Browne to leave Radio One for `Prime Time'

The journalist and barrister, Vincent Browne, will present RTE's flagship current affairs programme, Prime Time, from September, the station announced yesterday.

Mr Browne, who is also an Irish Times columnist, will leave his post as presenter of Radio One's Tonight show once the summer is over.

He will join Brian Farrell and Miriam O'Callaghan on Prime Time, which is broadcast three times a week.

The Director of Radio, Ms Helen Shaw, had been reluctant to lose Mr Browne from Radio One's schedule, but was lobbied by both Mr Browne and the Managing Director of Television, Mr Joe Mulholland, to release him from his radio contract, according to documents released under the Freedom of Information Act in May.

Announcing the decision yesterday, Ms Shaw said Mr Browne would be "sadly missed from radio".

The Tonight radio show will be replaced by a new late-evening current affairs programme covering similar material, but with a new format and presenter.

A former editor of the Sunday Tribune, Mr Browne also edited the current affairs magazine, Magill. He resigned as editor of Magill in October 1998 when he sold the magazine to concentrate on his career as a barrister.

Tonight With Vincent Browne had an average audience of 47,000, according to JNLR figures issued in February. However, it still trailed behind Adrian Kennedy and Chris Barry of local radio in Dublin.