There is an aphorism, often wheeled out in media circles, that the best time to start a podcast “was 10 years ago”, but the next best time “is today”. Well, today’s the day for Frank Skinner, as the veteran comic has announced that he’s jumping into the crowded podcast market with a new show, Frank Skinner Off the Radio.
The name should give a clue to the big change in the Brummie comic’s life. Back in March, Skinner was dropped by his long-time station, Absolute Radio, in a reshuffle that ended their 15-year partnership.
“We had a good run,” he told listeners. “But I realise that in recent times I [was] ever-more becoming Grandad from The Simpsons.” For his loyal audience, it was a blow equivalent to Steve Wright leaving Radio 2 or Simon Mayo heading to Greatest Hits Radio.
But the news of Skinner bouncing back into the world of in-demand audio should surprise precisely nobody. Absolute Radio reaches less than half the audience of its BBC competitors including 5 Live, and roughly 20 per cent of Radio 2.
Skinner’s show, like so many comedian-hosted radio segments, was a cult hit rather than a mainstream one. In fact, Bauer Media (the parent company of Absolute Radio) has long recognised that the show needed to be harvested for podcast content.
They published 917 episodes of The Frank Skinner Show as a podcast, along with 71 episodes of sibling project Frank Skinner’s Poetry Podcast. But when the axe swung back in March, they lost Skinner from this dual role: linear broadcaster and podcaster.
“It’s like in those old movies when the kids get rejected by the big theatre and one of them says, ‘Why don’t we do the show right here in the barn?’” Skinner wrote recently, announcing the new project. “I think the barn will suit us fine.”
The bright lights of Absolute Radio replaced by the dingy back alleys of Podcastland. But, of course, there’s more to the story than this.
Skinner is just the latest in a long line of British and international comedians to make podcasts a central part of their media portfolio. Rob Beckett, Josh Widdicombe, Ed Gamble, Joanne McNally, Chris and Rosie Ramsey: all have chart-topping podcasts that have elevated them to a new level of celebrity. The reasons for this trend are myriad but come down to three simple points. Firstly, audio companies have fallen over themselves to offer comics their own projects. Secondly, it’s way easier to show up for a rambling hour-long chat than it is to get booked on Mock the Week. And, thirdly, almost all these shows are built with an aggressively generous revenue split, which means that “talent” make out like bandits.
And so, in a few months’ time when the cheques start getting cut, Skinner might not be quite so devastated about his untimely canning from the wireless world. Competition is fierce, but Skinner has always thrived off an authenticity that is synonymous with great podcasters like Adam Buxton and Marc Maron.
He’s an easy, unawed interviewer and a virtuosic yet down-to-earth raconteur. His demeanour is half avuncular, half ribald sot at the Dog and Duck. It’s an ideal combo for breaking through in a format that prizes the intimacy of the host-listener relationship even more highly than talk radio.
Whether spurred by necessity or ambition, Frank Skinner Off the Radio will probably storm the charts when it launches later this month. The bods at Absolute Radio might feel that – with listening figures holding firm this year – they don’t need to compete with the celebrity-fuelled world of on-demand audio.
But, for Skinner, this is a chance to be unshackled by corporate considerations, to flog books and tour dates with the reckless abandon of an Apprentice candidate in the last five minutes of a task. And then to reap commercial rewards that are directly pegged to the show’s success, rather than becoming the victim of exogenous cuts after more than a decade of steady growth.
It might have taken him a while to come round to podcasting, but saying goodbye to the radio waves might just prove to be the best thing that could’ve happened to Frank Skinner.
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