Morning revamp for 2fm schedule

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 from the Galway studio.

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

Before Gerry Ryan died in April, 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 revised after his death.

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

Hayes said there would be continuity between his programme and that of Tubridy as both would give the public the opportunity to talk. “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. Along with Jim-Jim Nugent, Nikki Hayes, who had 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, former presenter of The Business, taking over from Ryan Tubridy between 9am and 10am.