What was the biggest thrill for me at this year’s PPI Awards?
The award for ‘Music Programme – General’.
The winner being ‘The Lock In’ on Spin 1038, hosted by one young Dara Quilty.
I first met Dara when he was working part time with the 98 Thunders. He said he wanted to try his hand at going on air and I suggested he make a demo and hand it into Toni Tenaglia (who was the PD at the station).
About two days later, Toni called me into her office and said “You’ve got to hear this”!
It was Dara’s demo.
It’s a fabulous feeling when you hear raw talent for the first time. When you can tell the person just has ‘it’ naturally. Well, that’s what I heard with Dara’s demo.
From that, he landed some overnights on 98. I was lucky enough to be the person who airchecked him in those early days and I’ve never come across someone so eager and willing to learn. Also, someone so able to put into practice what he was being taught, while also adding his personality to the mix.
He eventually moved to Spin, doing weekends and fill-ins. This is where he truly came into his own.
Now, Dara holds down the late night show ‘The Lock In’.
He also recently started work witrh RTE2 TV hosting a two hour daily show.
This award is proof to me that the talent coming through on Irish radio these days is better than ever. We are starting to see entertainers with real savvy getting the jobs and wanting to make radio great. They know formats, but also know how to use them for the listener’s benefit.
That’s huge.
Way to go Dara!
The first award of many

Oh and a Huge Well Done to KC in Cork on his PPI award.
Both of these guys are humble enough to be thankful and grateful. They are worthy and classy winners.

A big Congratulations to our Overall Winner today: The Gold Award !
It’s been a real pleasure organising this first Award for New Presenters in Ireland.
Thanks to all our entrants – it wouldn’t have existed without you.
Thanks also to the judges:
Henry Owens, Keith Cunningham, Dusty Rhodes, Toni Tenaglia and Alan Swan.
I will be sending the Winners list to PDs across the country because they need to know the type of talent we have in Ireland.
Listen to the Shortlist and you will agree with me – the future of radio here is in very good hands. In fact, I can’t wait to hear this batch of ‘newcomers’ take over the major gigs…they’ll be brilliant.
So – well done and here’s to the future

Brian.
http://www.bestnewpresenter.ie

Really sorry for the great people at INN.
The service is to end on October 30th, down to the “fall-off in advertising revenue”.
The 16 employees were told this afternoon by management.
No doubt radio stations will learn to cope and just get on with things,but that’s not what i want to talk about.
It’s the people, as always:
Noel Fogarty – a legend in the evenings. Most people working on Irish commercial radio have waited for the cue tones to come down the line and then heard the deep tones say “It’s ten o’clock…” and off Noel would go rolling his “r’s” and stretching is vowels. Work of art !
My pal Adam Ledwith (who I used to call ‘Adam Ledwith-with-with’) is one of the strongest and most versatile news people I have seen.
It’s a lot for these people to take in right now and I think they deserve the time to lick their wounds and figure out their future.
Good luck guys and hope to hear you all back on air without any gap at all.

The Silver Winner of the Best New Presenter Award was announced today.
Congratulations to our two winners so far…the overall Gold Winner announcement will happen tomorrow at 12 noon on the Website.
http://www.bestnewpresenter.ie

Announcement was made today !
Silver Winner tomorrow at Noon and Overall Gold Winner on Friday

http://www.bestnewpresenter.ie/category/winners/

Ever wonder what morning show presenters do with the rest of their day?
Bernard & Keith from i105107 have provided the answer – they invent new sports!
Here they are explaining the game of ‘Holf’…as you do

Oh dear…Jack FM Vancouver have decided that the best way to gain listeners is this:
Fire all of your on-air staff (except the morning show) and go presenter-free for twenty hours a day.

Taking humans out of radio – Genius*

It started off as an idea, became a reality and now we get ready for the culmination of the Best New Presenter Award.
One of the common threads that came back from our five judges was the fact that the standard of radio in Ireland is so high and that they were really impressed with the audio that was sent their way. That’s coming from five people (the judges) who do know what they are talking about. So, I was delighted with that

So, tomorrow at noon, we will begin to announce the three winning entries beginning with the Bronze Winner. Thursday is’s Silver and the overall Gold Winner will be revealed on Friday at noon.
Check the website for updates and winner announcements, beginning tomorrow.
The shortlist is online there too.
Good luck
http://www.bestnewpresenter.ie