Liveline
"There it is, that's fantastic... [my] heart skips a beat, Kieran, it's incredible"
21 Apr 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What are listeners' reactions to the new signature tune of Sunday Miscellany?
0818 715 815. This is Live Line on RTÉ Radio 1. Sponsored by Harry Currie. Refresh your home this spring with new curtains from Harry Currie. Explore our vast, stylish collection now at harrycurrie.com.
Yes, good afternoon. You are very welcome to LiveLine. 51551 is the number for your text. You can send me an email, LiveLine at rte.ie or as always, give me a call on 0818 715 815.
Music
There are 3,067 national schools across the state, across the length and breadth of Ireland and across the length and breadth of Ireland. The parents of all the kids in those national schools were asked a few weeks ago what choice they would like in terms of religious ethos and what have you. 40%. said that they would like to send their kids to a multi-denominational school.
So still majority support for the status quo, but 40% is a sizable minority say they would like that choice.
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Chapter 2: How does the change in music affect the emotional connection for long-time listeners?
Now, if that choice, if that demand was being met, we would have about 1,200 multi-denominational schools in Ireland. 1,200 schools. What do we have? 172. So not 40%. We've got 5%. So very little choice and almost no choice in some parts of the country. The further you are from a big urban centre, the less likely you are to have any choice.
Now, we are going to be speaking a little bit later in the show today to one family in this situation. They're not happy about it. If you are also in this situation. and you're unhappy about it, 0818715815, give me a call. Maybe you've had to negotiate this. Maybe you have been instrumental in the setting up of a multi-denominational school where you are from. 51551 is the text number.
Chapter 3: What historical context is provided about the original signature tune?
Or perhaps you're perfectly happy with the status quo. And you think, you know what, just send your kids to the local national school and they'll all accommodate them in this day and age and they'll just sit out religious education and they'll sit out when the sacraments are being prepared. So, live line at rte.ie. Whatever your view on this issue, I want to hear from you.
We're going to come to that a little bit later in the show. Before any of it though, Bernard is on the line. Bernard, what did you notice when you were listening to the radio last Sunday?
Yeah, good afternoon, Cian. Good afternoon to your listeners. Well, it's Saturday. On Friday, I just come back from Hong Kong. I was at home and I was doing bits and pieces. I was listening to Oliver, the best broadcaster in RT. Ouch! You wound me, darling.
Chapter 4: What does the new music evoke for younger audiences?
Sorry, sorry, Ciarán. You're getting there. You're getting there. But look, you have a bit to go yet. He's a natural, really. Oliver is a bit like Gabriel, you know. He's a natural. I was listening and I said, you know, I said I'd have a ghost decree. So I rang up anyway, got through after a while and got on.
And I just happened to say to him in our discourse when we were chatting away, I said, Tim, by the way, I said, Oliver, what's the longest running program? And he said, And he said, he seemed to be a bit stumped. He said, oh, go on, tell me, tell me. And I said, it's Sunday Miscellany. And I happened to say, with the same signature tune for over 50 years.
Chapter 5: How do listeners compare the old and new music in terms of nostalgia?
Now, I didn't have the exact date at the time, but of course, I found out since I did my research that Sunday Miscellany is going since 1968 with the same signature tune. And I remember Teen Tune, and I remember getting up in Kerry, going to Mass on a Sunday morning, and I remember that tune.
And it's like, you know, when you go into a hospital, you get the smell or you hear a piece of music that you haven't heard for ages and it evokes memories and what have you. Well, that's what the theme tune of Sunday Miss Ellen does for me. And I'm sure for many others.
I'm sure. Listen, we actually dug through the archives, the recent archives, and we actually found you on Oliver Callan. So for people who are wondering what Bernard is talking about, here's Bernard chatting to Oliver.
No, Alvin, before you go, one quick thing. No, listen to this. I've been listening to radio since the 1960s and 1970s. You tell me the longest running programme on RT. You tell me the longest running programme with the same signature tune, with the same theme tune. You tell me what it is.
I don't know.
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Chapter 6: What insights do experts provide on sonic branding in radio?
Why am I on the quiz? Sunday Miss Felony. Sunday Miss Felony, yes. Ferociously beloved.
So that was you, Bernard, on Oliver, telling him, educating Oliver, catching him up on the longest running show with the longest... Not an easy thing to do. No. But what prompted you to bring it up? Because you were taking part in the quiz.
Well, I don't know. And by the way, I know... You see, I would have thought, as you know, many programmes down to the year Gay moved on, Marion, and they changed... They've even changed the signature shown on LiveLine. And I remember I listened to LiveLine when Marion was given it, and obviously Joe. The last time I was on radio, believe it or not,
was with Jo Jo for about 25 years ago, and I'm on RT radio twice in three days. So that's amazing. But, Charlie, what did you ask me to do?
Chapter 7: What arguments are made for and against the change in signature tune?
Well, I was just, what prompted you when, for people who don't know, the What's Another Year quiz is questions about a particular year in history that Oliver will pose to you. But what prompted you in the middle of the quiz to start talking to Oliver about Sunday Miscellany?
I don't know. I don't know. I honestly don't know what particular reason that I did that. Other than it's one of... No, I would be a big RTE1 fan for many... Like, you know, in your childhood, like, that's what was on... I don't even think we had a television for the first number of years. in the 60s but radio would have been on constantly and it's just something that I do now.
As I said, I was in Hong Kong recently and Vietnam and I was listening to Oliver out there and I was listening to other programmes and it's great with the net now. If you didn't get it live, there's seven or eight hours depending on what part you're in. There's a time like I said, eight hours, but I could still tune in and it keeps you completely informed.
And of course, for anyone who's listening, all you need in the morning is the first 10 or 15 minutes of Oliver's show and it brings you right up to date with everything that's happening.
Well, listen, this is the music then that you were missing, that you were talking about on Oliver Callan's show that you didn't hear then the following Sunday. Let's take a little listen. So that is Samuel Scheidt's Galliard Bataglia. That was the music.
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Chapter 8: What future implications might the new music have for the show's identity?
What memories come to mind? What comes to your mind now when you hear that music, Bernard?
My childhood. And all the other things. And of course, I think the tune is an integral part of RTE. It's integral to that show. And I also, just to digress, I was listening to John Bowman on Sunday morning, before Sunday Massellany, and he was interviewing Sean Lamas from 1972. Now, as you probably know, the longest ever broadcast on RTE is probably John Bowman.
And don't forget, that tune was there before 1972, probably before John Bowman started on RTE. it's a part of RTE's culture, you know, and of course... Come here now, Ciarán. If you don't do the business today, I'll have to get on to Patrick O'Donovan, you know, the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport. There'll be some sport if he gets involved.
By the way, as I was... The Minister, I mean, I completely got digressed. I got onto the computer. I started writing to you. I mean, literally, immediately on hearing the new signature tune and your continuity announcer said, oh, and by the way, here's some of the selling with your new signature tune. I nearly had a fit. But that's fine.
And then, as I was writing to you, someone texted me sometime later and said, oh, by the way, someone who texted me earlier to say, what have you done, who was listening on Friday, and they texted me and said, what have you done? You jinxed it. The signature tune for Son of Miscellany is gone. You got rid of it.
Of course, I didn't.
And then he texts me back, a good old John Welch there, John Welch. And John texts me back and said, by the way, they played it at the end of the program. And he said, maybe that was an error.
Well, I don't think it was an error, and I suspect you're going to hear those horns at the end of Sunday Miscellany for the foreseeable. I mean, they would always play out in some music, and I just suspect that music is going to be Samuel Stride's Galliard Bataglia. So you'll hear it at the end. It'll be at 10 o'clock on a Sunday morning instead of 9 o'clock. on a Sunday morning.
So maybe you can stay in bed that extra hour or something, Bernard.
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