Mayo DJs honoured

Mayo DJs scoop prestigious awards

Michael Duffy

THE swift rise through the broadcasting ranks of Mayo DJs Ray Foley and Keith Cunningham continued unabated last weekend when the intrepid duo swept the boards at the Irish music industry’s flagship awards ceremony.
The Ballina and Breaffy natives, respectively, have enjoyed unprecedented success in the last two years but their high profile victories at the Meteor Irish Music Awards crowned their recent successes, with both men striding to the stage at the star-studded show to collect their coveted awards.
Ray Foley capped a phenomenal year by emulating his much-vaunted Today FM colleague Ray D’Arcy by becoming the winner of the National DJ of the Year competition.
He celebrated on stage with colleagues JP Nugent and Adelle McDonnell before launching into a version of ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ from Journey, a song he helped popularise during last summer after launching a campaign on his afternoon show, which is on Today FM from 12 noon to 2.30pm daily.
Keith Cunningham continued what can only be described as a dream year after he scooped the Best Regional DJ award. The Breaffy native had already been awarded the PPI Radio Awards Music Broadcaster of the Year award recently and Keith told The Mayo News yesterday (Monday) evening that a Meteor award was the ‘icing on the cake’.
“It was brilliant to be presented with the PPI because that was recognition from within the industry. But the Meteors are voted for by the public by text and website votes so it’s a great vote of confidence to get. I’m chuffed, to be honest.”
However, it was back to the grindstone on Monday morning for Keith on Red FM in Cork where he hosts the Red Rooster Breakfast show from Monday to Friday.
“It was a great night for Mayo and I was delighted to see Ray take the national award,” added Keith, who was in Mayo last Friday to attend the wedding of his sister and Connaught Telegraph employee, Orla Cunningham, who married Gerry O’Connor in Breaffy Church with the reception in Breaffy House Hotel.