Dave Fanning Add a review

David Fanning (born 27 February 1956) is an Irish television and radio broadcaster, rock journalist, DJ, film critic and author. Fanning currently hosts weekend midday magazine/chat show The Dave Fanning Show on the Irish national radio station RTÉ 2fm and a number of RTÉ Radio 1 programmes. He regularly deputises on RTÉ Radio 1 across a range of primetime programmes and also presented his own Monday-Friday 9 am show Mornings With Dave Fanning in 2015.

Due to his friendship with U2, Fanning has for four decades been granted the first airing of any of the band's new singles before anyone else in the world, with band members often calling Fanning to tell him what they are doing. He has presented more than twenty different TV shows for RTÉ Television, from 2TV to The Movie Show. He also hosted RTÉ's live television coverage of Live 8 in Hyde Park, London (July 2005), and Live Earth in Wembley Stadium, London (July 2007). He has conducted over 200 interviews with global rock stars.

Fanning has been the recipient of a number of 'Best DJ' awards from various publications, including Hot Press where he topped the annual readers' Poll for over twenty years. In 1980, he was the first person outside of RTÉ Radio 1 to be honoured with a prestigious Jacob's Award for "the depth and scope" of his radio show. Following Christy Moore in 1990 and preceding Van Morrison in 1992, Fanning was awarded the IRMA Special Industry Award in 1991. In recent years he has been the recipient of a number of accolades and awards ranging from the 2012 Dublin Lord Mayor's Award ("To the voice of Irish Radio, in recognition of his broadcasting career, his support of new Irish talent and for bringing alternative Irish music to an Irish audience") to the 2014 University College Dublin Music Society Award. (The Honorary Fellowship citation reads "in recognition of his outstanding contribution to music through his work as a journalist, DJ and broadcaster – in particular his support of homegrown Irish talent"). He won numerous IRMA awards and was nominated for Best DJ at The Meteor Music Awards on seven occasions, winning four times. U2 performed a special tribute when he won the Special Industry award in 2004. In 2016, he was inducted into the Irish Radio Hall of Fame.

Hot Press regards Fanning as "one of the most familiar faces and voices in Irish broadcasting", summing up his impact: "When Billboard magazine referred to the introduction of 2FM as one of the major factors behind the growth of Ireland as a major music centre, they really meant Dave Fanning". Rob Sharp of UK newspaper The Independent has referred to him as a "legendary Irish DJ". BP Fallon commented in 2008: "Without Dave Fanning on the radio, music in Ireland would have had a poorer face. Dave changed things, opened up ears". In The Sunday Times of March 2020, Jim Lockhart said of Fanning "he was central to a whole generation's interface with music and he is a force of nature". The Sunday Tribune's Eithne Tynan has defined his style as a "thousand words a minute, start a whole new sentence before you've finished the previous one".