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It’s December 8th so time enough to get into the Christmas spirit. We’ve wrapped the Adelaide Chambers offices in tinsel and the potted plants are sharing space with a nice little plastic tree, baubles and lights (thank you two euro shop!). It’s been a busy year. More radio than TV this year and we’ve a host of radio shows coming up over the Christmas and New Year. We’ve even got multiple shows on the same day. Phew.
We’re still editing our latest radio baby ‘Death of An Empire’ which goes out on RTE Radio 1 on Jan 7th. its a 5 part series presented by Seamus Martin (formerly of the Irish Times) and we’re tracing the story of the Soviet Union, twenty years after the dissolution of that Union, and finding out how its legacy has shaped modern Russia. The series starts with ‘Becoming Soviet’ and traces the state built by Joseph Stalin which once covers one sixth of the planet and had a range of 11 time zones.
But before “Death of an Empire’ goes on air our big radio baby (now a toddler) from this year, the 26 part music history series ‘High Fidelity - a century of recorded song with Jack L and Julie Feeney’ which went out on RTE lyric fm from May to November, gets a second life on RTE Radio 1. The series will begin after Christmas with a run across the week starting Dec 27th and has a full repeat on Sunday nights at 11pm from New Years Day. So that keeps us on the air right to the end of May!
We’ve re-edited the series to match the RTE Radio 1 slot and we’ve also created a podcast channel which you can access via iTunes or www.podcastingireland.ie. Which means we’ve effectively edited it three times! Thanks Lochlainn and Naomi.
But just after High Fidelity starts on RTE Radio 1 our current series ‘Made in Ireland’ which goes out Mondays on RTE Radio 1’s Today with Pat Kenny show - it gets its own re-fashioning and goes out as a re-mixed stand-alone series on RTE Choice, RTE Radio’s digital radio services. This 13 part series finishes its run on December 26th and episode 11 goes out on Monday -with lace-makers in Ireland talking to Ella McSweeney about their craft. Its a series which has prompted a great response from listeners particularly this week’s episode on poitin and the story of poitin makers in Ireland. Made in Ireland is supported by the BAI Sound & Vision Scheme (and thank you very much for that licence-fee payers!). Made in Ireland goes out on RTE choice form Jan 4th, every wednesday at 3.15 and then repeated on Saturdays at noon. So that’s High Fidelity, Made in Ireland and Death of an Empire all making weekend appearances from January.
But if all of that is not enough listeners in Carlow-Kilkenny region will also get a second chance to hear our ‘Opera for Carlow’ programme as KCLR is broadcasting the opera on Christmas day between 5-6pm (we’re chuffed with that and again thanks to BAI Sound & Vision for letting that production happen). We were delighted to share the broadcast with KCLR, the local radio station in the region, as the original broadcast was with RTE Lyric fm and went out in mid November.
So lots of output, lots of our 2011 work coming on air at Christmas and New Year.
Now just the small business of trying to find new projects to excite us all in 2012 and begin the whole process again of making great programmes and telling engaging stories.
Have a wonderful Christmas and a better New Year.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 8th, 2011 at 6:53 pm and is filed under Podcasting, TV & Radio, Media News + Views, Online content. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.