RTE presenter Myles Dungan has been approached by RTE executives to succeed Mike Murphy as presenter of Radio One's afternoon arts show.
The presenter of the Five-Seven Live news magazine programme appears set to move to the arts programme in June.
A spokeswoman for RTE radio said no final decision had been made on who would present the revamped Arts Show, and that no announcement would be made until April.
Mr Dungan played a role in RTE's arts coverage previously, having been a reviewer and arts reporter for Today at Five for four years before becoming presenter of the programme in 1988.
The move comes as RTE faces increasing pressure in Dungan's current drive-time slot from Eamonn Dunphy's The Last Word on Today FM. Joint National Listenership Research (JNLR) figures due out on Tuesday are expected to confirm Mr Dunphy's show is eating further into RTE's audience. The last JNLR figures showed The Last Word had 144,000 listeners, compared to 200,000 for Five-Seven Live.
However, Mr Dunphy's programme has almost twice the audience of Five-Seven Live in the 20- to 44-year-old age category.
Five-Seven Live has suffered because Mr Dungan has never attracted the same personal following as Eamonn Dunphy.
While Mr Dungan has had to stick to a narrow current affairs format, Mr Dunphy has the freedom to engage in debates and extended personality interviews. The Five-Seven Live presenter refused to comment when contacted by The Irish Times.
