For our special 900th issue of Hot Press, we sat down with a man who's spent a significant part of the past 38 years right in the thick of the action too; broadcasting legend Marty Whelan.
In a wide-ranging interview with HP's Olaf Tyaransen, he discusses leaving the insurance industry for life on the airwaves, getting replaced as host of the Rose of Tralee, and recalls the loss of his colleague, Gerry Ryan.
"I was down in the corridor with Larry Gogan - or, as we call him, Gary Logan - when John McMahon came out ashen-faced and said he just got this call, and that Gerry was gone. And of coursem I did the old 'where?'. Because what else would you think? But no, gone, and I'll never forget, as long as I live, the shock of that."
Whelan says that, in all the time that he knew Ryan, he was never aware of his cocaine use.
"I never saw it, not once. Gerry liked a fine whiskey, I knew that; no more than I would like a fine wine or a decent red, but he liked that sort of lifestyle."
Check out the whole chat in the 900th issue of Hot Press, on shelves now!
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