Dan Hegarty is an Irish radio presenter employed by RTÉ. He presents his show ''The Alternative'' on

RTÉ 2fm (RTÉ) (; Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the national broadcaster of Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, whil ...

Monday to Thursday from 10:00 pm – 12:00am (the show is broadcast live each morning on

RTÉ 2XM RTÉ 2XM is a digital radio station of the Irish public-service broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ). RTÉ 2XM is a sister station to RTÉ 2fm and focuses on alternative and indie music. The station is available nationally on Saor ...

at 10am to 1pm). He is regularly dispatched to important musical events such as the

Eurosonic Festival Eurosonic Noorderslag is an annual four-day music showcase festival and conference held in January in Groningen, Netherlands. The first three days of the festival (Eurosonic) feature artists from all over Europe, the last day of the festival (N ...

in The Netherlands,

Electric Picnic Electric Picnic is an annual arts-and-music festival which has been staged since 2004 at Stradbally Hall in Stradbally, County Laois, Ireland. It is organised by Pod Concerts and Festival Republic, who purchased the majority shareholding in ...

and

Oxegen Oxegen was a music festival in Ireland, first held from 2004–2011 as a rock and pop festival and again in 2013 with dance and chart acts only. The event was regularly cited as Ireland's biggest music festival, and, by 2009, it was being ci ...

for live broadcasting purposes, as well as being sent around the country to present the 2fm 2moro 2our. In 2008 Hegarty featured on the panel of judges for the Choice Music Prize and was sent to The Music Show to distribute advice.

Early life

Hegarty is originally from Sandymount, Dublin. He graduated from the radio broadcasting course at

Dún Laoghaire Dún Laoghaire ( , ) is a suburban coastal town in Dublin in Ireland. It is the administrative centre of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown. The town was built following the 1816 legislation that allowed the building of a major port to serve Dubli ...

College of Art and Design.

Career

Hegarty was one of a number of RTÉ 2fm's newer recruits who were seized from

Phantom FM TXFM (formerly Phantom 105.2) was a Dublin based radio station, founded in 1997 as a pirate radio station. TXFM broadcast under a contract awarded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI). The station ceased broadcasting on 26 October 2016 ...

in 2003 - also snatched were Cormac Battle and Jenny Huston. Programme producer John McMahon revealed he had been aware of the presenter for some time before signing him. Hegarty was drafted in to replace

Jay Ahern Jay Ahern was an Irish radio presenter with RTÉ 2fm. He left the station in 2003 and was replaced by Dan Hegarty. He was amongst the industry professionals who were outspoken about the loss of the music television programme, ''No Disco ' ...

, on the Sunday night/Monday morning album show, airing from 12 midnight to 02:00. He was later given the same time slot from Tuesday - Thursday before progressing to his current four nights per week show. In August 2010 Dan returned to presenting "The Alternative To Sleep" Mondays to Thursdays (11pm to 1am), after briefly presenting "There Is No Alternative" since January. Over the years, Dan championed acts such as Buck 65
Super Delta Three
ak
Ziggi Baker
God Is An Astronaut, And So I Watch You From Afar, and countless others. In addition to this the show broadcasts weekly live music from acts like The Prodigy, Gogol Bordello, Muse, and Santigold. Another aspect of the show is the 2FM Sessions, which have since their inception featured everyone from U2 to Scary Eire, and Power Of Dreams - it gave The Thrills their first radio coverage. As well as being a deejay, Dan has also released two books in his career. Buried Treasure, Overlooked Forgotten and Uncrowned Albums, features albums from all decades and genres that did not receive the full credit they deserve. The books features ebullient descriptions of albums alongside images of album artwork, with comments from the band on the process of creating the album.

Personal life

Hegarty lives in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

Awards

Hegarty was nominated in the category of Best National Radio DJ - National at the 2009 and 2010 Meteor Awards. , - , 2009 , , Dan Hegarty , , Best Radio DJ - National at the Meteor Awards , , , - , 2010 , , Dan Hegarty , , Best Radio DJ - National at the Meteor Awards , , , -

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hegarty, Dan Year of birth missing (living people) Living people People from Sandymount TXFM presenters RTÉ 2fm presenters