KIERAN CUDDIHY TOOK to the airwaves this afternoon to host his first Liveline programme on RTÉ Radio 1 today. 

RTÉ confirmed last month that the former Newstalk presenter and current host of Virgin Media’s The Tonight Show would be stepping into the role after longtime host Joe Duffy signed off in June.

“Good afternoon, you are very, very welcome to Liveline here on RTÉ Radio 1,” Cuddihy opened the show with. 

He read the number that listeners could phone to get in touch on, adding: “It’s still the number. I mean, they haven’t changed everything.”

But besides the new host, there was one other change to the programme that was apparent before Cuddihy had even welcomed listeners to the show: Liveline has a new jingle. 

Those who have listened to Liveline will be familiar with the signature tune that plays before the show kicks off. It comes from Over The Moors, an instrumental piece of music by the Irish folk band Stockton’s Wing from their 1986 album Full Flight. 

The tune even predates Duffy’s time as host. It was first used in the mid-1980s when Marian Finucane was the presenter. 

As the show got underway this afternoon, a few people on social media voiced their opinion at the change in tunes, with one describing the new one as “some sort of off-the-shelf corporate blandness”, while another wrote: “Justice for Stockton’s Wing”. 

A spokesperson for RTÉ told The Journal: “A decision was made to retire the Liveline sig tune when Joe left in preparation for the relaunch of the programme in its new iteration under Kieran Cuddihy.”

‘Life moves on’

Musician Mike Hanrahan, who is a member of Stockton’s Wing, told The Journal that while he’s sorry that the jingle has been changed, he doesn’t feel aggrieved “at all”. 

“Stockton’s had many great years of association with Liveline. Seven members of the band had a cut in the tune, so we will miss that, but it paid for a lot of dinners,” he said. 

RTÉ “very kindly” phoned Hanrahan on Friday to let him know that the song had been changed. “I thought that was class. You can’t argue with that kind of decency,” he said. 

I don’t like the new tune, but I would say that anyway.

“We were very lucky to have it. We were associated with it, and people got to hear a tune every day from Stockton’s Wing, so how bad?”

Hanrahan also wished Cuddihy the best. “Life moves on. I tuned in today. Kieran is doing a fine job.”

Besides the musical change, there was no change to the format of the show that we have all come to know. 

Cuddihy was a natural in the host’s chair as he guided the conversation from listeners who got in touch to discuss a lack of services in the health system. 

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Annette from Carrick-on-Shannon was the first caller. She told Cuddihy she had to call an ambulance for her mother at 1pm yesterday. They arrived at Shannon University Hospital at 1.55pm, but her mother was not seen at the hospital for another eight hours. 

“She had sepsis, so those early bloods would’ve made a huge difference to her,” Annette said, adding that her mother was still in casualty because there were no beds available in the hospital wards. 

The show also heard from parents David and Tina, Aoife, and Dee, who highlighted their negative experiences trying to access services for their children who have special additional needs. 

Aoife said she received a diagnosis for her daughter, who is four-and-a-half, earlier this year after years of waiting, but is still on waiting lists to access speech therapy, occupational therapy and a psychologist. 

She said she has no idea when her daughter will actually be seen. “I do know two people in my locality, one was given a time of April 2029 and one was given July 2029, so I’m not holding out hope,” she said. 

The show also heard from callers about the amount of e-scooters on Irish roads, with Cuddihy saying that many “appear to be going significantly faster than 25 kilometers per hour, which is what they are meant to be capped at”.

Cuddihy wrapped up the programme by speaking to Alma, a member of the Bernese Mountain Dog Club Ireland who was one of several people who lined up with their dogs outside Áras an Uachtaráin to see President Michael D Higgins leaving ahead of his final public engagement in office yesterday. 

“He’s had Bernese for years and years, even before he got to the Áras,” she said. “It was just such a lovely tribute for people to go up there and to thank them on behalf of the Bernese community. It really was really heartwarming.”

“I’m glad that we can wrap things up on a happy story,” Cuddihy concluded.