Paul Murray has a big year coming up in 2011. He is making the move from the Triple M drive show after five years with Austereo to join 2UE next year. He has also this week renewed his contract with Sky News to present Paul Murray Live for another three years.  Murray was not in a position to say what shift he would be doing at 2UE at this time, although the on air resignation of Steve Liebmann this morning may give a clue. More changes are expected at 2UE before the year is out.

Murray has told radioinfo he is excited about the new opportunity: “My time at Triple M has been the best of my career and I don’t think it has fully sunk in how much I’ll miss a building full of very talented, but more importantly decent people, most of all Rach, she will be a friend for life.”

“We’re all lucky to work in this business but it’s a special type of luck for me to have worked with Guy Dobson at Austereo and now getting a chance to work with Peter and John Brennan at 2UE.”

Austereo General Manager Adam Lang said in a statement:  “Working with Paul Murray has been great for Triple M and a complete pleasure for all of us. In combination with his ‘Paul Murray Live’ show on Sky and his work with Seven, we think this move is a great one for Paul. We wish him the very best and will welcome the chance to work with Paul again.”

2UE General Manager Tim McDermott says the station is “ecstatic” that Paul Murray is joining the ranks of the 2UE talk line-up.

“Paul represents the future of the genre. We recognise that generational change is needed for the talk format to grow well into the future. And Paul is a key part of that plan. He’s universally recognised by industry peers as a great talent with enormous potential. And 2UE is privileged that Paul has decided to join our team.” 

Paul & Rach will continue on-air in Triple M drive until Friday December 4 and will commence at 2UE in the New Year.   Triple M will have an update shortly on its new drive team for 2011.