Cool FM has unveiled its brand-new weekend line up with a host of familiar faces and voices added to a refreshed Spring schedule.

It means an early rise for Melissa Riddell, who also blogs about fashion, beauty, and lifestyle on her popular Instagram account, as she takes over the weekend breakfast slot (6-10am). Melissa has been a presenter on Cool FM since 2017 and is the biggest success story to-date of the Cool Academy. She started her time at Cool FM through the ‘Cool Choices’ programme – a scheme designed to offer work experience in the media industry to young people aged 16 to 24 – and after completing a five-week placement, sent in a demo and the rest is history.

Former Miss Northern Ireland, Katharine Walker has landed her own show, having been part of the Cool Saturday Show with Stuart Robinson and Deputy Dave. Katharine, from Hillsborough, combines her broadcasting work with her full-time job as a nurse, and will now be presenting during weekend late nights – including the station’s iconic love song hour ‘Cool Goes Quiet’ after 11pm.

The new line-up includes the first show to be simulcast between Cool FM and Downtown Radio, with the Top 40 Sunday chart show - specifically tailored to Northern Ireland – set to reach a bigger audience than ever before. NI Hit 40 will be presented by DJ Hix and counts down NI’s biggest 40 songs of the week based on downloads, streams and tags, making sure listeners are hearing their favourite tunes.

Completing Cool FM’s new spring schedule is Owen Beers who is taking over the extended classics show ‘The Cool Years’ on Sunday mornings from 10am-1pm, which celebrates the very best in music from the 90s and 00s.

Bauer Media Group – Northern Ireland Managing Director David Tighe commented:

“We’re thrilled to unveil this stellar line-up of presenters for our exciting new Spring schedule on Cool FM.

“As Northern Ireland’s biggest commercial radio station, Cool FM is constantly looking for new ways to reinvigorate our schedules, as part of our commitment to deliver the freshest in new music and programming for our listeners across the country. It’s great to see more young women like Melissa and Katharine taking over the airwaves and becoming established voices on our radios, and on the NI media scene.”

Melissa added: :“Radio has been so important over the past 12 months, as a source of both companionship and much-needed relief to so many. Katharine and I are so proud to be fronting these popular shows and extremely grateful to Bauer for the opportunity – we can’t wait to be part of new-look weekends at Cool FM!”

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