Working with Virgin Media for almost six years, Zara King quickly became one of three favoured Irish news sources during the pandemic. Alongside her “best friends” and co-workers Richard Chambers and Gavan Reilly, King now co-hosts The Group Chat podcast.

"We’ve been talking about doing a podcast for ages, even before the pandemic,” Zara confesses. “Then throughout Covid, we were all saying we should do a podcast - it’d be great to get to sit down and talk to each other about the stories happening every week.”

Aiming to keep listeners up to speed with news and current affairs, the show has gone exceptionally well.
“We can’t believe the feedback and how well it’s gone,” Zara enthuses. “We’re just so taken aback by it.”

With 85 percent of listeners under 45, The Group Chat has been a particular hit with younger audiences. No wonder, then, that the trio are Stradbally-bound.

“We are so excited about Electric Picnic,” says Zara. “This all came up on Twitter, I think it was in 2020. Somebody from Electric Picnic had tweeted the three of us like, ‘Oh, lads you’ll have to come to Electric Picnic when it’s back’. At that time, we didn’t even have a podcast or anything. When we were actually approached after the podcast was launched, we were just so delighted to have been asked.”

In terms of music, there’s one act the trio are looking forward to above all.

“I can’t wait to see Megan Thee Stallion,” says King. “Richard was like, just make sure the podcast isn’t on at the same time as Megan Thee Stallion.”

Elsewhere, King is keen to check out Dermot Kennedy, Snow Patrol, Arctic Monkeys, Denise Chaila, Orla Gartland and Tolü Makay. She’s also keen to meet Group Chat listeners.

“We feel so privileged that people go to the trouble to send us messages on social media,” she notes. “So, this idea of real life interaction is long overdue. We’re really buzzing to get the chance to come face-to-face and chat to people who listen. It’s going to be great.”

• The Group Chat crew appear on the Ah Hear, NOW stage at 3pm on Saturday.