Anton Savage stays just on the right side of clever-clever on Newstalk Breakfast – The Irish Times
Flor Lynch
Anton Savage stays just on the right side of clever-clever on Newstalk Breakfast
The broadcaster’s most striking skill is his ability to keep things snappy. On RTÉ, the Drivetime duo’s chemistry clicks
Of all the skills Anton Savage brings to his job, perhaps the most striking is his ability to keep things snappy. As the host of Newstalk Breakfast (weekdays), Savage is obliged to cover a wide range of items, a task he performs with assurance in each instance. Even so, brevity rather than gravity appears to be the main imperative as he runs through his topics, most of which he wraps up in less than five minutes.
Far from being a weakness, Savage’s approach has emerged as one of his strengths as presenter of the breakfast slot. His nippy pace helps sustain the spirits of his morning audience: no matter how grim a particular news story may be, another soon comes along to help change the mood.
So it is on Tuesday’s edition, which is freighted with an awful slate of news from Dublin’s streets. “It was a long weekend marred by incidents of violence,” Savage mournfully comments, referring to the fatal stabbing of Qayyum Balogun in the city centre and the death of the knife-assault victim Thomas Griffin in Chapelizod over the bank holiday break.
The host hears the harrowing details of Balogun’s murder from the crime journalist Mick O’Toole before asking the Labour Dublin city councillor Dermot Lacey the question that invariably arises in the aftermath of such terrible events: “What does this say about the safety of our capital city?”
Lacey says the judiciary needs to hand down tougher sentences for possession of knives, though the question of whether such a specific measure would have a significant impact on overall crime isn’t pursued further, not least because the councillor’s allotted five minutes are up.
The comparative lack of depth in the discussion might be frustrating, at least if listeners had time to think about it. Instead, before one can get too glum about night-time Dublin seemingly resembling an urban dystopia, Savage quickly moves on to another question, this time asking if what the capital actually needs is more opportunities for nocturnal drinking.
He speaks to Donall O’Keeffe of the Licensed Vintners Association about a new survey – coincidentally commissioned by the organisation, which represents Dublin publicans – that finds three-quarters of people support new licences for nightclubs to remain open until 4.30am.
O’Keeffe, unsurprisingly, favours liberalising the licensing laws, citing consumer demand, but his host, surely mindful of his earlier discussions, points to possible knock-on effects beyond the premises.
“What about the potential impact of it on people outside the pubs and clubs?” he asks, pointing to the resultant influx of revellers on to the streets in the small hours. “That creates all of the issues with public safety, with public order, with noise.”
Again, it’s a short segment, though Savage makes his point with punchy aplomb. But throughout it all he maintains the knowing geniality that has long been his trademark. “Whatever happened to Leeson Street?” he asks, his query about Dublin’s overpriced nightclub strip of the 1980s and 1990s posed in a spirit of bleary nostalgia rather than rigorous interrogation.
He’s in similarly chirpy form as he contemplates the beginning of exam season on Wednesday: “God help them, the Leaving starts today.”
Ultimately, this tone, just on the right side of being too clever-clever, is the host’s main asset, allowing him to assume, with apparent minimum effort, the breakfast duties previously carried out by two hosts. Savage’s swift turnaround of stories may prevent you from unduly dwelling on the darker ramifications of news stories, but his singular style keeps you coming back for more.
Qayyum Balogun’s murder receives more attention on Drivetime (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays) when the reporter Una Kelly talks to the victim’s mother. Teslimot Balogun understandably sounds shell-shocked as she describes her late son as “a very funny guy. He’s always friendly.”
It’s an emotionally wrenching item, even more so when Qayyum’s stepmother, Loveth Patrick, joins the conversation to demand justice, although, as is often the case in interviews with recently bereaved relatives, one can’t entirely shake the uncomfortable sense of being a voyeur on someone else’s unimaginable grief.
Equally, however, Kelly’s report makes clear the stark human tragedy that lies behind the lurid headlines.
When not dealing with such difficult subjects, a surprisingly playful atmosphere prevails on Drivetime, with its hosts, Katie Hannon and Colm Ó Mongáin, sounding as if they’ve finally hit on the optimum formula for their on-air chemistry.
Their chat with the former MTV presenter Emma Ledden about whether pop music gets enough respect allows the pair to highlight their contrasting tastes and, implicitly anyway, their differing personas.
Hannon is palpably sympathetic to Ledden’s assertion that pop isn’t taken as seriously as rock, jazz or classical, “the cultural idea that if everyone likes it, it can’t be cool, it can’t be sophisticated”.
Between enthusiastic endorsements of Kylie Minogue and Olivia Rodrigo, Hannon makes the point the bulk of music writers are men, with biases to match. Ledden agrees: “These critics are male. They’re going to pick Radiohead over Rihanna.” (As a sometime music journalist myself, I plead guilty to the first charge, though I may contest the second one.)
Ó Mongáin, meanwhile, shores up his pop credentials in a less convincing manner, by citing the influence of vintage pop on cult indie acts. “One of my favourite bands, The Jesus and Mary Chain, would openly say that they borrowed from Phil Spector’s producing The Shangri-Las to inform their sound,” he says, sounding suspiciously cool and sophisticated. (The pernickety music anorak in me has to point out that it was Shadow Morton, not the homicidal Spector, who produced the legendary New York girl group.) Either way, it’s an enjoyable segment that allows the presenters’ distinct sensibilities to bounce off each other.
It’s not just on musical matters that the pair diverge. Chatting with the Radio 1 sports presenter Marie Crowe, it’s noted that Hannon’s home county of Kerry is facing her co-host’s native Kildare in the All-Ireland football championship.
“We might have to wear jerseys,” says Ó Mongáin, whose GAA loyalties are less conspicuously paraded than his musical preferences, as Hannon, a fervent fan, mischievously notes: “How will we get Colm out of his trendy T-shirts?”
Whether or not Hannon and Ó Mongáin end up togging out in their county colours, their partnership is changing for the better. They’ll be a winning team yet.
Moment of the week
In contrast to her station colleague Anton Savage, Claire Byrne (Newstalk, weekdays) trades in lengthy discussions, even when the topic seems unpromising: devoting 20 minutes to Ireland’s deer population might seem excessive.
But Byrne’s debate between Killian McLaughlin of Wild Ireland and Donegal councillor Michael McClafferty is informative, measured and absorbing as it deals with the emotive subject of culling large deer numbers – estimated by some at 600,000 – to improve road safety.
McClafferty wants a humane cull – “We’re not looking for the wild west” – while McLaughlin prefers a “science-led approach”, pointing out that 78,000 deer were culled in 2023 yet accidents continue: “If culling is the answer, why is the problem getting worse?”
No definitive answer emerges, but it’s a bracing piece. Never a cull moment, so to speak.
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