LAHINCH’s Tadhg Kennedy and Vanessa Rosa from Gort have taken to the airwaves after winning Spin South West’s search for a new radio star.
By Dearbhla Parry
Tadhg and Vanessa were chosen as the winners from six finalists of Spin South West’s on-air talent search competition and they scooped a six-month presenting contract as a result.
Rosa and Kennedy’s ‘double show’ can be heard every Sunday from 6pm-9pm on SPIN South West. They plan on teaching languages, such as Portuguese, as well as discussing what’s going on in the world and interactive topics that will encourage listeners to text in.
Eighteen year old Vanessa said she “couldn’t believe it” when she received the call to say she won. She said, “I remember my Dad always saying, ‘You’re gonna win, you’re gonna win, I know it!’, but I was trying to keep my head level”.
Auditions for the competition were held in various counties, with around “600 people” applying both online and in-person. However, Rosa stumbled upon the auditions by accident in the Crescent Shopping Centre.
She said, “It was actually one or two hours before they were going to close up.” SPIN South West presenter Katie Sheehan interviewed Rosa. She recalled, “I remember seeing her put a star down on my name, so I was like, ‘Okay, hopefully that’s a good sign’.”
All finalists were allocated separate months wherein they could host on SPIN South West as part of the contest. Rosa presented for an hour every week during April and said, “I just reminded myself that I need to give it my all because this opportunity doesn’t come by that often”.
She explained, “It’s such a different atmosphere” compared to other presenting roles she has done in the past for school or family friends. She said, “You read off a script. You know what you want to say. Whereas in radio, you press the button, and you talk. It’s definitely a learning curve, because I’m not used to it, but oh my gosh, it’s a good challenge”.
“It’s so funny, you have to kind of be like, ‘So what’s your opinion on this?’, even though you’re not speaking to anyone… You just hope that someone has an opinion on the other side”.
