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Belfast Live
Belfast Live
Entertainment
Sophie McLaughlin

New Q Radio breakfast trio hoping to bring the banter bright and early to the airwaves

A new trio have taken over mornings at Q Radio and fun, laughter and back and forth banter are to be expected.

Three weeks ago, Cork comedian Andrew Ryan joined Declan Wilson and Amy McGuckin on the all-new breakfast show.

Despite early morning alarms and learning to man the desk, Andrew, Declan and Amy have already created a great rapport with not just one another, but their listeners too.

Read more: New BBC series to examine extraordinary stories from Troubles

Belfast Live popped into the Q Radio HQ to catch the presenters after another morning of starting the people of Northern Ireland off with some good tunes and good fun.

After being approached to come in and give a trail run a go, Andrew was found to be a perfect fit - and the rest is history as they say.

Declan said: "I've being doing the breakfast show for the last two years but we knew we wanted to expand it and knew we needed to find a really good fit.

"We had Andrew in with me to try somethings out and it worked really well and we hit it off and Amy was in too - she's great, the one that keeps us in check."

The Breakfast Show trio (Justin Kernoghan/ Belfast Live)

Amy laughed: "We are just slotting in and finding our feet but we are loving it."

"We are getting a great reaction from listeners because we are just being ourselves and the videos and clips from the show we've been putting out have been getting thousands of hits too," Andrew added.

"We are just having a right good laugh with it."

Declan believes the magic is happening because of the trio's natural chemistry and that "no two personalities are the same".

Andrew is well versed behind the microphone, being a stand-up comedian and hosting his own podcast 'Cork in the North' alongside appearing on a whole host of other local shows.

He explained that where there may be a little more attention as to what you can, or more importantly can't, say on live radio, he's been finding the transition highly enjoyable.

"I've actually found it straightforward so far because in my comedy, I'm not known or class myself as being a rude comic so coming in here, I've found my style suits it I think."

Amy continued: "There's more behind the scenes than you think - obviously Declan makes it seem so seamless because he just presses all the buttons and goes about it so well."

The new hosts have been on the air for three weeks now (Justin Kernoghan/ Belfast Live)

No two morning shows are the same with Andrew, Declan and Amy with a whole host of themes, topics, stories and questions that listeners can get engaged with popping up from day to day.

"We want to touch on everything," Declan said.

"Yes, we want to make people laugh and smile and get them to work in the morning but we also touch on the serious topics and relate to what people are going through.

"Radio is about making people laugh, making people cry, inviting them into our lives and them into ours."

Amy added: "We are in someone's kitchen in the morning when they are getting ready, in their car going to work - we want to be a voice for people.

"We've really really enjoyed the listeners' messages when we've got a topic of the day and people get in contact and we just thrive off that too."

After being put on the spot as to what each of their favourite 'get out of bed' songs were, Declan ensured that all the tunes on the breakfast show are "get up and go" anthems.

Andrew said: "Avicii - Wake Me Up was our first song that we played on our first show together. Declan came up with that which was a great call."

"This is like Breakfast 2.0, this is so much craic having these two on board now," Declan added.

"It is really coming together and it is only the third week. I want the show to grow with the listeners - as our relationship gets stronger, so will out relationship with them."

Tune in to hear Declan, Andrew and Amy on Q Radio Breakfast from 6am every Monday to Thursday

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