Clearing out old archives, I came across this, from November 2012, and early iteration of the idea that became Guth. Originally a rejected pitch as an idea for an irregular radio column, it encapsulates what I hoped the webmag might do (and while Guth didn’t work as I planned it, I still this there’s a space for the news stories that get missed in the rush to follow breaking events and chase today’s talking points).
“News You Missed”.
To a large degree, the news cycle is predictable. Statements from ministers and opposition on topic of the day, major crime stories, the economy. Smaller stories often get missed, especially by larger media outlets.
News You Missed would be a brief 3-5 minute piece once a week covering a story which never quite went mainstream, even though it illustrates something important about Irish society/politics/the economy. It may have ignited social media/twitter, or created a local row in the regional press, but was either not picked up by national media or at best received only a cursory paragraph on page 15.
I think this is really good idea. And I think it would almost be better as a full radio show, not just a 5 minute section tacked onto a show (though dare I suggest if something like this was to be done, Sean Moncreiff might be an original location to place it). Maybe a collection of stories from the week, 3 or 4 over the course of an hour show.
I’ve said many times that I think Irish radio, while occasionally entertaining, can be so unimaginative. Every show is essentially the same, a vehicle for a host or two to talk about issues, sometimes with a panel, other times with guests. Each show is run and content is decided almost purely according to the time of day it happens to be in the schedule. Morning news, late morning analysis, afternoon news, mid afternoon chat, Drivetime analysis, and then ‘other’ (usually sports). It really need something to liven it up.