Gray, Keys and TalkSport: Good PR?
By Andy Pearson
It’s another one of those good-PR-bad-PR questions: Is Andy Gray and Richard Keys joining TalkSport a good thing?
Yes, the delight of the radio station’s programme director Moz Dee is understandable – the pair constitute a star signing.
But coming so quickly after their sexism-fuelled departure from Sky Sports the TalkSport decision will sit very uncomfortably with many.
Dee said: “It’s a sensational coup.”
High profile
The couple were high profile before their fall; they’re higher profile still now.
Their brief will be to talk sport and there’s no doubt they can do that and take an audience along with them.
They will be heavily promoted across TalkSport and its sister stations which, incidentally, include South Wales favourites Swansea Sound and The Wave.
Non-PC outbursts notwithstanding, their show will probably succeed – the traditional TalkSport audience will take to their idea of changing room light-heartedness and opinion.
However, yesterday’s Guardian noted that Gray and Keys would have to undertake “reputation surgery” as they kick-off their daily 10am-1pm show on Monday. Indeed they will.
Messy
Their exit from TV was messy, embarrassing, unprofessional and wholly unsavoury.
They came across as unlikable characters whose behaviour can cause offence for the sake of little more than getting a cheap manly chuckle.
Healthy pay-offs from Sky have now been followed by rapid new employment. And that alone will leave a sour taste with many – there’s a recession on and families are losing their income through no fault of their own.
So good PR or bad? Onside or offside?
Dodgy
Well, just now TalkSport are on dodgy ground.
The speed of their new deal and its high-octane celebratory announcement ask a lot of questions.
In the long-run, however, such is the remarkable and unbecoming healing ability of celebrity that the signing will prove a big winner for TalkSport.
Tags: Andy Gray, PR, pr marketing, Richard Keys, Sky Sports, TalkSport
