“AH, the questions just didn’t suit you today, Tom,” the kindly velvet voice would intone as another citizen had just made a dunce of himself on RTÉ’ Radio’s “Just a Minute Quiz.”

In an era of national innocence, long before social media, the howlers of answers swept the country by word of mouth alone. People collected, and sometimes invented, the uproarious wrong answers given to the much-loved pop quizmaster, Larry Gogan.

Q. “What was Hitler’s first name?” A. “Heil.”

Q. “What is an Ayatollah?” A. “A ceilí band.”

Q. “Can you divide 48 by 16?” A. “I can.”

Across six decades, Larry Gogan was the definitive voice of popular music radio in Ireland. News of his death today, aged 81, reminds the nation that he was the companion and guide for a society going through profound change, from the sometimes stultifying 1940s and 1950s, into the “swinging 60s” and the ensuing torrid decades.

Larry Gogan’s death came on the day another broadcast legend, Marian Finucane, is being laid to rest. It comes just two months after the demise of the definitive voice of radio and television, Gay Byrne.

While Marian Finucane was a mainstay of news and current affairs, and Gay Byrne mixed those areas with light entertainment, for Larry Gogan pop music was absolutely everything from the start to the end.

He tirelessly promoted Irish musicians and supported their efforts to the hilt. In a showbiz and broadcasting world of bitchiness and backbiting, it would be very hard to find somebody who would say a bad word about Larry Gogan.

Larry Gogan began broadcasting from the top floor of the GPO in Dublin on what was then called Raidió Éireann in 1961, on the same day another broadcast star, Terry Wogan, began work.

It truly was an era of national innocence, later epitomised by the Taoiseach, Jack Lynch, waiting patiently to do a political interview after Larry Gogan had first read out a series of live radio advertisements for cheese, soap powder, and dry cleaning.

By now it is an era which many people cannot recall, a time of 15-minute sponsored radio shows, of Radio Luxembourg being listened to on a transistor under the blankets, and radio advertisements being read out live with dull terms like: “Invest today in the Irish Permanent at 4.5pc tax free.”

In 1979 he moved from what had become RTÉ Radio in Donnybrook to the new pop music station, first called RTÉ Radio 2, and which eventually became 2FM. He was the definitive voice of that station continuing with them for 40 years and he only stepped down in January 2019.

But in reality, he never retired as he moved to the station RTÉ Gold, remaining a familiar figure in the Donnybrook canteen holding court each day with his long-time friends. The studio he used most frequently was known to all staffers as the “Larry Gogan Suite” and the station management latterly recognised this fact by erecting a plaque there formally acknowledging the name.

Larry Gogan was born in Dublin in 1938 where his family ran a newsagent’s shop in Fairview. He had early ambitions to be an actor and briefly acted professionally as a young man.

But his love of rock ‘n’ roll was nurtured by listening to Radio Luxembourg, and this also led to his interest in broadcasting. Like so many of his generation he was a devoted Elvis Presley fan.

His first break came via one of the regular customers at his father’s shop. Maura Fox produced sponsored radio programs, which were then the mainstay of Raidió Éireann, and she helped set up an audition.

He first began working at Eamon Andrews Studios in Harcourt Street, where much of the sponsored programming was produced, before joining RTÉ in 1961. One of his first radio shows was a pop programme sponsored by Craven A cigarettes.

In the 1960s, he moved into television presenting programmes with such swinging titles as “Pickin’ The Pops” and “Go 2 Show.” In an interview back in 2007, he admitted that he was a bit star-struck for a time by his foray into television, and bowled over by the recognition he got from the general public.

“It was incredible, you couldn’t go anywhere,” he recalled. But he was soon wary of his fame.

“That kind of attention is not to be taken seriously,” he mused. It was soon clear that music radio was his true medium. There were offers to move to the BBC and even storied Radio Luxembourg, which broadcast in English from the little principality until it finally closed in 1992.

But he turned these down for family reasons. He married his childhood sweetheart, Florrie, and the couple had five children. His wife died in 2002 leaving him bereft and family and friends noted that his own death meant he could now rejoin her.

For many listeners in rural and urban Ireland he brought a welcome relief with rock and pop music from a sometimes heavy and wordy radio schedule. His weekly show “Discs-a-Gogan” was required listening for these young people.

The launch of RTÉ Radio 2 in 1979, in response to the proliferation of commercial music stations, really allowed Larry Gogan to flourish. Other colleagues on the station like Gerry Ryan, Marty Whelan and Dave Fanning, also became household names.

The first song he played on the new station was “Like Clockwork” by Bob Geldoff’s Boomtown Rats. He was later a keen fan of the iconic band, U2, who he admitted were his absolute favourites, and he usually got the privilege of being first to play their new releases.

His broadcasting style was light touch and always positive in tone. Listeners found he could cheer them up and help them through gloomy times. Larry Gogan also created his own radio traditions like being the first to play a Christmas song in December, or his own fabled “Golden Hour.”

And Larry Gogan’s reputation will always be linked to the “Just a Minute” quiz slot with listeners’ uproarious wrong answers. One caller told him the “Great Wall” was in Crumlin, Dublin, the site of a Chinese takeaway of the same name.

But he was obliged to debunk one quiz myth. The question: “Complete the saying – as happy as …?” was never answered on air with the words “A pig in s***.”

That piece of folkore was invented for Larry Gogan by another popular legend, Brendan Grace, also now sadly deceased.

• Read more: ‘The questions just didn’t suit you’ – Larry Gogan’s most memorable moments in radio

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