No No No No NO!

RTE Radio 1 has decided to drop The Mystery Train.

I've been sitting at the computer screen, staring incomprehensibly, forlorn and bitter, for the last ten minutes trying to type that last sentence.

Ann Leddy, the new head honcho in Radio Centre, has stated that she was dedicated to a radical approach to revamping the ailing station.

Radical: The Mystery Train, the most explorative, experimental, wide-ranging aural journey currently available on this island. John Kelly thinks nothing of following up 'Sally McLennane' by the Pogues with a haunting number from Ladysmith Black Mambazo. A true music lover, he believed in reaching out to all of us who yearned for a qualitative approach, and never ever succumbed to the temptation of whoring himself out to the advertisers by adopting a more MOR approach. Like Tom 'Angular' Dunne.

Not Radical: Giving His Holiness Joe Duffy another fifteen minutes to poison our ears every day, while leaving Sean O'Rourke's untouchable News at One at a mere 45 minutes. Bringing Derek Mooney in for Rattlebag. DITCHING THE FUCKING MYSTERY TRAIN.

The bastards. The bad, bad bastards. I would understand this move if it was carried out by a commercial station. But every year, the licence revenues roll into Montrose like an avalanche of carte blanche, and this is supposed to allow them the freedom to pursue quality over mediocrity. You would think this would mean less 'salt-of-the-earth' shite from the listeners on Duffy's 'Fifth Estate' and more John Kelly. You would be gravely fucking mistaken.

I'm absolutely devastated, and anyone who considers themselves to be discerning musikos should understand. The Mystery Train was a place we could all go and feel comfortable in the knowledge that at least 1 and a half hours each day were safe from banality. Not anymore. How do I start a petition?

A year or two ago, I remember reading about a guy in England refusing to pay the TV licence because he disagreed, as a British citizen, with the direction his national broadcaster was heading in. Time to follow suit.