The many lives of Ken
JOURNALIST KEN MURRAY IS WORLD RENOWNED, BUT TELLS ALISON COMYN, HIS ROOTS IN LOCAL RADIO AND PRESS ARE WHERE HE LEARNED HIS GREATEST LESSONS.
IT’S impossible to have a quick chat with Ken Murray. It’s not his rate of speech – his machine- gun speed shoots information at you at a meteoric pace – but rather the number of fascinating stories he has to tell. This man has lived 20 lifetimes in one and is not finished yet! From introducing Queen at Slane to 80,000 people, to feeding George Bush lines for a speech, via showbiz reporting for Woman’s Way, the Duleek born journalist and broadcaster has certainly made his mark in Irish and international media.
“People do wonder if I am telling tall tales sometimes when I get going, but It’s all true,” he says with a laugh.
“I’ve been involved in most areas of the media, here and abroad, and I’m still kept pretty busy in a changing media landscape.”
Born in Duleek, Co Meath, it was the lure of a £100 prize in a DJ competition that first launched him into radio.
“When LRD (Local Radio Drogheda, the forerunner to Boyneside Radio) began in late 1979, they couldn’t get anyone to present because there was no real DJ culture in the town at the time, and I went for the audition and got it,” he explains.
“I’m still waiting for the £100, but I never looked back as far as local radio goes.”
It wasn’t long until he joined a growing band of local DJs and presenters, who not only took to the pirate airwaves, but also began spinning the discs at local hotspots.
“There was Richie McCullen, Martin Kirwan, Paddy Everitt, Eddie Caffrey, who were DJs in places like Biba’s Niteclub and The Casbah, in the El Molino in Julianstown, and that’s where most of the presenters came from,” he recalls.
Dragon Den star Gavin Duffy was station manager in the office in Mill Lane, beside the studio in Donaghy’s Mill.
Ken says he was a great supporter of him, as well as a pioneer in radio, legal and not so legal!
“At the time in Ireland, none of the pirate radio stations were doing current affairs, only playing music, and we covered local elections live, airing Mass, and council meetings, which was revolutionary stuff at the time,” says Ken.
“We were operating in a bit of a grey area licence-wise, and I remember local politicians climbing into the attic in the mill to discuss issues, even though if there was a garda raid, they were in danger of being charged.”
One of his most memorable early stories is from 1979, when Frank Godfrey ran for election in three wards and topped the polls in all of them!
“He wanted to give the two other seats to his mother and father,’ explains Ken, “and they wouldn’t because they hadn’t run as candidates!”
This is where Ken developed his love of politics, but he never lost his passion for music and Djing.
“Not a lot of people know that I started the Green Scene back in 1979 (now the longest running programme on commercial radio in Ireland, presented by Eddie Caffrey).
“I had a show on a Saturday where I played Irish music, because everyone at the time was playing pop, and Eddie followed me with his “Lunch with a Punch” programme one day saying, “thanks to Ken with all the latest from the green scene”, and a legend was born.
“And the fact that the radio thing coincided with me working in several nightclubs in Drogheda, Navan, Longford and Tullamore and beyond, brought with it some celebrity status!”
It was at this stage, as seems to happen frequently in Drogheda, that there was a split in the camp!
“There was a bit of a power struggle and Gavin left to set up CRD (Community Radio Drogheda), which was based on the Beamore Road, so there were now two stations in the town at the same time,’ he recalls.
“I moved there with Eddie, Dermot Finglas, Richard Crowley, who went onto work for RTE, and for about a year, the two stations broadcast from the town.”
Ken, Richard and Gavin left after about a year to join Radio Leinster in Dublin, where they worked alongside Sonny Knowles and a young Teresa Lowe.
In 1983, during the raids of Nova and Sunshine, most of the stations countrywide closed down temporary, to protect their equipment. Radio Leinster sadly never returned.
But this all coincided with a boom on the DJ and night club culture in Drogheda, and Ken was busier than ever.
“I remember at one stage, the quietest night in Drogheda was a Tuesday night,” says Ken with a laugh.
“Luciano’s was on in the Boyne Valley on a Wednesday and there was Bubbles, the Casbah, the rugby club, Joey Maher’s, the Rosnaree had a disco – I ended up on a great roll and made a small fortune!”
Another one of Ken’s contemporaries was UTV’s Paul Clarke whose mother was from Ardee.
“Paul took over from Vincent Hanley and made a small fortune on the circuit - it was great, but we were all exhausted. “When he left 2FM and went to BBC NI around 1983, and I was his de facto reporter out of Dublin until about 1985.”
But the revolution in local press was already happening, and Ken wanted to be in the thick of it.
“The Drogheda News was started in 1983 by Johnny Kierans (father of former DI editor Marie Kerans and Mirror editor Jumbo Kierans),” explains Ken.
“It launched many local careers - Hubert
Murphy was one of my colleagues who covered mid-Louth, and I took care of East Meath as far as Duleek, Tony Clayton-Lea covered Termonfeckin, Andy Spearman and Terry Collins were photographers, Marie was there with Jumbo chief reporter, Myles McWeeney was the first editor, and we all worked out of Duke Street.”
Ken credits Brian Conyngham with teaching him much of what he knows about journalism, and he took his knowledge to other publications, including Women’s Way!
“I had great fun as showbiz editor there for two years, and we had a readership of 100,000 per week, and you had great clout in the music world,” says Ken.
“I met Jim Aiken (concert promoter), and suggested being DJ at Slane in 1986, to fill in the gaps between bands. Queen weren’t keen, but I still managed to introduce them to 80,000 screaming fans.
“I didn’t get too nervous, as the crowd was very easy to talk to, but it certainly was the biggest gig of my life.”
Stints with LMFM, RTE where he won a Jacob’s Award (the first winner in commercial radio), Sky News and INN (Independent Radio News) followed over the next few years, punctuated by a Masters in Journalism in DCU.
“This was of my proudest achievements, as well as a major result I scored with the university in 2007.
DCU had a policy of charging former graduates to access material in the library. I argued with them for over 10 years the madness of the policy as it discouraged former grads from maintaining a connection with DCU.
“So since 2007, all gradutates, past and future, of DCU can now get access to the University library for free on obtaining an alumni card. This will benefit thousands of graduates long after I have passed on!”