New UTV Ireland presenter Pat Kenny has warned that more major RTE stars will follow him and join the station.
The former RTE presenter shocked Montrose by quitting after 41 years to join Newstalk.
Now Pat has been signed up as the host of a new UTV Ireland chat show, which will take on Saturday Night With Miriam.
He insisted: “I hope RTE and TV3 are worried about the competition – I wouldn’t be doing my job properly if they weren’t.”
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And Pat warned that it is a “reality” that big names like himself will continue fleeing RTE.
“It’s probably true that, for a big organisation, RTE don’t have many people listening and minding people,” he said.
“They presume that if they pay you well, you’ll do your job and that’s not an unreasonable view to take.
“In the old days when RTE was the only show in town, they didn’t have to worry about people defecting but that is a reality for them now.”
And Pat told the Irish Independent that he feels delighted to be out of RTE, as he wasn’t enjoying it.
Happier: Pat feels he made right decision quitting RTE
He said: “I knew I wasn’t enjoying Prime Time – it was unpredictable.
“Often I would come back in to RTE after a day working in the radio building to interview a Junior Minister for five minutes, which seemed like madness.
He added: “I could have stayed in RTE but I would have been afflicted by the eternal ‘what if’.”
