About the Show
Catch Ian every morning between 7 and 9am for a healthy dose of music, sport, traffic, weather and of course the best comedy around with the Gift Grub crew.
The Ian Dempsey Breakfast has fantastic competitions on a daily basis, and is host to some excellent live sessions, both from the latest Irish artists and those travelling from abroad...
Ian Dempsey Biography
Ian Dempsey presents The Breakfast Show on Today FM from 7 to 9am every weekday morning. His career in broadcasting began in 1967 when at the age of six he made his first radio show in a friend’s house (luckily for the listening public, this was never broadcast).
This incident proved crucial in deciding Ian’s future career path and in 1978 he made his first transmission for Dublin pirate station Capitol Radio, followed by shows on A.R.D. and Radio 257. In March 1980 Ian joined RTE, presenting ‘The Weekend Breakfast Show’ and then shows like ‘Poparama’, ‘The Hotline’, ‘Night Train’ and ‘The Great Givaway Show’.
1986 was a landmark year for Ian as it saw him exchanging vows with his wife Ger and also dabbling in television for the first time with the now infamous children’s show ‘Dempsey’s Den’ which also gave the alien twins Zig and Zag their big break.
He presented ‘The Den’ until the summer of 1990 as well as asking all the questions on the music quiz show ‘Number One’ and the ‘awful’ (Ian’s word) quiz ‘Talkabout’. Also in the nineties, Ian presented three successful seasons of ‘The Beatbox’, a two-hour music video show simulcast on Network 2 and 2FM.
Ian started getting up early in 1988 when he began presenting the 2FM Breakfast Show and has been waking up the nation ever since having signed with Today FM to present Ian Dempsey’s Breakfast Show on Friday 24th July 1998.
Ian lives in Sutton with his wife Ger, two sons Shane and Evan and daughter Aislinn. His all-time hero is David Bowie and having waived a couple of opportunities to meet him he did just that in 2003 and loved every moment of it saying “he’s got a decent handshake – always a good sign” - He is a great fan of gadgets and seeing as his Breakfast Show ends at 9am, he has plenty of time to play with them!
Ian reckons that if he wasn’t doing what he’s doing, he would be unemployed and, probably, unemployable. Keep your fingers crossed!
Height: 6 feet
Eye colour: Greeny browny bluey
Hair colour: Brownish/sandy/seasonal - it’s a bit of a grey area but not grey
A.K.A: ‘Iano’
Star sign: Capricorn
Interests: I suffer from gadget & gizmo syndrome – and there’s no cure
Favourite song: ‘Heroes’ by David Bowie
Favourite movie: ‘Lost In Translation’ – it’s my age.
Favourite TV programme: I watch everything from quiz shows to comedy – I love the channel ‘Dave’ (111 on Sky) because they run repeats of all my favourite shows like ‘Have I Got News For You’ and ‘QI’ – both comedy quiz shows and the best of both worlds.
Ultimate thrill: My Canadian producer tells me that, in her neck of the woods, ‘Thrills’ are a brand of chewing gum which come in rose water flavour and are said to taste of soap. Yum.
If you could live anywhere in the world: I love everything about Portugal and would happily live there in an instant. I just have to get my little studio set up on the Algarve and everything will fall into place.
The best gig you’ve ever been to: David Bowie at HQ (now The Academy) Middle Abbey Street Dublin
First record bought: Tokoloshe Man by John Kongos – it was a lucky dip in a record shop in Tralee – when you’ve only got one single you tend to get to know it very well.
If you were an animal what would it be? A Golden Retriever called Ziggy
Who was the best James Bond? Sean Connery.
What is your porn star name? Johnny ‘the budgie’ Holmes.
Favourite scene from a film: Audition scene from All That Jazz / Roy Scheider ‘It’s showtime, folks’ etc.
What did you want to be when grew up? I never will but I’d love to be a clamper or a jobsworth.
If you were a woman, who would you like to be? Nastassia Kinski.
If you were a cartoon character who would it be? Tigger from Winnie The Pooh.
Most embarrassing moment: Being parodied by work colleague Mairead Farrell on a Today FM Christmas Party video – which I still haven’t seen.