The All-New Suggestive Sports Show
2By The Spotter
It all got a wee bit queasy on Radio Sport just before the Friday 1pm news bulletin.
A certain host, who a few months back took part in a vitriolic exchange with that jurassic artefact, aka ‘The Man in the Stand’ on the viability of netball as a professional sport, was at it again yesterday in showing his generally medieval disposition towards the opposite sex.
It all went something like this: After a cogent, reasoned discussion with guest Dale Budge on the merits of Shaun Johnson at the Warriors, mine host just could not help himself at the conclusion as he passed thoughts on how beautiful he thought Budge’s partner was (she was in the studio at the time). He then proceeded to inform Budge just how lucky Budge was to have, in effect, landed her. The inference was that Budge was out of her league.
The above is perhaps not so bad in itself, but our man then got a bit carried away in pondering aloud the chances of securing a hug with her (good grief), and then rounded off his fascination by dedicating and playing Joe Cocker’s rendition of ‘You are so beautiful’.
Was that professional behaviour when live on a supposedly serious Radio station? Fairly borderline, you would have thought. Even if it were in jest. Not to mention it sounded damned sleazy.
Something to ponder: If a female were directing those comments towards a male in exactly the same scenario, would anyone bat an eyelid? Possibly not. But to have followed through on the initial comments and dedicate that song live on air to another man’s wife during a sports talkshow was just plain weird. And it smacked somewhat of misogyny.
Is this really what we expect of our talkback hosts? I’ll leave that one to you.
Missed how this came across on air. Even if Watto, Budge and Mrs Budge all thought it was a good laugh and no harm was done in the moment, it obviously didn’t translate on air, out of context. All well and good to have a laugh, but when you have a track record like his, you know what’s behind it.
Cheers, yeah it’s that old chestnut (and rightly, I suppose)- it’s only offensive if party the message is directed at finds it offensive. But on the other side is the issue of professionalism and previous form on the subject.
And just by the way, that is a hell of a picture that Graeme B. put with the piece, and trust me when I say I had nothing to do with that choice! Speaking of queasy…