Thursday, June 04, 2009
RTE Beggars the Imagination
Many moons ago I wrote and then read out on the radio five pieces for RTE Lyric FM Quiet Quarter. They were called "From a Canadian Journal" and were inspired by a reading tour I did of the Northwest Territories, Canada. One of the pieces was later published in an anthology. Now fair play to Eoin Brady who was in charge at the time, I was contracted and paid for all of that work. Then out of the blue I get an email from the new producer of the Quiet Quarter who wants to publish the piece in a different anthology for the whopping sum of ---- zero. I explained to the woman that as I value my work I do not give it away for free. She came back with "but it's the same piece already published in the other anthology." This is when I asked her if she provided her services to RTE for free. We all know the answer to that one. Someone once told me that producers don't sleep well at night unless they've screwed over at least one writer during the day. I guess it's all about mentalité as the French say.
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5 comments:
I'm sorry you have decided to have a go at RTÉ lyric fm in this way. Perhaps you should read your contract before making such accusations.
I was asked to provide something for nothing. And The Quiet Quarter now pays 100 euro less to writers than it did six years ago. These are not accusations. They are facts.
I agree with you. I have also contributed to many QQ's etc., and had been well received in the past. Now my scripts are not even considered or acknowledged! I was one of the contributors in the previous anthology and despite several more contributions have not been asked this time. Maybe I am blacklisted. As regards payment, somebody makes money out of the publication right? But not you.
Thanks for posting. RTE likes to pretend that you are the one disgruntled artist, when they treat most if not all artists like dirt. Tried to find the pay rate for submissions to Sunday Miscellany but couldn't get anyone to answer telephone calls or emails. Didn't Neil Jordan call RTE "the graveyard of Irish talent"? I'm a great believer in public broadcasting - the CBC and BBC are fantastic. But RTE, both television and radio, are long overdue an overhaul. Get rid of all those useless suits at the top for starters. (Now let me tell you how I really feel about it.)
Yes, its a little like the old boys club, nepotism rules supreme.
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