While most of the country held its breath to see how the RTE celebrities Marion Finucane, Pat Kenny and Carrie Crowley would fill the silence left by Gay Byrne, thousands of midlanders hardly even noticed.
The people of Laois, Offaly and Westmeath have their own morning "voice" to keep them company on Midlands Radio 3, Mike Reade, who presents the morning flagship programme, All Things Considered.
The slightly-built Reade holds court on local radio with a series of items which run, interspersed with music, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Reade was born in Greenhills, Dublin, 32 years ago and, while most other teenagers were playing soccer or raiding orchards, the young Reade and his friends were playing at disc jockeys.
"We used to hang around and play tape-recorded music and practise being presenters," he says.
His childhood dream became a reality when at 15, Mike found himself behind the mike at one of the pirates, Radio City, presenting a rock programme.
For the next 15 years he gave rock-and-roll some of the best years of his life, working first on East Coast Radio and later in London.
He travelled to Denmark with his Dublin-born wife, Paula, to gain more experience and worked on a rock station in Copenhagen.
"We had a wonderful time there, and I managed to learn the language and present the rock programmes. I was useful to them because I dealt with most of the English-language entertainers."
He spent four years there, meeting many famous names in the music industry.
"It was a wonderful period in my life," he says.
However, he and his wife always intended to return and settle down in Ireland. The Reades found there was a vacancy with Midlands Radio 3 and moved to Tullamore where they recently bought an old house near the town.
Each week-day morning, Reade reviews the international, national and local happenings with an audience that can sometimes be as high as 129,000.
"I like to listen. I think too many presenters like to hear their own voices, but I am not like that. I believe I am a good listener and I think that helps.
"I take the title of the programme seriously. We will consider everything that is moving here, nationally and abroad, and that is my brief."
He praises the support given by his producer, Martin Shannon, a former BBC producer and presenter. Tuesday's programme was a mixture of national and local subjects: how to get off cigarettes, the cheap Ryanair flights and an item about paganism.
A large section of the programme was devoted to a concert being staged by show-bands tonight in Tullamore.
Mike believes the best programme he was involved in went out after the Omagh bombing.
"I think we helped heighten the awareness of what had happened up there, and as a result of the programme many small communities opened books of condolences," he says.
He feels his programme has acted as a kind of "referee" in the inter-county dispute which has been running in the midlands over the locating of a cancer unit in Tullamore, rather than Portlaoise.
"We have provided an outlet here, as in Omagh, for people to express their opinions on how they felt about what was going on in their community."
When he comes off air at one, Mike does not go home. He's also programme director of the station, and this takes up much of his time.
"I suppose you could say that the morning programme is a labour of love and it is really in my blood. I love it," he says.
When not working, Reade likes walking with his wife and working on his new home.