One hundred years after forerunner 2RN made the first test transmissions of its new radio service, RTÉ will go live on Monday with its “refreshed” weekday schedule on Radio 1.

It’s the biggest overhaul of the station since January, 1999, with time slots as well as presenter line-ups being rejigged. But is this a dramatic “Newstalkification” of Radio 1 designed to attract younger listeners by being brasher and less formal? Or is it closer to a modest evolution of tried and tested formats that represents a missed opportunity for something more ambitious?

Here is what’s happening: David McCullagh takes over the Today show and starts one hour earlier at 9am, directly following Morning Ireland. Oliver Callan moves to 11am and doubles his slot to two hours. Kieran Cuddihy, a new voice to RTÉ, inherits the Liveline seat, while Louise Duffy’s music-led show moves to 3pm. And Drivetime, now presented by Katie Hannon and Colm Ó Mongáin, starts half an hour earlier at 4pm, finishing at 6pm to allow for an hour of Inside Sport, a new programme presented by Jacqui Hurley and Marie Crowe.

“This came out of the blue. We weren’t aware that this level of a shake-up was on the cards, actually,” says Hannon over Zoom.

So will their show be different from the one presented by Sarah McInerney and Cormac Ó hEadhra?

“We’re kind of grabbing the baton to some degree,” she says. “What we’re thinking about is the people we’re broadcasting to and the kind of headspace they’re going to be in. With our news and current affairs backgrounds, we have strong news instincts, so we want to keep that up by breaking stories and doing big interviews.