Presenter Mike Moloney joins in our 25 years of independent radio celebration, with his memories of the last two and a half decades.
Mike has worked on Kiss FM Dublin, Radio Nova, Lite FM, 2FM, Ocean FM and more as”Your man Mike Moran.
“It’s 25 years since Independent Commercial Radio went “loive” in Ireland. Time for me to get measured for a Zimmer and go looking for the forms for the Buss Pass!!
I have three strong memories from the start of the Independents.
At that stage I was well into year five broadcasting on 2FM, and was delighted that most of the talented radio people I knew finally had jobs on legitimate stations. These were people who loved radio and were good at it, who had not gotten an RTÉ gig and had been stuck on the pirates, for little or no money, for years.
I had spent almost seven years on pirates, as “Your Man, Mike Morann” (God help us!!!), culminating with a gig on “clutter free” Radio Nova. But as those years went by, there was an ever increasing longing that someone, somewhere, on a legit station would offer me a contract, of ANY sort, for ANY duration, just to affirm to me (and to the world) that, yes, Mike is good enough to this work, for real. When it did happen, it was an even better feeling than I had anticipated.
When Independent Commercial Radio came on stream across the country, hundreds of recently ex pirates experienced that same feeling, as they got involved in the excitement of building something from scratch, something that was to get very big and very successful!
My third memory is of what happened on the other side of the fence in RTÉ..
Nothing!!!!!
Except for the former pirates who were working there, who knew the importance of what was happening, it barely made a dent on the Corporate Consciousness. The attitude seemed to be, if you weren’t RTÉ, you weren’t worth worrying about. That attitude prevailed, and now sections of the RTÉ organisation are, sadly, paying dearly for it.
Happy 25th Birthday to Independent Radio, and here’s to the next 25 years!
And thank you for my new gig, back on Radio Nova Classic Gold Sunday, 11am till 2pm.
Mike Moloney”