Marty Whelan has said he would like to be paid more, adding that the thought comes especially when he sees what other people are on. The Lyric FM presenter made the comment as his mornings on RTE continue to draw a bigger audience.
The timing matters because Marty in the Morning has just hit new audience highs for Lyric FM, with the station on 71,000 listeners in the latest JNLR figures. That gives Whelan a rare position in the current debate: a familiar RTE voice talking openly about money while his own programme is strengthening its reach.
Whelan has been on rolling contracts all his career, and he says that is part of why the issue still sits with him. He said the show has found a new life, even as he compared his pay with that of others around broadcasting. It is a blunt remark from someone who has spent decades inside the system and now finds himself in a stronger spot than ever on air.
There is a contrast in the details he offered. Whelan said he was in great form after a holiday in Sorrento, then spoke about the routine of the job and even said he brings a bag of CDs because the internal system sometimes decides not to work. He also recalled his long road to this point, from growing up in Killester and learning drums with Ulysses to meeting his wife Maria at the Grove disco in north Dublin and marrying her ten years later.
The question left hanging is not whether Whelan has earned his place on RTE radio; the audience figures already answer that. It is how much he is actually paid, and whether a presenter with a newly buoyant show and a long track record on rolling contracts ever gets the kind of deal he says he would like.
