Oliver Callan has been named as the permanent host of Ryan Tubridy’s former 9am weekday slot on RTÉ Radio 1.
The satirist (43) has been among the presenters who stood in for Tubridy on the slot since the broadcaster was engulfed in controversy last summer.
Callan said he would be paid €150,000 a year for the two-year contract. He said he planned to continue with his weekly comedy programme, Callan’s Kicks.
Describing himself as a “radio anorak”, he said his first programme would begin on Monday, January 29th.
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“I’m not going to be completely shocking the audience that’s there,” he told Brendan O’Connor on RTÉ Radio 1 on Saturday.
Regarding his salary, Callan said: “I might as well get it out of the way because people will ask about money and so on and the circumstances… It’s a two-year contract, it’s about the same as what they offered Ryan [Tubridy] but I am not going to do the podcast thing, so it’s €150,000 a year for those two years.
“It wouldn’t put me in the top-10 [best-paid] presenters at the moment but we are in a whole new world. I didn’t negotiate on the money, there was no negotiation on it, because there is a pile of people who want to do the job,” he said.
[ Oliver Callan talks of ‘sense of wrong’ as Tubridy RTÉ show rebrandedOpens in new window ]
Callan said he was in touch with Tubridy at the time of the RTÉ controversy, when he “commiserated with him” as he said he believed he had experienced “the biggest pile-on”.
“Last June and July in particular with paparazzi outside his house. You just don’t expect that in Ireland,” he said. “I thought his scandal, far from being the biggest scandal in Ireland over the summer, it wasn’t even the biggest scandal in RTÉ,” he said, in reference to the cost of Toy Show the Musical.
“I commiserate with him because he was great… I wished him well in London. I haven’t heard from him since.”
Speaking to O’Connor, Callan said he had “only just this week” told his family and friends about the appointment, saying: “Some of my family only found out this morning, I kept it very tight.”
“Myself and the husband went through a few Christmas dinners where people were speculating,” he said.
Asked whether he would continue with Callan’s Kicks, he said: “That’s the plan anyway, it’s an independent production so it’s not tied to the presenter’s gig at all.”
Tubridy, once RTÉ's highest-paid presenter, was taken off air on June 22nd last when the company disclosed that it had underdeclared his salary.
The announcement sparked a wider controversy that has seen RTÉ come under political pressure and announce a new approach to pay for its best-known presenters. A routine audit revealed details of a deal between Tubridy and Renault Ireland, underwritten by RTÉ, which would have twice seen him paid €75,000 in exchange for a number of appearances.
At first the presenter’s pause in hosting the RTÉ morning show was regarded as temporary. However, in August, RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst said Tubridy would not be returning after negotiations with the host “concluded without success”. Mr Bakhurst said “the door is not shut forever” but that there were no plans at present for Tubridy’s return.
Tubridy said at the time he was “shocked and disappointed” by the decision to end talks. In November he announced that he would start presenting a mid-morning show on UK station Virgin Radio from January.
