Where the dead make more news than the living

By TOM SHIEL

The dead soundly beat the living when it comes to attracting radio listeners in the west and north- west. Even top broadcasters such as Gay Byrne and Pat Kenny take a hammering in the ratings when the death notices are read thrice daily on Mid & North-West Radio.

At the 10 a.m. death notice slot, M&NWR listenership soars to its daily peak, an astonishing 35 per cent of the potential audience. In cities where people live more anonymously and in greater social isolation, some might think such a huge public public interest is morbid or that rural folk are a queer lot and need their heads examined.

Neither observation would be true. People want to know who is dead because of their sense of community, they want to send their last respects or attend the funeral because in doing so they are acknowledging their own mortality, that they are of this world for only a short timespan.

From my own MWR experience, I have found that a large proportion of calls to the station are to check on death notice details. Given the service offered and the comparative cost involved, it is little wonder that local radio is taking over from the Irish Independent as the main medium through which details of deaths and funerals are circulated.

Says one undertaker: "It's like this. The Independent costs over £90 for one insertion. Radio charges less than one third of that and the death is mentioned in every death notice bulletin from the time the deceased passes away until they are finally laid to rest. That has to be good value considering the popularity of the radio".

I suppose too the interest in the radio death notices is inevitable in a region where a large percentage of the population is over 60 and there is a high mortality rate. Politicians are among the keenest listeners because, in very competitive times electorally, to miss a funeral could be a grave mistake

Not everybody reads the death notices in MWR. It's a bit like the Bible, many are called, few are chosen. It takes a special kind of voice, sympathetic yet precise, detached yet with empathy. Good diction is important as well as an ability to pronounce strange sounding names like Skeheen or Tumgesh or Barnalyra.

Even the ones that look easy are difficult, like Aughavale Cemetery in Westport . Locals pronounce it Uh-Wal and occasionally ring up the station to voice their displeasure should tne announcer make a mess of it.

The most regular and best readers of the death notices on MWR are Paula Walsh, Gerry Glennon, Micheal Neary and Chris Carroll.

They have handled strange requests in their time but perhaps the most unusual came from a listener whose father had passed away in England. She wanted "The Green Green Grass of Home" played immediately after the death announcement because at roughly that time the plane carrying his remains home would be touching down at Knock Airport.

The flexibility of local radio enabled her poignant wish be granted.