BACK ON AIR
ITV legend, 77, lands huge new radio job nine years after quitting iconic quiz show
The star took a swipe at his former radio station as he landed a new gig at a rival
BROADCASTING legend Chris Tarrant has landed a big new radio job, nine years after quitting Who Wants To Be A Millionare.
It also marks ten years since he was last on the radio airwaves.
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Chris, 77, will host a special Boxing Day show on Boom Radio, playing some festive tunes and interviewing special guests.
Chris, who previously hosted a Capital Radio show until 2004, opened up about the new gig and took a swipe at his former station.
The host said: “I just suddenly fancied doing a radio show again. I haven't done one for years and years. I like the guys at Boom. 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”.
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Chris began his radio career at Capital in 1984, and three years later fronted its breakfast show.
It was a gig he continued for 17 years before leaving.
Chris is also best known for incredible TV career, beginning with the iconic kids' TV show Tiswas in the 1970s.
He then went on to host Who Wants To Be A Millionaire from 1998 to 2014, making it the biggest show on television in its heyday.
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But despite his success on the box, Chris says it's radio that has the edge for him.
“I just think radio gets into people's souls in a way that television never quite manages to," he explains. "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.
“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.
"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”.
For now, his Boxing Day show is a one-off but Chris is open to doing more, as long as it's not a daily gig.
“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.
"But I enjoy doing one-offs, it's good fun, and I do think I very probably will do some again."
Chris Tarrant will be on Boom Radio at 4pm Boxing Day
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