Pat Kenny needs have "200,000 listeners" to "justify the whole palaver", which would be "one hell of a performance", his Newstalk colleague George Hook has said.

“If he gets to 200,000 listeners and I’m still alive . . . I’ll wash his underwear for a year because it will be a phenomenal achievement. I hope he does . . . Radio is a one-year figure. Therefor this is the real killer for Pat, Newstalk and people who write wage cheques. We won’t know until February 2015 whether he has succeeded or not.”

The Right Hook presenter was speaking yesterday at the launch of the Kennedy Summer School.

He described Kenny's move as "incredibly brave" after 41 years in RTÉ when he could have stayed there for another 10 years.