How Ciara King made the adjustment from late night radio to weekend mornings

2FM DJ Ciara King in conversation with Hilary Fennell.

2FM DJ

I always knew I wanted to work in “Media” and I knew I wanted to write, but it just happened to manifest itself in the world of radio.

I was a really shy child I think, content with my own company or with my brothers. Kept myself to myself. I spent lots of time in my room reading books with my oversized Deirdre Barlow from Coronation Street-esque glasses and listening to tapes on my walkman.

I don’t think any of the family were in showbiz, but they loved books, and music and culture and influenced me from a young age. I grew up in Connemara which is famous for artists and writers and musicians, so I was surrounded by it in lots of other ways.

I don’t have a good work life balance. I’m actually really awful at it. For me, it’s either the famine or the feast. In terms of my life, nothing happens for a really long time, and then everything happens all at once. This is a pattern that I’ve noticed over the past few years. I try to get home as much as I can, I love the city life, but then every few weeks, I go and recharge at home. So I do try to get the city/country balance.

I’m disciplined when it comes to work or when I have a deadline, but not so disciplined when it comes to making regular trips to the gym or checking on what I should and should not be eating or drinking.

The best advice I ever received was to try not to take things personally, and that life is full of ups and downs and when you find those moments where you glow, to hold on to them and cherish them. Also to just keep going, put your head down and persevere.

My biggest fault is that I overthink situations a lot.

My idea of happiness is a big plate of crab claws dripping in garlic butter, fresh home made brown bread, a cold crisp glass of sauvignon blanc, with a view of the sea, and a hot man (or book) by my side with family and friends close by.

My idea of misery is the phone being the last thing you look at, at night, and the first thing you pick up in the morning, and an over reliance on social media in your life.

If I could be reborn as someone else for a day I’d be a ball girl or ball boy in Wimbledon, so at least then, I might finally actually get to go and see some of the greats play tennis.

Everyone can have both talent and ambition, it’s harnessing the two of them together in a healthy and productive manner that’s important.

One thing I didn’t learn in school, which I wish I had, is how to do my taxes.

I used to be a night owl for sure. Doing a late night radio show will do that to you. I would be awake when everyone else was asleep, I was also one of those people that could stay up until dawn just shooting the breeze, but now, I’m a morning person. I love getting up early, making myself a cup of tea, and seeing the sun come up.

There better be an afterlife, as I have a list of questions that I want to ask somebody on why certain things unfolded the way they did in my life and if there is any merit to the “what’s for you won’t pass you” bullshit that people seem to cling to (including myself on occasion). If St Peter does exist and he’s waiting for me at those pearly gates, he’ll have to give everyone the warning that I’m coming and that I’m looking for answers!

So far life has taught me that nothing stays the same, that time can be a healer sometimes, and if you find someone that can love you and help you through this madness that we call life, then you’re, as Charlie Sheen would say “Winning”!

Ciara King is on 2FM 11am-1pm weekends