Dave Fanning

David Fanning (born 27 February 1956) is an Irish television and radio broadcaster, rock journalist, DJ, film critic and author. Fanning currently hosts weekend midday magazine/chat show '' The Dave Fanning Show'' on the Irish national radio station RTÉ 2fm and a number of RTÉ Radio 1 programmes. He regularly deputises on RTÉ Radio 1 across a range of primetime programmes and also presented his own Monday-Friday 9 am show ''Mornings With Dave Fanning'' in 2015.

Due to his friendship with U2, Fanning has for four decades been granted the first airing of any of the band's new singles before anyone else in the world, with band members often calling Fanning to tell him what they are doing. He has presented more than twenty different TV shows for RTÉ Television, from '' 2TV'' to '' The Movie Show''. He also hosted RTÉ's live television coverage of ''Live 8 in Hyde Park'', London (July 2005), and ''Live Earth'' in Wembley Stadium, London (July 2007). He has conducted over 200 interviews with global rock stars.

Fanning has been the recipient of a number of 'Best DJ' awards from various publications, including ''Hot Press'' where he topped the annual readers' Poll for over twenty years. In 1980, he was the first person outside of RTÉ Radio 1 to be honoured with a prestigious Jacob's Award for "the depth and scope" of his radio show. Following Christy Moore in 1990 and preceding Van Morrison in 1992, Fanning was awarded the IRMA Special Industry Award in 1991. In recent years he has been the recipient of a number of accolades and awards ranging from the 2012 Dublin Lord Mayor's Award ("To the voice of Irish Radio, in recognition of his broadcasting career, his support of new Irish talent and for bringing alternative Irish music to an Irish audience") to the 2014 University College Dublin Music Society Award. (The Honorary Fellowship citation reads "in recognition of his outstanding contribution to music through his work as a journalist, DJ and broadcaster – in particular his support of homegrown Irish talent"). He won numerous IRMA awards and was nominated for Best DJ at The Meteor Music Awards on seven occasions, winning four times. U2 performed a special tribute when he won the Special Industry award in 2004. In 2016, he was inducted into the Irish Radio Hall of Fame.

''Hot Press'' regards Fanning as "one of the most familiar faces and voices in Irish broadcasting", summing up his impact: "When Billboard magazine referred to the introduction of 2FM as one of the major factors behind the growth of Ireland as a major music centre, they really meant Dave Fanning". Rob Sharp of UK newspaper ''The Independent'' has referred to him as a "legendary Irish DJ". BP Fallon commented in 2008: "Without Dave Fanning on the radio, music in Ireland would have had a poorer face. Dave changed things, opened up ears". In The Sunday Times of March 2020, Jim Lockhart said of Fanning "he was central to a whole generation's interface with music and he is a force of nature". The ''Sunday Tribune''s Eithne Tynan has defined his style as a "thousand words a minute, start a whole new sentence before you've finished the previous one".

Early and private life

Born in Dublin, Ireland on 27 February 1956, David Fanning is the youngest of six children (one sister, four brothers). His father, Barney, was a commissioner in the Irish Office of Public Works, his mother, a retired schoolteacher. Obsessed with music from an early age and fascinated by his older brothers’ music interests (jazz, folk, pop), his twin obsessions, during an "idyllically happy childhood" were music and movies. He was a member of The Beatles fan club from the age of eight. He was educated at Blackrock College, graduating from University College Dublin (UCD), with a degree in English and Philosophy and a Higher Diploma in Education. He began working as a DJ on the fledgling pirate radio station, Radio Dublin; that same year he took over as editor of Ireland's rock magazine (''Scene''). Fanning then moved to Big D when it was formed by Radio Dublin deejays in 1978. On both pirates, he presented rock shows. He continued with that format when he made the move to legal radio in 1979.

He met Gerry Ryan in 1978 while both were working in Dublin pirate radio station "Big D", sharing the common bond of both having attended college, though at separate colleges. Their friendship led them to socialise and holiday together, while the Fannings even moved in with the Ryans for a time in September 1995 when the Fanning house was under construction.

He is married to Ursula, a solicitor (formerly a TV researcher, most notably for Gay Byrne on '' The Late Late Show''), and they have three children.

Career

Fanning has written for a number of newspapers and magazines in Ireland and the UK. He has also written and presented a number of TV and radio shows in Ireland, the UK and the US. He has been a disc jockey for RTÉ 2fm since it began in 1979.

Radio

Produced and coordinated by Ian Wilson, live weekly sessions with "demo tape" bands helped establish Fanning's evening show. By the early 1980s, Fanning was seen by the industry and music fans everywhere as Ireland's answer to John Peel, BBC Radio 1 presenter. Alongside Larry Gogan, he is one of only two of the original disc jockeys to make it as far as the station's 40th anniversary in 2019.

In 1993, after a live TV interview with Richard Branson, Branson invited Fanning to join his new station Virgin Radio, where Fanning presented his own show every week. With a 4-hour Saturday afternoon programme (initially following Chris Evans’ show) broadcast live from Soho, London, Fanning stayed with Virgin Radio until September 1994.

In August 2009, after spending 3 years presenting on RTÉ Radio 1, it was announced that Fanning would be returning to RTÉ 2fm to present his evening weekday show in his old 19:00 slot.

In 2014 Fanning wrote, produced and presented a 6 hour, 6-part radio series for BBC 6 Music on the history of Irish rock. In the Summer of 2017 he wrote and presented a ten-part RTÉ Radio 1 series called ''Dave Fanning's History of Irish Rock''.

In 2018 he worked for Sirius XM Satellite radio in New York.

Fanning has been described as "the ultimate fan, who through broadcasting has been able to make a career out of his many passions in life – chiefly, music and movies." He hosted '' The Dave Fanning Show'', a weekend midday magazine/chat shows on the Irish national radio station RTÉ 2FM until 2023.

On 22 February 2023, Fanning announced that he was stepping away from his weekend show on RTÉ 2FM but that he would continue broadcasting on digital radio, on TV and online. Later that year, his response on radio to Christy Dignam's death from cancer was the subject of some "backlash". On 11 July, he invoked Nazi Germany as a comparison with the investigations into what RTÉ had been doing with public money. Two days later, this was raised at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), where Fanning's reference to a "nonsensical Oireachtas Nuremberg trial" was put to newly appointed RTÉ Director General Kevin Bakhurst, who was asked "how this is appropriate... A person who is paid by the taxpayer – through his agent Noel Kelly, also the agent of the presenter at the centre of the scandal, Ryan Tubridy">Noel_Kelly_(agent).html" ;"title="/nowiki>Noel Kelly (agent)">Noel Kelly, also the agent of the presenter at the centre of the scandal, Ryan Tubridy] – on RTÉ saying, effectively, what the Public Accounts Committee are doing..." Bakhurst responded by stating that Fanning's remarks were "not appropriate".

''Fanning's Fab Fifty''

Each year since 1980 Fanning has had an annual alternative music poll called ''Fanning's Fab Fifty'' on his radio show. This is decided by a poll of the general public and, since the advent of internet voting, surfers select their own favourite three pieces of music online. U2 top the poll on a regular basis.

In 2005, Fanning released an Irish-only triple album, ''Fanning's Fab 50 Vol 1''. Sales for this compilation album reached 1.5 times platinum. ''Fanning's Fab 50 Vol 2'' was released for the Christmas market in 2006, also going platinum. ''Fanning's Fab 50 Vol 3'' was released in 2007. It includes music pieces by U2, The Killers, R.E.M., Radiohead, Nick Cave, Lou Reed, Massive Attack, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, David Bowie, The Velvet Underground, Coldplay, Sigur Rós, New Order, Blur, The Verve, Ryan Adams, The Stone Roses, Iggy Pop, Oasis

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