WILL LEAHY SPHERE OF INFLUENCE: MUSIC

AS 2FM floundered in the wake of this year's RTE radio shake-up, there was one person who could be relied upon to keep gathering listeners. Will Leahy, a Limerick solicitor, has gradually become one of the only bankable members of staff at 2FM.

Leahy, whose Saturday Show broadcasts from noon to 3pm now has nearly as many listeners as Marian Finucane, is the only RTE radio personality who has seen his listenership consistently jump every time figures are published. He now has around a quarter-of-a-million listeners.

Some of the programme's success is owed to the likeable team of Astrid the agony aunt, DJ Gary and the 'Beat The Sports Guy' slot, but most of it has largely rested on the personality of Leahy, who commutes from Limerick every Saturday to present the programme.

Although some bosses at RTE may not appreciate the occasional vulgarity of the Saturday Show's content, which is more Podge and Rodge than Morning Ireland, Leahy will almost certainly be at the centre of 2FM's inevitable schedule change next year.

The Saturday Show attracts the radio market's biggest audience in the 15 to 34 bracket, way ahead of his colleague Gerry Ryan and Today FM's Ray D'Arcy.

Leahy is clearly proud of his achievement. When the Sunday Business Post printed an article that stated "for the first time, 2FM does not have the numberone programme among listeners in the ages-15-to-35 demographic, " Leahy wrote a letter to the paper correcting the writer that his own programme was now number one in that demographic.

If 2FM do decide to make Leahy more central to the station, he may not want to move, given that he nine to fives it during the week as a solicitor (In 2005, Leahy chaired the University College of Cork Student Law Conference. ) Whatever happens in 2007, Leahy remains top of the pile at 2FM, and as he quietly gains on household names, it won't be long before he himself is one.