Wapping good time

On Monday I was interviewed by Jon Gaunt on Sun Talk Radio. It was great fun. But first I had to drive to Wapping, home of News International, where the Sun and Sun Talk Radio are based.

Years after the bitter union battles of the 1980s, News International still feels like a fortress. Once inside, however, I found Sun Talk Radio to be a remarkably convivial place. The atmosphere was friendly and the facilities are excellent, albeit on a small scale. (If there was a bunker mentality it was because it felt like we were, literally, in a bunker.)

On this evidence presenter Jon Gaunt is rather more mellow than his TalkSport persona. And there is no comparison with his aggressive stage act which I found quite uncomfortable when I saw it in St Albans earlier this year.

He sounds like he's having the time of his life, surrounded by colleagues who are getting a huge buzz from running their own mini radio station. And as a columnist on the paper, he's secure in the knowledge that he's unlikely to get fired for speaking out of turn.

I hope that News International sees this as a long-term initative because there's no doubt that it will take time - years, perhaps - to build a reasonable audience. A lot of people are still suspicious of internet radio and the technical problems I experience when trying to listen to other internet radio stations are a serious turn-off.

I understand there are plans to broadcast Sun Talk Radio 24 hours a day - no mean undertaking - and if that happens there's no reason why it can't become a serious and influential "voice of free speech". But it won't happen overnight.

You can listen to my interview with Jon Gaunt for (I think) seven days HERE. According to the blurb, "Director of Forest (Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco) Simon Clark looks back on the 30th anniversary of his organisation" ...