David Fanning (born 27 February 1956) is an Irish television and radio broadcaster, rock journalist, DJ, film critic and author.

He regularly deputises on RTÉ Radio 1 across a range of primetime programmes and also presented his own Monday-Friday 9 am show Mornings With Dave Fanning in 2015.

[8] Fanning has been the recipient of a number of 'Best DJ' awards from various publications, including Hot Press where he topped the annual readers' Poll for over twenty years.

(The Honorary Fellowship citation reads "in recognition of his outstanding contribution to music through his work as a journalist, DJ and broadcaster – in particular his support of homegrown Irish talent").

[13] In The Sunday Times of March 2020, Jim Lockhart said of Fanning "he was central to a whole generation's interface with music and he is a force of nature".

[14] The Sunday Tribune's Eithne Tynan has defined his style as a "thousand words a minute, start a whole new sentence before you've finished the previous one".

[citation needed] His father, Barney, was a commissioner in the Irish Office of Public Works, his mother, a retired schoolteacher.

[18] Produced and coordinated by Ian Wilson, live weekly sessions with "demo tape" bands helped establish Fanning's evening show.

With a 4-hour Saturday afternoon programme (initially following Chris Evans’ show) broadcast live from Soho, London, Fanning stayed with Virgin Radio until September 1994.

[22][23] In 2014 Fanning wrote, produced and presented a 6 hour, 6-part radio series for BBC 6 Music on the history of Irish rock.

[24] In the Summer of 2017 he wrote and presented a ten-part RTÉ Radio 1 series called Dave Fanning's History of Irish Rock.

[26] On 22 February 2023, Fanning announced that he was stepping away from his weekend show on RTÉ 2FM but that he would continue broadcasting on digital radio, on TV and online.

Two days later, this was raised at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), where Fanning's reference to a "nonsensical Oireachtas Nuremberg trial" was put to newly appointed RTÉ Director General Kevin Bakhurst, who was asked "how this is appropriate... A person who is paid by the taxpayer – through his agent [Noel Kelly, also the agent of the presenter at the centre of the scandal, Ryan Tubridy] – on RTÉ saying, effectively, what the Public Accounts Committee are doing..." Bakhurst responded by stating that Fanning's remarks were "not appropriate".

[32] This is decided by a poll of the general public and, since the advent of internet voting, surfers select their own favourite three pieces of music online.

[38] It includes music pieces by U2, The Killers, R.E.M., Radiohead, Nick Cave, Lou Reed, Massive Attack, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, David Bowie, The Velvet Underground, Coldplay, Sigur Rós, New Order, Blur, The Verve, Ryan Adams, The Stone Roses, Iggy Pop, Oasis and over thirty others.

He joined the band on their tour bus through Ireland (dates in Cork, Galway, Belfast, Dublin) on the release of their third album War.

In 1987 at the time of the release of The Joshua Tree his annual radio interview with the band was conducted in the nude following Bono's request to "shake things up for the hell of it".

[43] Over a number of decades, Fanning fronted over 20 television programmes for Ireland's national television station, RTÉ (these included 2TV, The Movie Show, Planet Rock Profiles, Jobsuss, The Arts Show, Music Zone, Number One, 7 Bands on the Up, What Movie, Visual Eyes.

Rocksteady was filmed from various locations around The UK (from Glasgow's Barrowlands with Daniel Lanois to London's Royal Albert Hall with Eric Clapton), one in Cork with Hothouse Flowers and one live from Boston with J.J. Cale.

Later (this time with co-presenter Craig Ferguson and again on Channel 4) he presented Friday at The Dome, a live music programme from Kilburn in London.

In 2004, Fanning caused controversy when he chose to become a judge on television talent show You're a Star, to choose that year's act to represent Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest.

[46] From 2000 to 2010, Fanning wrote and presented the independently produced, late-night TV music programme The Last Broadcast (later The 11th Hour) which initially aired on Friday nights and was ninety minutes in length.

[50] In the summer of 2011, Fanning (with co-presenter Zoe Ball) presented 3 days of the Isle of Wight Festival (Foo Fighters, Iggy Pop, Kings of Leon, Jeff Beck and others) for Sky UK.

The book's positive Irish Times review began "if you were a music loving teenager in the 80s and 90s, you owe a lot to Dave Fanning"[55] while The Independent ended its equally positive review with "that same enthusiasm for music seems to have been undimmed with years and perhaps it's that wisdom ahead of knowledge which has ensured his longevity.

In more recent years, Fanning has conducted public interviews with celebrities and musicians at events ranging from The Dalkey Book Festival, to Dublin's Web Summit, to the Electric Picnic.

Fanning has been the recipient of a number of 'Best DJ' awards from various publications, including Hot Press, where he topped the annual Readers' Poll for over twenty years.

(The Honorary Fellowship citation reads "in recognition of his outstanding contribution to music through his work as a journalist, DJ and broadcaster – in particular his support of homegrown Irish talent").