This much I know: Dave Moore, broadcaster

I am the same person on radio as off. I wanted to be a musician ever since I was a child. I was really into heavy metal. That’s what I grew up with.

At school, I was more of a lick than a swot. I was Head Boy of Belvedere College. I have two younger sisters. Mum worked in the airport and dad worked for Philips.

My parents encouraged me to get a degree, saying we could discuss the potential music career after that, so I went to Trinity and studied Business and Russian.

Then I reminded them about my love of music - and I went to Newpark music centre to study professional musicianship.

I wrote and produced pop songs for years. That’s how I met my wife, Tracy. She used to be Velcro Girl on RTE’s 2Phat. I was doing some music for that show and spotted her on set in 1999.

It was lust at first sight for me. Now, we have four kids under six and a dog called Lorna.

I still play a lot of music but with the kids and the radio work it’s a different world. I only manage two to three music projects a year.

I turned 40 in March. I’m enjoying this period of my life.

I’ve always been a naturally confident person. Other than standard nerves before I went on air in the beginning, I was OK.

I believed I had the ability to be on radio, in the same way that I believed I had the ability to create music. Once you have that belief, it’s not stressful.

I’m a car nut, although I may not know how cars actually work.

My idea of misery is wearing a suit. I look awkward in one. I’m most comfortable in shorts, bare feet and raggedy t-shirts. If I could be someone else for a day, I’d love to be James Hetfield from Metallica.

I believe we have a short, limited time on this earth, and that’s it. I just want to do the best and be the best I can, because I may be rewarded in the future.

My fitness levels went way down once I started in radio. For a while there, I really didn’t look after myself. I put on three or four stone in eight years without even noticing.

In 2013 I cut out chocolate and Coca-Cola and I began sessions with my pal Jamie Harris as my personal trainer. I lost three stone in three months but I have to continue to train and watch what I eat.

I realise that I’m in a very privileged position. My job is to be entertaining and fun. I get to play tunes and hang out every day with people I love. I have been so lucky at work, to have met Dermot, a complete stranger, who instantly became my best friend.

I got into radio by chance. I made a demo, on a whim that I might get some voiceover work and the second job I got was with Dublin’s 98FM. I met Dermot there for the first time, in 2002. We hosted the breakfast show for eight years.

We left that show at number one, on our own terms. We moved to the drivetime shift after we’d each of us had kids. In 2014, we moved to Today FM.

I loved doing Breakfast, there is something so special about waking up the city you are living in, but having to get up so early catches up with you after that many years. You feel like you are permanently jet-lagged.

My biggest fear is if anything would happen to any of my kids. I would take double or triple my financial worries, as long as my family remains healthy and well.

I don’t believe in fate so much, just hard work. If you work really hard at something, you will find yourself rewarded.

I recently started to meditate using an app called Headspace.

I think there is a lot of good in the world but you need to make an effort to surround yourself with as much positivity as possible. I try to avoid watching the news as much as I can.

Obviously I have to stay informed in order to do my job well, but other than that, I am selective about what I watch because the news isn’t the news - it’s the bad news.

I don’t care how strong you think you are mentally, continually watching bad news has an effect on your brain.

I would rather smile, watching cute puppies bombing down a slide into a swimming pool.

Dave Moore is one half of the multiple award-winning radio duo, Dermot & Dave, from 12 to 14.30 Monday to Friday, on Today FM, 100-102fm

In conversation with Hilary Fennell