'I'm desperately excited' - Ryan Tubridy reacts to becoming a Virgin Radio presenter

Virgin Radio

16 Nov 2023, 11:01

Ryan Tubridy is joining the Virgin Radio team, and he has chatted to his new colleague Chris Evans about how excited he is.

Virgin Radio UK has today (16th November) announced that the preeminent Irish broadcaster is joining the daytime lineup in the new year. From January, he will helm the mid-morning show on Virgin Radio UK from 10am to 1pm, Monday to Friday. 

Joining the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with cinch this morning to talk about the big news, he said: “This is quite surreal. I'm desperately excited. I start a new job in a new city in a wonderful station in a few weeks time.” 

Ryan is no stranger to radio. Indeed, his successful radio career has spanned more than 20 years to date, and he hosted his eponymous show on RTÉ Radio 1 from 2015 to this summer. But his experience goes back much further than that. “I did my first radio appearance at the age of 12, when I was reviewing books,” he said. “We won't go back that far. But that's true.”

His stellar broadcasting career also includes hosting the iconic Late Late Show, Ireland's most popular, highest rating TV programme, where he interviewed massive guests, including the likes of U2, Sinead O’Connor, Tony Blair, Russell Crowe, Hillary Clinton and Ed Sheeran. “I did stuff on the TV and radio as a kid, just reviewing books and that kind of thing. But The Late Late Show was the big job. That was presented by Gay Byrne for, gosh, 37 years, then Pat Kenny for 10 years and then me for 14 years.” 

Regarding the best guests he had on the TV show, Ryan said: “It’s very hard to beat Ed Sheeran when he's looking at you with the guitar in front of him. Russell Crowe was always the craic. He was always great fun.” Referring to our own Chris Evans, he added: “And then this really nice gentleman came along one day and inspired me and mentored me!”

On becoming part of the Virgin Radio family, Ryan said: “I find radio the most beautiful medium of them all. I think it's intimate… the interaction with listeners, I just love it, it’s really warm. And the radio is in your kitchen, it's in your car. It becomes your companion and friend. I love that. You kind of make friends on the radio. I think it's a lovely medium.”  

Broadcasting from The News Building in London, Ryan joins a stellar weekday schedule that includes The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with cinch, Jayne Middlemiss in the afternoons, and Kaiser Chiefs frontman Ricky Wilson at drivetime. 

The weekend lineup on Virgin Radio is led by The Graham Norton Show with Waitrose and Leigh Francis, aka Keith Lemon. 

"I really am oven ready, like a good chip," Ryan said while talking to Chris Evans.

"I’ll be relocating here, to London, which I'm really excited about actually."

Read loads more from Ryan's chat with Chris here.

Tune into Ryan Tubridy’s brand new mid-morning show, 10am to 1pm, on Virgin Radio UK from January 2024.

For more great interviews listen to  The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with cinch weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or catch up on-demand here.