“I remember wandering into the Seafort Avenue ‘NewsFour’ office. This guy came out, who turned out to be Dennis McKenna. I asked him ‘Do you have anyone writing about music? Would you give me a go?’”

Ten years ago the then-editor of NewsFour, Dennis McKenna, was asked if he had anyone writing about music, the person inquiring about journalistic opportunities was, of course, Dan Hegarty. Ten years later Dan is still writing for us.

Dan Hegarty hails from the Sandymount area. He’s 29 and a successful DJ with 2FM. As he has become a more experienced journalist, his NewsFour music section has grown. When he started, he had a single column. Now, he has two pages to fill.

“Love of music came long before I even knew what journalism was.” For Dan, it is obvious that music is what captured his imagination at an early age. “Some people love football, some people love rugby, some people love boxing or whatever it is. I just discovered this thing called music.”

Dan was attracted to music, not only by the sound but also by the image of it, how the people were so ‘cool’. Dan’s early music experiences were supplied by, among others, 2FM, Radio Nova and Top of the Pops. Even to this day Dan can still remember the first time he heard the sound of U2 and Prince.

But liking music is not enough: you have to have the drive to follow through on your dreams. For Dan, one of the greatest formative influences was not a band on the radio, but his mother, who put the question “what are you going to do after school?”

As it turned out, Dan spent two years studying Radio Broadcasting, at the Dun Laoghaire College of Art and Design, and two years studying Journalism, at Colaiste Dhulaigh.

After getting a break through ‘NewsFour’, Dan worked at a variety of publications, before landing a position with 2FM. He did college radio and community radio with a number of different stations. He also wrote for magazines and a number of papers in America, mainly for free, in order to improve his portfolio.

One of the magazines that Dan worked for was Revolver, an Australian publication, during the year he spent in Australia. Dan calls Revolver “one of the cooler alternative magazines.” He considers it to be the Antipodean version of the NME. Dan feels that his time spent in Australia was a positive experience, both personally and professionally.

Dan did not neglect his ‘NewsFour’ responsibilities while living in Australia. He sent back his articles via post for every issue. After his sojourn in southern waters, Dan worked for two years with Localireland.com, which he considers his grounding as a professional writer.

Today, Dan is hosting the Midnight to 2 am slot, on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, on 2FM. He’s been doing this for about 6 months now. As he puts it, “I’m doing exactly what I’ve always dreamt about. I’m a full time presenter on 2FM, which is a dream come true.”

Dan’s show includes a lot of music that wouldn’t necessarily get coverage. Both Irish and international acts are played. “I think it’s really needed because there are so many people out there who have a hunger for listening to new music.” Dan chooses the play list for his show himself. “My thing is good music and hopefully people are enjoying it.”

Dan gets in contact with most of the unsigned Irish bands that he plays. He reads and researches what he is going to play before each show. Dan also gets a huge amount of material sent in. For him, it’s a matter of sifting through it and getting the time to listen to it. Dan considers “the sifting” to be a labour of love.

“Its always a pleasure to listen to something, I mean some stuff that you’d put out you would say to yourself ‘I don’t like that at all’, but when you put on something and it is just fantastic, that’s great.”

Dan, if he had to choose between the two would choose radio broadcasting over journalism. But that is not to say that he would ever consider giving up on either of them. “Both areas are cutting edge. There are rules as there are with everything else. Pretty much within those rules you can be dynamic or cutting or as safe as you want, you can really put across your personality.”

Dan had not arrived where he is now purely by chance. He has worked his way up the career ladder for the past 10 years and he is well aware that there are those less fortunate than himself. “I feel so incredibly fortunate, I don’t know if there are many people around who feel as happy as I do about their job.”

Above: Dan’s the man.