From king of the airwaves to early morning knight

IRELAND’S best-known radio export has become an early morning knight.

Limerick-born DJ Terry Wogan was yesterday awarded an honorary knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

He is, without doubt, the first former presenter of the now defunct RTÉ radio Cattle Market Report to end up being dubbed by the queen.

The radio and TV presenter has joined a select group including Bob Geldof, Tony O’Reilly and Microsoft founder Bill Gates in receiving the honour, usually given only to British and Commonwealth citizens.

The knighthood was, the queen said, recognition of the contribution to broadcasting of the genial Irishman.

The golf mad father of three attracts an audience of more than eight million people to his weekday morning BBC Radio 2 breakfast show Wake Up To Wogan.

His presenting of the annual Children in Need BBC charity fundraising event and the Eurovision Song Contest, among numerous other credits, has made him a national institution.

When once asked about the secret of his success, he quipped: “I put it all down to clean living and plenty of roughage.”

Born in Limerick in 1938 to a grocer father and a mother who, in his own words, “was Ireland’s worst cook”, he is jokingly on the record as saying that “most of my boyhood was spent on a bike”.

A teenage fanatical interest in early rock ‘n’ roll coupled with his lack of interest in school exams and early years as a bank clerk led to his answering an advertisement in the Irish Independent for announcers for Radio Éireann.

His career may have started with the now historic Cattle Market Report, but by the early 1960s he was a household name in Ireland.

It was only a matter of time before he was courted by the BBC, and during the 1970s and early 1980s he was the voice of BBC Radio 2, with a wry commentary style, a middle of the road playlist and a unique talent for tapping into the nation’s obsessions.

His “Who Shot JR?” campaign, with Dallas fever at its peak, was nothing short of TV on radio.

It was no surprise that television presenting followed. There was the hit quiz show Blankety Blank and the thrice-weekly chat show Wogan.

He interviewed everyone from the Royals to the Hollywood A-list, with a drunken George Best providing one of many memorable moments.

He was voted TV personality of the year 10 times by TV Times magazine readers.

After 10 years, the show finished and Wogan returned to Radio 2 to host Wake Up To Wogan.

The show features his own wry take on the world and the often surreal input of his audience, who he dubbed TOGs, or Terry’s Old Geezers or Gals.

Their enthusiasm has spread to a host of fan memorabilia including sweatshirts with the legend: “Do I come here often?”

Wogan has notched up 38 years of BBC service His tongue-in-cheek Eurovision commentary, particularly during the voting, is the only reason some British viewers tune in to the annual event.

A typically sarcastic comment came in 1998: “12 points from Slovakia to Malta really restores your faith in the chaos theory, doesn’t it?”

Wogan’s honorary knighthood follows the honorary OBE he received in the 1997 New Year Honours List.