Donal Dineen

Last updated

Donal Dineen
Born
Donal Dineen

(1969-05-05) 5 May 1969 (age 54)
Career
Show Small Hours
Station Today FM
Time slotWeekdays, 00:00 - 02:00
Style Disc jockey
CountryIreland
Previous show Here Comes the Night
Website web.archive.org/web/20080916080218/http://www.todayfm.com/sectional.asp?id=905

Donal Dineen (born 5 May 1969) is an Irish radio presenter, photographer, film maker and former television presenter from County Kerry. Until recently[ when? ] he presented an assortment of loud ' noise/ electronica and world music on his Small Hours (formerly Here Comes the Night ) late-night radio show on Today FM. This show has now been cancelled for commercial reasons. He is also known for presenting the now defunct No Disco TV series on Network 2.

Contents

Career

Dineen studied communications in Dublin City University. It was here that he first picked up a camera as it was part of his course. From this point onwards he developed a fascination with the visual image. His first exhibition, This Storm is an Angel, for Galway Arts Festival in 1993, was a series of photographs taken around his home in Kerry, which focused on family, place and identity. 2009 exhibitions include an installation for the Dublin Electronic Arts Festival (DEAF) entitled Words Are Something Else, and solo photographic shows for Kilkenny Arts Festival and The Joinery Gallery, Dublin.

Musically, Dineen is credited with breaking David Gray amongst other artists in Ireland. [1] His programme, Here Comes The Night, was first aired on the opening day of Radio Ireland (now Today FM)'s existence, 17 March 1997. He later moved to the Small Hours show, which broadcast between Monday and Thursday in the midnight - 2AM slot.

On 30 December 2007, The Small Hours had a two-hour radio special broadcast from the living room of David Gray's London home, where Gray and Liam Ó Maonlaí traded songs and stories on the piano and acoustic guitar, "intermittently picking their Desert Island discs for Dineen to spin". [2] Dineen also had a line-up in the Body & Soul area of Electric Picnic 2008. [3]

As a curator, Dineen has worked on several musical series, most significantly A Month of Sundays [4] which was devised with The Model Arts and Niland Gallery Sligo in 2006 and evolved into a touring series in 2007.

In November 2009 he curated a mini festival called Fresh Air which profiled "his selection of the most exciting and experimental sound makers working today. The aim is to bring to light the sheer diversity and calibre of music being made on these shores, and to bring new music, live or recorded, to air". [5]

In addition to presenting a show on Today FM, Dineen has also presented programs on TXFM, a regional station that broadcasts to Dublin and the surrounding areas and which is also a sister station to Today FM. Dineen is also a lecturer at Dundalk Institute of Technology, where he lectures on Photography and Radio.

Related Research Articles

RTÉ 2fm, or 2FM as it is more commonly referred to, is an Irish radio station operated by RTÉ. The station specialises in current popular music and chart hits and is the second national radio station in Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Today FM</span> National commercial radio network in Ireland

Today FM is an Irish national commercial FM radio station, owned and operated by Bauer Audio Ireland Limited. Broadcasting since 17 March 1997, it broadcasts mostly music, with a daily news and current affairs programme. Today FM holds a licence from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland as far as the year 2027. The station recorded pretax profits of €7.4 million on a turnover of €19.4 million in early 2009, more than twice what it was two years previously.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ray D'Arcy</span> Irish radio and television presenter

Raymond Michael D'Arcy is an Irish television and radio presenter currently on his second stint at state broadcaster RTÉ.

Pirate radio in Ireland has had a long history, with hundreds of pirate radio stations having operated within the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Dunne</span> Irish broadcaster and singer-songwriter

Thomas Dunne is an Irish radio broadcaster with Newstalk, and a singer/songwriter with the band Something Happens.

TXFM was a Dublin based radio station, founded in 1997 as a pirate radio station. TXFM broadcast under a contract awarded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI). The station ceased broadcasting on 26 October 2016.

Ian Dempsey is an Irish presenter of television and breakfast radio. He is the long-running presenter of the breakfast show on Today FM, self-titled The Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show, which runs from 6-9 am each weekday. He has won several major awards for his programmes and was the Republic of Ireland's tenth most-listened-to broadcaster in 2007. He is the son of Fran Dempsey( best known as Forty Coats on children’s television).

FreshAir is an alternative music student radio station serving Edinburgh, Scotland. Launched on 3 October 1992, FreshAir is one of the oldest surviving student radio stations in the UK. The station won the "Student Radio Station of the Year" award at the Student Radio Association awards in 2004 & was Scottish Station of the year 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul McLoone</span> Musical artist

Paul Martin McLoone is an Irish musician, former radio producer, voice actor, voice-over artist and radio presenter from Derry, Northern Ireland. He is perhaps best known for being the co-creator and co-writer of the Irish comedy sketch series Gift Grub. He is also the lead vocalist/frontman of the Northern Irish pop-punk/new-wave band The Undertones, permanently replacing Feargal Sharkey when the band reunited for a series of live appearances in November 1999. From September 2008 to June 10, 2021, he hosted the weekday evening/night-time radio programme on the Irish national and independent radio station, Today FM titled The Paul McLoone Show which broadcast from Dublin every Monday to Thursday from 10:00pm to midnight. It focused on less-known Irish solo singers or bands, as well as those from other countries who are popular in the alternative and indie rock world, but who have yet to crack the mainstream line of the music industry.

No Disco is RTÉ's former flagship music television programme, broadcast on Irish television channel, Network 2, from 1993 – 2003. It was presented by Donal Dineen, Uaneen Fitzsimons and, following the death of Fitzsimons, Lawrence "Leagues" O'Toole. When Fitzsimons died in a car crash in November 2000, there was a gap in programming for some months afterwards, until the series returned with O'Toole as presenter on 28 February 2001. Musicians and bands such as David Gray, The Frames, David Kitt and The Divine Comedy attribute a large portion of their success to exposure on No Disco, and these were among the thousands who lent their support to a campaign to have the show retained by RTÉ. However, the show was cancelled in 2003, in a move that caused much controversy among its viewers – at the time it was the only RTÉ show showcasing alternative music and there was no replacement show lined up to take its place. There was a repeat of this situation in December 2008 when TV 3 purchased Channel 6 and dropped Night Shift. In recent years The Last Broadcast, Other Voices, and (When) Under Ether have acted as some form of replacements for the gap that has emerged but none with the same success.

Small Hours was the late night radio show hosted by Donal Dineen on Today FM. It commenced broadcasting in 2004, following the seven-year tenure of Here Comes the Night. It is Dineen's second radio show on Today FM, airing Monday - Thursday, 00:00 - 02:00.

Here Comes the Night was a late night radio show hosted by Donal Dineen on Today FM. It commenced broadcasting on 17 March 1997, lasting for a seven-year period before being replaced by Dineen's current show Small Hours. It was Dineen's first radio show on Today FM, airing from the station's opening day. Dineen is largely credited with breaking David Gray in Ireland during this show's tenure. Other artists whose music featured on this show included Jape, who went on to win the Choice Music Prize in 2009.

Jennifer D'Arcy is an Irish radio personality who came to prominence during the 2000s as Ray D'Arcy's producer on his self-titled radio show on Today FM. The pair now have one daughter and one son together. Kelly previously worked for East Coast FM and then for the state broadcaster's pop music station RTÉ 2fm.

The Ray D'Arcy Show is the title given to two differing versions of a radio programme hosted by Ray D'Arcy, originally broadcast on Irish commercial radio station Today FM from the late 1990s until 2014 before transferring in February 2015 to the country's national public service broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann-owned radio station RTÉ Radio 1. The show is broadcast each weekday afternoon.

Dáithí Mícheál Ó Sé is an Irish television presenter. He currently hosts RTÉ One's Today, alongside Maura Derrane. He is also the current host of the Rose of Tralee and hosts a chat show on TG4 every Thursday night, Seal Le Dáithí.

Raymond Foley is an Irish television host and radio presenter. Having worked at Dublin's 98FM and SPIN 1038 early in his career, Foley moved to Today FM in 2004. In 2006, he moved to midday and presented The Ray Foley Show, with sidekick JP Gilbourne and Adelle McDonnell. He hosted the breakfast slot on 98FM from October 2012 until December 2015. He also hosts TV dating show Take Me Out on TV3. On Friday 12 October 2012, Foley and JP announced on the show that both of them would be transferring to Today FM's sister station 98FM to present the breakfast show. They both have expressed how difficult the decision was for them, due to their fondness of their workmates and friends in Today FM. In 2022, Foley returned to Today FM with an afternoon show from 2pm - 4:30pm.

John Kelly is an Irish broadcaster and writer. He presented The View on RTÉ One and The JK Ensemble and Mystery Train on RTÉ lyric fm. He used to present Other Voices. He also presents a one-hour show on RTÉ 2XM called Radio Clash.

Arthur Murphy was an Irish television and radio broadcaster. He was best known for presenting Mailbag.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Si Schroeder</span> Musical artist

Si Schroeder is the alias of Irish music artist Simon Kenny. He has released one studio album, Coping Mechanisms, and the singles Clocked, Jump Ship, C4 and Brailowsky to date as Si Schroeder.

<i>An Taobh Tuathail</i> Irish language alternative music program

An Taobh Tuathail is an Irish language alternative music program broadcast on RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta. It has been produced and presented by DJ Cian Ó Cíobháin since its inception in 1999.

References

  1. "Here Comes the Light". Film Ireland, 1998. Archived from the original on 25 July 2008. Retrieved 2 November 2008.
  2. "Didn't you listen to anything we said last year?". Irish Independent . 5 January 2008. Retrieved 2 November 2008.
  3. "The folk singer who will play in your living room". Irish Independent . 30 August 2008. Archived from the original on 3 August 2012. Retrieved 2 November 2008.
  4. "Donal Dineen (onemonthofsundays) on Myspace". Myspace.com. Retrieved 27 October 2018.
  5. "fresh air festival". fresh air festival. Retrieved 27 October 2018.