Dave Fanning has hit out at RTE’s “ridiculous” policy of retiring staff at 65 and says he has no plans to quit radio or TV any time soon.
The 66-year-old has been on contract with the national broadcaster for over 40 years and admitted if he’d taken a staff job he’d now be put out to pasture.
He told Irish Sunday Mirror: “Am I ready to retire? F***, no way. If I was on RTE staff I’d be gone.
Read More: RTE 2FM's Dave Fanning says radio stations should be forced to play more music by Irish artists
“It’s ridiculous that you have to go at 65. Some of the greatest minds I’ve known in RTE had to go just because they reached 65.
“Larry Gogan, he was the exception that proved the rule, he kept going right up into his 80s.”
Instead of slowing down, Dave is busier than ever, introducing Florence Pugh at the Lighthouse Cinema earlier this week for the Irish premiere of her new movie The Wonder.
He said: “On one level I don’t give a damn [about age], but I’ve always hated a new nought and I’m four years away from the next one now.
“Do I believe 60 is the new 50? I really do, compared to my parents’ generation, I laugh at it.
“In this day and age, a 60-year-old now is really like a 45-year-old from years ago.
“I’ll keep going... right now I couldn’t be healthier, but jaysus that changes in two minutes.”
The music industry legend is back on our screens tomorrow for a bank holiday countdown on RTE One to celebrate the greatest Irish hits of all time.
But Dave said anyone who takes The Ultimate Irish Playlist – based on votes from over 100,000 2FM listeners – seriously needs to check themselves.
He said: “I guarantee that whatever comes out as the top 20 nobody would pick that because nobody has the same 20 songs.
“People get annoyed, but they shouldn’t because it’s just great songs, some performed live, and two hours of TV entertainment.
“There’s no such thing as a comprehensive list.
“Some of them are definitely not what I would pick, but it’s a democratic process. If you take it seriously then you’re an idiot.”
Irish greats including U2, Sinead O’Connor, Phil Lynott and The Cranberries all feature but there are a few surprises thrown in. Dave revealed: “I don’t have any rules [about what makes a good song], it’s just what I like or don’t like.
“Actually I have one rule –there isn’t one song by a boyband or girlband I’d let near a top one thousand.”
Dave has been a DJ with 2FM since it began in 1979 and while his weekend 2FM show remains his priority he is planning some projects for digital radio.
He will team up once again with radio producer Ian Wilson for a “Best of the best” series called Fanning’s Fabbest 50 on RTE Gold where bands will perform live.
The format will see the duo return to their early days on RTE radio where they gave fledgling Irish bands –including U2 – crucial air time.
Dave said: “I don’t deserve any praise for that, we were doing a rock show.
“Ian Wilson was the one who had a permanent job so he could be more rude – he said why don’t we bring a band in every week and do sessions.
“Four hundred bands later we were still doing it. It was so brilliant.
“The band I played most on pirate [radio] was U2 and the first band we had in session was U2.
“It was the state’s national radio, it was absolutely important and we had to let the bosses know that.”
In the same vein, Dave is recording a second series of Fanning at Whelan’s for Virgin Media, which will air in December and January.
He said: “We have another 30 Irish bands, that means over two series we’ve had 60 Irish bands on stage with the best production.
“The bands get paid as well so I’m happy about that. We did the first one during Covid because what was happening with no live performances made me so mad.
“People came to me and said there’s bands who will have to go back to factory and shop work because they can’t pay the rent.
“We went to Guinness and they agreed to support it.”
He added: “During lockdown you had people going ‘hey we’ve got a gig from our bedroom’.
“Will you f*** off with that gig from your bedroom rubbish, it’s like watered down Guinness.
“This has proper sound production. We have guests coming in.
“Last series we had Aidan Gillen and this year we have the likes of Louis Walsh and Bob Geldof.”
Dave laments the way music radio has changed and reckons the industry has lost out to technology.
He said: “I genuinely believe music doesn’t perform the same function that it used to.
“I used to get a job as a Christmas postman, I used to try to get 10 days because that meant I’d make enough money to buy the newest album.
“You’d go down the road with the album under your arm, those days are so gone.”
Dad-of-three Dave was a guest at Bonnie Ryan’s Italian wedding in June and shared an emotional message saying her dad Gerry would have loved it.
He and his 2FM colleague were close pals for decades and Dave said Gerry’s loss is still felt at RTE.
He said: “More than anything the kind of programme he did and the way he did it – I’m not happy that a programme like that doesn’t exist any more.
“Obviously whoever did it would have to be super intelligent, which he was, and funny, and he was the funniest man I ever knew.
“He’s missed so much for that.”
Dave has interviewed more than 500 big act, including The Beatles and Leonard Cohen, and is considering re-releasing them as a podcast series. His CV variously describes him as a TV and radio broadcaster, a rock journalist, DJ, film critic and author.
But he said he’s loved every day of his working life and that he has no regrets.
He said: “I’m in the middle of a million things, but there hasn’t been one day that I’ve said I didn’t want to go to work.
“It’s like I won the Lotto. This is all I ever wanted and it’s turned out to be ten thousand times better than I ever hoped.
“I could never see myself doing anything else.”
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