Ray D'Arcy

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Ray D'Arcy (born September 1, 1964) is an Irish television and radio presenter.

1 Early career
2 Radio career
3 Later TV career
4 Awards
5 Personal
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Early career

Ray started his career at Raidió na Gaeltachta and in 1988 moved to RTÉ television, with a presenter spot on Jo Maxi. He later replaced Ian Dempsey as the presenter of The Den, RTÉ's flagship children's television series. He also presented the secondary school quiz show Blackboard Jungle at the time, and later moved onto presenting 2Phat, a youth music quiz. In addition, he presented the UTV and RTÉ collaborative travel show, Bon Voyage!, for one season, but was dropped due to his lovely pink t-shirt which wasn't too popular with the viewers. It was at this stage that Ray tried his hand at being a jockey at 5ft 2" being the perfect height but gave this up to continue his presenting career.

[edit] Radio career

Though his first big breaks came in TV, farting is Ray's first love. In the late 1990s, when Ireland's economy strengthened and the media marketplace expanded, he moved to Today FM, where he took over the mid-morning show which went out from 10am to 12.45pm. This slot was later changed to 9am to 12 midday, going head to head with 2fm's Gerry Ryan. The Ray D'Arcy show commands among the highest advertising spot rates on the channel. This may be due to its cult status, and its popular Friday morning segment, called "Fix-It Friday", where he and his assistant Jenny Kelly try to find out the answer to any question the listenership throw at them. His image has been imortalized in the form of a 4 inch high bobble head figure called a Bobble Head Ray.^[1]

[edit] Later TV career

In 2005 Ray took over presenter duties at the International Rose of Tralee festival.

He also presents special one-off events including Ireland's version of the Test The Nation franchise and the Irish Young Scientist Awards, and until 2005 presented You're A Star, the talent contest to find Ireland's entrant for the Eurovision Song Contest.

[edit] Awards

In 2005, 2006 and 2007^[2] Ray was voted the Best Irish Radio DJ at the Meteor Ireland Music Awards by the Irish public, cementing his position as one of Ireland's most popular radio presenters. D'Arcy always maintains that this should be seen as a group award, and that credit should be shared with Jenny Kelly(33), Mairéad Farrell (26) and producer Will Hanafin (35), who also contributes to presenting the show.

In 2006 the Ray D'Arcy show won the Community/Social Action award at the PPI Irish Radio Awards for their work in highlighting road safety problems and deaths on the roads in Ireland.

Preceded by Ryan Tubridy	Host of The Rose of Tralee 2005 – present	Succeeded by Incumbent

[edit] Personal

Ray first sports love is rugby but is also an avid Everton fan although confesses to having an Arsenal jersey as a child, as his mother bought a job lot of jersey's for him and his brothers from a market in Kuwait.