This much I know: Alison Curtis

I’m at my most comfortable on air — you have to be confident and doing live radio certainly brings you into the moment.

The only time I was nervous was when I came back from maternity leave. Your world shrinks when you’ve been with a baby the whole time.

I gave birth to my daughter Joan in 2011 and have fallen in love with being a parent and am better at it than I thought I would be. I was 36 and think I surprised a lot of people when I announced that I was pregnant. I used to race through life before and needed to be busy all the time, but now I appreciate a slower pace. Becoming a parent has definitely made me more patient and hopefully more understanding.

I was born in Kingston, Canada — a limestone city near Ottowa — and moved to Toronto University to study anthropology. I was very nerdy.

I have a twin sister and we are very close. She still lives in Canada. We lost both our parents quite young — dad when we were fourteen and mum when we were nineteen. We had an extremely strong extended family who helped us get through it. We had some time to accept that dad was dying, but mum died suddenly which was very challenging.

My taste in music was always very left of centre — very indie. I loved bands like the Jesus and Mary Chain and The Pixies. Now I hear a Justin Timberlake song, or a Randy Newman track and think — that’s interesting. It’s age, definitely!

In high school I ended up playing four different instruments — piano, drums, guitar — I even tried wind instruments. I was in bands for the last two years of school. I wrote and sang all the songs for our band, All Girl Band, and we got a lot of attention from people locally wanting us to play.

I don’t play anymore. I wasn’t very good anyway, I have a limited range and never felt that confident singing or even on guitar. Playing live, I was at my most confident when I was on drums actually.

My husband plays bass but he won’t sing either. We met in Whelans in Dublin after a gig he was doing. I was with a close friend of mine, Jenny Houston, who knew him. She said — I think you’ll like him. But I thought he looked a bit pretty for me — I usually went for guys with funny teeth or wonky eyes.

I shared a house with a couple of Irish people after university and moved to Ireland shortly afterwards. I was supposed to start a post-graduate degree in Glasgow but fell in love with this country instead. Fourteen years later, I’m still here.

I got a job at Today FM because the PA to the then CEO, Willie O’Reilly, was going on maternity leave. When she came back, they thought I’d suit the Ian Dempsey breakfast show so I worked there as a researcher for three years and as a producer for six.

At the same time I met someone who thought I’d be good on radio at Phantom and after a while I got my own Sunday evening show on Today FM — The Last Splash. It was the second longest running show at the station as it lasted for eight and a half years.

I’d hate to work in a butchers. I’ve been a vegetarian for 24 years. That’s why I’m always hungry and have bad hair.

I’m not good at sitting still. We were on a sun holiday in February and I couldn’t wait to get back on air.

The best radio broadcasters are the same on air as off air. From years working with Ian Dempsey, and listening to people like Ray D’arcy and Tony Fenton, I learnt to spot when someone is being genuine and sincere on air, and when they aren’t. I’m the same person on air as off — bar the swearing. That’s what I love about Irish radio. North American radio is so different, so jock oriented.

* Alison Curtis — Today FM Saturday 7-10am