Mayo’s John Morley takes over at the helm on ‘Galway Talks’

MAYO man John Morley will officially host one of the prime slots on Galway Bay Radio from tomorrow morning, April 15. The Galway Talks show runs from 9am to noon daily from Monday to Friday. He takes over the reins from Keith Finnegan who has retired from the flagship show after 34 years.

John (26) hails from Ballyglass, Claremorris, and is son of Bridie (nee Ruane) and Seán Morley and a sister of Michaela (19), a student at Mount St Michael, Claremorris.

He comes from a family steeped in the GAA tradition and former Mayo footballers, Noel and Ray Connelly, are first cousins of his dad Seán. Noel captained Mayo in the All Ireland finals of 1996 and ’97 and when they won the National League title in 2001. John himself played minor football with Ballintubber.

The Galway station, breaking the news, said: "Galway Bay FM is delighted to announce the appointment of John Morley who will take over as presenter of Galway Talks following the departure of Keith Finnegan. We look forward to John being the new voice of Galway."

Prior to moving to Galway Bay some months ago, John held the position of news and sports journalist with Midwest Radio for three and a half years. He qualified from DCU with a BA in Journalism in 2019.

Since making the move he quickly immersed himself in the life of radio in Galway where he was involved in covering news stories like the Gort Bio-Gas controversy, commentating on club games such as Corofin v Mountbellew, and producing other news packages for Galway Talks.

Experience

HE got valuable experience and exposure when chosen to cover for Keith Finnegan while he was on vacation. Last week, he was gently easing into his new role while co-anchoring the show with Keith.

“All of this is helping me get into the swing of things. I want to put my own stamp on the show. Over the last few months while helping with producing the show for Keith, I introduced a few new additions such as the live music slots on Tuesday and Thursday and the ‘community matters’ slots on Friday where we go out and about in the county. We had a great focus on Ballygar on the show on Friday which went down a treat.

“I have been blown away by the goodwill from so many people in Galway as well as in Mayo and especially in the south of the county Galway people have already made Marc Roberts from Crossmolina so welcome at Galway Bay Radio over the years and there is a good Mayo input into the station. I am all fired up for the challenge ahead and I am really looking forward to my first solo show as host of Galway Talks on Monday,” said John.

Outside of his interest in radio, sports, news, music and politics, John has been a member of the Castlebar Musical Society for the last two years, playing major roles in the Elvis musical, All Shook Up, and more recently in Legally Blond for which he received an AIMS nomination.

One of the songs he performed in ‘All Shook Up’ was Now Or Never. John is certainly hoping that the time is ‘NOW’ to avail of his big break on the radio waves!