Hear that? It's the sound of microphones being drawn at 50 paces. The jungle that is late night talk radio in Dublin is getting ready for the return of its original king. Be afraid, be very afraid.
So-called Shock Jock Chris Barry was the subject of a protracted legal battle last year, between his former employer FM104 and 98FM, the radio station that eventually succeeded in luring him away.
While none of the parties involved would discuss the issue, it is understood that on Monday night Barry will once again take to the airwaves in a bid to woo back his once loyal audience.
According to this week's listenership figures, FM104's very own sultan of shock - Adrian Kennedy - has succeeded in maintaining the Dublin audiences (around 77,000) built up by Barry during his eight-year reign.
The format which sees Dubliners air their grievances, prejudices and intimate secrets live on-air has been taken to a new level by Kennedy.
With a nod and a wink to US TV's Jerry Springer, members of Kennedy's occasional live studio audience have almost come to blows over some of the more popular late night subjects - homosexuals, travellers and crime.
"And refugees," says Kennedy. "They could talk about that all night".
The city's late night talk show phenomenon, was started by Father Michael Cleary who preached from the 98FM studio about the evil of condoms almost 10 years ago. Around the same time, Ciaran Gaffney, aka Chris Barry, was carving out a controversial niche for himself having been left to his own devices in a late night slot on FM104.
He got calls, he says, from people who wouldn't get on RTE. The rejects from tamer talkshows like Liveline and the Gerry Ryan Show. The ones who would be more at home with America's Howard Stern or UK Talk Radio's James Whale.
The programmes are pitched towards the working class community and they are the sometimes dubious stars of the show.
The ad campaign for Adrian Kennedy, which has resulted in phone calls to the Advertising Standards Authority, is more prominent on bus shelters in Tallaght and Darndale than in leafy suburbs on the city's southside.
"What's your point?" Kennedy asks his audience from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m., Sunday to Thursday. The studio air-conditioning is on full blast to keep him awake. The topic of tonight's discussion is written on a noticeboard. "Knackers and Carpets" it reads. Later there will be an x-rated discussion, snappily titled "Girls and Porn".
"What's your point, Jane," he asks. Jane says travellers are "smelly and filthy and have no breeding in them". Their carpets are "shite quality". They stand in a circle in her shop and "rob, rob, rob", she says.
The remarks, punctuated with expletives, remain largely unchallenged by Kennedy. The more Jane repeats this invective the more calls the show will get. Many phone in to complain about Jane's views. "Good PR for travellers. That makes a pleasant change on this show," comments Kennedy.
Jeremy Dixon is the show's producer. "The world is becoming too PC. People don't generalise anymore. On this show people do nothing but that. They say things like anyone that wears a short skirt is a slapper. They are ordinary Dublin people," he says.
"And if people are put off by ordinary Dubliners they are snobs," adds Kennedy.
These ordinary Dubliners have been tuning in, but in reduced numbers, to 98FMs Talkback host Paul Egan over the last six weeks. "I would be worried about the loose morals of some of the people," he says.
At the end of last month the topic discussed was the case of a Dublin taxi-driver who had been killed the night before in a collision with a group of joyriders. The man's daughter phoned up to talk to Egan about her grief. Later they talked to the man who had been driving the car that killed the taxidriver.
"We are tabloid radio," says producer Rory Cowen. "We rarely have experts, we try to get local stories, we want everyone to have an opinion".
Criticism from certain quarters that their shows serve little purpose except to foster racist views through ill-informed debate does not concern either side. And as the Barry v Kennedy chat-show host showdown looms, the only thing to keep them awake at night is thinking up new ways to shock.
"We don't claim to achieve anything. We are not trying to change the world, we want to entertain," says Kennedy.
Paul Egan concurs: "Vincent Browne has his arty farty show but it only peaks at 40,000 listeners nationwide. This is a successful format, you can't knock success."