Radio Gold: DJ Eric Moore likes striking a chord with fans
Eric Moore at the RTÉ Radio Centre

Radio Gold: DJ Eric Moore likes striking a chord with fans

After over three decades of being on the airwaves as a radio DJ and being behind the decks at live events, Eric Moore still gets a thrill from connecting with his listeners through music.

Eric, who is from Neilstown in Clondalkin, hosts a show on RTÉ Gold but started his career on radio and in the music industry as an ardent hip-hop fan and performer.

He has opened for hip-hop luminaries like Run DMC, Public Enemy and The Sugar Hill Gang, but his early taste for DJing was developed in the halls of Deansrath Community College, where Eric and his friends started their own radio station as ambitious teenage DJs.

Eric took some time out to tell The Echo about his time on radio stations in Tallaght, Crumlin and Ballyfermot, how his career evolved over the years, and why connecting with others through music has been a mainstay of his broadcasting style from his teenage years to the present day.

Why did you first get involved in radio?

In 1987 there was a radio DJ called Tony Christy and he was on a station called LLCR.

He was playing hip-hop music when none of the other stations were.

His show went on for a few weeks when all of a sudden it stopped.

Myself and other likeminded people were distraught.

I was heartbroken. But pirate radio was big at the time, so I rang Diamond 106 in Crumlin and they gave me and my friends a three-hour show on a Sunday.

What can you remember about your first radio show on Diamond 106?

I remember we were tuned into the station all the way on the drive from Clondalkin to Crumlin.

But we were so bad. I was 15, but I sounded like Mickey Mouse. We’d kept the microphone faders up for the whole show.

Anyway, they never invited us back after that!

How did your career in radio develop from that point?

In 1988, I got into a station called Smile FM and I really enjoyed it. I had a show playing hip-hop on Wednesday nights.

I loved it, to the extent that I was missing school to do it when I was in my Leaving Cert year.

My parents went to a parent-teacher meeting that year and found out that I’d missed 30 days of school between September and December.

I’d been going to the station in the daytime, riding my bike with a haversack of records and a packed lunch, and I’d head down to Ballyfermot and watch the DJs working.

You set up a radio station in your school in Deansrath, how did that come about?

Because I’d missed so much school, they said I couldn’t do my Leaving Cert so I’d to do a thing called pre-employment. I was driving forklifts and things like that. But I went to the student council and we talked about setting up a radio station in the school. We set it up in the hall where there was a PA system and a fader and we did it every lunchtime. We called it Radio Active and me and my pals would be on the stage playing requests. We had posters all over the school.

Did you continue to do radio work after school?

I lived in Greece and I DJed, but I wasn’t doing radio work.

But I was playing pool there and ran into a friend – his DJ name was Goldy – who had a hip-hop show on Tallaght Community Radio at the same time as my show on Smile.

He was passing through the Greek islands on the way to travelling to India. I got him a job DJing in Greece and he did that for a few months.

How did you end up getting back into radio work?

I had come home a few years later and Goldy had a show on Power FM on Saturdays, but he was doing a lot of other DJ work at the time and he asked me if I wanted to do it.

I said yeah, and I played old school hip-hop and funk on the show.

Over the years you’ve worked for a number of stations, including your current station, RTÉ Gold, and you’ve also DJed at live events. But what’s been the best moment of your career so far?

I don’t have one. As soon as I started with Power FM, there was an English guy who listened to the radio station, who was a promoter and heard my show.

The station manager said this promoter wanted to get in touch with me, and I ended up with a DJ residency in Temple Bar for two years from that.

From all of that, I’ve opened for Run DMC, Grandmaster Flash, Public Enemy, the Sugar Hill Gang, and Blondie in The Olympia.

What do you find most fulfilling about your radio work?

Since moving to RTÉ Gold I’ve been able to play music from the ‘50s up to the ‘90s, and I’m not told what to play. I’ve no playlists.

So I end up with a blank canvas during the week, thinking of what I’ll come up with for the show that Sunday.

When I’m on the radio and I play something and people really like it . . . that’s what it’s about, touching people with music.

You’re striking a chord with them.

Golden Years with Eric Moore is on RTÉ Gold every Sunday from 5pm to 6pm.

Eric also runs School of Jock where he teaches broadcasting and sets up radio stations in secondary schools. For more information, visit schoolofjock.com.

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