Radio review: ‘RTÉ 2FM is now just a platform for influencers who have no trouble finding better things to be doing’
RTÉ 2fm mainstay Gerry Ryan, who died in 2010. Photo: Mark Condren
Strange as it may seem, when RTÉ 2FM started as Radio 2 it was providing an important public service. An older Ireland of showbands and cabaret artistes was weakening, and rock ’n’ roll bands were emerging. There was this general sense in the late 1970s that the tectonic plates of Irish life and culture were shifting and that RTÉ had to recognise that in some way.
Which they did specifically by bringing a load of pirate radio DJs into this new Radio 2, laundering the subversive activities of outlaws such as Marty Whelan, Dave Fanning and Ronan Collins — and letting them play the “pop” music or even the “heavy rock” that was largely absent from the main station.
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