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The Best...radio phone-in host

DJ Danny Baker
  • Posted at 5:13am
  • 15 March 2007
  • by RhodriMarsden-RT

You'd be right to be wary of the unscripted nightmare that is the live radio phone-in. Presenter and listener alike are thrust into a scenario in which confused members of the public offer their ill-thought-out opinions on immigration, petrol prices or the "nanny state".

Or perhaps, later at night, you might hear bored, lonely callers lacing an otherwise inconsequential chat with precise details of their ailments - of which there are many.

They are no-win gambles, unlucky dips that quickly become a test of endurance: how long can you stay tuned in before sheer embarrassment forces you to dive headlong for the "off" switch?

Over several years and several radio stations, Danny Baker has become the only presenter who ensures that the headlong off-switch dive never, ever occurs. "You ring us up, we put you on the radio," he booms during his current regular slot on BBC London - but bitter listening experience tells us that surely it can't be that simple?

Does Danny attract a particularly erudite, witty listener? Are his producers exceptionally talented in filtering out the belligerent, the insane, the hypochondriacs? Or is it Danny's unerring ability to avoid contentious subjects and turn potentially problematic exchanges into air-punching triumphs? It may be a combination of all three, but whatever it is, it works. "Everything's for the best in the best of all possible worlds" is Danny's utopian cry, and when he's in full flow, you can't argue.

The rich seam of anecdotes that he has successfully prised out of the general public over the years beggars belief, and fortunately for us many of them can be rewound and replayed at Danny's Internet Treehouse at www.internettreehouse.co.uk.

There was the chap who, as a boy, persuaded his father to make him a wooden bow tie with Dundee United written on it, but the resulting piece of memorabilia was so colossal that he had to carry it to the game on the end of a long wooden pole.

Then there was the guy who, having won a competition to attend the premiere of "American Werewolf in London", misunderstood the phrase "dress appropriately" on the invite, turned up dressed as a wolf, and ended up splashed across a double page of the London Evening Standard the next day. Stories of this calibre crop up daily on the programme, providing us with something of a storytelling masterclass.

And if, like me, your own anecdotes are half-baked affairs that ramble on, lose people's attention and reduce you to shouting and gesticulating to try and get things back on track - well, you can always nick a few from Danny's show and pass them off as your own. Mum's the word.

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