TV and radio star Blathnaid Treacy has praised RTE bosses for taking their time to build up the stations’ weekly schedule - as she hits back at naysayers criticising the new set-up.

The latest figures published last week by Joint National Listenership Research (JNLR) revealed a bump in listeners to 2FM’s new weekend schedule line-up, which was unveiled back in February.

Laura Fox, Blathnaid, Roz Purcell and Emma Power were all announced earlier this year to take over from Dave Fanning on 2FM in a major schedule shake up.

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Opening up about the bumper listeners, Blathnaid said: “I think the weekend schedule was so temporary for a while. They took their time building it and putting the right shows together.

“You fall into a routine, everyone does. I’m the same.

“The energy as well we all bring. I mean we all genuinely get on really well. We have such a laugh with each other.”

Blathnaid slammed criticism from those who believe they haven’t worked long enough in radio.

“The other thing is we all have a huge amount of experience. We’re not fresh out of whatever. Myself, Emma and Laura have a particular experience in radio. Roz has a huge amount of experience over the years of doing so many different things and she has such an incredible personality.

“We’ve worked our asses off. We’ve worked really, really hard. It’s not something that we’ve been handed. We’ve each put in the hours, and I think that is reflected.

“That confidence doesn’t just come overnight. We know how radio shows work and we’ve all worked with different elements with radio as well, not just on mic. We all understand the different productions. We’re all working the desk, we don’t just stand there speaking in front of a mic."

She added: “If something goes wrong, we have to fix it. It’s a hard job but we absolutely love it.

“We are one of the only stations with a female heavy line up, which is incredible,” the Wicklow star added.

But the mum-of-one says she has no interest in taking over Ryan Tubridy’s former Radio One slot, The Nine O’Clock Show, as a permanent presenter still hasn’t been announced.

Despite the upheaval, the Radio One slot saw a 13,000 increase in listeners since Tubridy’s departure.

Blathnaid said: “I just took over Weekend Breakfast on 2FM, so I’m absolutely thrilled with my slot. I started it when I was a couple of months pregnant and now, I’ve only just gone back, and my listenership has jumped up as well.

“I am really happy with the show that I’m doing. It’s so much fun and it’s lovely that I can see I’m building an audience and I’m connecting with them,” she added.

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