Cork Calling

“Another mad one!” It’s a little after noon and Victor Barry is describing the Red FM show he has just finished. He’s spent the past three hours – finger on the pulse of the People’s Republic – discussing the issues that matter, lending a light touch where needed and always keen to tackle meatier matters.

This year marks a decade-long relationship with Red FM. For much of it, Barry was a nighttime man, presenting Cork Talks Back in the evening and making it compulsive after-dark listening. The decision last year to move him to mornings gave him control over one of the most crucial time-slots in broadcasting – and he has gone on to win listeners and influence people impressively. It’s been a time of change in other ways too: in 2010, Barry and his partner welcomed their first child into the world.
Victor is a product of the expansion of radio that happened during the 1990s. He began his career in college radio. A long time fan of the self-styled ‘King Of All Media’ Howard Stern (he’d listen to Stern’s show on dodgy online streams and even ran an Irish fansite), his first stint behind the mic came with a modest slot discussing video games on UCC’s Cork Campus Radio. When the presenter left, Barry got the main gig and RedFM soon came knocking. “The rest,” he chuckles, “is history.”
He’s injected a healthy dose of Stern’s often outrageous style into his own on-air persona and is not a man to dilute his views or shy away from controversial topics. From that comes the ‘shock jock’ tag but, as Barry is fully aware, those that are complaining the loudest are also the ones listening the longest. So he’s a joy to interview, waxing lyrical on illustrious past guests, and offering unique insights into what makes Corkonians tick.
So Victor, anything different on the show today?
From pregnancy cravings to Joe Rooney answering relationship questions. I don’t know if you can get much different. Joe was great actually, he came up with quirkier responses than other people that we might have in.
Any marriages saved?
No, though possibly some ruined!
Comedians in particular do seem to enjoy coming on the show.
We’ve had everyone over the years from Tommy Tiernan to Joe Rooney to Des Bishop. Some of the big American ones too, like the Michael Winslows of the world. I try and treat the comedians like everyone else, “right, let’s have a conversation, let’s have a bit of craic and see what happens.”
So how does Cork Talks Back come together?
I’m in the station between 6.30 and 7am. The bulk of the show would be produced by the team the day previous – and then there’s a show meeting. If something needs to be changed, if there’s something after breaking, all of those decisions happen then. During the actual show something else might change. I’m shouting at the producer, they’re shouting at me! 
Was it difficult to adapt to the morning slot?
It was on the cards for a while. A couple of people who are paid a lot more than me said, “Let’s get the nighttime guy in the morning because we reckon he’s up for the task.” We were on at night for nearly nine years. The shift physically and mentally, when your system is used to not getting up at half-five in the morning… I spent the first couple of weeks trying to get acclimatised to it. I was tired, headachy.
You were jet-lagged without going anywhere. 
Ha, yeah! Jet-lagged is a really good way of putting it.
You’ve also got a different audience to deal with.
We’ve toned back on the exploding penises and that kind of stuff. 
Well, people might be having breakfast. 
Absolutely, so we don’t do exploding penises stuff in the nine o’clock hour… we might do it at 11! In all seriousness, we’re still the same show in the sense where there’s still my personality coming through.There’s still a bit of fun. I suppose we’ve pared back on some subjects, revolving around the sexualisation of stuff. That said, in the 12 months we’ve been on mornings, we’ve talked about the Irish male penis and its size.
Out of interest, what were your findings? 
The Congo had come up top when it came to size and the Irish fellas were a little bit down the list. The bulk of the female callers we had on all said they were happy with their Corkonian willies – they all seemed to be quite capable of doing the job! We kinda tone it back because as you say, people are having breakfast and there may be kids listening – but we try and keep it as cutting edge as we can. Sometimes I worry about the phone calls the following day or see that the boss is glaring through the window when I come off of air.
Have you ever been called into the office?
We get called into the office on a regular basis! Or the bosses may walk into the studio going, “What in the name of Jesus have you done?!’”
Are their times where you think to yourself, “maybe we’ve crossed the line?”
Not really to be honest. Some of the stuff that we do – on mental illness and suicide and eating disorders and this kind of thing where you have somebody on the radio basically spilling their heart out to you – would resonate with a lot of people. That does affect people and while some might go “Jesus, that’s a bit much”, it creates awareness.
Since your move to the morning, there have been positive comparisons made between yourself and the late Gerry Ryan.
I don’t take a lot of influence from a lot of people in Irish radio, no offense to any of them, but Gerry Ryan would’ve been one of the few that I would’ve listened to. If we can do anything along the lines of Gerry, just even stylistically, that’s great. Not trying to be Gerry Ryan – but you take a bit of inspiration from somebody who I thought was probably one of the most talented broadcasters that the country’s ever had. So when I got compliments like that, during the first couple of weeks in the morning, I was absolutely thrilled.
Can you remember hearing the news that he had died?
I was sitting in the car in the drive and it was pissing rain. I normally don’t listen to the radio when I drive – it’s good to clear your head and think about the show. I was on Twitter and saw some hashtag going ‘Gerry Ryan is dead’. I turned on the radio and I literally sat in the car in the pissing rain and I cried. I’ll be brutally honest. I cried about it. On the Sunday we had a little tribute on-air to him. I did think he was a genuine talent. People can say what they want, whether he was this, that or the other – but what people do in their own homes is what they do in their own homes. Whether it’s illegal or legal, that’s not for me to judge or anybody else. The guy will be remembered for who he was on the radio, as opposed to anything else.
You must be able to relate to the amount of stress he was under. Filling those three hours every day must be extremely demanding.
It is. Particularly when you’re on prime time in the mornings, you’ve a lot of competition so you don’t want to give anybody an opportunity to turn off or flick over to the competition. It’s down to preparation. I know it’s the old Roy Keane mantra but I think that if you prepare, then if something does go wrong, you can fix it. 
Did it take you long to find your true voice as a broadcaster?
About a year ago somebody gave me an audio cassette of one of my first shows. I was just so embarrassed, it was absolutely brutal. Just a disaster from start to finish. I sounded like I didn’t have a clue: there was dead air, there were constant mistakes. But you learn really quickly. That’s where some of the pressure comes in, because if you don’t get better week on week, month on month, there’s something wrong.
Looking back over the last ten years, are there moments that stand out?
From a local point of view we’ve done an awful lot for Cork. We’ve done quite a bit on the show about mental illness, eating disorders and so on. On the lighter side we’ve had some absolutely demented conversations, the typical ‘north side, south side’ Cork thing, where it ended up me swearing at somebody on air saying “fuck you!”
You’re referring to the infamous incident in 2005 when you were discussing the perceived divide in the city and ended up turning the airwaves blue. What happened?
A guy just rang up and it kicked off. My girlfriend, my wife now, is from the north side and he was badgering away around that. I was going to myself, “just be professional about it.” Then he said something towards the end of the show, around midnight, and I just literally lost my fucking sense of reason. “I’m throwing professionalism out the window,” I said, “you know what, I’ve never met such an asshole like you.” He kept coming back at me and I said you “fuck you!” and dropped the line on him. There was pandemonium as one can imagine, the producer was running around the place like his head was going to explode. Then the following day there wasn’t as much excitement about it, in a negative sense. It turned out that people thought it was great. Don’t get me wrong, I did get my knuckles rapped severely – but people understood what was behind it. There’s no point in me lying because people can smell bullshit a mile off anyway.
You’re on at the same time as Neil Prendiville on 96FM. What did you make of what happened in 2010, when – under the influence of painkillers and alcohol – he had problems on an Aer Lingus flight?
I was expecting this to be fucking asked! People in the industry, certainly in Cork, knew about it before it broke and nobody said anything. I don’t really know Neil in any capacity. A couple of years ago he did an interview for the Evening Echo and he was asked who he thought some of the best broadcasters in the country were. He mentioned Ryan Tubridy, Joe Duffy, Gerry Ryan and me. So I really don’t have any axe to grind with the guy. Look, no pun intended, what happened or what allegedly happened was a monumental cock-up. And you can quote me on that one! If it happened to me, I would have handled it a little bit differently. I would’ve gone on air and said, “listen I’m after making an almighty fuck-up, this is what happened, I’m taking a couple months off to get myself sorted out.” The longer they dragged it out, the worse it got. It was fucking sad.
Do Corkonians talk more freely about taboo subjects in 2012 than they would have in 2002?
We used to have Anne Sexton on and, when I started, people were very reluctant to talk not only about sex but about relationships. Over the years we’ve got to the point now where somebody will go on and go, “My fella’s got a small willy but  I’m happy with him!” Ten years ago, I couldn’t have got that on air because Cork is a small market. Everybody seemed to think in Cork, “Oh Jesus, your man up the road will know that I was on the radio talking about x, y and z.” It’s starting to get a bit more liberal.
You’ve interviewed sone big movie stars and also run the successful www.themoviebit.com website.
Yeah, we’ve had everybody from Russell Brand to Colin Farrell, Jonah Hill to Michael Cera. Some of the cast and crew of Star Wars.
How did you handle Brand? I’m remembering Ray D’Arcy’s appearance on his old BBC show where Russell and his co-host accused him of nicking some of their ideas.
I remember hearing that! In fairness, Ray kinda gave as good as he got, but I think Brand is above a lot of people when it comes to humour. I thought Russell was probably one of the nicest guys out there. I went to the junket for Get Him To The Greek and had a lot of time with him. He was incredibly nice, incredibly laid back, and very willing to answer anything and have a bit of craic. We talked about everything from pissing on the Blarney Stone to stuff far, far worse! We had a nice chat afterwards about marriage and kids and weddings.There’s a photograph of me and Russell at home in the hall, so I would look at him as one of the really great guests.
And director Kevin Smith is something of a friend of the show at this stage.
It took about two years to get Kevin Smith on, with a lot of arseing around back and forth. The first time we got him, we got on fairly well and at the end he said he loved it. I asked would he come back on sometime and he said absolutely. Every time since then he’s been on for over an hour. I keep in touch with Kevin and any time he comes to Vicar St. he’s always asking me to intro him. Kevin would probably be the biggest celebrity friend of the show.
What sets Corkonians apart from the rest of the country?
I think there’s probably two unique characteristics. Cork people seem to have a huge amount of begrudgery for people outside of Cork! That said, in a crisis, whether it’s a house fire or a flood or a fella trying to fit a dishwasher, Corkonians have this great capability to pull together with strangers. You could be stuck on the side of the road and you’ll get help. That’s probably a great trait of Corkonians. We’re very easy going, we’re always up for a bit of craic and devilment and a bit of banter. That makes us unique – the willingness to help anybody combined with the begrudgery!
What does the future hold for Victor Barry?
Ultimately for anybody that works in radio, the goal is to go national. Whether it’s in Ireland, the UK or the States. But I’m incredibly happy where we are in Red FM. The goal is to build the show, make it bigger, better. That’s what we’re trying to do all the time. We never rest on our laurels. Outside of that? I was involved in film for a couple of years before I got into the radio so that’s been a yearning to me. It’s something I’d do on the side, some short films and a bit of writing. In ten years? I don’t know, I would like to still be employed, I’ll put it like that! If that’s in Red FM, absolutely brilliant, if that’s in another radio station then so be it. At the end of the day you have to pay the bills and the child can’t go hungry!

Victor Barry presents Cork Talks Back, Monday to Friday from 9am t0 12pm.