Newstalk has announced that Ciara Kelly will permanently take George Hook's place in its weekday lunchtime slot. Dr Kelly will present her new show, 'Lunchtime Live', from noon to 2pm, Monday to Friday.
The new show, which will cover current affairs, politics, lifestyle and human interest, replaces Hook’s show, High Noon, which Kelly has been presenting for the last month.
The 76-year-old presenter was suspended by Newstalk on September 15th following controversy over on-air remarks he had made about rape and responsibility. The following week, the station announced that Hook would permanently depart from its weekday schedules for a new weekend slot to begin in December.
Kelly’s appointment means that Newstalk’s weekday roster is no longer exclusively male, an imbalance which has been the subject of criticism in the weeks since the controversy erupted over Hook’s comments.
Dr Kelly is a practising GP who has featured on RTÉ's Operation Transformation and Doctors on Call, in addition to regular slots on Newstalk and other channels. "It's going to be great to front a show that has real interaction with listeners, where we get stuck into issues people are talking about in their daily lives," she said.
Following Wednesday's announcement Adrian Serle, chief executive of the Denis O'Brien-owned Communicorp, the radio group which controls Newstalk, Today FM, 98 FM and Spin, said he was "delighted that Ciara will be presenting this new show on Newstalk's primetime schedule. Ciara is a great broadcasting talent, a straight talker and will add a great dynamic to our already strong schedule."
‘Lunchtime Live’ with Ciara Kelly will commence on Monday 23rd October.
