Steve King, now managing director of Emap’s Radio Aire in Leeds,
started out as a radio presenter. Harking back to his days behind the
mic, he recalls one particular on-air incident that still leaves him
feeling hot under the collar.
It happened during Viking FM’s morning advice slot, which involved King
reading out listeners’ questions to a counsellor. ’The debate usually
revolved around irritating next-door neighbours and truculent
teenagers,’ he recalls. On this particular morning, however, he was on
automatic pilot and failed to notice a rather unsuitable item slipping
through the net.
’I was halfway through reading the question when I realised the listener
wanted to know how he could ... er ... please his wife in bed, to put it
delicately.’
King pictured his ratings plummeting as mid-morning coffee drinkers
clucked with disapproval. Yet, the question had to be answered. King
crossed his fingers, whispered an apology to his wife and replied to the
question as best he could. ’I talked about what my wife likes, sticking
to topics like breakfast in bed and bunches of flowers, but it wasn’t
easy.’
Later on that day, he discovered that someone in production had set him
up and passed on a phantom question.
