About
Tommy on The Decks at Highland Radio
One of the Disc Jockeys who was made the transition from Pirate Radio to host one of the most successful country shows on Donegal’s Highland Radio is Tommy Rosney, a native of Sligo Town, but who has been living in Letterkenny since 1975.
Tommy, better known to his legion of fans as “The Country Boy”, came to Letterkenny almost thirty five years ago as an employee of Best’s Supermarket which was later taken over by Dunne’s Stores and he still works there at what he describes as his daytime job. However, it is for his thrice weekly country show on Highland Radio that he is much better known and over the years he has built up a dedicated and knowledgeable listenership for the very best of American and Irish country music.
Tommy’s association with the country music scene goes back to his youthful days spent around Sligo Town but it came to fruition once he to the cathedral town.
PIRATE RADIO
Those were the days when pirate radio flourishing all over the country and in Donegal it was no different. Letterkenny had its own station which was the brainchild of Jerome Keeney, well known in music circles in Letterkenny, and Richard Crowley, then a reporter for the Derry Journal in the town and a man who went on to become very prominent in R.T.E. However, the economics of the venture did not work out and the station closed but not before Tommy had made himself a household name in Letterkenny and its surrounding area.
He got the tag of “The Country Boy” around this time and it has stuck to him ever since. For the next few years, Tommy and Don Clarke from Derry, launched themselves around the festivals of Donegal with their own radio ventures. Wherever there was a festival so also were Tommy and Don and this mean an even wider audience for the country boy.
Highland Radio
D.C.R
Around 1986, Donegal Community Radio took to the airwaves from premises above Funland in Letterkenny. It was the brainchild of Paddy Simpson from Carndonagh and Bobby McDaid of Lifford later took charge and, as before, one of the star presenters of the country show was Tommy Rosney. Tommy hosted six shows per week on D.C.R. from 1986 from 1989 and built up an even bigger audience as time went on. It was only natural therefore that when pirate radio went “legal” in the form of Highland Radio in 1990 that Tommy’s expertise would be much sought after. After all, he had his “grinding” on the pirate airwaves and it was only a short stop to the legal version.
His first show of the week goes out on Monday nights between 11pm and 1am ; his next is on Friday nights between ten o’clock and one in the morning and the final show of the week goes out from nine until eleven o’clock each Sunday night.
Tommy and Family
PASTIMES
Married with three children, Tommy lists Sligo Rovers as his favourite team and says Finn Harps come a close second.
“I go to watch Sligo whenever I can but I suppose I have seen Harps more times over the last few years. Donegal needs a successful senior team and given a bit of luck, Harps can provide that,” says Tommy.
So, the country boy goes on from success to success and long may he continue to fill the airwaves with the best of country sounds form Pinehill to Portnoo and from Carndonagh to further afield.