Watching Maura O'Neill's radio show in progress is an education in radio production. Expecting a frantic production crew and a harried presenter, what you actually encounter is four people enjoying themselves immensely. The one most enjoying the experience seems to be O'Neill herself, who is filling Gerry Ryan's morning slot for five weeks while he is on holidays.
Expertly working her way through an interview with some children doing a radio workshop at the Ark, she even has time to wave hello from her soundproof booth. When the show finishes, and the producer and researchers have left, O'Neill sits down, relaxes and admits that she loves every minute of it.
Having been involved in the Gerry Ryan Show for the past two years as an in-studio reporter, she has the slot Dave Fanning has occupied in previous years, as fill-in presenter for the five weeks Ryan is off the air. A former secondary school teacher, O'Neill has been involved in radio in some form or another for the past 14 years, starting out on pirate radio, eventually working as a newsreader and then breakfast presenter on FM104. After returning to teaching, she attended an audition for the newspaper slot on Barry Lang's drive-time show, and got the job, where she stayed for four years. "It's one of those things," she says about being drawn back to radio. "It's just in your blood, and I was beginning to miss it."
Two years ago Ryan heard her on the Barry Lang show and approached her about a slot on his morning show: "Gerry just came over one day and thought I was good and would I be interested in doing other things. At the time I was teaching, so I thought that it was something I could do for the summer." She eventually got a weekly slot on the show, and says it was a trip to South Africa in October 1997 with the show that gave her a love of radio: "It was my first real job as a reporter but I absolutely loved it. It was such an experience and it gave me that hunger to do more."
When she came back from Africa, she returned to teaching, and it wasn't until almost a year later that she was asked if she had ever considered radio as a full-time career. "Of course, I never had," she says, "but nobody had offered me a contract either, so I thought, OK, I'll give it a go. And this is my first big break."
It is clear from O'Neill's demeanour that she doesn't regard herself as just "filling in" for Ryan, that she is making the show her own for as long as she has it: "Gerry actually took me aside and told me to be myself. There is a certain X-factor that everybody has, and if you force yourself to be like someone else, you lose that. I wanted to put my own stamp on the show." She does add, however, that she now listens very intently to other interviewers' styles, but concludes: "the whole thing is to be yourself. If the style is simple then the message gets out very directly, and that's the most important thing." She also points out that the audience for the time slot varies hugely between summer and the rest of the year: "It gives us the opportunity to vary the show from what Gerry would normally do, which is great."
She becomes very focused when talking about what she describes as an attitude in the media that she had "better make the most of" her new, high-profile job. It's all "completely new to me, and all I ever want to do is go in there and be good, and enjoy myself, and hopefully the people listening will enjoy it too." She also comments on a recent report in the Sunday Business Post which referred to the RTE press release about her appointment, and which concentrated on a reference to her appearance: "It's exactly the same way with women politicians - it's what they wore on the day, whereas the man is there doing his job, end of story."
Gerry Ryan will return on August 9th and O'Neill is uncertain as to what she will do then. But she is determined that it will be in radio: "I love live radio, and would love my own show." Those people with a "better make the most of it" attitude can rest assured that she is doing so, and should probably change the phrase to "better get used to her".
The Maura O'Neill Show runs on 2FM from 10 a.m.-noon MondayFriday, until August 9th
Here to stay: radio presenter Maura O'Neill