Gerard Whelan steps down as Newstalk chief executive

Gerard Whelan

Gavin McLoughlin

February 16 2015 09:42 PM

Gerard Whelan has resigned as chief executive of Newstalk, the Communicorp-owned radio station.

Mr Whelan said he had “decided to leave to continue his career outside media”.

He told the Irish Independent that he thought it was time to pursue other opportunities, particularly with the newly formed sales team Communicorp One – which sells ads for Newstalk, Today FM and TXFM – performing well.

He said he is finalising discussions about taking on a new role elsewhere, “I think Newstalk is in a fantastic position, it’s hopefully never been better,” Mr Whelan said.

Mr Whelan had been chief executive of Newstalk since September 2013.

He previously held a number of senior positions at building materials company Kingspan.

“Mr Whelan has brought an outstanding commercial discipline to the business and the station is now at its strongest ever and is Ireland’s fastest-growing radio station,” Newstalk said.

“Under his leadership the station increased its listenership in every JNLR book and now has 684,000 weekly listeners.”

The figures showed News-talk’s breakfast programme presented by Ivan Yates and Chris Donoghue increased its listenership by 39,000 in 2014, while the lunchtime programme presented by Jonathan Healy increased by 13,000.

The station has 392,000 daily listeners, the figures show.