Never let it be said Matt Cooper panders to the public mood. While the country basks in the sunshine, the presenter of The Last Word (Today FM, weekdays) sets about introducing an overcast hue to the day as he opens Tuesday’s show. “Let’s start with the weather, which has put a smile on many people’s faces, but others are worried as to the environmental consequences,” Cooper says, doing his best to ensure any smiles are short-lived. Sun’s out, glum’s out!In his defence, Cooper isn’t being a gratuitous killjoy. Rather, in asking why we’re experiencing such high temperatures so early in the year, he’s following his natural journalistic inquisitiveness. Not that it makes his discussion any more cheery. Cathal Nolan of the online site Ireland’s Weather Channel sees the current hot spell as abnormal: “It doesn’t bode well for later in the summer.”This ominous prediction is a little ray of sunshine compared with the prognosis of the climate scientist Peter Thorne, however. “This is what we expect when you play Russian roulette with the climate system,” he tells the host, triggering a discussion on the need to quit fossil fuels for the sake of “our economic security and social cohesion”. After only a few minutes the feelgood factor has well and truly evaporated, no matter that it’s an urgent and necessary conversation.But all is not lost. The mood in the studio takes a screeching U-turn when Cooper is suddenly interrupted by his Today FM colleague Louise Cantillon. She’s there to quiz Cooper, a Leeside native, about his Cork credentials as part of Mayhem, an annual stationwide campaign whose main aim seemingly is to prove that wacky on-air pranks didn’t die out with old-school “hey wow” jocks.Cooper, a broadcaster usually comfortable with levity, sounds distinctly uncomfortable as Cantillon asks him to identify lyrics on various Corkcentric tunes – “Would you ever shag off?” he scoffs at one point – while obliging him to incrementally don the GAA strip of her home county, Limerick, with each wrong answer. But despite being forced to wear the colours of Munster hurling rivals – “The bucket hat, that’s an indignity” – Cooper is ultimately a good sport about the whole caper.[ A spirit-sapping encounter between Shane Coleman and Graham LinehanOpens in new window ]Mostly, however, he sails calmly between the atmospheric extremes of gloomy and zany. He keeps a firm hand on the tiller when discussing Government expenditure of €500 million on emergency accommodation, without being above the odd provocation. Speaking to the Fianna Fáil TD Séamus McGrath, he suggests the number of people in such dire straits is “because you’re not providing enough accommodation”, while asking the Sinn Féin TD Eoin Ó Broin if the housing crisis is partly because “we can’t cope with the influx of people coming in”. (Ó Broin cautions against such potential scapegoating.)Equally, the host sounds at ease yet engaged when talking cultural matters, such as his regular music slot with Dee Reddy and John Caddell. Cooper may not buy into unadulterated sun worship, but he’s a reliable presence in more changeable conditions.There’s no chance of the good vibes being clouded over on The Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show (Today FM, weekdays), as the host greets a luminous Wednesday morning with undisguised delight: “It’s another boiler!” Dempsey continues in this jaunty vein throughout the show, exuding happiness whether he’s introducing summery pop classics such as Club Tropicana, by Wham! (“with an exclamation mark”), or musing with quiz contestants on the chances of the warm weather lasting over the bank-holiday weekend.Then again, Dempsey always has a sunny disposition. Come rain or shine, he starts the day in unfailingly good humour, with a laid-back affability so natural that he sounds like an old pal shooting the breeze in aimless yet enjoyable fashion. True, Dempsey makes few demands of his listeners, but his ostensibly simple approach rests on long experience, from his light but sure on-air touch to the affection he has built up with audiences since the 1980s.It’s not a totally solo endeavour. The long-running Gift Grub slot of the impressionist and comedian Mario Rosenstock remains a key fixture on Dempsey’s programme, though the strain of delivering a daily topical skit sometimes shows. [ Matt Cooper defends Ozempic users: ‘I was one of the very early adopters’Opens in new window ]Tuesday’s sketch about the hurling manager Davy Fitzgerald is delivered in a high-pitched, low-subtlety frenzy that certainly succeeds in stirring the listener from any slumber, if only to turn down the radio. Rosenstock himself may well be aware that his long-running strand can sound tired: mimicking the broadcaster Dáithí Ó Sé on Wednesday’s slot, he makes a crack about “running out of material”.Dempsey, however, continues to distract listeners from the woes of the world in guilelessly infectious fashion. The closest he gets to negativity is when he confesses that he’ll surreptitiously “give the finger” to anything that annoys him while driving, be it on the radio or on the road. But even this admission is delivered in characteristically genial tones.The lack of artifice appears genuine. Ambushed as part of the Mayhem campaign by his fellow presenter Ray Foley, Dempsey is asked, with apparent sincerity, how he still does it every morning. “I love it,” he replies, slightly sheepishly. It’s a corny answer, he concedes, but he’s sticking to it. “I’m not getting any younger, and sometimes I feel a bit embarrassed that I’m still able to do this and still want to do it. But I am enthusiastic.”His enthusiasm is not only apparently undimmed but also still winning new fans. Dempsey’s show has been the top-rated programme on Irish commercial radio for some time, consistently increasing his audience numbers over the past year. In this achievement he’s joined by Cooper, another station veteran who has seen his figures rise. Between them Dempsey and Cooper have been broadcasting on Today FM for close to an astonishing 50 years. Whoever said this was no country for old men clearly hasn’t been walking the corridors of Marconi House recently.With the media world in ever greater flux, the resilient performance of such seasoned presenters is heartening, if not without caveats. Today FM’s recent strong showings haven’t been built on diversity: Cantillon is the only host on the station’s weekday schedule who isn’t a middle-aged (or older) man. But, like the subject of climate change on a sunny day, that’s a subject for another time. For now, Dempsey and Cooper are allowed to do a little basking of their own.Moment of the weekAs Newstalk listeners will know, the station’s roving reporter Henry McKean is an intrepid and courageous soul, conducting vox pops in unpredictable and sometimes difficult situations. But Monday’s report for Seán Moncrieff on National Brother’s Day – it’s a thing – is a more personal challenge. McKean remembers his brother Charlie, who died of a heart attack a month ago while pursuing his passion of sailing. It’s a touching tribute to a clearly beloved sibling, with McKean’s understated style scarcely concealing his emotion. “We don’t know if they’ll be around,” he plaintively says of such relations. “Do tell them that you love them.” As with the recent on-air tribute to his late mother by the RTÉ Radio 1 presenter Shay Byrne, it’s oddly touching to hear our broadcasters grieve so openly. One can only sympathise.