Mid West Radio (MWR)

[guy crouchback]

a few years ago i was traveling back from Dublin on the day ballina were playing curry in the connaught club championship. anxious to hear how ballina were getting on i managed to pick up NWR around longford, to my horror the happy sligo commentator informed me that ballina were on the receiving end of a bit of a pasting. Then his co commentator chimed in with his take on the demeanor of the Ballina team and i swear to god this was what he said'' Ballina look as shook as  Louise woodward's baby''.

that was the NWR sports department, a sad,sad loss.

[AbbeySider]

"A red short horned heifer is missing in the knock area, contact the staff of the butcher shop in ballyhaunis if you spot her." 
"Now, billy fitzpatrick is standing by in the "stadium of no light" with angelina mchugh as mayo have just kicked off this years adventure, where will it end this year you may ask, well here to answer that is billy."

"TH,TH,Thank you there Adrian, I think conor took the wrong option there, he had 12 men lining up unmarked to take a pot and what does he do but take a goal with a point at his beckoning, this is classic end to end stuff, am I making sense there, Angelina? do I sound like I really want Mayo to lose even if they are winning?"

Paul Claffey was outraged at the time! What's wrong with Ocean seánie?

The sports coverage is simply atrocious. You don't even get club GAA results on it most of the time - NWR used to have reports from senior league games. If you listen to a live commentary its really hard to know what the score is. what's going on - terrible altogether. Only thing you would know is if its a point cos the regualr commentator nealry every time a point is scored says "put up the white flag" to display his in depth knowledge of gaelic games. Bad and all as that is you should hear him commentating on Sligo Rovers! I wouldn't have much interest but someone rang me  and told me to tune in for the laugh - it was a scream. I know Owenmoresider will back me up on this appraisal of Ocean.

I will say that the music is more to my taste than with NWR but if I want music I'll listen to 2FM, i102-104 or Today FM.

MWR has its place among older generations but for the most part its pure tripe.

The Death Notices, Local News etc are a good service to the region (and to older people) but the music shows, talk shows and some sports coverage are woeful.

What really irks me though is that they make EVERY Mayo game sound like fantastic, champagne football when the opposite is often the case. I have often been at matches that are not pleasing to the eye or remotely exciting but Mad Whest make it out to be unreal stuff. Billy Fitz has to take a lot of blame for this. They create hype over younger players who have won nothing and talk them up, no more than the local players but anyway.

Even when choosing the man of the match on MWR he will name EVERY player on the team and say they had a "good game" or "looked sharp" only to name Trevor Mortimor or someone who didnt stand out in footballing terms or any other terms for that matter. You could be talking to people listening to a game that would have a total different account than me having been there and seen what was in front of me.

Mike Finnerty isn't bad at the commentary when he is left at it. He comes out with some good stuff when your listening to the game but the analysis is daft from Billy Fitz...

Mike Finnerty
"Its 12 points all the referee looks at his watch..."
"but here come James Nallen"
"Nallen takes a bit hit"
""Fair shoulder" says  John Bannon"
"Nallen into Mortimor"
"This Mayo team is moving well now, can they work a score?"
"Mortimer tries to give it to Dillon, but checks back and feeds it to Harte"
"Harte now with the ball looking for options"
etc

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

Ya I have often come home from a Mayo FBD or an away Mayo League game and Dad has listened to the match on MWR, when I arrive in home, he tells me it was a great game all together, to which I usually respond "it was utter shite". He heard a totally different game to the one I watched, yet it was between the same teams, at the same venue, on the same day at the same time.
Its a lot better than what the Rossies have, I have listened to Under-age games between Mayo & Roscommon and switch between the two, on MWR its all mono-tone, Mayo playing good football, the lads doing well, or Roscommon is going through a Purple patch, on Shannonside (I think) its a lad having a fit, bursten the eardrums, going the ref. is against us, the Mayo lads are up to awful tricks, those cheating so-in-sos, its all Roscommon we are playing great stuff, they are only losing because the weathers terrible, Mayo are fielding 15 players and the Mayo fans are putting them off cheering for Mayo, the cheating so-in-sos its totally against the ethos of the GAA, bla bla bla bla, big yelp, bla bla bla, they are being robbed, bla bla bla, yelp, moan, moan, moan.

Then again the local station down in Kerry is unbearable, "a sure we're greeeeeeeeat all together sure we areeeeeee"

or Dublin "come on the boys in blue, they going to win the All-Ireland, sure what would those boggers know about football, they all live in barns and rhoide sheep"

Generic Ulster local radio "typical Free-Staters they all against us, its a conspiracy" or "well Ulster had been the dominant force in the GAA scince it was invented in 1991 or 1992 or 1993, 2002 or 2003"

Galway Bay FM "We the only real Dual County, its a lot tougher on Galway, if we hadn't to worry about being so good, because we are really and we have the Races, and the festivals, and the Spanish Arch & Micheal D. and Macnas we invented the craic, and we are a student City. If we didn't have all that other stuff we would be winning All-Ireland's every year like Kerry or Kilkenny, more to be honest because we are the Tribesmen and we're brilliant sure"

[Shrewdness]

Yes, i fully acknowledge that MWR provides a very crucial service to many people, especially the elderly, but surely this should be their most basic function anyway.

During a midweek, the sports news often consists of a reading of the following weekend's fixture lists, full stop. Lazy journalism at it's worst.

Gerry Glennon won't let anyone who he is interviewing get a word in. He asks the questions, and also answers them. The actual question is so long winded, it takes longer than the answer. There's no doubt he likes the sound of his own voice.

[Jen Cui]

It really is pure shite to listen to but i find when i travel home to Mayo for a weekend i start to think maybe i should move home and settel down and go fishing and feed a few cows and run around the fields and that! Then i stick on midwest and it all becomes clear... Mayo isn't a place for a young fella thats looking for a bit of hole, get ur ass up to dublin asap and go on the lash!
Anyone remember when it closed for some reason in the 80's for a few weeks and everyone went mad!
090730169 Jais that number has been burned into my mind forever and then they change the fcukin number.... aaaagggg
I won cinema tickets for ballyhaunis cinema once from paul claffey... he's some boyooo...
I'd miss it if it went off the air, and i'd probably end up moving home........
Teresa O'Malleys voice... aaaggggggggggggg

[Farrandeelin]

Sure Claffey and Glennon are both Rossies! No wonder we are complaining. I think glennon may be a bit of a f**got tbh.

[Donnellys Hollow]

Then again the local station down in Kerry is unbearable, "a sure we're greeeeeeeeat all together sure we areeeeeee"

Weeshie Fogarty is a legend of the airwaves. You could listen to that man talk football till the cows come home.

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

Then again the local station down in Kerry is unbearable, "a sure we're greeeeeeeeat all together sure we areeeeeee"

Weeshie Fogarty is a legend of the airwaves. You could listen to that man talk football till the cows come home.

I said unbearable, I didn't say bad.

[Turlough O Carolan]

Was listening to Midwest there over the Christmas and one of the DJs was thanking all his staff at the end of the show, and sez he live on radio: "well they've worked like n#####s". If once wasn't bad enough, he even went and said it twice.

[ross4life]

Sure Claffey and Glennon are both Rossies! No wonder we are complaining. I think glennon may be a bit of a f**got tbh.

i can't stand them either & sometimes i wonder is Claffey only on the Roscommon Team because of his daddy?

[Shrewdness]

Actually, quite a few of the leading lights in MWR are Rossies.Claffey, Chris Carroll, Padraig Walsh and Paula Donlon are all from Castlerea, with Walsh and Donlon being brother and sister as far as i know.
Gerry Glennon is from around Granlahan i think, and Michael Neary could be from around Elphin.

Seamus Duke is another Rossie on board. When you consider that Tommy Marren is a Sligo man, it makes you wonder if there's any broadcasting talent in Mayo at all

[ross4life]

whereabouts is MWR studio ballyhaunis? if so it's quiet close to Castlerea & may Explain why so many people from Castlerea are working there,

Speaking of Seamus Duke when it's come To Gaa is he has great Knowledge on the Game, but when he tries his hand at writing about Fooball/soccer on the Roscommon People he's worse than even Eamon Dunphy

[Farrandeelin]

Actually, quite a few of the leading lights in MWR are Rossies.Claffey, Chris Carroll, Padraig Walsh and Paula Donlon are all from Castlerea, with Walsh and Donlon being brother and sister as far as i know.
Gerry Glennon is from around Granlahan i think, and Michael Neary could be from around Elphin.

Seamus Duke is another Rossie on board. When you consider that Tommy Marren is a Sligo man, it makes you wonder if there's any broadcasting talent in Mayo at all

We should storm the building!!!

[spectator]

A cautionary word before you storm the fortress Farrandeelin. 

From what I can make out, the plain people of Mayo won't hear a bad word said against Mid-Wesht because by Gawd but most of them do love it with a passion and will defend it to the death.

From Bangor Erris to Ballyhaunis, Ballinrobe to Ballina - and all points inbetween - everywhere you go it's sure to be blaring out at you.

Whether it's some oul wan ringing in regaling all with the exploits of her talented performing turkey, or a plea to find a flea-ridden mutt gone astray on The Mullet, I always think of MWR as a station uniquely 'Mayo.'

Some local stations try to sound sophisticated and be something they aren't, but that sort of phoney clap-trap doesn't pass muster at Mid-Wesht and signs on it, as they enjoy a huge loyal listenership both locally and even internationally on the web.

As someone said earlier, busloads of irate senior citizens descended on the Midas nightclub in the late ' 80s demanding they go back on air immediately, when the station closed for a few weeks while making the transition from pirate to legit. Make no mistake, many Mayoites remain loolah about Mid-Wesht to this very day and are determined to never let it go off air ever again.

That Paul Claffey is some buck. If he isn't getting the great unwashed out in their thousands to 'Beat on the Peat' atop the mountain at Knock, he's flying them off in planeloads to hear some Irish Country & Western singer out in The Algarve or The Caribbean.

I'll tell you one thing for nothing - I wouldn't like to be the one trying to  take the franchise off of him ...

http://www.midwestradio.ie/Rss/PaulClaffeySurpriseCalls.xml

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

Actually, quite a few of the leading lights in MWR are Rossies.Claffey, Chris Carroll, Padraig Walsh and Paula Donlon are all from Castlerea, with Walsh and Donlon being brother and sister as far as i know.
Gerry Glennon is from around Granlahan i think, and Michael Neary could be from around Elphin.

Seamus Duke is another Rossie on board. When you consider that Tommy Marren is a Sligo man, it makes you wonder if there's any broadcasting talent in Mayo at all

Sure the Mayo lads are on i-radio and today fm.