You'd recognise those dulcet tones anywhere, given that they were a major part of our weekdays for over 40 years. And even though he's off air now, Ronan Collins sounds no different.
These days though, he's using his mellifluous tones for something different. For since retiring from broadcasting, Collins has upped the ante of his music career.
Better known as a drummer for the showbands, the 73-year-old now has a new lease of life as a singer and will be performing six songs in the National Concert Hall tonight as part of the fifth Remembering Burt Bacharach concert.
'I've retired from my radio work and gone back to performing,' Ronan explains.
'I have been performing here and there over the last 20 years or so and when I gave up the radio thing, what I wanted to do was to become a performer again and a singer.'
He's already been touring with a showbands show, Reeling In The Showband Years, and there will be more of these later this year.
He's also delighted to be performing Burt Bacharach's songs with Rebecca Storm, Melanie McCabe, and Karen Black And The Sugarcubes, to name a few.
'I was a drummer who sang,' he says of his days in the showbands. 'Although at the time, I think I was a singer who played the drums, and I was probably realistically a better singer than I was a drummer.
'I loved drumming and singing and that's what I did in the 1970s, from my late teenage years right through to 1979 when I started working in RTÉ. I absolutely loved it. I kept on the singing and the drumming from time to time.'
About 20 years ago there was a revival of interest in the songs of the showbands and Ronan was persuaded by Eugene McCarthy to perform.
Eugene is also the musical director of this Bacharach show and persuaded Ronan that singing was what he should be doing now.
'He's the guy that I do more work with than any other musician,' Ronan says. 'It's very exciting and isn't it great to be excited by something when you've moved on to a different career?
'I'll be nervous enough and apprehensive enough because the songs are quality songs and people expect them to be sung in a quality manner. But all of us are working very hard on it.
'There'll be a 12-piece band too so it's a big show, lots of singers, lots of guests and just great music. I hope it hits the right note if you'll forgive the pun.'
Ronan will be singing six Bacharach numbers, including Joe Dolan's very first hit back in 1964, The Answer To Everything.
'I'll also be doing What's New Pussycat by Tom Jones. This Guy's In Love With You, which Herb Alpert had a huge worldwide hit with. I'll be doing Heartlight by Neil Diamond, which was co-written by Burt Bacharach, and I'll also be doing Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head.
'My favourite one of all is the song called Make It Easy On Yourself, which was a hit for an American singer [Jerry Butler] in 1962. But then The Walker Brothers had a hit on this side of the world in 1965 with it, with the legendary voice of Scott Walker.
'He was a magnificent singer, and his voice combined with a Bacharach melody was great. So it's a great song to sing.'
Ronan finished up his five days a week in RTÉ at the end of 2022 but was asked to stay on and present on RTÉ Gold, which he gave up just before Christmas.
'The reason that I finished was I had so many other things I wanted to do,' he says. 'They were changing course with RTÉ Gold so I just figured it was a good time to go and devote myself fully to the singing and gigging career.'
He's got a few shows in the pipeline for the rest of the year and in summer he heads off to Spain with Stars Of The Sun.
'We have a great bit of fun doing that and the punters come along,' Ronan says.'It's very different and enjoyable.I am retired from very active work,I’m retired completely from broadcasting.
'That said,I may have retired from RTÉ,but I haven’t retired from life,and I certainly haven’t retired from music.
'Music has been my life’s work and I’ve a new show that I’m starting in September called An Evening With Roman Collins: Songs And Stories From A Life In Music with selected dates around the country.'
'So I’m not sitting around doing nothing.I’m making great plans.'
And now there is more time with Woody, his wife of 48 years, herself a former showband singer with The Others.
The pair met in a record shop and Collins famously asked her out twice only to be turned down before she finally relented.
'We’ve been holding hands ever since,' he says.'We’re 48 years married this year and we know each other 50 years and she’s more a part of my life than anything has ever been.'
He was meant to be travelling to Dubai for his youngest son Damien's birthday this week but those plans have been cancelled, though Ronan is not worried about the war.
'We were looking forward to that because we haven't celebrated his birthday with him in years because he's been away ten years but I'm not worried about him,' he says of the 39-year-old.
'I have two girls here at home; Jessica the eldest got married just over a year ago to Ger whom she met on First Dates.
'My middle child is my daughter Lisa who has two sons - Caleb is 11 and Ezra is 8.
'They're great boys and being a grandparent is fantastic. It's so different to parenthood; a completely different thing; and it's a great joy.'
Things have changed lately for Woody and Ronan. They downsized their house outside Kells and moved into an apartment in nearby Trim, which Ronan says was a great move.
'The house had got too big for us,' he says.'So we did that modern thing of downsizing.'
The act was easier, he says, than broaching the subject.
'It was hard to talk about the fact that we needed to do it,' Ronan says candidly.
'Then out of the blue someone asked us if we were interested in an apartment. We went to look at it for a bit of fun but we realised it was for us the moment we walked in the door.
‘It’s a three-bedroom, two-bathroom penthouse apartment and it’s on the fourth floor and it has a roof garden. It’s as perfect as it can be.’
It’s close enough to where they used to live and there’s room for the grandchildren.
Ronan’s drumkit is there but not yet assembled.
‘I had to learn a few things like there’s not as much storage space in an apartment as there is in a six-bedroom house,’ he says laughing. ‘But you learn to cut your cloth to suit your measure.
‘And it’s home - home is where the two of us are and where our family is.
‘We’ve always believed that home is not about bricks and mortar,and we are very lucky that the two of us are here together still after all these years.’
He insists there is no animosity whatsoever between himself and RTÉ.
‘I’d had it at that stage,43-and-a-half amazing years and I loved every minute of it,’he says.
‘But it was time to stop and have time for myself and my wife and family.Now I’m in a situation where I’m just doing exactly what I want to do and it’s an absolute joy.’
His advice to anyone who is retiring from their day job is not to do nothing.
‘Just because you’re retired from your main job doesn’t mean that you’re not capable of doing other things,’he says
‘The great thing about it is when you’re in your late 60s or early 70s;if you discover that you can play to your strengths;then do that.Do whatever you’re good at.
‘If you’re doing it for financial reward,I’m not sure that’s the right motivation - you should be doing it because it’s what you want to do more than anything.
‘I think you’ll find a new lease of life.I just love it and I love being active and I love talking about it.’
Ronan made the decision himself to leave RTÉ and asked that they keep his departure under wraps so there was only a short period between the announcement and his final show, although he had known for a while that he was leaving.
'They accepted my decision and understood that I had thought it through,' Ronan says. 'It wasn't decided in a fit of pique or any kind of disagreement with RTÉ.'
'They then spoke to me about possibly doing a bit of work with RTÉ and I said the only thing I'd be interested in doing would be something on RTÉ Gold.'
'I did that for three years, finishing up on December 23, 2025, three years from the day when I left RTÉ One.'
'That was the day I retired from broadcasting. I won't be doing it anywhere else for anybody else.'
'I can hand on heart tell you that I look back on my time;yes there were ups and downs but you have to have bad times to appreciate good times;and for me there's not a cloud in the sky.'
'It was fantastic,it was a great life,a great career,I loved every minute of it.I'm proud of myself and RTÉ that we can both look each other in the eye and say thank you very much.'
'I was on with Oliver Callan recently and there were lots of people in there that I haven't seen in a long time. It's the people and the friends I miss but that'sonly natural.'
I was greeted like a long lost son and everybody was very nice so that's my most immediate memory of RTÉ and that's the one I want to keep.'
It's a perspective that is easy to find as Ronan has lost a lot of friends, including his close pals Dickie Rock and Paddy Cole.
'We had a great friend of ours who died at 61 on New Year's Eve of motor neurone disease,' he says sadly.'That was a terrible blow,she was a great friend.'
It has taught him to realise that you must grasp every opportunity that comes your way.
'If you wake up in the morning,that's a good day before youeven start,and then fill your day with things you like doing and people you like being with,'he says.
'I do have this mantra that you can't stop growing old,but for God's sake never grow up.Just keep that spark going in your life.'