Marty Whelan has said he is “thrilled” to be inducted into the IMRO Radio Awards Hall of Fame, describing the honour as “a big deal”.
Alongside Whelan, this year’s inductees also include Michael Crawley of LMFM, Teena Gates of Bauer Media Ireland and Helen Ní Shé of RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta.
Speaking to RTÉ after receiving the award, Whelan said it was a huge honour.
“I’m used to being on the podium for awards, presenting them to other people. I’ve never, I don’t get awards, so this is a big deal,” he said.
He joked: “This is someone saying, “We better give it to him now because they finally got to a W, and he’s a certain age!”
Watch: Marty Whelan says it’s an honour to receive IMRO award
Whelan said he was delighted with the recognition from IMRO, saying: “I’ve been around the block a while, and it’s quite lovely to get an award for something that you love to do it’s a very special day, and I’m thrilled.”
The broadcaster thanked his team at RTÉ lyric fm and his listeners remarking: “Every morning I get out of that bed at half four, out the door, good luck, and away I go, and I love it. And we have a plan with the radio show, and then it changes. But I’m in the same building that I came to in 1979. That’s special.”
He believes that lyric fm is a special place.
“We just love it – like at 20 past eight this morning, I was playing Pink Floyd at breakfast time. Then Puccini, then you might throw in Sinatra and Shostakovich. Ludicrous, absolutely ludicrous. But no one complains ” he laughed.
When asked if the award would change him, he joked: “Yes, people will bow and doors will be open to me. I’ll be at management lunches now!”
He added: “It’ll make absolutely no difference whatsoever at any level. But it is lovely to get a nod that says, ‘Yeah, what you do is okay’. It’s nice.”
Marty was joined by his family Maria, and their children Thomas and Jessica. He thanked them for their loving support over the years.