If it's 5.10 a.m. on a week day, I'm reaching out for the snooze button on my alarm clock. By 6.15 a.m. I'm ready to leave home and drive into Dublin city centre.
I usually get into the AA Roadwatch office on Suffolk Street by 6.45. First, I check the web content. The guys have been in since 6 a.m. and have started to collate the traffic information.
I get a script together and get ready to do my first report of the day - on the 2FM breakfast show. I'll do five short reports between 7 and 9 a.m.
They're very short, a maximum of 30 seconds, and deal with accident and emergency-type situations. It's not as serious as doing Morning Ireland, it's more relaxed, a music and chat show and I have a relatively good relationship with the presenter, Damien McCaul. There's usually some banter.
The broadcasting rush ends at 9 a.m. when I begin to work on other projects. As controller of Roadwatch's information services, I'm concerned with website and WAP phone content as well as the premium-rate phone service. There's also a jambusters' telephone line, which is charged at local rates throughout the State. There were more than 3,000 calls to our 1 550 service during the floods and more than 10,000 when it snowed around Christmas. The website recorded more than 10,000 page impressions during this time.
AA Roadwatch has three small studios which are linked to 2FM, Today FM and to RTE Radio 1. They are self-operated, but I studied broadcasting in Ballyfermot Senior College, so it's not a problem .
My day is supposed to end at 3 p.m. but I'm usually still in the office for another hour or two. It's a long enough day, but I don't mind. There are eight people working on the AA Roadwatch team, with an average age of 24 (my own age). The youngest is 21 and the oldest is 27. It has grown from a part-time operation, which just broadcast in the morning and the evenings when it was set up 11 years ago.
The AA now supplies broadcasts to RTE Radio 1, 2FM and Today FM as well as contributing to all the Dublin radio stations. We also supply "rip and read" information to most local stations and to Lyric FM. Kerry FM gets an audio clip with a report on the main national roads.
The information comes from a variety of sources including the AA sky and road patrols, Bus Eireann, Dublin Bus and Dublin Corporation. Any information phoned in on the jambusters' line is checked before it is broadcast.
The AA has two websites: www.aaireland.ie and www.aaroadwatch.ie. The Roadwatch site includes live traffic information, route planning, weather warnings, petrol prices in Ireland and abroad. At the moment, I'm speaking to mapping companies so that we can develop a system so you can plan your route by phone or Internet, with real-time traffic information.
The AA has a strategic alliance with Eircell and is planning to update the live traffic service from 17 to 24 hours a day. I'm working very closely with our web developers and the Eircell media unit to try and enhance the service.
As to the future, I like the mixture of business, technology and broadcast work, but I would ideally like to work in television. I have some TV experience, doing the AA Holiday Roadwatch, which is broadcast on RTE 1 and Network 2 during the summer.
In conversation with Anne Byrne
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