ESSIE BURKE | Chick Editor | CONTACT
He has been belching out half-baked opinions over the Betoota airwaves for half a century but iconic broadcaster Barry “Fatso” Harrigan has rarely left his loyal audience of deadbeats stunned.
On Friday Harrigan, 67, did just that when he offered an opinion that appeared to have a factual basis.
Long-time listener and tenth generation Betootanese Shirl Thorne said Harrigan began his breakfast shift in his customary fashion: plugging a used car dealership at “the Paris end” of South Betoota’s main drag.
But Ms Thorne said the old bastard dropped a bombshell at approximately 6.15am when he veered off script.
“Barry knows what I want to hear and he’s never let me down before,” Ms Thorne said.
Media studies PhD candidate Bryce Smedley said Harrigan had potentially breached the commercial broadcasters’ code of conduct by “offering a view that was neither inflammatory nor devoid of factual content”.
Shares in Betoota West Media, which owns radio station 4XY, tanked on Friday as investors feared Harrigan would lose his foothold as Betoota’s number one breakfast host.
But Mr Smedley, whose thesis is on the semiotics of broadcasters’ hand gestures, said this was “probably premature”.
“Harrigan is Betoota’s only breakfast host,” Mr Smedley said.
