HAPPY BIRTHDAY AA ROADWATCH!
AA Ireland is offering €21 off its Membership, Home & Motor Insurance all of this week to mark the 21st birthday of AA Roadwatch. Ireland’s travel and information service was launched in September 1989 and celebrates 21 years on air this week. The very first report was aired on Morning Ireland on 4th September 1989.
For over two decades, the friendly voices of AA Roadwatch have been talking Ireland through the traffic jams with over 11,500 live traffic bulletins per year on Rté, 2fm, Today fm and Lyric fm. The AA Roadwatch traffic reports are also read out on Newstalk, 4fm, iRadio, all Dublin radio stations as well as regional stations around Ireland.
AA Roadwatch has proven a springboard for many young Irish broadcasters who have gone on to become famous in other fields. TV personality Lorraine Keane, Weather broadcaster and celebrity bainisteor Nuala Carey, RTE’s Trevor Keegan, 2FM’s Louise Heraghty and Ruth Scott all cut their teeth as broadcasters in the pressurised environment of AA Roadwatch. Ireland’s foremost adventurer and world record-holding mountaineer Ian McKeever also broadcast with AA Roadwatch.
Nicola Hudson currently runs the AA Roadwatch service and is the familiar voice to listeners of Radio 1’s Morning Ireland.
“It has been a remarkable 21 years in Irish history, and I guess you could say that our timing was perfect.” Says Nicola. “The service was launched just as the Irish economy was taking off; car ownership and the numbers of people at work began to grow very rapidly. By the mid 1990s traffic congestion had become one of the biggest challenges facing the country.”
The website AARoadwatch.ie was launched in 2000, and since then, both the site and the AA Route Planner have become essential aids to Irish drivers. The site was consulted more than 400,000 times last January alone by commuters looking for up to the minute traffic reports, bus, rail, flight information, fuel prices and info on events.
AA will offer €21 off the price of any car insurance, home insurance or AA membership taken out this week to mark the celebration. The offer is available via www.theaa.ie or at 01 6179950 and will run until midnight on Sunday 5th September.
4 Comments
21st Birthday has been a huge success so far!
Great day for the photos on Monday and we had a lovely chat with Sinead on TV3 Ireland Am this fab Tuesday morning.
A very happy 21st birthday to all present and past in Aa road watch . Enjoy the celebrations . It’s lovely to hear all the past names we have been so familiar with . Best wishes to u all
A very Happy Birthday To ALL THE TEAM IN AA road watch . I mean all the Great Guys who you can count on when your car breaks down .They are so efficient ,courteous and get the car sorted whatever the problem
Many thanks .
Congratulations to all in AA Roadwatch to which I have listened and enjoyed for the past 21 years. Can you also say hi to our baby Amy Gilroy , Drumcliffe, Co Sligo who is also 21 years old this week on Thursday 16th. Keep up the good work and mind our Louise Heraghty:)
Looking forward to another 21 years!!!
Olivia & Sean Gilroy