Marty Whelan

Martin "Marty" Whelan (born 7 June 1956) is an Irish radio and television personality currently working for Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ).

His early television credits included the game shows Millionaire and Fame and Fortune, and the weekday afternoon show, Open House.

Whelan was born in Dublin in 1956.

He was an only child.

He commented on his childhood, "I had cousins, friends constantly to play with -- my memories are all in the company of children."

Whelan attended school in Killester.

He spent five years working with an insurance company before he made the break into radio with the pirate radio station Radio Dublin.

He left this station as part of a wider split, along with most of the DJs to form the Big D in April 1978.

Whelan initially worked on weekend shows, but in a new schedule in September 1978 he got his first daytime slot doing the drivetime show.

In 1979, Whelan joined RTÉ Radio 2, now known as RTÉ 2fm.

Prior to that he worked on pirate radio under the name Marty Hall.

During his first tenure with the station he presented a number of shows such as Drivetime and Marty till Midnight.

In the mid-1980s Whelan began developing his television career, becoming the first male presenter of the hit fashion programme Head 2 Toe.

In 1987 and since 2000, Whelan has provided the television commentary for RTÉ's coverage of the Eurovision Song Contest (joined by Phil Coulter in 2003).

Other popular TV shows followed, including the Where in the World? quiz programme (1987–1989) and Video File (1983–1989), in which he interviewed major stars of the music world.

In 1989, Whelan left RTÉ radio to join its rival radio station, Century Radio.

When that project failed he was given the cold shoulder by RTÉ.

Whelan returned to the national broadcaster in the mid-1990s when he presented such shows as Go For It, Off the Record and Millionaire.

He hosted RTÉ One's summer lottery show Fame and Fortune on Saturday nights for at least ten years.

He spent ten years on television as presenter of the John Player Tops.

In 1997, Whelan became the host of the annual The Rose of Tralee contest, a role he held until 2003 when Ryan Tubridy replaced him.

In 1997, Whelan became Master of Ceremonies at the annual Rose of Tralee contest but, in the first of a series of losses, he was replaced by Ryan Tubridy in 2003.

Whelan had filled the role of co-host alongside Mary Kennedy since 1998.

He was reported to be "shocked" and "very disappointed".

He also said he would "personally deliver every copy" of Mary Kennedy's new book Paper Tigers, reasoning, "Sure I have nothing else to be doing with my time".

In 2004, RTÉ's flagship afternoon magazine programme Open House was axed, leaving Whelan jobless once again.

He also spent three years presenting RTÉ 2fm's Breakfast Show in a role he would return to in 2005.

A substitute slot for Gerry Ryan on his morning radio show on RTÉ 2fm in the summer of 2005 led to a more permanent return to the station for Whelan.

Marty in the Morning, which itself caused controversy when it replaced The Rick & Ruth Breakfast Show, began on 26 September 2005.

His RTÉ 2fm radio show, Marty in the Morning was axed in 2007 and replaced with The Colm & Jim-Jim Breakfast Show.

In January 2007, it was announced that Marty in the Morning would end that March when Colm & Jim-Jim arrived from FM104.

He was on holiday when he discovered another show had been axed.

Whelan returned to the role of filling in for Gerry Ryan when Ryan was on leave.

Since then Whelan has appeared as himself in feature films, at the co-opening of a Dunnes outlet in Galway with retired broadcaster Gay Byrne and filling a cameo role (again as himself) on the soap opera, Fair City.

Whelan has since made a return to television, winning the reality series Celebrity Bainisteoir in 2008.

Since winning the series, he has made another return to television to guest-host the RTÉ One topical comedy show The Panel.

He also acted as guest judge in RTÉ's Charity You're a Star, standing in for Louis Walsh in one programme.

Marty at Midday saw Whelan receive his own weekday lunchtime show on RTÉ lyric fm, commencing September 2009.

He then returned to television again in September 2009 to co-present Winning Streak with Kathryn Thomas.

He has been doing this ever since.