In 1999 the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) invited applications for a number of new Dublin radio services, expanding on the then duopoly of
98FM and
FM104. One was for a speech-based radio service. The Independent Local Radio (ILR) national news provider
Independent Network News, was one of two applicants for this licence, and its applicant company, News 106, was awarded the franchise. However, before the station even went on air, several ILR companies decided that they did not want to be part of the venture, and the station's shareholding was restructured, with at launch, 98FM, FM104,
Clare FM, Carlow Kildare Radio,
LMFM,
East Coast Radio,
South East Radio and
WLR FM, along with
Setanta, being the shareholders in the company. The station first went on air (under its original name NewsTalk 106) on 9 April 2002, with
David McWilliams the first presenter. In its original format, it offered
Twenty-Twenty News, every twenty minutes. The first 20/20 news bulletins were presented by several newsreaders including Eimear Lowe, James Healy, Dyane Connor, Dimitri O'Donnell, Sean Archibald and Abigail Reilly. In September 2004 the news service was reduced to every thirty minutes ("News 30") along with a revamped news team to replace the original journalists who had left the station by this stage. In Summer 2004, the station signed
Eamon Dunphy, dropping David McWilliams, resulting in controversy. In 2004, FM104 was forced to sell its stake as a condition of its takeover by
Scottish Radio Holdings. This meant that Communicorp was able to take majority control of the station. Setanta and Hyper Trust remained as minority shareholders. In 2005, Elaine Geraghty, the original co-presenter of the breakfast time programme on 98FM, was appointed Chief Executive. On 22 May 2006, the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI), nowadays Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) announced that its new
quasi-national speech-based contract was being awarded to Newstalk, who retained their 106 MHz frequency in Dublin while surrendering its Dublin ILR licence. Newstalk were the sole application for the licence. It began quasi-national broadcasts on 29 September 2006. The media expressed concern at its relative lack of star names and proliferation of unknowns, though noted the presence of
George Hook and Seán Moncrieff. In 2009, Ms Geraghty resigned as CEO and Frank Cronin, Setanta's board representative since 2002, was appointed CEO. Schedule changes included the appointment of former Minister for Agriculture
Ivan Yates as breakfast presenter,
Damien Kiberd to Lunchtime presenter and the re-engagement of
Eamon Dunphy to Sunday Newspaper review programme presenter. This schedule together with the continuity of George Hook,
Off the Ball, Sean Moncrieff and Tom Dunne has driven the station to new heights of daily listenership and standing. The station now reaches 305,000 (JNLR February 2012) people daily, the fastest growing adult station in Ireland. The rugby pundit, George Hook who presented the daily drive time show
Right Hook, retired in 2014, he returned to present
High Noon. He was suspended in September 2017 following comments he made on rape. In 2021, Newstalk rebranded its Station Imaging with new Voiceover
Mark Cagney. In February 2026 it was rebranded again with new voiceover artists voices doing the station branding taking over from Mark Cagney. Following the launch of
FáilteDAB in 2025, Newstalk began broadcasting on
DAB+ throughout
Dublin and the wider
Leinster area. == Newstalk News Network ==