Pat Kenny now works with TV3 where he hosts current affairs show Pat Kenny Tonight.
But before joining the TV3 team, Pat worked with RTE for an incredible 41 years!
The veteran broadcaster admits that leaving RTE was not an easy decision, but didn’t feel he fit in to RTE’s schedule anymore.
He told TV Now: “I didn’t want to do Prime Time which had sucked The Frontline into it.
“I never knew what days I’d be working. Doing three days a week on the TV and not knowing was too disruptive.”
The 69-year-old added that he didn’t want to work across TV and radio at the time.
“I said to RTE that I’d just do radio but they couldn’t or wouldn’t offer me a contract just to do radio so that helped crystallise the decision I made.”
Pat also weighed in on the controversial pay gap dispute going on in RTE.
“RTE in my experience has been, by and large, gender blind,” he said.
“Over the years we’ve seen the advent of people in very traditionally male roles, the cameraman was the word, it’s not camera person.”]
He added that he worked with many talented women over his long career.
“My earliest directors and producers were female – we were surrounded by women in production roles, director roles, design roles, the same sort of numbers we were surrounded by men.
“We had men who were gay, women who were gay; I mean it was the most wonderful place to work on the basis there was absolutely no
discrimination whatsoever.”
“Claire Byrne up there with any of the interviewers I’ve come across. She should command for her role.”
