Ray Foley

Ray Foley uses the hinterland between Christmas and New Year to look back at 2010. It's been a busy one for the Music Broadcaster of the Year.

Things feel different. Usually around now (this peculiar week between Christmas and New Year) I’m stuffing my face with leftovers and Roses, avoiding showering, thinking back on the year that was, and resolving to do more in the new one. I tend to get a bit depressed when I get the chance to reflect on what I’ve done - usually because I’ve done fuck all. But this year is different.

Well, I suppose it’s because it’s been a mental year.

We started off the year on the radio with something we had been doing since 2009: The Ray Foley Show Lazy Radio Tour. Lazy Radio was a feature that stuck on the show when we started slagging other broadcasters for always playing cartoon theme tunes when they were short on content, thus the name. Then we started visiting nightclubs on Thursday nights, playing cartoon theme tunes, getting hammered and attempting to do the show the next day. Great fun. Anyway, that was in January and February.

At the end of February, the show won its third Meteor award. Most radio presenters, when nominated, play it cool and pretend not to be bothered about the Meteors, then find an about-the-houses way of plugging their voting number.

I’m of the opinion that if you’re up for a prize, you should want to win it and, for the third year in a row, I wore my heart on my sleeve and declared my interest. We reached an agreement with our listeners that if we delivered something on the air worth voting for, then they’d vote. And I can’t pretend to play it cool: it was absolutely brilliant to win it again.

I bought my first car not long after that. Yes, in my thirtieth year, I finally made the leap. I only learned how to drive in 2008, and even at that had no need for a car. I left home when I was seventeen to go to college, and in Dublin I got the bus everywhere. And once my girlfriend and I moved in together, she drove me everywhere I couldn't get to on a bus. But then, once we got married, she insisted I referred to her as my wife, rather than chauffeur - and so my transportation became my own problem.

Nissan Rats

I really don’t know why I didn’t take the initiative and learn sooner. I lashed through the lessons and tests in a matter of months and passed first time - and it saved our marriage! I ended up buying a Nissan Quashqai in the end. Yes, the big car with the funny name. And they’re like rats: everywhere.

Pretty soon, it was holiday time, and for the first time since I started in Today FM, in April I decided to take a two week break. My expectation was that the place would have burned down in my absence, but bizarrely it was still standing when I got back. We blew the budget and did a fortnight on a beach in the middle of nowhere. The only souvenirs we brought back with us were our mammoth credit card bills. There would be no more holidays for the rest of the year. Well, that was the plan.

We were back in Dublin a week when Microsoft rang me and offered a trip to E3, the international gaming convention in Los Angeles, for the launch of their new Kinect for Xbox 360.

“Would you be free to come along with us?” the lovely girl asked. WOULD I? Los Angeles had never been a city on my to-do list, but when I got there, I was blown away by the place. The theme parks, the food, the American have-a-nice-day service, the Hollywood sign, the beer, the Santa Monica pier - and the weather? Stunning. Add to that the gaming convention and I was made up. And I came back with an even bigger credit card bill.

It was around this time that we came up with the idea of The Ray Foley Fun Bus. Yes, it’s everything you can imagine and worse. Exactly as it says on the tin, the bus was a 34-foot Winnebago with my name on the side of it, and for two weeks in summer the three of us on the show lived and worked on board.

A guy from a TV production company rang me and asked if I’d be interested in presenting a TV show. I thought he was taking the piss.

Starting in Dublin on a Monday, we did Waterford, Cork, Kilkee, Oxegen, Monaghan, Sligo, Westport, Galway and Athlone - and every town in between. It was a blur of booze, burgers, roadsigns, locals and laptops - as we spent all our time after each show preparing for the next day’s show. Like idiots, we slept on the bus together each night. A brilliant experience, but never again. How we’re still on speaking terms is beyond me.

It was while we were on the road from Sligo to Westport that the phone rang and a guy from a TV production company rang me and asked if I’d be interested in presenting a TV show. I thought he was taking the piss - and for any of you who’ve seen Take Me Out, he clearly was. I told him to stick my name in the hat (I was told that they were approaching other people about the job also) and expected to hear nothing back from him.

He called the next day with the news that I would be presenting twenty episodes, which would be recorded in September. From that day in July until the end of September, I got about an hour’s sleep.

I was constantly worried that this was the biggest mistake of my life, that I wouldn’t know what to say and that I’d dry up on stage. And with good reason. If you’ve met me, you’d know that a dating show couldn’t be further from my frame of reference. But hey, a job’s a job, and I couldn’t turn it down.

Gutted

And you know what? I loved every minute of it. In spite of all the fear, the nerves and the sleepless nights I had a blast doing something different than the usual humdrum for eight days - and was absolutely gutted when it was finished recording.

Then in October, we were nominated for a PPI award. The PPI’s aren’t like the Meteors, and instead of the public voting, they are decided by a panel of judges. They’re the industry gongs, awarded by the industry. We’d already won two of them the year before, so we’d written ourselves out of the running this year. I still get worked up about these things though - because hey, who doesn’t want to win?

Well, we won and I’m music broadcaster of the year for the second year in a row. Ironic really, since I waffle more than any other music DJ I know.

So, it’s been a mental 2010, and one hell of a ride. Of course, I wasn’t on my own. My wife, Kate Carolan was there for all of it. My radio team, JP, Ann Gleeson and Adelle McDonnell were there for most of it, and since I started writing for this site back in April, you’ve been along for the ride too. Here’s to a 2011 where we all make some happy memories.

I hope you have a happy new year.