Brendan Balfe (born 19 September 1945 in

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

) is an Irish radio personality, who was on-air consistently for more than 40 years on

RTÉ (RTÉ) (; Irish language, Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the Public broadcaster, national broadcaster of Republic of Ireland, Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, telev ...

. He retired in 2010. Comedy has been a feature of many of Balfe's programmes. He has won three International Awards for radio comedy and his "Pathetic News" feature on ''Balfe Street'', was the only original

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...

on Irish radio for many years. He set an international Radio record (now broken) for a 12-hour broadcast as the story of the assassination of

Robert F. Kennedy Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925June 6, 1968), also known by his initials RFK and by the nickname Bobby, was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 64th United States Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, a ...

was unfolding. Balfe served as the Irish spokesperson for the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

between 1974 and 1977 as well as in 1987. He also provided the RTÉ radio commentary for the 1983 Contest and provided the RTÉ television commentary for the 1986 Contest. In 1986, Balfe won a

Jacob's Award The Jacob's Awards were instituted in December 1962 as the first Irish television awards. Later, they were expanded to include radio. The awards were named after their sponsor, W. & R. Jacob & Co. Ltd., a biscuit manufacturer, and recipients ...

for his radio documentary series ''The Spice of Life''. From 1999 to 2010, Balfe was the Music Policy Co-ordinator for

RTÉ Radio 1 RTÉ Radio 1 ( ga, RTÉ Raidió 1) is an Irish national radio station owned and operated by RTÉ and is the direct descendant of Dublin radio station 2RN, which began broadcasting on a regular basis on 1 January 1926. The total budget for th ...

, responsible for the choice of contemporary music across the schedule and was the first ever voice 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, while ...

.''The Irish Times'', "Balfe unhappy about RTÉ parting", 17 September 2010
/ref> He published his autobiography, entitled ''Radio Man'', in 2007. On 24 March 2008 Balfe hosted the last radio show to be broadcast on

medium wave Medium wave (MW) is the part of the medium frequency (MF) radio band used mainly for AM radio broadcasting. The spectrum provides about 120 channels with more limited sound quality than FM stations on the FM broadcast band. During the daytime ...

service, ''Medium Wave Goodbye'', a personal selection of items broadcast on the service since 1926. Balfe retired from

in September 2010, following the final episode of his 11-part radio documentary series, ''The Irish Voice''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Balfe, Brendan Living people Jacob's Award winners RTÉ Radio 1 presenters RTÉ 2fm presenters Irish radio producers Radio personalities from the Republic of Ireland Irish radio presenters 1945 births Eurovision commentators Broadcasters from County Dublin