Pat Kenny On the crest of the airwaves at Newstalk

THE talk was of tears and trauma at RTÉ over Pat Kenny’s departure for Newstalk, but the most memorable reaction he got was: “Thank you for leaving.”

That was from Seán O’Rourke, his replacement on Radio One, whom he bumped into socially recently.

“He thanked me for leaving. He said he was having more fun than he had had for years,” Pat laughs.

By the sounds of it, Pat is also having fun and if he had any reservations about leaving Montrose, his home of 41 years, they don’t appear to have followed him to Newstalk Towers.

“It’s week seven. I will stop counting after a while and it will become the norm but it does seem an eternity. I feel very positive. It’s a completely energising thing to do to put yourself into a new environment.

“Before I joined the station, I had not been in the door of Newstalk ever. I had to talk to people who had worked here without them knowing what I was up to — people like Claire Byrne — to get a sense of what it was like to work there. It was that which gave me the confidence to take the leap.”

Leap taken, he feels like he’s landed in the set of his favourite TV series, The Newsroom, with Jeff Daniels in an Emmy-winning role as a jaded news anchor given a new lease of life by a team of earnest and hungry young newshounds.

“It’s that kind of atmosphere. They are all energised, energetic people, a lot younger than I am, with the kind of ambition and drive that makes the place very buzzy all the time.”

This week that buzz was brought to Cork in what was the start of a series of regional broadcasts aimed at dispelling the notion that national journalism is Dublin journalism.

“There is a perception that a lot of radio emanates from Dublin. It’s true in the sense that it’s where the centre of power is. But you have to be inclusive.

“You need to have a presence in the regions, to say we know you are listening, we want you to listen and we want to be relevant to you.”

Visiting our Opera Lane studio in #Cork pic.twitter.com/rbPttjguXO

— Pat Kenny Newstalk (@PatKennyNT) October 24, 2013

Proving his new show not only has relevance but mass appeal is a three-year project, Pat has said, but the JNLRs [the Broadcasting Authority’s official listenership figures] come around much more frequently and, even if premature, he knows there’s going to be intense scrutiny of his performance.

He insists he has no anxieties in that regard.

“For years I have been in a defensive position trying to hang onto a very, very substantial audience.

“But now I am in a situation where I am looking to build. I quite like that as a challenge — hoping to go from a fairly low base step by step up to a significant audience.”

How significant, he doesn’t know, but coming from an RTÉ listenership of more than 300,000, he has high expectations.

Undoubtedly his new boss does too, although Pat says he works free of pressure from Denis O’Brien and that the various controversies surrounding the billionaire businessman have no influence on approach to his job. “It’s not a relevant factor in anything that goes on here as far as I can see. Day by day there is no interference. It’s just not an issue.”

One of the questions that greeted Pat’s defection was whether he would become the underdog when it came to getting the big-name guests. It was notable last week that his traditional post-budget postmortem with the minister for finance stayed with RTÉ.

“I did not expect it in year one but I wouldn’t bet against it next year,” he says. “There is a commitment [in Government] to the independent radio sector. They have not deprived us of ministerial input.”

In fact, he says, the greatest barrier to getting guests is the same one his RTÉ rival faces. “The big issue was always and still is The Late Late Show. If you have someone coming over — someone comes out with a new book or a sensational story — The Late Late Show will put an embargo on them saying you can’t do another show before us. That arises for Seán O’Rourke too or anybody on radio. It’s the big juggernaut that tends to roll over the tanks of everyone else. I know because I was that Panzer driver.”

He would like to get back to television in the next year or two, preferably fronting something that would run for a set number of programmes during one part of the year.

While he is adamant he remains on good terms with RTÉ management and that a return to TV there is a possibility, it is clear that his redeployment to Prime Time was a factor in his decision to leave.

“When I was doing Frontline it was only Monday night but with Prime Time, it could be Monday or Tuesday or Thursday or all three or two out of three and that could become a bit of a challenge. You would be in work at 8am for the radio show and then you would leave at midnight. It’s a long time to spend in one place. You might get home for a shower but it’d be hello and goodbye. I’m glad that’s gone.”

What’s also gone — to his relief — is the requirement to publicly disclose his salary although it hasn’t escaped comment, not least from his Newstalk colleague Ivan Yates who regularly ribs him by referring to him as “his majesty”. It is different, he says of coming on air to be tackled by Yates about how many stylists have just worked on his hair or quizzed if his massage chair is working satisfactorily.

“I knew there would be a looser kind of approach. It’s a bit of fun.”