Newstalk presenter Kieran Cuddihy is set to be the new host of RTÉ Radio 1’s Liveline, the national broadcaster has announced.
There was much speculation that Cuddihy would take on the role after Newstalk confirmed he was leaving the station on Thursday night.
RTÉ announced on Friday morning that Cuddihy would replace Joe Duffy as host of Liveline following the veteran broadcaster’s retirement last June.
Staff at Newstalk were informed on Thursday night of Cuddihy’s departure. An email sent by senior management said his Thursday show was his final time hosting on the station.
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The announcement came just hours after RTÉ confirmed that broadcaster Ray D’Arcy was leaving RTÉ Radio 1 after 11 years presenting his daily afternoon show.
Cuddihy will no longer present The Tonight Show on Virgin Media Television after he works out his notice period.
The Irish Times has contacted Cuddihy and Virgin Media for comment.
Speaking on Radio 1 on Friday, Patricia Monahan, RTÉ’s director of audio, said Cuddihy was one of more than 500 people who applied to succeed Duffy as the host of Liveline.
“Kieran applied like everybody else, and went through a very robust process that we ran in Radio 1,” Ms Monahan said. “It was less a decision to go outside [of RTÉ] than to identify the right candidate for the job, as far as we were concerned.”
Ms Monahan confirmed that Cuddihy will not present on Virgin Media “in the long term” but will have to work out a notice period.
The new schedule was confirmed the day after D’Arcy’s shock departure from RTÉ was announced.
On Thursday, D’Arcy said he was “hugely disappointed” with how RTÉ management handled the situation. He had presented The Ray D’Arcy Show on Radio 1 since February 2015.
In relation to D’Arcy, Ms Monahan said “with change of this scale, there are always difficult conversations to be had, and that’s never easy for anybody”.
She said she would have had “no problem” with D’Arcy saying goodbye on air, but “different people choose to deal with that in different ways”.
A number of other changes are being made to the RTÉ Radio 1 schedule including the new Today with David McCullagh show from 9am to 11am, with Oliver Callan moving to a longer time slot of 11am to 1pm.
The News at One and Liveline will retain their 1pm and 1.45pm slots, respectively. Louise Duffy will move to a midafternoon slot of 3pm to 4pm.
Katie Hannon and Colm Ó Mongáin will host Drivetime from 4pm to 6pm, taking over from Sarah McInerney and Cormac Ó hEadhra. There will also be a new daily sports show at 6pm.
In a statement released earlier on Friday, Ms Monahan said the new schedule “marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter” and has been “designed to meet the changing listening habits of audiences”.
She said McInerney and Ó hEadhra will “continue to be a regular presence on RTÉ and Radio 1″ with their new roles announced in the coming weeks.
Tara Campbell, head of RTÉ Radio 1, said the new schedule “introduces some new and younger voices while seeing many of our award-winning presenters move into new presenting duties”.
[ Ray D’Arcy’s parting outburst atypical of broadcaster who shunned the limelightOpens in new window ]
Cuddihy has been working at Newstalk since 2011. He has presented The Hard Shoulder, a daily news and current affairs programme, since 2020.
The broadcaster has also been at the helm of the television programme The Tonight Show on Virgin Media since February.
He recently moderated the first broadcast presidential debate on Virgin Media last month.
Who is Kieran Cuddihy? Read our recent interview here.
