When Alison Curtis was told that her new weekend breakfast show on Today FM would be a highlight reel of the week gone bye, her response was; “Absolutely not!”
“I said: ‘Nope, this is going to be a show about people’,” recalls the radio presenter. “It’s not about celebrities, it’s about people – the people listening to the show with their children in their houses around the country.
“What do they want to hear? What’s going on, so maybe they can get out of the house and do something, or are they stressing about their baby not sleeping? Let’s get an expert on about that. I completely had a vision before I went on air. That slot was at 100,000 listeners and it grew to 140,000.”
Alison Curtis, Today FM presenter and ambassador for the Christmas Shoebox Appeal.
The Canadian-born but self-confessed Irish through-and-through broadcaster has worked in Today FM for nearly 20 years, as long as she’s lived here. During that time it’s fair to say her ability to stand up for herself stood her well.
Fresh off the plane, having just completed a degree in anthropology, Alison initially got a job in the station as the then-CEO Willie O’Reilly’s personal assistant. Both openly admit that Alison’s talents didn’t lie in the PA-sphere.
“Willie O’Reilly, when he departed Today FM, thanked me for being the world’s worst PA, because I was and I hated it,” laughs Alison. “He spotted that in me and within three or four months he had moved me on to Ian Dempsey’s show.
“I don’t like being told what to do one iota. I have a creative, determined and independent brain. Poor Willie, God love him, he’d be like: ‘Could you get me a cup of coffee?’ I’d literally be like: ‘You’ve got legs, get it yourself’. I think so highly of him too, we got along really well.”
Alison Curtis, Today FM presenter and ambassador for the Christmas Shoebox Appeal.
A helping hand
From PA to producer and presenter, Alison has worked in a number of different roles in Today FM and on various different shows too, from alternative music to talk and breakfast. But one element of radio that connects Alison’s various briefs is championing good causes.
This year Alison has taken up the mantel of ambassador for Team Hope’s Christmas Shoebox Appeal, something she participated in for the last three years with her now seven-year-old daughter Joan.
“It’s just something I think is important, because I’ll be honest in saying, I feel that I personally have a child who doesn’t know the value of things sometimes,” reflects Alison earnestly. “I think it’s very good to remind her that there are children out there that don’t get a LOL Doll every time they walk out the house or a Squishem. There are children that don’t have anything and I really do talk about that a lot with her, not just at Christmas time, but across the year.”
Motherhood, Alison feels, has changed her for the better and brought back an acutely positive mentality she hadn’t experienced since before her parents died during her teenage years. “I lost my parents when I was a teenager and that shaped who I was as a young adult.
“That made me very empathic, I feel it made my sister and I very kind people, I think it made us take absolutely nothing for granted. Then when Joan arrived, it reminded me of this happiness, this elatedness you can get, that I mightn’t have had for a few years because I was grieving,” she explains thoughtfully.
“She’s changed me back into a much more happy-go-lucky light-hearted person, but also the person who very much appreciates everything, every day, every moment. That sounds like to some people it takes a lot of energy, but for me it doesn’t, it comes naturally and I’m thankful for everything, really.”
Music matters
Obviously as a radio DJ, Alison is a huge music-head. She plays the drums and rock is her genre of choice. Music too is a thread that runs through the whole family. Her husband Anton Hegarty is in a band, she met him while doing a live broadcast from Dublin’s famous music venue Whelan’s, and Joan too has already developed her own musical taste.
“My daughter, thankfully, I feel has pretty good taste in stuff as well. She likes Taylor Swift and P!nk, but she loves Neil Young and Arcade Fire too, she’s got a broad taste. I mean I’m a rocker at heart, I’m not really a pop-head. But she likes everything, like really cool stuff, she loves The National.”
Whether it be music, work or standing up for what you believe in, it’s clear that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree when it comes to independence of thought and strength of character.
Weekend Breakfast with Alison
Curtis is on Today FM every
Saturday and Sunday from 8-11am.
How to become
a shoeboxing
champion
The Christmas Shoebox Appeal gives gifts to children across the world who otherwise would have none. To participate you have to fill an empty shoebox for a girl or boy aged between two and 14 with the four Ws: Something to wash with, something to wear, something to write with and something to wow the child with. Shoeboxes can be dropped off at collection points right across the country. The deadline for boxes is 9 November. For more guidelines and a list of drop-off points, see www.teamhope.ie or phone 01-294222.
Read more
Alison Curtis: "I'm 98% Irish and 2% Canadian”
When Alison Curtis was told that her new weekend breakfast show on Today FM would be a highlight reel of the week gone bye, her response was; “Absolutely not!”
“I said: ‘Nope, this is going to be a show about people’,” recalls the radio presenter. “It’s not about celebrities, it’s about people – the people listening to the show with their children in their houses around the country.
“What do they want to hear? What’s going on, so maybe they can get out of the house and do something, or are they stressing about their baby not sleeping? Let’s get an expert on about that. I completely had a vision before I went on air. That slot was at 100,000 listeners and it grew to 140,000.”
Alison Curtis, Today FM presenter and ambassador for the Christmas Shoebox Appeal.
The Canadian-born but self-confessed Irish through-and-through broadcaster has worked in Today FM for nearly 20 years, as long as she’s lived here. During that time it’s fair to say her ability to stand up for herself stood her well.
Fresh off the plane, having just completed a degree in anthropology, Alison initially got a job in the station as the then-CEO Willie O’Reilly’s personal assistant. Both openly admit that Alison’s talents didn’t lie in the PA-sphere.
“Willie O’Reilly, when he departed Today FM, thanked me for being the world’s worst PA, because I was and I hated it,” laughs Alison. “He spotted that in me and within three or four months he had moved me on to Ian Dempsey’s show.
“I don’t like being told what to do one iota. I have a creative, determined and independent brain. Poor Willie, God love him, he’d be like: ‘Could you get me a cup of coffee?’ I’d literally be like: ‘You’ve got legs, get it yourself’. I think so highly of him too, we got along really well.”
Alison Curtis, Today FM presenter and ambassador for the Christmas Shoebox Appeal.
A helping hand
From PA to producer and presenter, Alison has worked in a number of different roles in Today FM and on various different shows too, from alternative music to talk and breakfast. But one element of radio that connects Alison’s various briefs is championing good causes.
This year Alison has taken up the mantel of ambassador for Team Hope’s Christmas Shoebox Appeal, something she participated in for the last three years with her now seven-year-old daughter Joan.
“It’s just something I think is important, because I’ll be honest in saying, I feel that I personally have a child who doesn’t know the value of things sometimes,” reflects Alison earnestly. “I think it’s very good to remind her that there are children out there that don’t get a LOL Doll every time they walk out the house or a Squishem. There are children that don’t have anything and I really do talk about that a lot with her, not just at Christmas time, but across the year.”
Motherhood, Alison feels, has changed her for the better and brought back an acutely positive mentality she hadn’t experienced since before her parents died during her teenage years. “I lost my parents when I was a teenager and that shaped who I was as a young adult.
“That made me very empathic, I feel it made my sister and I very kind people, I think it made us take absolutely nothing for granted. Then when Joan arrived, it reminded me of this happiness, this elatedness you can get, that I mightn’t have had for a few years because I was grieving,” she explains thoughtfully.
“She’s changed me back into a much more happy-go-lucky light-hearted person, but also the person who very much appreciates everything, every day, every moment. That sounds like to some people it takes a lot of energy, but for me it doesn’t, it comes naturally and I’m thankful for everything, really.”
Music matters
Obviously as a radio DJ, Alison is a huge music-head. She plays the drums and rock is her genre of choice. Music too is a thread that runs through the whole family. Her husband Anton Hegarty is in a band, she met him while doing a live broadcast from Dublin’s famous music venue Whelan’s, and Joan too has already developed her own musical taste.
“My daughter, thankfully, I feel has pretty good taste in stuff as well. She likes Taylor Swift and P!nk, but she loves Neil Young and Arcade Fire too, she’s got a broad taste. I mean I’m a rocker at heart, I’m not really a pop-head. But she likes everything, like really cool stuff, she loves The National.”
Whether it be music, work or standing up for what you believe in, it’s clear that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree when it comes to independence of thought and strength of character.
Weekend Breakfast with Alison
Curtis is on Today FM every
Saturday and Sunday from 8-11am.
How to become
a shoeboxing
champion
The Christmas Shoebox Appeal gives gifts to children across the world who otherwise would have none. To participate you have to fill an empty shoebox for a girl or boy aged between two and 14 with the four Ws: Something to wash with, something to wear, something to write with and something to wow the child with. Shoeboxes can be dropped off at collection points right across the country. The deadline for boxes is 9 November. For more guidelines and a list of drop-off points, see www.teamhope.ie or phone 01-294222.
Read more
Alison Curtis: "I'm 98% Irish and 2% Canadian”
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