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<\/p>\nChris Tarrant\u00a0is making a return to radio for the first time in more than ten years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The legendary broadcaster, 77, will host a show on Boom Radio at 4pm on Boxing Day, playing some of his favourite music and chatting to special guests.<\/p>\n
It is the first time Tarrant has presented a Christmas radio show since leaving Capital Radio in 2004 and his first programme since a special on BBC Radio 2 in 2013.<\/p>\n
‘I just suddenly fancied doing a radio show again,’ said Tarrant. ‘I haven’t done one for years and years. I like the guys at Boom.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘A lot of them are old mates, lot of people I’ve actually worked with, and I know. I really like the station’s instincts about the playing of music, so it’s not this constant rotate, rotate, rotate, which drives me as a listener up the wall and was beginning to happen when I left Capital Radio’.<\/p>\n
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Broadcaster and television personality Chris Tarrant is making a return to radio for the first time in more than ten years<\/p>\n
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The legendary broadcaster, 77, will host a show on Boom Radio at 4pm on Boxing Day, playing some of his favourite music and chatting to special guests<\/p>\n
Tarrant started his radio career at Capital in 1984 and presented its breakfast show three years later, becoming the voice\u00a0who woke up London for 17 years throughout the ’80s, ’90s and early 2000s.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After leaving Capital, he returned to TV \u2013 and fronted what was to become one of the world’s biggest game shows\u00a0Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.<\/p>\n
One of the reasons Tarrant agreed to return to present a show with Boom Radio is because it doesn’t play the same tracks on a daily basis – something he admits he finds frustrating with many of today’s radio stations.<\/p>\n
‘I just hate that thing where you hear a great tune that you haven’t heard for ages, and you think ‘Oh, how nice to hear this. I haven’t heard this for years!’\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘And if you’re driving around, you’ve got the radio on for a few hours, and you hear it again seven times before teatime, and you think ‘No! No! It was really nice to hear it once. I now don’t ever want to hear it again in my whole bloody life.’\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘And I think Boom Radio do have a nice instinct for not doing that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘They’re basically all radio people, and although I haven’t done radio for a long time because it doesn’t really fit into my lifestyle anymore, I just enjoy radio and I enjoy radio people.’<\/p>\n
Tarrant also acknowledged the special place radio still has over television for many people.<\/p>\n
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It is the first time Tarrant has presented a Christmas radio show since leaving Capital Radio in 2004 and his first programme since a special on BBC Radio 2 in 2013<\/p>\n
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‘I just suddenly fancied doing a radio show again,’ said Tarrant. ‘I haven’t done one for years and years. I like the guys at Boom<\/p>\n
‘I just think radio gets into people’s souls in a way that television never quite manages to.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘I can still sit in a traffic jam and I’ll just remember something absolutely daft that Terry Wogan said, or Kenny Everett said. And it just makes me smile, I think. If you can achieve that, it’s a really lovely thing.<\/p>\n
‘And, and that’s one of the great legacies of radio, you know. I still remember all sorts of daft things that mates of mine have done, or cock ups that I’ve made, or other people have made.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘I think radio is a very nice fraternity. Just about everybody in radio knows everybody else and there’s not a lot of bitchiness. There’s a great deal of mutual respect, which I really like. You don’t really get that in telly. That’s great’.<\/p>\n
While the Boxing Day show on Boom Radio will be a one off, Tarrant hasn’t ruled out more shows in the future.<\/p>\n
‘The reality is that if you want to do a daily radio show, you’ve really got to commit for quite a long time, and I’m just too busy nowadays traveling and doing things all around the world – lots and lots of holidays and watching cricket in South Africa and going on safari.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘But I enjoy doing one-offs, it’s good fun, and I do think I very probably will do some again’, said Tarrant.<\/p>\n
Boom Radio first aired on Valentine’s Day 2021 and was founded by Phil Riley and David Lloyd – veterans of the British radio industry – who spotted a gap in the market for a new music radio station aimed at Radio 2 listeners.<\/p>\n
According to the most recent radio industry figures released last month, Boom doubled its listening year-on-year as listeners flock to the station to hear more of the music they grew up with.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Chris is pictured on his last breakfast show at Capital Radio back in 2004 before taking a break from the airways<\/p>\n
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One of the reasons Tarrant agreed to return to present a show with Boom Radio is because it doesn’t play the same tracks on a daily basis<\/p>\n
Much of Boom’s success is thanks to its veteran presenters playing hit records from the 1960s and 1970s which appeal to their listeners who are mainly aged over 50.<\/p>\n
Phil Riley, co-founder of Boom Radio, said: ‘I’ve known Chris for years, so when we called him up to ask if he fancied doing a one-off for us at Christmas it was fantastic when he said yes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘He’s such a radio legend we know listeners will love tuning in and hearing him again’.<\/p>\n
Chris Tarrant will be on Boom Radio at 4pm Boxing Day.<\/p>\n