RTE presenter Joe Duffy is to have his own Saturday morning radio programme in the autumn schedules. He will also work on a new evening "drive time" programme five days a week.
Mr Duffy's Saturday programme will replace Talk Radio, which has been presented by Des Cahill, who will move to a twice a week sports programme, to be broadcast in the early evening.
No title has been decided for the new Saturday morning programme, which will be transmitted from to a.m. 11a.m. The final format is still under discussion, but it is believed RTE favours using Mr Duffy outside the studio as much as possible and that while some areas of current affairs will be included, generally the treatment will be light.
Mr Duffy will note allowed to compete wish Saturday View, seen within RTE as its current affairs flagship programme on radio.
Today At Five will be replaced by a new drive time programme that will include music as well as the main news stories of the day. It will be presented by Myles Dungan. Mr Duffy is expected to be involved in the programme, in both the production area he trained as a producer with RTE and as a reporter.
Mr Duffy presented the Gay Byrne radio show two mornings a week after Mr Byrne decided to reduce his work schedule in the autumn of 1994. Joe Duffy had been a producer on the show but also worked on air, where his style often seemed to compete with Gay Byrne.
However, any chance that he was to be Gay Byrne's their apparent was scotched early this summer when RTE revamped its schedule by switching the times of the Gay Byrne and Pat Kenny programmes, and introducing Gareth O'Callaghan, a 2FM presenter, to Radio One.
Mr O'Callaghan joined Radio One's Upbeat programme during the summer. Upbeat is a light entertainment programme of music and competitions. In the autumn schedules, he will present a radio programme in the Gay Byrne Show time slot on the two mornings when Gay Byrne is off air. This show will have more talk than Upbeat.
Despite Joe Duffy's popularity it would appear he is a victim of the schedulers and research. He was associated with a move towards more current affairs on the Gay Byrne Show, including such is as the Catholic Church and child abuse, prisoners, crime and the coverage of evictions live on radio. Some of the reports on the Gay Byrne Show often upstaged current affairs programmes.
RTE's research, undertaken during the summer by the market survey company, MRBI, showed that focus groups found the schedule had become tired, was old and had a "sameness" about the talk content. The research found that a major story might be covered by Morning Ireland, Gay Byrne, Pat Kenny, the lunch time news and possibly even Live Line.
Consequently, the new Gay Byrne Show will be much lighter and general, with more emphasis on such items as a doctor offering advice. This approach will return the show to what it was until a string of producers with current affairs experience moved the programme into more serious areas.