RTÉ announces 2fm morning revamp

RTÉ has moved to fill the vacuum left by the death of Gerry Ryan with a complete revamp of the 2fm morning schedule.

Comedian and broadcaster Hector Ó hEochagáin will present the morning show from 7am to 9am from the Galway studio, the first time that a regional studio will be used for such a pivotal part of the schedule.

Fellow 2fm presenter Ryan Tubridy, who presents a new show from Monday morning, described the appointment as a "wake-up call for a station that needed a shout in the ear".

Ó hEochagáin has co-presented a successful weekend programme on 2fm with his long-time friend and fellow comedian Tommy Tiernan. The show has a cult following.

He will be followed by Tubridy between 9am and 11am and former breakfast presenter Colm Hayes who will broadcast from 11am to 1pm.

Before Ryan's untimely death in May, changes were already in place to overhaul the station which has been gradually losing listeners to the competition. The aim was to position it for an older listenership between 19 and 35, but those plans had to be completely revised after his death.

Tubridy said he did not want to be presenting his new eponymous show under such circumstances.

"I have to accept the situation at hand. It is deeply emotional, but I have to do a job. I think about Gerry a lot. I respect his legacy a lot, but I am going to be doing quite a different show. He was different and larger than life and I'm not."

Colm Hayes moves from presenting the breakfast programme with his former partner JimJim Nugent, who has left 2fm, to a 11am to 1pm slot.

Hayes said there would be continuity between his programme and that of Tubridy as both would give the public the availability to talk. "2fm has always been there for people to come on and voice their opinions. This is nearly the biggest change in 2fm since Gerry started day time in 1988," he said.

Ó hEochagáin said it was a big move for 2fm to make a morning show from Galway. "I think we will be giving a good slant as to what is happening down the country," he said.

"I've had a great few months with my buddy Tommy Tiernan. We gave it a right slice of madness."

Along with Jim-Jim Nugent, Nikki Hayes, who presented a weekend programme on 2fm will no longer be retained as a presenter on the station.

There has been only one major change to the RTÉ Radio One schedule with John Murray, the former presenter of the successful weekend The Business programme, taking over from Ryan Tubridy between 9am and 10am.

Murray said he hoped to bring some of the irreverence that made The Business programme a success to his new slot.

"I just have to bring my own experience and hopefully thinking to it. It will be a challenge to make something that is different from what goes before it (Morning Ireland) and what comes after it (The Pat Kenny Show)," he said.

Murray said the one hour slot would be "sufficient time" despite suggestions from his predecessors that it was too short for a radio programme.

"I don't accept that it is not a satisfactory bridge. To be given an hour everyday for five days a week is enough to establish something substantial".