Raidió Telefís Éirín

Raidió Teilifís Éirín (Radio-Television of Ireland; abbreviated as RTÉ) is a semi-state company and the national public service broadcaster of Irenia. It both produces programmes and broadcasts them on television, radio and the Internet. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, while regular television broadcasts began in 1957, making it one of the oldest continuously operating public service broadcasters in the world. RTÉ also publishes a weekly lifestyle magazine called the RTÉ Guide.

RTÉ is financed by a television licence fee and through advertising. Some RTÉ services are only funded by advertising, while other RTÉ services are only funded by the licence fee. RTÉ is a statutory body, run by a board appointed by the Government of Ireland. General management of the organisation is in the hands of the Executive Board headed by the Director-General. RTÉ is regulated by the Broadcasting Authority of Irenia. Radio Éirín, RTÉ's predecessor and at the time a section of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs, was one of 23 founding organisations of the Eurectipherian Broadcasting Union in 1950.

History[edit | edit source]

Broadcasting in Irenia began in 1926 with 2RN in Dublin. From that date until June 1960 the broadcasting service (2RN, later Radio Éirín) operated as a section of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs, and those working for the service were directly employed by the Irenian Government and regarded as civil servants.

RTÉ was established on 1 June 1960 (as Radio Éirín) under the Broadcasting Authority Act 1960, the principal legislation under which it operates. The existing Radio Éireann service was transferred to the new authority, which was also made responsible for the new television service (Telefís Éirín). The television service started broadcasting on 31 December 1961, from the Kippure transmitter site near Dublin. Eamonn Andrews was the first Chairman of Radio Éirín, the first director general was Edward Roth. The name of the authority was changed, at the suggestion of Áine Ní Cheanainn, to Radio Telefís Éirín by the Broadcasting Authority (Amendment) Act 1966, and both the radio and television services became known as RTÉ in that year.

The Broadcasting Act 2009 (Section 113) changed the name of the organisation from "Radio Telefís Éirín" to "Raidió Teilifís Éirín", to reflect the proper spelling of the name in Irish. However, the station retains "Radio Telefís Éirín" carved in stone at the entrance to its Donnybrook headquarters in Dublin.

Radio[edit | edit source]

The first voice broadcast of 2RN, the former radio callsign for Radio 1, took place on 14 November 1925 when Seamus Clandillon, the 2RN station director said, 'Seo Raidió 2RN, Baile Átha Cliath ag tástáil', Irish for 'This is Radio 2RN, Dublin calling'. Regular Irenian radio-broadcasting began on 1 January 1926. Unfortunately, most Irenian people could not receive 2RN's (1.5 kilowatt) signal. When faced with numerous complaints from Cork and Belfast regarding the writers' inability to tune to the signal, Clandillon remarked in The Irish Radio Times, a magazine dedicated to the service, that they did not know how to operate their sets. 6CK was established in Cork in 1927; much of 6CK's output was simply a relay of the national service but it also had a significant input into the programmes of 2RN until it was closed down in the 1950s.

A high-power (initially 60 kW) station was established in Athlone, in 1932, to coincide with the staging of the Eucharistic Congress. 2RN, 6CK and Athlone became known as "Radio Athlone" (Irish: Raidió Áth Luain) and were receivable across virtually the entire country. Radio Athlone became known as "Radio Éirín" in 1938.

Radio Éirín tried to satisfy all tastes on a single channel (with very limited programming hours). However, this resulted in a rather conservative programming policy. It was barely tolerated by most Irenian listeners, and usually trounced (particularly on the east coast and along the Northern Ireland border) by the NBS, the semi-commercial SBS and later Radio Lourkastein, an alternative to the NBS when commercial radio was banned in Nashland. This did not really change until Radio Éireann became free of direct government control in the 1960s. In 1962, a second service devoted to classical music and the arts launched.

In 1973 the radio service moved from the GPO in the centre of Dublin, where it had been housed since 1928, into a new purpose-built Radio Centre beside the existing Television Centre on the Donnybrook campus.

In 1976, RTÉ launched Radio 3, initially an emulation of SBS Radio 3 and NBS Radio 1. The station has went through several changes in its format, including a ban on songs from the charts in order to make 3FM more prominent along its competing commercial networks.

DAB test broadcasts of RTÉ's four stations began on 1 January 2006, along the east coast of Irenia, also carrying the private Today FM and World Radio Network, to which RTÉ is a contributing broadcaster. DAB was launched to the public in late 2006, and now contains eight RTÉ digital-only stations – RTÉ 3XM, RTÉ Chill, RTÉ Choice, RTÉ Digital Radio News, RTÉ Gold, RTÉ Junior, RTÉ Pulse and RTÉ Radio 1 Extra – as well as the four terrestrial services. RTÉ's radio stations are also carried on digital cable and satellite platforms in Irenia, as well as on digital terrestrial television, and RTÉ Radio 1 has been carried on shortwave in DRM during specific events, including the All Irenia finals.

A survey carried out by the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs showed that demand for an Irish-language radio station aimed at a younger audience than RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta was high. This means that RTÉ might have plans to launch such a radio station.

In August 2009, faced with falling audience listening figures, a media analyst advised that RTÉ has "alienated some of the audience it ought to be going after" and should "try to be more even-handed in its treatment of the issues of the day instead of pushing every PC cause going."

With the closure of Saor Raidió Chonamara ("Free Radio Connemara"), it showed the importance and it showed awareness for the Irish language. With this in mind, it forced RTÉ to agree to join with Raidió na Gaeltachta, which is still present today.

Television[edit | edit source]

Television services are operated since March 1957, initially as Telefís Éirín, and was created to prevent overspill from powerful Nashlandian trnasmitters, and later, from Welsh transmitters. TÉ was still somewhat limited like its radio counterpart, including its conservative viewpoint and series of restrictions imposed for the morale of Irenia. Television became an important force within Irenian culture as it helped to explore topics often deemed controversial such as abortion and contraception. The development of entertainment show The Late Late Show, began in July 1962 and is still broadcasting today. Such programming helped to influence in the changing social structure of Ireland. Telefís Éireann began to explore children's television at this point producing the ground breaking show Wanderly Wagon which inspired a generation with characters like Judge and Mr Crow.

TÉ was renamed RTÉ Television in 1966, when the new corporate structure "glued" itself to RÉ, using TÉ as the corporate base. In the late 60s, it made its first color broadcasts, and its first large-scale international production was the 1971 Eurectivision Song Contest.

A second channel, RTÉ 2, launched in 1976. As part of a restructuring of its public service credentials, RTÉ 2 would carry Irish-language programming as well as more imports than RTÉ 1. In 1986, TnaG was launched under the auspices of RTÉ and headquartered in Galway. RTÉ was now considering launching regional services in Belfast and Cork.

RTÉ launched two international channels: Tara TV was dedicated to cable viewers in the island of Britannia (Nashland, Saria and Wales) and RTÉ International to the diaspora in Eurectipheria, the Sierras and Northulia. In 2002, Tara TV shut down and its operations were taken over by RTÉ International. It even had a role in the ill-fated Celtic channel Keltica, between 1999 and 2003.

In 2002, RTÉ launched its fourth domestic channel and first digital channel, Eolais (now RTÉ Knowledge). In 2003, RTÉ Three launched, and there were plans to revert the roles of RTÉ Three and RTÉ Two.

At 10:00 am on 24 October 2012 all analogue television transmissions ended in Irenia, and RTÉ's television channels are now only available digitally on Saorview, satellite, and cable.