Keith Cunningham or "K.C." is an Irish radio presenter, producer and radio programmer. As of July 2019, Cunningham was presenter of "KC & Ross in the Morning" and "KC and Ross in the Morning ‘The Highlight Show’" on Cork's 96FM. After 4 years with 100-102 Today FM, and commuting from Cork to Dublin each week, he left the station to return home to his family. Cunningham announced he would return to Cork's Red FM as part of an overhaul of the radio station which saw Neil Prendeville leave Corks 96 FM. Cunningham joined Cork's Red FM in 2014 to present The KC Show alongside Jason Coughlan. Cunningham left Cork's Red FM in 2017 to present The KC Show alongside Ross Browne.
Early career
Cunningham started his radio career with garden shed pirate giant Kiss FM back in 1992/93. He was introduced to pirate radio by his close friend Tony Gallagher. In 1998 he won an RTÉ 2fm "DJ for a day" competition. The prize was a trip to the NBC Studios in New York to present two live hotline shows with Dusty Rhodes. He studied broadcasting and journalism in Dublin for two years before returning to Castlebar to launch Mayo's first 24-hour pirate station, Power FM. In 2000, Cunningham was offered a full-time position with local radio station MWR FM working as an outside broadcast engineer and part-time commercial producer. From there he moved to Galway Bay FM. He joined Dublin's FM 104 in 2000 as their weekend breakfast show presenter where he remained until he transferred to the newly opened Cork's RedFM.
Red FM career
Cunningham started at Cork's Red FM presenting DYP OFF, a four-hour dance music show featuring commercial and underground tracks. The early part of the show featured new and classic commercial dance hits. Between 8-10 pm the show played underground house and guest mixes. At that time he was also in-house producing the Irish edition of Pete Tongs essential selection from the B.B.C. and Roger Sanchez international show Release yourself, both of which aired on RedFM on Friday nights. In 2004 KC moved to Red Drive from 5-7 pm weekdays and continued to present dance show formats. He appeared in the radio industryXtrax magazine in their "one to watch" feature, and was positioned in the Xtrax Awards "Irish radio presenter of the year top 5" in 2004, 2005 and 2007. The Sunday business post published a digital audio production's top ten radio talent index in 2005, KC was positioned at No 2 after R.T.E.'s Ryan Tubridy.
''The Red Rooster Breakfast Show''
In 2005, after the departure of Charlie Wolfe, Cunningham took over The Red RoosterBreakfast Show, initially presenting the show on his own. Here he teamed up with female co-host Viv Crowley, then Steven Cooper, and later Mark Linehan. From 2007 until the end of the show in 2010, the KC & Lenny formula brought The Red Rooster Breakfast Show to the number 1 rated breakfast show in Cork for under 35s. The show also won several P.P.I. radio awards, winning best breakfast show in Ireland for 2008 and 2009. KC also won " Music broadcaster of the year" in 2007 and the P.P.I. award for "Best on air promotion".
