Today FM has today paid a touching tribute to the late Tony Fenton, who has passed away aged 53.
The legendary DJ battled against prostate cancer in recent years but it was with shock that news of his tragic death was met by friends and colleagues in the industry today.
Friends Ian Dempsey and Mario Rosenstock reflected on Fenton’s inimitable spirit during the one o’clock news broadcast, with both expressing their devastation at the news.
“I just cannot believe it. We’ve known about the cancer for some time that he was unwell but we weren’t expecting this. It’s a major shock and I’m sure people around the country are just feeling the same way. It’s very upsetting,” said Dempsey.
“One of the proudest moments for me was when we were on Abbey Street with Today FM and I came in one day to find that entire building had been covered with one of the big huge signs, when Tony signed with us, which said ‘Today FM… the new home of Tony Fenton’ and I went ‘yes, that’s my friend and here he is!’. All the offices were so big because the sign was so big! The positivity of the guy was so unbelievable, right up to the very end.”
He added that as treatment for the cancer took hold, Fenton remained optimistic about returning to the airwaves.
“One of the things towards the end of his life, he was on steroids and he was very concerned about the fact that he was losing that voice because the steroids were having such an effect and it was making his voice a bit more cracklier and toasty than he wanted so he was saying to the doctors, ‘I want to get off these steroids’ and the doctors wanted him to get the voice back as well. He was always talking about coming back on air… it’s just so sad.”
Rosenstock described Fenton’s arrival at the station to a “skyrocket”, adding that he was someone “who would look into your eyes for thirty minutes and listen about your life and genuinely be interested”.
“Nobody that I have met really in my life knew how to life life so brilliantly as Tony. He lived life like a Carlsberg ad. He believed that everything was going to go great today and somehow everything just went great for Tony today. People used and look and go ‘how does that happen to Tony Fenton? Why does it only happen to Tony Fenton that things go so well?’ He was mischievous, he was warm, he was a complete gentleman.”
