Radio Days

He's currently a central voice on the national airwaves, morning, noon, night and weekend, and he has loved that position from the days when he sang for family as a five-year-old growing up in Athlone. As one of eight children of a family in Retreat Heights, Cathal Murray has always been a performer. His family were close to their cousin, RTE sportscaster, Colm Murray, and Cathal also spent a lot of time listening to Colm on radio. Cathal's late father was Charlie Murray, who had a garage near Farnagh in Moate. His mother's side of the family featured recently in an RTÉ radio documentary, which Cathal presented. In 1937, his mother, Mamie lost her father, who was a lighthouse keeper when he was swept off the lighthouse, off the coast of Mayo, by a freak wave, and his body was never discovered. Seven months later, Mamie was born. In June 2010, Cathal and Mamie travelled to the lighthouse, and made a radio documentary in the process. "We spent the night on the rock and I brought a load of recording equipment, and my mother threw flowers into the water, in remembrance of her father," he said. As a teenager, Cathal played drums in a Red Hot Chilli Peppers tribute band, called 'Freaky Styley' which he comically claims, "didn't even break Retreat never mind Athlone". "There were four of us and we just hammered out Red Hot Chilli songs, and I can't believe I'm talking about this in an interview," he said laughing. However Cathal kept up his love of music, and also his multiple hobbies, of swimming with the RAGS club, tennis at the Bower school, and rowing with Athlone Boat Club. Yet besides all that his main sport was badminton, and he was coached by Noel Lawlor in Athlone Community College, before he won three county titles. "I didn't really know what I wanted to do, but I did have an inclination towards performing, but there weren't many outlets for that when I was growing up," he said. Cathal went to UCC to study accountancy, and it was there he met his best mate, actor, Cillian Murphy, who was nominated for a Golden Globe for his role in the movie, 'Breakfast on Pluto'. Cathal also did acting in UCC and joined the dramatic society in the college, and among other roles, he appeared in a lead role in the play, 'Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, and the cast included Cillian Murphy and Cathal's other friend, Des Bishop. "I share a house at the minute in Dublin with Des and we keep unsocial hours, so it works out," he said. He continued his interest in performing after college, and set about getting experience. "Applying to RTÉ was the furthest thing from my mind, and I rang up John McDonnell in Midlands Radio 3 every day for six weeks until eventually I was asked to call in," said Cathal. The station recorded Cathal reading a new item, and he got the job on the spot as a news journalist. He lived in Athlone and took the train each day to Tullamore to prepare news bulletins which included everything from death announcements to agricultural reports "It was a great grounding in radio broadcasting, and they were good people to work for, and it was enjoyable for me as well, because I was obsessed with the news since I was a kid," he said. He spent about a year with 'Midlands', and then an opportunity came up with RTÉ, and he made a demo CD, reading part of a Harry Potter novel. He got called for audition at a time he had the flu. "I was sitting in a room, with the flu, and with models, shapers, tv wannabes, and I thought I hadn't a hope, so I just thought I'd chalk it down to experience, and just relaxed," said Cathal. Two weeks later, he was asked to do intense training with RTÉ, and he moved to Dublin, and took whatever work was going and offered in the industry. In 2002, he finally got a contract from RTÉ, which led to him doing more and more broadcasting. He did all the ads for RTÉ 2 (or Network 2, as it was still called), and then he heard that the newsroom was looking for new presenters for a news-show for children. Cathal was picked as one of the presenters of News Today - a seven minute bulletin aimed at young children on RTE2. "We had to write and present the news programme in a language that children would understand, and sometimes I was going around Dublin with a cameraman, following up lead stories," said Cathal. "The programme grew legs, and I got great experience there, but I never had a grá for hard news, and preferred more human interest stories, and chatting." Cathal left News Today after a year, and for the next five years he was a reporter at the All-Ireland Amateur Drama Festival in his native Athlone. "I'd be at the play and then get up in the morning and be on Marian Finucane, Ronan Collins or John Creedon's programmes, and it was an intense ten days," he said. He began working as a presentation announcer on RTE Radio 1 for one night a week, compiling a hit list of the day. Then another opportunity came along, when Cathal was asked to present the late night RTÉ radio show Late Date, and during the past year, he also presented a radio show, 'Weekend on 1', between 6 and 8am on Saturday mornings. Cathal has had a successful career to date on local and national radio, and said that he tries to think of his listeners as friends he hasn't met yet. Cathal currently presents, 'The Sunday Rise' on RTE Radio 1 on Sunday mornings from 6 to 8am, and for this month of July, he is guest-presenting Ronan Collins radio shows, five days a week at 12 noon, when he will be taking a break from 'The Sunday Rise'. "I'm loath to talk about my ambitions, because I've had two friends who emigrated, and one had to leave his young child behind, so I'm happy to be working and happy to have a job," he said. One time he presented the Den on RTE 1 for the summer months, and had to work without the puppets, and it was a time when even Dustin the Turkey was on holidays. "Dustin always said I had a posh accent for an Athlone man," said Cathal laughing. "I had a very tight circle of friends, growing up in Athlone and I was a member of Foróige, and we were always busy, and I used to sneak out of my room at night to go to the Folk Club in the Palace lot. I saw really interesting folk singers there, and it excited me, and I'd go home and wouldn't be able to sleep." Cathal remembers Athlone having a great music scene in the early 1990s with bands such as Mandrax Dream and Those Sacred Mushrooms. "It was local performers like Dessie Parkes, Freddie Regan, Ru Powell and Eamon Hatton who played in Bellamys, Athlone in those bands that influenced me in my early years," he said.