It was his wish that LMFM, where he worked for more than two decades, aired the interview posthumously, as he wanted to share his thanks with the station and his listeners.
“Today – and for one day only – we will begin by talking about me. Yes, I’m making the news today because as you have probably heard on LMFM’s news, my beloved family have announced that my death has occurred and I have left this earth,” the recording of Mr Reade began.
He introduced his friend and broadcaster Pat O’Shaughnessy, who helped him host his final, posthumous show, as he said he wanted to share parts of his personal life for the first time.
“I was just going to say that I know how weird it must be for you to turn on the radio now and to hear me talk about my very recent demise. If that is the case and you think that is too morbid, please turn the radio off now and don’t listen any more. I thought long and hard about doing this and I promise, the last thing I want to do is to upset anyone.”
Mr Reade began his career in radio at the age of 15, working for East Coast Radio in Wicklow, Tipp FM in Tipperary, XFM in Copenhagen and Midlands 103 in Tullamore, before working for LMFM for over two decades.
For the first time, he publicly shared his own experience as a victim of abuse as a child and his disappointment with the political system for their handling of child sexual abuse.
He said that politicians who didn’t listen “should be asking themselves questions internally” and “should examine their consciousness”.
“I say this as somebody who has never said it on the public airwaves before, but as someone who was sexually abused and raped from the age of seven.
“I understand the cause very well and I would also understand what can be difficult for people to understand about this and that it’s not just an assault – it’s something that goes way past that, the assault is irrelevant as time goes on.
“It’s something that cuts you up, it chews you up and it spits you out and it scars your soul and that’s something that I think people don’t understand, is what is at stake here,” he said.
Mr Reade said he began speaking about his experience privately “a long time ago”, describing it as “coming to terms with my demons”.
Mr Reade said he wanted to share his experience, but he didn’t want his final show to be a “droopy, weary, depressing interview” as he wanted it to “be my chance to say goodbye and thanks everybody” as he shared some of his “off the wall” music tastes, stories of his fundraising work and how the show helped people.
He told of his working class upbringing in Dublin, adding that he “had a lot of good luck” after leaving school at the age of 15.
“A lot of bad paid jobs and this that and the other, but I met a lot of good people along the way, some great people and always had this radio dream.”
Mr Reade, known for his robust questioning of politicians, said he would like to see a government that is “highly representative of the left”.
