Longest serving 2fm DJ

23-02-2023 2:32pm #1

Now that Fanning has gone, Mr Spring is 2fms longest serving DJ, he is with them since 1996 apparently

. He is also one of the most obscure presenters on national radio as I doubt he has more than a few hundred listeners on a Saturday night from 11pm

pjordan · 23-02-2023 2:39pm

Just remembering the original line up:

Jimmy Greeley

Jim O Neill

Gerry Ryan

Larry Gogan

Dave Fanning

Ronan Collins

Mark Cagney

Vincent Hanley

AND I seem to recall Pascal Mooney did a county and western show on Radio 2 in the early days too!

Think Ian Dempsey same along a few years later...

Open to any additions of anyone I may have left out....

Declan A Walsh · 23-02-2023 11:35pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120279139#Comment_120279139

Paul Blanchfield

Paul Clarke

Marty Whelan

Declan Meehan

Michael McNamara

Ian Dempsey was not too long afterwards. He arrived around March 1980 as did Barry Lang.

AndrewJRenko · 23-02-2023 11:48pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120279139#Comment_120279139

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120281628#Comment_120281628

Did they all come from the pirate stations? I remember Fanning, Ryan, Meehan, O’Neill, Collins from Big D and ARD.

Declan A Walsh · 24-02-2023 12:12am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120279139#Comment_120279139

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120281628#Comment_120281628

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120281686#Comment_120281686

Are you sure Jim O'Neill came from the pirates? I never heard that before. I thought he had done some radio in the States. The other names you list: yes indeed - all Dublin pirates. In relation to the other names: Whelan, Dempsey and Lang came directly from the Dublin pirates. Mark Cagney had started with Cork pirates but had come to RTE Radio 2 (as it was then) from RTE's Cork Local Radio, which he continued presenting on for a while after.

Larry Gogan, Vincent Hanley and Jimmy Greeley came from within RTE and had never been with the pirates. Amongst other things, they had played pop music on RTE Radio 1. Michael McNamara also had been with RTE prior to the launch of Radio 2 and, as far as I can make out, was not with any pirate station. As far as I know, neither Paschal Mooney or Paul Clarke (who was from Northern Ireland and became associated with UTV) had not been with pirates. I'm not sure about Paul Blanchfield.

Another two names from it's initial line up include Ken Stewart and Pat Kenny (he presented an albums show in Saturdays called The Inside Track). Pat, of course, was already a presenter with Radio 1 (and continued to be). Ken had been yet another music presenter on Radio 1, but may possibly have been with the pirates before that (if it was the same Ken Stewart on Dublin's Capitol Radio!).

Incidentally, by the summer of 1980, Declan Meehan had left RTE and it was not long before he resurfaced on Dublin pirates, especially the new superpirates Sunshine Radio and Radio Nova.

AndrewJRenko · 24-02-2023 8:00am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120281774#Comment_120281774

Actually, you could be right, I’m not sure at all about O’Neill. I had it in my head that he was part of that pirate gang, but I may well be mistaken.

Declan A Walsh · 24-02-2023 1:35pm

Going back to the original topic of this thread, Mr. Spring (aka Tim Hannigan) is now the longest service regular DJ on 2FM. I say this because Dave will be back for Bank Holiday specials. Anyway, if Mr. Spring is now the longest service DJ, are Cormac Battle and Dan Hegarty the joint second longest on 2FM? I know that both came from then pirate Phantom FM in 2003 and I assume that they were taken on at the same time.

24-02-2023 1:55pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120283306#Comment_120283306

Comarc Battle's first show was around Easter 2003 but Dan Hegarty's first show wasn't until late July 2003.

Declan A Walsh · 24-02-2023 3:08pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120283402#Comment_120283402

So it looks like Cormac Battle is now the second longest serving regular 2FM DJ, followed by Dan Hegarty!

24-02-2023 3:40pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120283744#Comment_120283744

Yes, somemore useless information is that Cormac battle first hosted the Midnight to two shift following the departure of Tony Fenton from 2fm drive which resulted in Dave Fanning, Rick O'Shea and Ruth Scott getting earlier start times. Dan Hegarty was a direct replacement for Jay Ahern on Sunday nights. Another ex Phantom DJ Jenny Huston replaced Ruth Scott on the 10 to Midnight show in June 03 when Scott left to go to 98fm for awhile

Declan A Walsh · 24-02-2023 4:20pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120283880#Comment_120283880

That was an interesting year (2003). Three ex-Phantom (when it was a pirate) deejays arrived during the course of that year! Two of them are still with 2FM, as mentioned already. Mr. Spring, the new longest service 2FM DJ, had been with dance pirate Sunset FM, amongst others. Jay Ahern had also been with them.

24-02-2023 4:36pm

Indie music was very trendy in the summer of 2003, the youth of the day were going to festivals to see the likes of the white strips and the kings of Leon. Today FM also launched a Sunday night indie show with Alison Curtis that summer, in many ways it's not too different from the way both 2fm and Today FM hire influencers and podcasters nowadays to appeal to the youth. Iirc Today FM gave Karl Tsigdinos the bullet to make room for Alison Curtis which upset older listeners of the day