.

Except it’s actually not “each to their own” on Saturday and Sunday afternoon national radio, is it?

No, it’s endless hours of sports coverage, like it or not.

Week in, week out. Whatever the weather. Whatever the season. There will be a match or a race somewhere that is being covered, breathlessly, by someone.

The powers-that-be on the main talk radio stations available to us – that’s RTÉ and Newstalk – have clearly decided that this is the way things are done.

Well this licence payer is unimpressed, RTÉ (yes, I know this also applies to Newstalk, but I intuit that I am the wrong gender to be its target market so I am frankly at a loss as to what argument to bring to it).

I cannot be alone in this. There are plenty of people out there like me, people who are not entirely sure which of the Brogans is still playing on the Dublin team, or who Aidan O’Shea might be, or who only register a Premier League result because they know someone with a Liverpool fixation (or whatever).

So precisely what, pray tell, are these individuals supposed to tune into of a Saturday afternoon, when they are doing the ironing, or driving to visit family, or weeding out the back?

Is it 2FM (I am too old for it). Lyric? Sorry, not my thing. Spin? I am several decades too old.

Anyway, maybe I don’t want to listen to music. Maybe I’d like some talk radio. Maybe I’d like that talk to be about something other than whether Spurs and Chelsea are nil-all at half-time.

Radio people, I know this is not truly news to you.

You know, naturally, that a large cohort of the population is not interested in sport.

But you have chosen to rise above this because an even bigger cohort is.

You have decided – in essence – that it does not matter how I feel, or how others of my ilk feel.

Because however many of us there may be, you have doubtless calculated, there are more people, louder people, who would take to

the streets if any changes were made to the weekend radio schedule. Fair enough. That is your call.

But do I insist on my right to take this badly? Well yes, you bet I do. If I ran RTÉ, this would all be quite simple. Sport would simply run on 2FM, all day long, if everyone so desired.

Radio 1 would be left free to explore other areas of human interest, like politics, science, literature, cinema, food, geography, business, media, social affairs, or whatever else might strike one’s fancy.

If I were to get super-fancy, I would say at least one hour would be set aside for an Irish version of the BBC’s ‘Woman’s Hour’.

Not because I think that all the people who are uninterested in sport are women – because that would be ridiculous – but quite a lot of them undoubtedly are.

The ‘Woman’s Hour’ – despite its ponderous 1950s sounding name – is truly a magnificent model for a radio programme.

Just listen to it a few times if you have doubts.

But look, I don’t want to frighten the horses here. If the above scenario is a step too far, how about we get things rolling with just an hour, just one little hour, of afternoon weekend talk radio that is about something – anything – other than sport.

I know, radio people, that you hate the mere mention of change, but sometimes change is good for you.

I promise to do my part and tune in. You just need to do yours.