Television and radio star Graham Norton surprised Cork’s 96FM listeners this morning when he dropped into the radio station studios at St Patrick’s Place in Cork city to wish Lorraine Murphy and Ross Browne the very best of luck with their new breakfast show – ‘Lorraine & Ross in the Morning on Cork’s 96FM.’
Graham, a native of Bandon, is back in Cork for the summer and has a long-standing relationship with Cork’s 96FM and C103, as he broadcasts his regular weekend shows for Virgin Radio U.K. from C103’s studios. Graham plans to stay in Cork for a few weeks before heading to the states and back to London to film his chat show.
Graham was on air for over an hour with Lorraine and Ross chatting about:
All things Cork
‘Cork is the best place, relaxed and chilled and lovely, and the weather has been alright.’
How he loves going to Bantry Market on a Friday
‘What’s nice about being in Bantry is that they know who I am, but at this stage I know who they are too.’
His new role hosting Prime Video’s first ever Irish original series ‘LOL: Last One Laughing Ireland’
‘You put a bunch of amazing comedians in a room and the challenge is they’ve got to not laugh while making other people laugh. It’s hilarious. With the Irish one, they’ve gone so deep Irish! Someone who isn’t Irish will watch this show and not understand any of it. The Amazon executives must have been just going ‘Sorry, is this funny? Like what is this?’. It’s really, really, really good and there are lots of surprise cameos from people.’
His plans for the rest of the summer
‘I’ll go to the States for a little while and back for the chat show, which because there are no Hollywood actors, there will be lots of room on the sofa….’
His upcoming role as a Quiz Master at the Ahakista Festival in West Cork
‘‘It’s the Ahakista Festival and it’s a big event. I always feel bad because I think people get tickets thinking something exciting will happen, that he will have a celebrity friend with him. But no, Saoirse Ronan won’t be jumping out of a box.’
Graham also hosted Lorraine and Ross’s morning quiz game ‘2 Grand Minute’ where contestants must answer ten questions correctly in a minute to win the €2,000 cash prize. Unfortunately, this morning’s contestant Seán ran out of time before answering all the questions – which were all Cork related…..and some even linked to Graham himself!
You can listen back to Graham Norton’s surprise appearance on ‘Lorraine & Ross in the Morning on Cork’s 96FM’ here: https://we.tl/t-yy069Wbt0z
From today, Lorraine and Ross will wake Cork up every week day morning from 6am to 9am, bringing a fresh new sound to the morning commute with the l best music mix, laughs, news, showbiz and lifestyle all in one place.
Ross Browne, a well-known stand-up comedian, has co-presented Cork’s 96FM’s Breakfast Show for the last six years and has starred in RTE’s television show ‘The Fear’ as well as appearing in ‘The Young Offenders’ and contributing to the writing of some episodes. He’s now joined by Lorraine, who previously presented Cork’s 96FM’s ‘Big Drive Home’ programme each weekday.
Cork’s 96FM’s morning show is the number one breakfast show in Cork, with more listeners than any other station in the marketplace between 6 and 9am. The show has also won Gold for Best Breakfast Show at the IMRO Radio Awards two years running.
Brendan O'Driscoll, Local Content Controller at Cork's 96FM & C103 said: “Lorraine and Ross in the Morning on Cork’s 96FM brings together two very strong talents that will no doubt take our Breakfast Show to the next level. We really have big plans for the new show and I can’t wait to hear and see Lorraine and Ross bring their creative ideas to life both on-air and online. Having Graham Norton as the first guest on the show is a special moment for us and will really set the tone going forward.”
After enjoying ‘Lorraine & Ross in the Morning on Cork’s 96FM’, listeners can then tune into the IMRO winning talk show ‘The Opinion Line’ with PJ Coogan which broadcasts the latest news stories and interviews from 9am to 12pm each weekday.
This is followed by ‘Afternoons with Simon Murdoch’ from 12pm to 4pm and ‘The Big Drive Home’ from 4pm until 8pm. ‘The Hit Mix with Shane Bucks’ completes the schedule running from 8pm to midnight.
