Broadcaster Alison Curtis planned to be in Ireland six months - 20 years ago
Alison Curtis planned to stay in Ireland for six months — that was 20 years ago, she tells
When broadcaster Alison Curtis and her friend organised a band night in Dublin venue Whelan’s many years ago, they had a fun pact that they had to fancy one of the band members for them to get the gig.
Little did she know it then, but it was the night she was to meet the man she would marry, former Future Kings of Spain star Anton Hegarty.
“He was in a band and I was in the then pirate station Phantom, which became TXFM.
My friend and myself were putting together a band night and, to be totally honest, I can say it now, we chose bands where we had to fancy one of the members,” she says, laughing.
The criteria was that she and I had to fancy at least one member of the band. And he was in one of those bands. And that was that! We met in 2002 — it’s a long time ago now.
Music may have been the food of love that night, but work commitments meant they spent much of the early days of their relationship apart. “We fell in love pretty quickly. We met in spring time and then I went to see my sister in Australia shortly after for three weeks.
"I was only back for five days and I went to Japan for the World Cup with the breakfast show.
"Then when I got back he went to the States to record an album, so for the first nine months together, we only knew each other for a few weeks really.
We moved in together pretty soon after we got back to Ireland, got settled and stuff. It’s been great, we are a lovely little family unit the three of us.”
Seven years ago, baby Joan arrived.
“She’s a character,” says a proud smiling mum. She’s very funny, she’s very kind — in fact that’s the one thing I am so proud of her for. She’s polite, she’s courteous, she’s a good little girl.
She’s got lots of interests so it’s good to encourage all of that.”
This year, inspired partly by her daughter, Alison is an ambassador for Team Hope’s shoebox appeal. The charity is inviting members of the public to fill a shoebox with a range of simple Christmas gifts and deliver it to a local drop-off point.
The gifts are given to some of the world’s most vulnerable children in Africa, eastern Europe, and elsewhere. For many, it will be the only Christmas gift they receive.
“This Christmas will be the fourth year that I’ve been doing it with my daughter. She was four when I started. I think a lot of kids in their first year of doing it think, ‘I want to fill a box with someone like me’.
But the year after, she said, ‘I want to give a present to a little boy’, so she’s alternated. I’m sure I’m like a lot of Irish parents in that I really want her to know, and not just at Christmas time, that not every child has what she has.
That not every child gets an LOL doll or some slime every time they walk out of the house.
“It’s a very powerful campaign in that obviously there are all these thousands and thousands of children across the world that benefit from it.
But it’s something tangible and Irish kids can see the boxes being put together, the box being dropped off, and, in some cases, they see a photograph of the children with the box. I think it’s a really powerful way of getting some Irish children to understand that not everybody is as fortunate as they are.”
Curtis is enjoying a career highlight in her broadcasting life. Her show on Saturday and Sundays, Weekend Breakfast with Alison Curtis, has redefined morning radio, geared as it is towards family friendly interviews and chat. Listeners have responded in their droves.
“Recently it’s been realigned to from 8am to 11am. It’s just grown and grown. I’m so proud of it. Saturday is one of the most listened-to spots across the whole station.
It was outperforming but is now just slightly below The Last Word. To do that on a weekend is amazing.
I think it’s just really proved that there was an appetite out there for young families to hear what was going on around the country if they wanted to do something with their kids.
Also a reassurance club in the sense that if your child is not sleeping right or not eating right, we’d have experts on.
“Also the population of Ireland has changed so much. A large portion of young people are in their 20s and 30s, getting physically active and doing marathons and other activities.
"It’s company for them too, a lot of sporting activity is happening across the country over the weekend and we’re kind of the soundtrack to that as well. Saturday is a little more manic, Sunday is a little more chilled. It’s busy but it’s got a nice feel to it.”
Curtis, from Kingston in Canada, had no broadcasting experience when she came to Ireland in her early twenties, with plans to spend six months here (that was almost two decades ago).
She started at Today FM as a PA before gradually working her way up, learning as she did so. “I started off as the PA to the CEO, Willie O’Reilly. He and I both knew I was a terrible, terrible PA,” she says.
“I think he, in his exit speech from the station, thanked me for being one of the worst!
“He just saw something in me, that he knew I would be much better suited to the programming side of things. He put me on to the breakfast show with Ian (Dempsey) and I was there for about nine years. During that time, I had a Sunday night alternative music show that did very well.
“I moved around a little bit, I had a nighttime show and an early breakfast show. Then I took a little bit of time when Joan was born and I came back to Weekend Breakfast.”
Curtis fell in love with the intimate nature of radio and the public’s engagement with it. “I really didn’t plan on staying at all and every year would go by and I’d be going, Shouldn’t I be going back now? I got my job at the station very soon (after coming to Ireland). We just celebrated Ian’s 20 years on the station recently.
“It was really lovely, so nice, and it just reminded me of the power of radio in Ireland. That’s the reason that I like it so much, you can talk to people instantly. You have a connection with people. I really just loved it and every year would kind of roll on. Then I met my husband, then we bought a house, and I became a citizen so we’re not going anywhere.”
In hindsight, Curtis feels that arriving here came about both through knowing Irish people in Canada and feeling she needed some change in her life.
“I actually had lived with two people from Ireland in Canada, one of them lived in the apartment with me and one of them lived in the one down below. It was like Friends, there were three girls and three guys. I just wanted to try something else. I think upon reflection, years and years of people asking me, I go, ‘Why did I move over here?’
“My parents had both passed away. My mother died when I was 19 and I came here in my early 20s. So probably on some sort of subconscious level, I felt I’d like a change of scenery. To just try something new.”
Curtis has a non-identical twin sister, Karen, who she is extremely close to and Facetime every day. “We would stay in contact as often as we can across the day. I think that’s really important and I thank God for technology because the first few years I was here that wasn’t really an option you know.
“We go back in the summer for a few weeks and she comes to us at Christmas. She is very close to my daughter which is lovely.”
Weekend Breakfast with Alison Curtis is on Saturdays and Sundays from 8am-11am on Today FM.
For more information about Team Hope’s Christmas shoebox appeal, including timelines and drop-off points, click here.
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