The most interesting news this week, apart from the new army legislation and which of my friends got flowers on Valentine’s Day, is the fact that Andy Gray and Richard Keys have joined talkSPORT radio. This is the UK radio station ‘for men who like to talk sport’. Actually it might be a blokish meander through footballing trivia, debates, phone-ins, jokes and controversial opinions but some women love it too….
And personally, I am a bit of a fan of Gray and Keys since they lost their jobs at Sky Sorts for making sexist comments about a female assistant referee, (linesman in bloke speak). They joked unashamedly about Sian Massey’s appearance and women not knowing the offside rule, while they thought their microphones were off. Actually, so what? It was mildly amusing at the time, a bit of tongue-in-cheek, blokish banter. Like listening to two men in a bar after a few pints. They didn’t know they were being recorded and they did apologise. Did they have to lose their job too? You can’t legislate for the way people think!
And the consequence of all this is that Sky Sport’s loss is TalkSort’s gain. Thank you mum for my Internet radio Christmas pressie. TalkSPORT is hilarious. It keeps me sane and sniggering for much of the day. Today’s burning questions: which was the bigger achievement, Arsenal beating Barcelona or Spurs beating AC Milan? And do you need a big bum to ski? For anyone who loves tabloid humour, it is the ultimate tabloid radio experience. You can’t do better for laughs than quality phone-in moments like the Scottish football fan calling to ask why Antti Niemi (goal keeper) never gets a game for Scotland? The presenter incredulous, ‘He’s Finnish.’ Caller: ‘He’s not finished, he’s only 28’……
It is only day four in their new (and apparently less lucrative) career and Richard and Andy are not yet as much fun as Mike Parry, their predecessor. He sang along to Meat Loaf on air and presented the Brokeback Mountain moment of the season award. Great stuff. And I am all for men rambling on about whether or not you can slow-dance to the On the Buses theme, talking utter rubbish about Sporting Braga hailing from Czechoslovakia, and salad and pork pie diets. But it is early days and perhaps the new boys are waiting for the media scrutiny to wear off. I certainly haven’t heard them explain the offside rule yet either.
Give me Keys and Gray any day, over the likes of their self-righteous critics, Rio Ferdinand for one, who tweeted that their comments on Sky were ‘prehistoric’. This is rich coming from the man who got caught on camera in Ayia Napa sex romps and referred to the women involved as ‘birds’ in his book. Thanks for your insightful contribution to the ‘sexism in football’ debate but I really don’t care what Rio thinks. Who does? Apart from contributors to footymums.com, that is. But I am a big fan of talkSPORT; it’s not just a bloke thing!
