Claire Byrne has said she is “looking forward to letting loose” on her new show on Newstalk.
The broadcaster is set to rejoin Newstalk for her own show from Tuesday on after having spent 15 years working at RTÉ.
She is set to present Monday to Friday from 9 to 12 taking over from Pat Kenny.
“I’m looking to get to know people a bit better, add in a bit more personality, a bit more opinion and experiment with new ideas, new formats, new teams," she told Lunchtime Live.
She added that she enjoyed every minute of her time at RTÉ.
“I don’t want to be derogatory about RTÉ, I enjoyed every minute of it. The opportunities they gave me… I should never have had half of them," she said.
Claire Byrne. Picture by: Leon Farrell/ Photocall Ireland.She added that she is quite nervous about the start of her new show.
“It’ll be neat and all the rest, everything will be lovely but getting used to an unfamiliar studio and the new way of doing things will take some time," she said.
“I have healthy nerves, but I can’t wait to get going. I’ve been waiting and chomping at the bit to get started."
Listeners asked the host when she started working in radio, how she’d dealt with a guest saying something unexpected live on air and the most interesting person she’d ever interviewed.
Asked whether she preferred TV or radio, she said she preferred radio, saying, “I just love the immediacy of radio. You come in here, you sit down, you do your job. With television there can be a lot of hanging around or ‘can you do that again’ if it’s not live which can make the adrenaline sag a bit. With radio, in and done."
Asked what were some of the most compelling stories she’d covered, she mentioned Brexit and COVID calling it an “absolutely manic” time.
“We thought the island would descend into absolute chaos again," she said.
“I know people don’t want me to go back there but at the time I was presenting Claire Byrne Live and our whole point of difference is that we had a live studio audience."
Claire Byrne Picture by: Sasko Lazarov /RollingNews.ie.She mentioned that with the live audience gone due to health restrictions her team had to come up with all sorts of innovative ways to keep the programme interesting and keep people up until 10.40.
“It was no easy task," she added.
“We were trying to figure it out and wonder what the hell is this thing, along with everybody else at home and wondering who we were going to do this.”
The Claire Byrne Show is due to launch this Tuesday February 3rd and will air daily from 9 am to 12pm on Newstalk.
Main Image: Claire Byrne. Picture by: Newstalk.
