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Updated at 11pm
TRIBUTES ARE BEING paid to DJ Tony Fenton, who has died at the age of 53.
The veteran radio presenter, who spent time on pirate stations Radio Luxembourg and Radio Caroline before moving on to RTE and then Today FM, had been treated recently for prostate cancer.
He was known for his catchphrase ‘You’re the winner!’, and for presenting a large number of music shows throughout the past few decades.
As news broke about his death, his former colleague Dave Fanning told Pat Kenny on Newstalk that Tony was “always good, great fun. He was what it was to be a DJ”.
Kenny said: “I never saw him in bad form, even when he was sick.”
His former colleague Will Leahy wrote a moving Facebook post about Tony, saying:
For those of us who worked with Tony, he was quite literally the dj’s “dj”. He was, off air, exactly the same as he was on air. Larger than life, the booming voice and the cheesy one liners !
“So shocked”
Ian Dempsey, Mario Rosenstock and Peter McPartlin shared their memories about Tony Fenton during a special news tribute to the late DJ on Today FM this afternoon.
Tony Fenton’s legacy, said Ian Dempsey, “will be his positivity”.
“We are so shocked about this,” he said of the DJ’s death.
Rosenstock said that since the news broke, the station’s staff members had “stood out there totally silent… the whole station has been standing out there for 45 minutes to an hour because… they all love him. Everybody loves him. Everybody is hugging each other”.
He also described Fenton as “mischievous, he was warm, he was a complete gentleman”, and said that he would get a round of applause just for walking into the office.
McPartlin said that Fenton was “a leading light” for Today FM, who had the habit of “taking the steam out of” difficult occasions and putting them into perspective. ”He lived for radio and he lived for Today FM,” he added.
Ian Dempsey said that “Tony liked people to be happy”, and encouraged people to remember the late DJ “as a really positive guy” who had hopefully inspired people.
He said that his friend wouldn’t have liked people to “get down” over the news.
Listen to the Today FM tribute here:
‘Keep It Tight And Sound Butch’
Ray D’Arcy – a former Today FM colleague of Fenton’s – began his RTÉ Radio 1 show this afternoon with warm tribute to the DJ.
Other presenters would change their persona when going on air, D’Arcy said.
They’d be talking away and the red light would come on and they’d go ‘Heyyy – how’ya doin’. Tony lived that life – that was him.
Telling a story about Fenton’s 30th birthday party – D’Arcy said he had arrived at the hotel function room (as Aslan were playing – Tony ‘had connections’) and asked the presenter to explain the mysterious ‘K.I.T.A.S.B’ lettering on his party invites.
“I said – Tony, what does K.I.T.A.S.B mean?”
“Keep It Tight And Sound Butch,” came the response.
On his long-time colleague’s cancer battle, he said Tony had shown remarkable positivity throughout his ordeal.
Tony kept saying ‘I’m coming back, I’m coming back – I’ll be back on air’ and that’s what kept him going and kept him alive… The energy he got from talking to people and playing music. Because that was his life.
Independent broadcasters of Ireland
The Independent Broadcasters of Ireland (IBI), which is the representative body for Ireland’s independent radio broadcasters, offered its condolences to the family and friends of Tony Fenton.
Chairman of the IBI, John Purcell, said:
“Tony Fenton has been a consistent voice on Irish radio since he first graced the airwaves in 1979. His was a voice that many of us grew up listening to. The esteem that the radio industry held him in was evident was Tony was inducted into the PPI Hall of Fame in October of last year.”
“A great voice has been lost to Irish radio and the entire industry is deeply saddened to lose one of Ireland’s most popular and well known broadcasters, most entertaining gentlemen and most loyal friend.”
“Larger than life”
2FM released a statement from Jim Jennings, MD of RTÉ Radio:
We are deeply saddened by the news that our friend and former colleague Tony Fenton has passed away. Tony joined RTÉ 2fm in 1985 and very quickly established himself as one of the great 2fm DJ’s and a true radio pioneer. He had two very successful decades on 2fm and brought so much enthusiasm and professionalism to the station. He was a huge supporter of Irish music and new bands, and is probably best remembered for the programmes ‘Hotline’, and the Top 30 Chart Show and his catch phrase ‘You’re the Winner’.
Tony was always larger than life and the ultimate showman – he at his happiest when he was in studio when that red light went on. We would like to offer our sincere condolences to Tony’s family, friends and colleagues. He is a big loss to Irish broadcasting and will be greatly missed.
Many of those in the radio business wrote of their sadness at the news:
Fans, friends and interviewees remembered why they loved his work:
What are your memories of Tony Fenton? Share them in the comments below.
They should be hung drawn and quartered for making me use that pesky messenger app!
Did you read the terms for having that messenger app.
Aw, you ok hun?
@Alan, after checking out your link I feel great having always declined facebook’s incessant offer of the messenger app. That is some scary schizz. I certainly would have blindly accepted the terms and conditions
Thx for posting that
How is it even legal what they are
Doing..deleted.
The way I see it, if people want me they can text me or call and I can pick up my Facebook message on the laptop
If you read t+c’s of the journal the app can view and delete contents on your sd card. Why?
Thanks for that link Alan, have just deleted it from my phone!
After looking at Alans’s link I thought what a load of old nonsense.
The author is clearly pretty clueless about app permissions on android.
Why don’t you check the permissions of any other messaging app you have on android, they all have pretty much the same.
This is just the standard android permissions written to be as scary as possible.
Check out google hangouts now standard on android, not only does it have all these permissions but it can access your location at any time and read and edit your calendar at any time Gasp!
Just more ant-facebook ain’t I cool hipster nonsense.
If you are worried about Facebook and your privacy
Do not be on Facebook
sticking your ass in the air
like you just don’t care
You fine sir,deserve a medal
Like
Facebook is worth about $200 billion all thanks to the data you give them. they profit from data on users.
Are people “liking” this as a joke?
watch “terms and conditions apply” on Netflix. It will open your eyes.
seen it, recommend everyone sees it, though it confirmed what i’ve always known. planned obsolescence docu is another interesting one.
In those T&Cs posted by the Huffington post, what is meant by a malicious app may do this without your permission? Is it talking about the messenger app or what?
No it’s not talking about the facebook app.
They are standard permissions that any app can ask for.
If you install some dodgy app from somewhere and it asks for those permissions it can do dodgy things and record audio and video all the time.
The facebook app asks to record audio and take pictures so it can support its voice message and picture and video sending abilities.
Also, android users check this out….. Open google (assuming your signed in) click account > account history > places you’ve been.
You can select each date and it will show you exactly where you were etc. Why….? well each time you enable location for maps apps etc…. in the settings menu > Location > On… you will see the message below flash up. Agree or disagree….. always disagree.
Location Consent !
Allow googles location service to collect anonymous location data. Some data may be stored on your device. Collection may occur even when no apps are running.
these people are delusional if they think they’re gonna get any $ of that sociopath Zuckerberg
You’d think Facebook would have registered fbclaim.com along with 20,000 intelligible variations for just such an occasion.
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