Each Saturday during its 71-episode run on RTÉ Radio 1 between autumn 1996 and spring 1998 (not bad considering I remember my first contract for it was for only 10 or 15 weeks) Access All Areas examined a different topic, event or institution of the Irish music business in a bid to reveal a little of how the industry worked.
It began life as a 30′ programme but at some stage was extended to 40′.
It also didn’t run for 71 weeks in succession. In 1997 three of its Saturday evening slots in late May and early June were seized by the RTÉ powers-that-be for coverage of the then Irish general election. In September that year one programme was postponed to allow for a repeat of an old radio documentary on Mother Teresa following her death.
On 27 January, 1998 for instance, I profiled The Irish Traditional Music Archive.
