Have a listen to the clip on this page. It's from Richard Bacon's BBC Radio 5 Live show a few days ago, and features an excerpt of an interview with sacked TalkSPORT presenter Jon Gaunt. Well, I say interview. It is, unsurprisingly, a Gaunt monologue. It's interesting to imagine what it would have been like if a guest had tried the same tricks on Gaunt's show, back when he had one. In particular that hideous, smug "Over to you". Said guest would have been reminded in no uncertain terms whose show it was, I'm guessing.
As it happens, I believe there is a place for Gaunt's style of radio, but I also believe that, to pull it off, you have to be far cleverer than Gaunt seems to be. By all means be contrarian and controversial. Go ahead and wind people up. Feel free to cloak yourself in righteous indignation. Don't, however, lose your rag, whatever you do. You'll have lost the argument, and your job too.
Tommy Boyd was very good at it. He'd simply counter whatever the caller was saying. This had the effect of properly testing their arguments and beliefs, without Boyd himself ever making his own genuinely held opinion apparent.
ReplyDeleteNeil at Cook'd and Bomb'd is a major Boyd fan and has played me some recordings of him in action, and he's great, but there's mischief and humour at work there. With Gaunt, there's precious little of either. Also, with Boyd, the argument was the thing, not the opinion itself. With Gaunt, his opinion is the thing and IT MUST PREVAIL.
ReplyDeleteGaunt is living proof that it is possible to be abused not enough as a child.
ReplyDeleteThe very end of the clip is the best bit - Jon Gaunt yelling "It's about freedom of speech!" as he prevents Richard Bacon from talking...
ReplyDeleteFinally caught the clip you linked to. Although it's always quite funny litening to Richard Bacon being steamrollered (he seems out of his depth no matter what the subject is), Gaunt's method seems to be not letting anyone else get a word in and TALKING MORE LOUDLY.
ReplyDeleteJuust another loudmouthed shock jock who'll be forgotten about in a few months.
I find it interesting that people believe that Television and Radio should be a platform for their opinion and that balanced arguments have no place there anymore. Sadly started by Central Weekend the trial by presenter / TV audience mean that our TV and Radio becomes more like a red top for opinion every day.
ReplyDelete