Colin Murray is quitting Radio 5 Live for talkSPORT a month after BBC bosses had to apologise when his weekly Fighting Talk show included a section on how openly gay presenter Clare Balding could be “turned around”.
The Northern Irishman, who started his BBC career at Radio 1, will join the station next month to present a weekday sports show.
The BBC apologised last month when a live version of Fighting Talk included a satirical section called Defend the Indefensible in which comic Bob Mills was asked to justify the argument: “Give me 20 minutes with her and I’m pretty sure I could turn around Clare Balding.”
The section, in which Mills described Balding as a “horse woman” who “appreciates power between her thighs”, was cut from the iPlayer version of the show and a BBC spokeswoman admitted they had “got it wrong” and it was “inappropriate”.
A BBC spokesman said the show will continue with a new presenter.
Murray was dropped as host of Match Of The Day Two at the end of last season and will be replaced by Mark Chapman later this year.
Of his new role at talkSPORT, he said: “I’m truly excited about creating this programme, and I hope it will become the morning ‘go to’ for UK sports fans.”
Radio 5 Live controller Jonathan Wall said: “Colin leaves with our very best wishes having done such a good job on Fighting Talk over the last seven years, and on 5 Live Sport over the last four years, especially during the Olympics.”