Broadcast Presenter Shuffle on the Cards

The last couple of months have seen a lot of waves on national radio and TV with a few presenter shake ups as stations attempt to re-jig their line up to attract new viewers/listeners and keep their stars happy.

Claire Byrne off to RTE

The Afternoon Show on RTE has been axed after a rocky five years on air in favour of two shorter shows. Presenter of Newstalk’s Breakfast show, Claire Byrne is to present one of the new shows alongside ‘sex symbol’ Rose of Tralee presenter, Daithi O Se. Byrne thanked her Twitter followers today for the well wishes on the ‘unconfirmed news’ and will be on TV screens next month.

Maura Derrane back

Former crime correspondent and Ireland AM (TV3) presenter, Maura Derrane, is the favourite for the hot seat on the other of the afternoon shows on RTE with Blathnaid Ni Chofaigh, Sheana Keane and Caroline Morahan all rumoured to be in with a shot of landing a presenters spot. The new RTE line-up will be officially unveiled tomorrow (Aug. 5th).

UPDATE: RTE announce their new line-up

Ivan Yates Gets a few extra zzzz’s

Meanwhile back at Newstalk, the Breakfast show is to be extended to 10am to give Ivan Yates a bit of a lie-in. The show has been struggling of late, with listenership falling by 6,000 to 70,000, according to last week’s JNLR figures. The new extended show will now be up against Ray Darcy on Today FM and Ryan Tubridy in the former Gerry Ryan slot on 2FM for the last hour of the show.

Newstalk are still looking for someone to fill the Lunchtime slot on Newstalk after the resignation of Eamon Keane. It had been rumoured that George Hook was angling for the Breakfast slot, with a shuffle on the cards with Claire Byrne moving to Lunchtime and Ivan Yates taking over Hook’s drivetime show. That’s now all out the window now with Byrne’s move to RTE so it’s a case of ‘watch this space’ at Newstalk.

Ryan Tubridy on 2FM and John Murray to take over on RTE1

Ryan Tubridy takes over Gerry Ryan’s slot on 2FM at the end of this month (August 23rd) with Tubridy rumoured to be earning a cool million euro for the ‘extra workload’. The new show will be two hours long, from 9am to 11am, instead of Gerry Ryan’s three hour slot.

Former presenter of Morning Ireland and The Business on RTE 1, John Murray, is to take over from Tubridy with a one hour show from 9-10am.

Seoige off to ITV

Gráinne Seoige is moving to ITV in the UK to join the team on the new breakfast show, Daybreak, which is the replacement for GMTV. She will be Features Editor.