McAnally joined Independent Newspapers in Dublin in 1970 as a junior reporter and worked for the daily
Irish Independent,
Evening Herald, and the weekly
Sunday Independent. During a five-year newspaper career he was an investigative reporter, crime reporter, health and social welfare correspondent, deputy motoring correspondent, and a columnist. He won the Journalist of the Year award in 1972 for breaking a story on how the
Irish Republican Army was training volunteers to fight in
Northern Ireland. He met his first wife Roisin Finnigan at the
Independent, where she worked as a copy taker. In 1975, McAnally joined RTÉ as a radio and television reporter. He worked in the newsroom for two years before moving into programme presenting on
The Politics Programme and
Youngline. As the host of
Youngline, he was the first person to introduce the fledgling music group
U2 to a television audience. In 1980, McAnally became RTÉ's youngest producer/director. He produced ''Ireland's Eye
, Non Stop Pop
, Moving Hearts in Concert
, Stockton's Wing in Concert
, Christmas at the Castle'', and directed a number of other shows. In 1982, he left to form Spearhead Productions and directed 152 shows in his first year. In 1984, McAnally joined forces with radio DJ
Vincent Hanley ("Fab Vinny") to form Green Apple Productions, where they created
MT USA, Europe's first terrestrial music video television series, and Hanley became Ireland's first
VJ. The show was broadcast on Sunday afternoons, repeated on Friday nights, and continued until 1987, when Hanley died of an AIDS-related illness. McAnally and the other Green Apple partner Bill Hughes decided to end the programme series rather than continue without Hanley. Shows at Green Apple included
Rapid Roulette,
Finding Fax Future, and
The Write Stuff. In 1987 and 1988 he made a trilogy of documentaries on AIDS. He later described them as a tribute to his friend and partner Vincent Hanley. In 1987, Green Apple Productions merged with Strongbow Film and Television Productions, a producer of documentaries, feature films, and television dramas. McAnally left Strongbow in 1989 and moved to London, where he freelanced as a producer and director. He worked with
The Children's Channel, directing 12 shows a week for their
British Satellite Broadcasting channel. He joined Buena Vista Productions (Disney) in London and produced
The Disney Club for
ITV for three seasons. After
Disney, he developed, wrote, produced and directed
Over The Wall at Brian Waddell Productions for the
BBC. The executive producer of
Over The Wall, Peter Murphy, introduced him to British pop duo
Ant & Dec, and he became their producer for
The Ant & Dec Show at the BBC,
Ant & Dec Unzipped at
Channel 4,
SM:TV Live and
CD:UK at ITV. He headed
Blaze Television at
Zenith Entertainment Ltd. In 2004, McAnally moved his home to Texas and commuted to London. In 2005,
DIRECTV in Los Angeles commissioned
CD:USA, a music show based on the
CD:UK format. McAnally moved to Los Angeles to run the show, and a year later, Blaze was sold to US media company
Shout! Factory, at which point McAnally became managing director of the company until the end of 2009. McAnally created ConorMac Productions in 2010. The company is based in
Bastrop, Texas, just outside Austin, and specialises in multi-camera directing and producing music, entertainment and other genres. ==References==