RADIO REVIEW:RADIO IS THE most democratic medium. To be heard, just pick up the phone. Take The Phoneshow With Adrian Kennedy (FM104, City Channel, Mon-Thur). It's not the poor man's Liveline. It's the poor man's poor man's Liveline.
The Phoneshow is simulcast on City Channel, the television channel that sometimes pops up on your cable first, before you have a chance to change it. Between items on violence, sexual abuse, alcoholism etc, the TV simulcast on Monday evening showed ads for hangover tablets and chat-lines with semi-naked women, winking and wiggling at the camera.
Kennedy sits in a stripy shirt, eyes darting around the badly-lit studio, which adds to the grimness. On Monday, he took up the case of Oliver Newman, a former carpenter from Artane. "Should a 71-year-old be released from prison after one year after sexually abusing a young boy?" Kennedy asked. In April, Judge Katherine Delahunt at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court suspended the final two years of sentence due to Newman's age and directed he undergo five years post-release supervision. Newman had pleaded guilty.
"Mr B" called in. Aged 14, he said he was assaulted by Newman in the changing room of a north Dublin swimming pool, between July and August 2003. He was asked to talk us through what happened. Which he did. Kennedy made sure to say that he "admired" him for going on the radio. Mr B obviously wanted to highlight the case, but going on a radio show, especially this radio show, won't reverse that or any other prison sentence.
"Does anybody feel that the judge made the right call?" Kennedy asked, clearly feeling the absence of the usual incensed listeners, pitted against each other like strays in a dog fight. "Adam" called in. He said he was abused (in a separate case). He said the memories would last a lifetime, unlike the perpetrator's sentence. "Uh-hmm," Kennedy said at intervals, eyes still a-flickering. Adam said he'd like to slit Mr B's perpetrator's throat. At that point, I switched off.
This is supposedly a forum for the disenfranchised. It is the lowest common denominator, most disingenuous kind of talk radio. Its purpose is to vent, then vent some more. FM104 also broadcasts The Strawberry Alarm Clock. It's like what happens to gremlins: late at night, if you feed them, they turn. As if alluding to some higher purpose, Kennedy asks his guests what they hope to achieve by going on this show. One could ask him the same question.
Despite my snarky remarks at the outset of the summer about RTÉ's lack of nous when it comes to trying out new talent, Myles Dungan's summer stint on Today (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays) has taught me a valuable lesson: life isn't always fair. Pat Kenny is the Chosen One, with Ryan Tubridy on the inside. There just doesn't seem to be room for another authoritative, if at times pompous, middle-aged prime time daily presenter on RTÉ.
Dungan has navigated sensitive issues in recent weeks with care. His interviews with Kathy Marks, who wrote Trouble in Paradise, and particularly with Patrick Touher who wrote Scars That Run Deep (an interview which Dungan rightly and gently cut short, given the time of day), were both excellent.
On Wednesday, Dungan interviewed Roy Greenslade about Gary Glitter, the 1970s pop singer and convicted sex offender who, when this item was broadcast, was refusing to board a plane for Britain. Greenslade spoke of the media as being guardians on the side of the people, allowing them to be "sanctimonious" and "self-righteous . . . but nobody wants Glitter to say anything to another broadcaster." Dungan asked if he was his own worst enemy, given his identifiable appearance. (Glitter left prison in Thailand sporting a photogenic, Ming the Merciless grey goatee.) Greenslade said he would have sent a photographer too, had he been the editor of a popular daily, but said the editors' code of practice in the UK prevents newspapers paying a convicted felon. Though, it should be noted, editors have found ways around that loophole in the past.
In other news, Newstalk, forever tinkering with its schedule, is proof that with more competition, you get more of the same. Big Tom will join the ranks of Georgie Porgie. Tom Dunne will take the 9am-12pm slot on Newstalk 106-108 - they get cranky if I don't put in the numbers - which means Brenda Power and Orla Barry will move. Your Call never did make the same kind of talk radio splash as Liveline or, heaven help us, FM104's Phoneshow.
Aside from Claire Byrne, it will mean an all-male weekday line-up. "Tom Dunne is no stranger to mid-morning talk radio, having presented The Ray D'Arcy Show on Today FM this summer," the release reads. That's a bit rich considering his similar show with "occasional music tracks". On Newstalk, he is going head-to-head with every last hour of D'Arcy's (to which I contribute). But Dunne is a nice chap, and this move took guts, so all my personalities wish him well. That said, Today FM and Newstalk are owned by Denis O'Brien, and Newstalk will join Today FM in Marconi House, so Dunne is more like a bee flying from one flower to another, while staying in the same greenhouse.
qfottrell@irish-times.ie