New host has nerves before noon

Kathryn Ryan

She dealt with the Women's Refuge and Dancing with the Stars and chewed the fat with chef Ray McVinnie and SAS soldier-turned-writer Andy McNab.

And while Kathryn Ryan admits she was nervous on her first day as host of Nine to Noon on National Radio, she says she won't be losing any sleep over it.

"The priority was just to get started and settle into the chair," the 38-year-old told the Herald last night.

Ryan, former Radio New Zealand political editor, won one of radio's prime roles ahead of a field of applicants understood to have included Morning Report co-host Sean Plunket and TVNZ's occasional UK correspondent Gordon Harcourt.

Ever the journalist, Ryan said she was disappointed there was no hard story to get her teeth into on the first day.

But she was satisfied with her performance, which she hoped was "a sound start with the listeners".

Nine to Noon is National Radio's flagship show and Ryan has big shoes to fill. Her predecessors include Linda Clark, Kim Hill and Maggie Barry.

Ryan said feedback had been positive so far but "I'm wary of reacting too quickly because I've always got in my mind the huge, silent majority".

In Radio New Zealand's last listener survey, covering May to June last year, Nine to Noon had about 240,000 listeners. Ryan admitted her nerves to them yesterday.

"I think that's fair enough. It was a big day and I was nervous, but it's just day one of many."