The Sigla Blog

Niall and Una have already flagged this, but it’s an end of a particular era for Phantom 105.2 today. Edel Coffey is finishing up on Access All Areas this morning, having presented the show since the station went on air in October 2006. One of the station’s few female presenters, AAA is one of Phantom’s most high profile shows and Edel brought an enthusiasm and energy to it. From great author interviews (yesterday’s with John Connolly was a lot of fun) to her support for Irish bands, she was always knowlegdeable and interested. And where the hell else would you hear M.I.A’s ‘Jimmy’ at 11am on Irish radio?

I filled in for Edel for a week on the show last year and afterwards told her that I don’t know how she did it. Pulling together 10 hours of programming (including items on books, music, film), picking non-playlisted music you care about and drumming up so many decent contributors is no mean feat. Even as my stress levels went up to 11, Edel was full of help and advice for the week. There’s now someone helping out on AAA, but for the bulk of Edel’s time there she had no producer, no researcher and no technical help.
Either way, her replacement will have some job filling her shoes.

I’m sure I’m not alone in saying that I’ll be sorry not to hear her voice on the radio. She’s off to work for The Irish Independent, but RTE, Today FM and Newstalk should really be taking note.

Tune in to 105.2 from 10am til noon today to hear her last show. Best of luck Edel.