Cooney began his career with Eamonn Cooke's Radio Dublin in the late 1970s as Aidan Jay. He went on to a number of other pirate stations in Dublin including ARD, Big D, Community Broadcasting Corporation, Annabel Radio, Sunshine Radio, Radio Nova, Q102 and Treble TR. Aidan was the weekend breakfast presenter on Century Radio (Ireland's first national commercial radio station) between September and November 1989. He then was involved with Dublin's 98FM (initially called Classic Hits 98FM), initially as Head of Sport ("our man Aidan Cooney"). He eventually got to present the weekday breakfast show with Kara Hanahoe, before leaving for TV3 in 1999. When Newstalk launched in Dublin, he was initially its weekend sports presenter.