He has worked as news editor of INN, and was head of news in Clare FM. Originally from Dun Laoghaire, Alan (37) still lives in south Dublin. He is married to Denise, and has two daughters, Charlotte (4) and Harriet (10 months) Alan first met John Keogh in 98FM in 1990. Originally from Ashbourne, Co Meath, John is currently the director of news at Newstalk 106 FM. Prior to that, he held several senior positions, including head of news at 98FM, and producer at Sky News Ireland. He got married to his wife, Dervla Brophy, in 2002, and they live in south Dublin.

John on Alan Alan and I first met on the weekend news shift in 98FM. I was already working there, and he came in as the new boy . . . I didn't know what to make of him when I first met him. We worked side by side, and always did the early shift on Saturday morning, which meant coming in at 5am.

We shared a lot of interests and we very quickly became pals . . . it was more than two guys just working together. We realised very early on that we both had this quirky sense of humour. Every Saturday morning, we'd turn on this radio show on pirate radio called the Elvis Hour, It was so bad, it was good, and we religiously listened to it. In addition, Alan and I regularly met up outside for work for a pint and to shoot the breeze. We did that for about four or five years, and then I went to work in the UK during the weekdays and Alan went to Clare FM.

Alan is extremely professional about his job, and has the ability to cross over easily from radio to television . . . nothing seems to knock a whack out of him. He's also a smack-on, sound guy in terms of personality as well, and we've never fallen out.

We stayed friends while I was away, and when I came home on a Friday night, we usually met up for a pint in Kitty O'Shea's, and kept in contact on the phone during the week. I recently moved house and now live down the road from Alan, and, although we don't live in each other's pockets, we'd see each other regularly and would be on the phone most days. Neither of us would be very sporting, so if we go out, we tend to go for a drink or for something to eat. I've never had to go to him with a personal problem, but he would be the type of guy you could go to . . .

although he might tell you to feck off as well! ! !

When it comes to anything workrelated or about a story, Alan would often ring me and say, "Do you have any more details on that?" or even something like, "What was the name of that fella that was up for murder last year?" and I would ring him for the same reasons. We would often say things like, "If I were you, I'd get a cameraman down there, because something is going to happen, " or "Have you heard about such a thing?" There is no rivalry between us, because we work in two very different mediums. I'm putting out news on the hour, every hour, and Alan's not on until 5.30 in the afternoon.

Alan on John My first impression of John was that he was a very diligent employee, who knew the news game very well, and was somebody I could learn from. I was about 21 when I went into news, and John has about two or three years of experience on me. He is very matter-of-fact, and is a great teacher, because he cuts everything down to the simplest possible way of doing things. When we worked together, we used to get a takeaway from McDonalds or Burger King every Saturday morning at 10 o'clock. However, our boss, Denis O'Brien, had a thing about people eating fast food in the newsroom, and one day he came in and got the smell of burgers and chips in the air. So of course we denied it was us, to this day!

One Christmas morning, I arrived in at six o'clock in the morning with a huge hangover, and met John coming in behind me, although he was supposed to be in an hour before me. We were there arguing about who was supposed to be in first, and then we had to run to the studio and grab whatever news copy was there and just put the bulletin out. We just made it and nobody ever knew, until now!

John recently moved house, so our houses are just 10 minutes' walk away from each other now. He's decorating his house at the moment, so I'm giving him tips. I would say his best quality is that he's a great laugh, and his worst one is that he never returns my calls when he's supposed to . . . he has a head like a sieve sometimes!

News is a constantly evolving thing that has to be tweaked and moved on. When John was in the UK and I was in Clare, we both had our own newsrooms, so were constantly coming up with new regimes, and exchanging ideas on how to improve our newsrooms. We're not in competition with each other at all, and our deadlines are very different, so, if I'm somewhere, and I come across a story that would interest him, I'll tell him, and check that he's covered on it, and vice versa.

We have a great friendship, and we go out as often as we can for drinks or for meals with colleagues who have worked with us in the past. John is great craic to be around, and when we go out for a pint, we tend to anorak about the business.

We're like two old men sitting in the pub, talking about the good old days of pirate radio and having a good laugh.