In just over a fortnight, Eamon Dunphy begins his latest radio adventure as presenter of the morning show at Dublin's NewsTalk 106, which denies the new show will be taking on RTÉ's flagship programme Morning Ireland, with its average listenership of 472,000.
In contrast, the show Dunphy is planning to take over has hovered around the 11,000 mark for the last year. NewsTalk is hoping the presenter will be able to give the station the one thing it has lacked - a sizeable prime time audience.
NewsTalk said yesterday David McWilliams, the previous host, was no longer with the station. NewsTalk's Mr Dan Healy said McWilliams had put NewsTalk on the map and now it was up to Dunphy to take the station to the next level.
Dunphy will be paid a basic salary plus bonuses for meeting certain audience targets. As a private company, NewsTalk is not prepared to reveal these figures, but it is understood he could earn over €600,000 a year.
NewsTalk will be hoping Dunphy can in time produce an audience in the 70,000 to 100,000 bracket. Based on his experience at Today FM with the Last Word programme that should be possible.
