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He's back

Ray D'Arcy started his RTÉ radio show today - here's how it went

The broadcaster made his first radio appearance today since leaving Today FM.

RAY D’ARCY RETURNED to RTÉ today after 14 years away from the national broadcaster.

“Ah, it works,” were his opening words – a nod to the technical difficulties he sometimes experiences on the air.

Admitting he was a “bit self-conscious” as he had been away for so long, D’Arcy revealed that he had been back in RTÉ for four weeks preparing for the show. The first face he ran into in the corridors of RTÉ was Larry Gogan, who shouted “welcome, welcome, welcome!”

“I could have kissed him with his lovely warm face and his big smile,” D’Arcy recalled.

D’Arcy said everyone has been very friendly since he returned to his old stomping ground with Joe Duffy giving him a free copy of the RTÉ Guide and Dave Fanning offering to buy him a coffee in the canteen.

The much-anticipated return of D’Arcy to RTÉ saw Anton Savage take over his Today FM slot. Here is how Ray got on with his first show:

Producer Will Hanafin had him well prepared for the show

The reaction on Twitter was instantaneous

Some found it odd to hear Ray on Radio 1

And Ray’s first guest on was Gay Byrne – who chatted away about his recent interview with Stephen Fry, and the reaction it got online.

Gaybo consistently referred to Ray as “my boy”, which might give an insight into how he is still seen around RTÉ even now.

Ray caught most of the Stephen Fry interview – despite the RTÉ Player playing up on him, and Gay didn’t see the significance of the 4 million views his clip has got on Youtube – saying ”the internet doesn’t mean too much to me.”

Liveline had just covered the Stephen Fry interview though

There were some technical difficulties, which felt right at home

After the opening skirmishes – Ray went on to interview Ross O’Carroll-Kelly author Paul Howard and Conor Pope of The Irish Times to discuss consumer issues.

Next, US A capella group Straight No Chaser did a live performance of Pharrell’s Happy in the studio

The show finished up with Con Power, Marie O’Grady and Al Minihan all talking about how they quit smoking – and the benefits it has had to their finances.

Did you listen in? What did you make of it? 

More The 7 best moments from Gaybo’s interview with Stephen Fry last night>

More Anton Savage started his Today FM morning show and here’s how Twitter reacted>

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