RTÉ celebrates the centenary of Irish radio this year amid an uncertain media landscape. Photograph: Mark Stedman/rollingnews.ie
The first transmission by 2RN, the modest radio service that would evolve into Radio Éireann and later RTÉ, went out on January 1st, 1926.
One hundred years on, RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst has promised what looks like a rather low-key programme of commemorative events, intended to revisit Irish broadcasting landmarks and to address what he calls “how RTÉ will deliver to audiences in the future”.
In the process, it should not be afraid to ask an unsettling question: can public service broadcasting survive at all?
This is not an argument for the immediate abolition of RTÉ nor even necessarily for its radical dismantling.
It is simply the need for an acknowledgment that the rationale underpinning public service media is being challenged more fundamentally than at any point in its history.
Importantly, this is not an Irish peculiarity.
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