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BREAKFAST RADIO’S ODD couple, Chris Donoghue and Ivan Yates have said farewell to the Newstalk show they’ve co-hosted for six years.
The unlikely duo – whose comic banter was either loved or hated by early morning listeners – now go their separate ways, with a new breakfast team lined up for the autumn.
Yates is leaving the Denis O’Brien-owned station to go travelling with his wife, while Donoghue will now take over George Hook’s afternoon slot with Sunday Times political correspondent, Sarah McInerney.
Yates’ departure from the station prompted an outpouring of farewells on social media, with the hashtag #Yexit trending on Twitter this morning.
Signing off this morning, Donoghue said, “Thank you Mr Yates, I’ve had an absolute blast.
You are nowhere near as difficult as you pretend to be.
“I’m very unemotional,” Yates said earlier on the show, as he read out texts from listeners who said they couldn’t wait for him to leave the country.
The pair later thanked everyone who worked on the show before playing a montage of the show’s best bits that “show the two of us should never have been allowed on the radio”, Donoghue said.
Yates’ unique style of presenting – in which he bluntly expressed his opinion, often knew nothing about popular trends and constantly mixed up people’s names – tended to divide public opinion.
The pair will be replaced by political editor Shane Coleman, who will take over hosting duties on weekday mornings.
He’ll be joined in the breakfast lineup by crime journalist Paul Williams, TV3 news anchor Collette Fitzpatrick and former Irish rugby star Alan Quinlan. The new show will air from 7am till 9am.
Read: Chris Donoghue is moving to George Hook’s slot on Newstalk
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Newstalk will find it hard to replace Yates for his opinion ! Coleman is to PC for me
Coleman ‘s poltical credentials are so much to the fore now that his ‘broadcasting’ has become a joke. Still, great to see the back of Yates (are we STILL paying for himself and the wife’s bank debts?)
I have no time for RTE radio but I can see how their listnership figures are rising steadily. If this is all the oppostion can come up with , RTE have little to worry about (unfortunately)
Coleman said that Ivan gives him a pain in his Mangina.
All the Newstalk presenters are very PC apart from George Hook and Sarah Carey
Pity Sarah did not get her own show all she has at the moment is an hour on Saturday morning
Very good broadcaster but is being ignored by Newstalk
Don’t worry, Paul Williams won’t win any awards from the PC brigade. He loves that glorious refuge of the hysterically inarticulate – the ‘s**mbag’ word.
How is Carey ignored by Newstalk as they give her a job as she’s a mate of Denis? She lied to Moriarty to cover up for Denis and was fired by the Irish Times over it. A Dinnybot through and through with a lump of FG thrown in. http://m.herald.ie/news/im-humiliated-and-shamed-says-journalist-carey-who-admitted-lying-to-tribunal-27976212.html
Good luck Ivan loved listening to your show every morning ……not sure about Coleman too PC for me…. looks like have to tune back to radio ulster….
Never liked Yates yet always listened to the show. Now he is gone I think I will miss him…. God bless the Irish mentality
Why doesn’t this article state what is really happening here?
Ivan Yates is swanning off for another spot of bankruptcy tourism as state owned AIB have called in his wife’s personal guarantees for Ivans business misadventures,
A sure it will be fine the taxpayer will pickup the tab as always!
There is no benefit to doing that because the bankruptcy term in Ireland is now also one year, so it is the same as the U.K. So if she was going to go bankrupt then she could stay here in Ireland and Ivan could still work.
The settlement terms regarding sharing future income with creditors are fairer in the UK.
Ah I get you. Presumably pension are better protected too.
Ivan’s pension certainly was!
A bit like the top gear team what made Ivan/Chris work was the tension, dynamics and dichotomy of their interaction.
Chris is a good guy but too sqeeky clean to be interesting on his own.
Yeats was everything Chris wasn’t.
I’m sorry to see him leave and being a bit of an anti PC dinosaur myself, I tended to like Yeats.
Bon voyage Ivan and thanks for the entertainment.
Yeah, Coleman would never get a similar job in Britain.
He’s only 31 and needs to go away for 10-15 years and work as a foreign correspondent or something, before returning to the job. His interviews with politicians, or the likes of Peter Sutherland, are deferential, and even reverential, at times. He’d do well to watch somebody like the BBC’s Andrew Neil, a former editor of the Times in London and by far the best broadcast journalist on these islands. Does his research well and gets his ducks lined up to really pin the interviewee – whatever their stripe – down.
Amazing that a bankrupt and his wife who incidentally is being chased for 2 million quid can just go and travel the world for a year…… Go figure. .???
I thought they were only going as far as Wales.
Nice if you can swan off and take good State pensions while the rest of us poor suckers possibly pick up the tab for your misguided gamble in business, Enjoy the trip I am sure you will walk back into a job when you come back and probably get a nice fee from the Indo for articles on your travels. You Sir are one clever . . . . .
Hardly worth the article is it? Great that Yates can swan off after the irish people helped bail out the banks because of failed business like his and help pay for his big fat pension
Shane Coleman should be on radio late at night. He is the most politically correct , boring , patronising Blueshirt that a radio station could produce. He is the best cure for insomnia ever.
He is actually of Fianna Fáil stock
Same thing John.
You must not be listening very closely Coleman is, total fine gealer, he would have to so in any event, to be in keeping with the station policy as dictated by the owner,
As for Yate`s and Donoghue as a `comic duo`, ? thank God they are off the air , is all I can say to that.
I enjoyed the show. Shame its over. I’ll give the new one a go but doubt it will create the same banter .
No.
Class pairing, always entertaining. Hope like most boybands there will be a reunion sometime
Give it a year, for Mrs Yates Welsh bankruptcy to be expunged.
Listened to them for the majority of their time on air, the two often differing points of view made for interesting listening, never always agreed with them but always enjoyed listening to them. im sure the replacements will be grand but the morning commute simply won’t be as fun
I loved the show, they were a pairing that should not have worked, but did. They will be a hard act to follow.
My morning commute will be unbearable without Ivan. So many times I have had to fight back laughing out loud on the bus
They were a good team , enjoyed the banter and the piss taking
Ivan Yates flashing a little girl…WTF…really?
The only thing more boring then reading the strangers tweets in that article was reading Gills text to her mam.
Oh boy
Was a good pairing
Entertaining if not sometimes cringe worthy
Coleman has to be given a chance , I sincerely hope Paul Williams isn`t going to be a permanent host
That guy gives me absolute IRE
Ivan and Chris thanks
No one is more PC than Chris Donoghue. I switched off as a result.
I used to listen in the odd time. Some times it was funny, some times it was cringe inducing. The funnier parts were Yates taking the piss out of O’Donoughue for staying up late to watch Oireachtas Report every night, and that he should be getting out enjoying himself. I also have big respect for O’Donoghue and his honesty in talking about his beating testicular cancer and encouraging men to get tested etc. I know he’s very PC and all that but he’s still a decent lad.
Poor aul Ivan claiming a state pension since 1996,Of again for another spot of bankruptcy tourism.
They made my 7am drive to work fun and informative . They were So entertaining and fun . Just two bright guys winding us and themselves up . Miss them already .Good luck to both of them in their next steps .
Yates is a tool
Love Ivan @ Cris going to miss them ! Love the banter ! Good look Ivan
Loved waking up to the two of them the banter was great
Good riddance.
FG FM
No loss Pity all the other Political mercenaries that NT drag out wont be joining him.
Yates is a representation of all that’s wrong with Irish public life.
So the failed bookie is on his travels again. Do not forget that this individual is drawing a nice big pension since he retired from the Dail aged 41. The best thing Yates and his wife could do is stay away
The owner was only repaying a favour to Ivan. Mind you Bertie paid back bigger favours to his pals in the DDA and a few other Quango’s.
too many hours listening to these two waking up every morning dragging myself out of bed they could be good craic alright tho
Love new stalk breakfast show but I’m out if Paul Williams on air .crime does pay.
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