This article explores the use of advertising and sponsored programming on Irish radio from its inception in 1926 until the arrival of Irish television in the 1960s. It discusses the financial dependence of 2RN (later Radio Éireann) on advertising money and the ways this operated in tension with official concerns about that money’s influence on programmes and audiences. There is a particular focus on the hugely popular radio soap opera The Kennedys of Castleross, which was sponsored by chocolate company Fry-Cadbury’s and ran for 18 years from 1955. Using production archives, the article discusses the structures and economics of the programme, including the ways in which the sponsor and their advertising agency were directly involved in its writing. It also examines the ways in which, aside from the direct advertising for Cadbury products, The Kennedys of Castleross carried within its storylines values of the industrialisation, consumer culture and new economic models which were beginning to emerge in Ireland of the late 1950s. The discussion concludes by exploring the ways in which the arrival of television broadcasting in Ireland after 1961 changed the political economy of sponsored radio programming such as The Kennedys.

中文翻译：

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卡斯尔罗斯的肯尼迪家族：肥皂剧和爱尔兰电台的赞助

本文探讨了从 1926 年爱尔兰广播电台开始到 1960 年代爱尔兰电视出现期间广告和赞助节目的使用情况。它讨论了 2RN（后来的 Éireann 电台）对广告资金的财务依赖，以及这种运作方式与官方担心资金对节目和观众的影响的紧张关系。特别关注广受欢迎的广播肥皂剧 The Kennedys of Castleross，它由巧克力公司 Fry-Cadbury's 赞助，从 1955 年开始运行了 18 年。文章使用制作档案讨论了该节目的结构和经济，包括赞助商及其广告代理商直接参与其写作的方式。它还研究了除了为吉百利产品做直接广告外，卡斯尔罗斯的肯尼迪家族在其故事情节中承载了 1950 年代后期开始在爱尔兰出现的工业化、消费文化和新经济模式的价值观。讨论最后探讨了 1961 年电视广播在爱尔兰的到来改变了肯尼迪家族等赞助广播节目的政治经济的方式。