If there’s a single moment that underscores the scale of this week’s reboot at RTÉ Radio 1, it’s surely when Kieran Cuddihy starts his tenure as host of Liveline (weekdays) without the frenetic banjo-driven signature tune so associated with Joe Duffy’s long reign.
With the new, generic-sounding opening music tootling away, Cuddihy reassures listeners shocked at the banishment of the old Stockton’s Wing theme that, if nothing else, the show’s phone number is still the same. “They haven’t changed everything,” he says in slightly chastened tones.
Maybe not, but so sweeping is the overhaul of Radio 1’s roster that Liveline, its new presenter and music notwithstanding, is the only non-news programme on the station’s weekday schedule to remain in its old slot. By the same token, it’s the show under most scrutiny, testament both to its power as a legacy brand and to the contentious circumstances of Cuddihy’s move from Newstalk.
Fittingly, the theme of change runs through Cuddihy’s most striking conversations, although the mood is anything but optimistic. On Tuesday a resident of Portlaoise named Naeem Iqbal tells the host how his friend Abdur and another man were attacked by a group of men and women on Friday night, suggesting, not unreasonably, that the assault is part of a “wave of racism” directed at migrants.
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Iqbal, who ran for local office in 2019 and 2024, sees “a very different change in attitude” here, with racist abuse on social media and defaced posters marking last year’s election. Though he speaks warmly of Ireland as his home, he’s alarmed by anti-migrant messaging on social media.
As if to reinforce this, Cuddihy glumly checks the text reaction. “This is possibly a dispiriting point to make, but the Liveline WhatsApp number is absolutely overrun with racist comments,” he ruefully reports, displaying a flair for understatement in the process.
Even so, the host knows he has tapped into a hot topic, returning to the subject the next day, when Andrea, a teacher in Co Meath, decries the proliferation of Tricolours on lamp-posts across the country as a hijacking of the national flag to signal anti-migrant sentiment.
By way of balance, Cuddihy speaks to Christopher, who claims it’s fictional to describe the widespread flying of Tricolours as racist, instead seeing the flag as a “sign of hope” for people who feel forgotten. But for all that he says he welcomes Poles and Brazilians as Irish citizens, Christopher bemoans “busloads” of outsiders arriving in towns, while complaining that the issue is never covered in “mainstream media”.
The host, who engages with his caller in friendly fashion, dismisses this. “I’ve lost count of the number of debates I’ve had about immigration,” he says with a sigh, even as he adds to that total.
Disheartening though the discussion is, it’s the first time that Cuddihy really seems to hit his stride, in a week otherwise dominated by the difficult subject of healthcare failures for children with special needs. It’s not quite off to a flyer, but at least he’s not flagging.
With a fresh presenting team and an earlier, 4pm slot, the revamped Drivetime (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays) takes off more smoothly, with Katie Hannon and Colm Ó Mongáin slotting into their new roles as anchors with apparent ease. The pair may have an advantage over Cuddihy – both are Montrose fixtures, helming a show less freighted with expectations and rigid in format – but they handle their varied brief with nuance and confidence.
Hannon approaches her interview with the rape survivor Dylan Gallagher sensitively, for instance, while drawing him out about the harrowing abuse he suffered at the hands of his cousin, leading both presenters to voice admiration at their guest’s courage. “A really impressive person,” Hannon says.
But this tough content is balanced by items on the everyday frustrations of public transport, when Hannon talks to the chief executive of Dublin Bus, Billy Hann, or the more personal, such as the cheerful chat with the journalist Édaein O’Connell about the challenges – and advantages – of single life.
There are still a few wrinkles to be ironed out. As they figure out the rhythms of their on-air relationship, the duo’s banter occasionally sounds overegged or undercooked. But with Ó Mongáin and Hannon already neatly switching between heavyweight topics and lighter fare, the early omens are good.
Over on Today with David McCullagh (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays), the host seems to face a trickier task. Not only is he succeeding one of the nation’s best-known broadcasters, in Claire Byrne, following her move to Newstalk, but his show now starts an hour earlier, at 9am, meaning McCullagh has to sell two hours of current affairs to an audience punch-drunk from the dependably downbeat Morning Ireland.
Moreover, having started with a bang – Monday’s jousting interview with a jaw-droppingly self-serving Ivan Yates – the host runs the risk of things petering out into a whimper.
But even in his first week McCullagh is carving out a distinctive radio persona: conspicuously inquisitive and shrewdly insightful, with a streak of enjoyably doleful humour. That last trait is particularly conspicuous during his conversation with the travel agent Ed Finn about Christmas markets in Europe. “Ho ho ho,” Finn says by way of opener. “Yeah, a little bit early, but we’ll let you away with it,” comes the host’s nicely jaded reply.
There’s less in the way of levity when dealing with more substantial topics, such as the businessman Denis O’Brien’s comments about the supposed entitlement of Irish graduates wanting to work at home. But as he discusses the matter with psychologists and politicians, McCullagh makes his own quietly effective aside: “Mr O’Brien lives in Portugal.”
With Byrne soon due to take up a rival morning slot on Newstalk, McCullagh may have his work cut out to ensure fans of his predecessor don’t switch channels. But even in these early days he’s displaying enough offbeat appeal as well as journalistic chops to suggest people will stay tuned.
For the moment that should be achievement enough, not just for McCullagh but for everyone at the new-look Radio 1. In a medium where audiences prize reliability, messing with timings and introducing so many new voices can test even the most loyal listener. (Famously, BBC Radio 1 lost half its listenership during a radical reset in the 1990s.) But so far RTÉ’s refreshed line-up is getting on with the job. Change, after all, can be for the better.
Moment of the week
As the only presenter on the old RTÉ Radio 1 weekday roster to be unambiguously promoted, with his show receiving a later start of 11am and an expanded two-hour airtime, one might think that Oliver Callan would be in celebratory mood. But while he opens Monday’s show in ebullient voice, the presenter sounds a decidedly wary note. “We’ve a longer, longer show,” he says. “Not necessarily a better one, because, as we all know, size doesn’t matter.” Except when it comes to ratings, of course.
