Interview: Chris Tarrant (Evening Standard)
To the dismay of his rivals, Chris Tarrant is staying with the Breakfast Show. So what prompted the great U-turn? By David Rowan
CHRIS Tarrant is currently enjoying the most expensive lie-in in broadcasting history. Seven AM may not seem unduly indulgent - he has the school run to fit in, for a start, then the Who Wants to be a Millionaire? shows to record - but as his eight-week break is costing Capital Radio around £200,000 in holiday pay, you can imagine how hard the station fought to keep him.
Tarrant had, after all, announced his intention to quit the Breakfast Show by Christmas, exhausted and anxious, at 56, to see more of his wife, Ingrid, and their children. He didn't need the money: his reported £1.3 million salary is barely half what he gets for Millionaire. Still, there he was, signing up at the end of September for at least another year.
Now, for the first time, he is ready to explain what made him change his mind. Breaking into his first extended holiday since 1984 - "it's rather nice, actually" - he is sitting at a table in Shepherd's restaurant in Westminster, just back from his French property. He is initially cautious, warning that "there are whole areas that are off limits - corporate espionage, that kind of thing". But he soon relaxes with a beer and explains what was going through his mind.
"Mentally and physically, I just wanted out," he begins. "It was doing me in, I'd just had enough." He also worried about the effect his schedule was having on his daughter Sammy, 14, and son Toby, 11 (Chris and Ingrid each have two other children from previous marriages). "They've never known a day when they'd get up and not find that daddy's already gone and is on the radio. I had to redress this and give them some time. I needed to find a way in which I could be more of a dad, a husband."
Capital's executives realised that they were about to lose their greatest asset - a man credited with attracting 15 per cent of the company's ad revenue. "I wanted a breather and to change the face of the show, to make it much more fresh," says Tarrant. The turning point was a conversation he had with Ric Blaxill, Capital FM's programme controller, who had a major hand in the decision. "The bottom line is Ric reminded me how much I love radio. Maybe I'd forgotten, doing too much TV. He's a very energetic guy, just what we needed. So I suppose Blaxill is the number one reason I'm staying." The promised extra half-hour in bed also helped.
What about the goading by rival DJs such as Heart FM's Jono Coleman - who vowed to become London's top act? "There's a certain competitive element, I suppose," Tarrant admits. "I thought, why have I worked so hard to hold this thing at number one, and then give it up? I knew my decision to stay would stuff them in other radio stations' boardrooms - and that did give me a twisted pleasure."
His rolling contract means he is staying until at least early 2004. "And of course I'm not taking six months' holiday, as I've read. That would be ridiculous. We've just blocked it out into two or three long chunks."
He insists that his decision to stay was not about money. Yet, in doing so, he rocked the stock market. "I find the whole reaction scary," he says. "The company was valued at £18 million more the day after I signed. What's that all about? "
He recalls lunch in 1988 with Capital's then boss, Nigel Walmsley, when his first contract was up. "I thought, I've had a good laugh. I'm not sure about getting up at bloody 5am, but it had been fun while it lasted. Nigel said, 'We'd like to renew, going down the American route of signing you for 10 years'. I just laughed and said, 'If you think I'll still be getting out of bed at 5am to do some bloody radio show in 1998, you must be mad'. But here I am. There's one thing, though," he grins. "If I had signed, Capital would have saved a fortune."
Does he think uncertainty caused his show to lose 300,000 listeners, with Radio 4 suddenly overtaking Capital FM? He moves into full attack mode. "People like to write, 'Capital aren't doing too well', or 'Arsenal have lost three out of four games'. I bet you now, this time next year Capital will be back as the leader in London. We always go down in the summer. The true test of what we can achieve will be next spring. You'll get me back well rested and up for it."
THE show, relaunching on 6 January, features a new team including David Briggs from Who Wants to be A Millionaire? as "creative consultant" and Newsround's Becky Jago as co-presenter. In response to Caroline Feraday, the ex-Five Live presenter who told this page she turned down £500,000 to be Tarrant's number two, he says she was lying. "That's erroneous, she was never offered a job," he says. "She was auditioned by Ric and me and was on a short list but we weren't convinced she was good enough. Maybe she believed she wasn't going to get it so she took another offer. Of course she wasn't offered £500,000. Anyone who walks away from that would be an idiot. I think she's scored an own goal, actually."
(Feraday, in response, denies having "auditioned" for Tarrant but was "definitely offered the job. If Chris can show me the tape, I'll give him £500,000," she said).
He is equally forthright on Feraday's doubts that a man in his mid-fifties can relate to young listeners. "I'd say, talk to my kids," Tarrant replies. "It's the obligatory criticism - 'he's too old to rock and roll'. First, it's my job to keep up with things. Second, my house is just full of music - Eminem, Linkin Park, the new Darius."
His preferred listening would be Wogan - "he still makes me laugh, silly old fool" - but he worries that a growing dependence on market research and playlists will kill British radio.
So what if, as is rumoured, US radio giant Clear Channel - king of the automated playlist - tries to buy Capital? For a rare moment, Tarrant pauses. "It depends what they're like ... In any event, it won't affect my decision for 12 or 18 months. But it depends on whether they let me do my thing. If not ... I might be on my little bike, mightn't I?" In the meantime, he reminds me: "I'm still here. Don't bury me."
He grins as he leaves. "I'll see you again in a year," he says. "And you'll say, Tarrant, you bastard, you're still number one."
(Evening Standard, December 18 2002)
CHRIS Tarrant is currently enjoying the most expensive lie-in in broadcasting history. Seven AM may not seem unduly indulgent - he has the school run to fit in, for a start, then the Who Wants to be a Millionaire? shows to record - but as his eight-week break is costing Capital Radio around £200,000 in holiday pay, you can imagine how hard the station fought to keep him.
Tarrant had, after all, announced his intention to quit the Breakfast Show by Christmas, exhausted and anxious, at 56, to see more of his wife, Ingrid, and their children. He didn't need the money: his reported £1.3 million salary is barely half what he gets for Millionaire. Still, there he was, signing up at the end of September for at least another year.
Now, for the first time, he is ready to explain what made him change his mind. Breaking into his first extended holiday since 1984 - "it's rather nice, actually" - he is sitting at a table in Shepherd's restaurant in Westminster, just back from his French property. He is initially cautious, warning that "there are whole areas that are off limits - corporate espionage, that kind of thing". But he soon relaxes with a beer and explains what was going through his mind.
"Mentally and physically, I just wanted out," he begins. "It was doing me in, I'd just had enough." He also worried about the effect his schedule was having on his daughter Sammy, 14, and son Toby, 11 (Chris and Ingrid each have two other children from previous marriages). "They've never known a day when they'd get up and not find that daddy's already gone and is on the radio. I had to redress this and give them some time. I needed to find a way in which I could be more of a dad, a husband."
Capital's executives realised that they were about to lose their greatest asset - a man credited with attracting 15 per cent of the company's ad revenue. "I wanted a breather and to change the face of the show, to make it much more fresh," says Tarrant. The turning point was a conversation he had with Ric Blaxill, Capital FM's programme controller, who had a major hand in the decision. "The bottom line is Ric reminded me how much I love radio. Maybe I'd forgotten, doing too much TV. He's a very energetic guy, just what we needed. So I suppose Blaxill is the number one reason I'm staying." The promised extra half-hour in bed also helped.
What about the goading by rival DJs such as Heart FM's Jono Coleman - who vowed to become London's top act? "There's a certain competitive element, I suppose," Tarrant admits. "I thought, why have I worked so hard to hold this thing at number one, and then give it up? I knew my decision to stay would stuff them in other radio stations' boardrooms - and that did give me a twisted pleasure."
His rolling contract means he is staying until at least early 2004. "And of course I'm not taking six months' holiday, as I've read. That would be ridiculous. We've just blocked it out into two or three long chunks."
He insists that his decision to stay was not about money. Yet, in doing so, he rocked the stock market. "I find the whole reaction scary," he says. "The company was valued at £18 million more the day after I signed. What's that all about? "
He recalls lunch in 1988 with Capital's then boss, Nigel Walmsley, when his first contract was up. "I thought, I've had a good laugh. I'm not sure about getting up at bloody 5am, but it had been fun while it lasted. Nigel said, 'We'd like to renew, going down the American route of signing you for 10 years'. I just laughed and said, 'If you think I'll still be getting out of bed at 5am to do some bloody radio show in 1998, you must be mad'. But here I am. There's one thing, though," he grins. "If I had signed, Capital would have saved a fortune."
Does he think uncertainty caused his show to lose 300,000 listeners, with Radio 4 suddenly overtaking Capital FM? He moves into full attack mode. "People like to write, 'Capital aren't doing too well', or 'Arsenal have lost three out of four games'. I bet you now, this time next year Capital will be back as the leader in London. We always go down in the summer. The true test of what we can achieve will be next spring. You'll get me back well rested and up for it."
THE show, relaunching on 6 January, features a new team including David Briggs from Who Wants to be A Millionaire? as "creative consultant" and Newsround's Becky Jago as co-presenter. In response to Caroline Feraday, the ex-Five Live presenter who told this page she turned down £500,000 to be Tarrant's number two, he says she was lying. "That's erroneous, she was never offered a job," he says. "She was auditioned by Ric and me and was on a short list but we weren't convinced she was good enough. Maybe she believed she wasn't going to get it so she took another offer. Of course she wasn't offered £500,000. Anyone who walks away from that would be an idiot. I think she's scored an own goal, actually."
(Feraday, in response, denies having "auditioned" for Tarrant but was "definitely offered the job. If Chris can show me the tape, I'll give him £500,000," she said).
He is equally forthright on Feraday's doubts that a man in his mid-fifties can relate to young listeners. "I'd say, talk to my kids," Tarrant replies. "It's the obligatory criticism - 'he's too old to rock and roll'. First, it's my job to keep up with things. Second, my house is just full of music - Eminem, Linkin Park, the new Darius."
His preferred listening would be Wogan - "he still makes me laugh, silly old fool" - but he worries that a growing dependence on market research and playlists will kill British radio.
So what if, as is rumoured, US radio giant Clear Channel - king of the automated playlist - tries to buy Capital? For a rare moment, Tarrant pauses. "It depends what they're like ... In any event, it won't affect my decision for 12 or 18 months. But it depends on whether they let me do my thing. If not ... I might be on my little bike, mightn't I?" In the meantime, he reminds me: "I'm still here. Don't bury me."
He grins as he leaves. "I'll see you again in a year," he says. "And you'll say, Tarrant, you bastard, you're still number one."
(Evening Standard, December 18 2002)
posted by David Rowan at Wednesday, December 18, 2002
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