Sean Rafferty to leave BBC Radio 3 after 28 years of broadcasting

The Belfast-born broadcaster will host the station’s flagship programme In Tune for the final time next April, the BBC has announced.​

In a statement, he said he would "truly miss" hosting the show, with its mixture of interviews, live performances and classical repertoire.

He will be replaced by Petroc Trelawny, who is currently the voice of BBC Radio 3’s breakfast show, alongside current co-presenter Katie Derham.

Announcing his departure decision, Rafferty said: "I shall miss the truly remarkable and life-enhancing musicians, many coming to the studio ever since they began their careers: A joy.

"And to be able to share it all with the listeners at home: A privilege. They’ve been like family."

The respected arts broadcaster previously presented the early evening television news in Northern Ireland, as well as the Radio Ulster news and current affairs programme, Evening Extra.

Before joining the BBC, Rafferty studied law at Queen’s University, Belfast, and went on to work as an accountant.

Sean Rafferty was born in Belfast and brought up in Newcastle, Co Down. He studied law at Queen's University, Belfast and soon after began his career in broadcasting.

Although born in Belfast, he grew up in Newcastle, Co Down where his mother introduced him to music – particularly traditional Irish songs.

Rafferty hadn’t planned on a career in the media, but having heard that BBC Northern Ireland had a vacancy for a researcher, he left his job and ended up working on Gloria Hunniford's Sunday afternoon show.

"One day, the producer suddenly said, ‘Oh God, we’re short, you’ll have to go on'," he told The Spectator in 2009., external "And the next thing I knew I was in front of the camera in a fur coat, on live television, doing an item on Christmas presents for men – how ridiculous is that?"

After a spell as one of the main presenters on Scene Around Six and Inside Ulster, in 1990 he

launched the Radio Ulster interview programme Rafferty, where guests included the recently-released Beirut hostages John McCarthy and Brian Keenan.

He left Northern Ireland to work at BBC Radio 3 in 1997.

With an extensive knowledge of classical music, Rafferty quickly became a mainstay of the In Tune programme, which included a mix of live and recorded elements.

But it was his self-deprecation and droll one-liners that really endeared him to listeners, the BBC said.

In a BBC profile recorded in 2010, Rafferty said: "I am a reluctant and absolutely ludicrously unlikely broadcaster”.

In the same interview, he discussed how music had been a lifeline "when there were bombs going off around the corner" during the Troubles.

"I suspect it must have been what it was like in the Blitz, where you didn't know what was going to happen the next day, so there was an edge to your appreciation."

In a statement, Petroc Trelawny paid tribute to Rafferty's warmth and humanity on the airwaves.

"Sean has stylishly and wittily helmed In Tune for three decades, creating a very special space for musicians to perform and share rich insights into their work and their lives”.