RTÉ’s Mr Versatile changes channel

A constant presence on the national airwaves since the 1970s, Pat Kenny has spent the last 41 years as the chameleon of Irish broadcasting.

He is nothing if not versatile. While Gay Byrne has always insisted he is an entertainer first and informer second, Kenny has sought to bridge the gap between light entertainment and high-brow broadcasting.

He has been a continuity announcer, radio DJ, television current affairs presenter, news show anchor, and chat show host.

His early radio career mirrored that of Byrne’s but, while Byrne focused on light entertainment, Kenny always preferred current affairs, once declaring: “Do you want bland television where everything you hear reinforces your own view, or do you want to be challenged? I favour the latter. I like to challenge people. You might get angry and pick up the phone to Joe Duffy, or you might complain to the Broadcasting Complaints Commission; that’s great. It means you’re involved in the argument in some way”.

Among the shows he presented during his time with RTÉ were Today with Pat Kenny, The Late Late Show, Kenny Live, The Frontline, and Today Tonight.

Kenny was educated at O’Connell’s school on North Richmond St in Dublin, and obtained a chemical engineering degree from University College Dublin in 1969.

Subsequently, he was a postgraduate student at Georgia Institute of Technology and later became a lecturer in Bolton Street College of Technology in Dublin.

Kenny started his broadcasting career in parallel with his academic day-job by working as an evening continuity announcer on RTÉ radio in the mid-1970s. He subsequently became a DJ.

It took him more than a decade to graduate from the school of hard graft until, eventually, in the early to mid 1980s, his talents became evident. He presented Today Tonight, a current affairs programme, winning a Jacob’s award in 1986 for his three radio programmes: Saturday View, The Kenny Report and The Outside Track.

Then the chameleon surfaced again when he co-presented the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest alongside Michelle Rocca at the RDS in Dublin.

In between presenting serious radio and TV programmes and his own show, Kenny Live, he continued to be associated with Eurovision, providing TV commentary for Irish viewers on nine occasions from 1991 to 1999.

He was criticised for referring on-air to the transsexual Israeli singer Dana International as “he, she or it” during the 1998 contest and later refused to apologise for the remark.

He took over as host of The Late Late Show from Byrne in 1999, which he continued to present for the next 10 years. He was often accused of being wooden and “no Gay Byrne” but he proved his resilience, although there were a few bloopers along the way.

His occasional discomfiture was illustrated in an interview with Babyshambles’ lead singer Pete Doherty. Kenny repeatedly questioned Doherty over his drug habits, with Dohertyappearing visibly uncomfortable. Doherty, obviously annoyed, stated that Kenny had asked him “about 12” questions about drugs and Kate Moss, but nothing about his music; “I don’t know if you could even name a song that I’ve written,” said Doherty.

“Possibly not,” Kenny admitted.

A Toy Show special in 2007 had all the hallmarks of Cringe Productions when Kenny interviewed American comedian Jerry Seinfeld.

Seinfeld, who had previously attacked US chat show host Larry King for his ignorance, was not amused when Kenny mispronounced his name Sein-field.

On another occasion, in a fit of pique, a clearly infuriated Kenny tore up toy show tickets on air when a Cork viewer, who had won €10,000 prize money, said she had no interest in attending.

His on-air awkwardness again surfaced when, while hosting a fashion show, he told British comedian Dawn French: “Dawn, most models say they don’t get out of bed for less than £10,000. I’m sure some people would pay that for you to stay in bed.”

In 2009, he returned to current affairs, presenting The Frontline, but his quick temper quickly flared. He became tetchy with Siptu general president Jack O’Connor when O’Connor suggested extra tax should be applied to “trophy houses”.

When asked to define the term “trophy house”, O’Connor replied: “A house like yours, probably,” to which Kenny responded: “I built my house in 1988. How is it a ‘trophy house’? I don’t want this crap coming at me.”

Kenny has courted controversy in recent years given the scale of his salary at a time when RTÉ was attempting to reduce presenter salary scales. His salary was €630,000 in 2011, €729,604 in 2009, and €950,976 in 2008. Up to his departure, he was RTÉ’s highest paid presenter.

In a 2010 interview with the Irish Independent he urged RTÉ to “incentivise” its stars and described the salaries of the station’s stars as “trivial” compared to those paid to footballers.

“Back in the ’80s, Gaybo was earning in real terms more than everyone is earning in RTÉ now. So the idea that these are on Celtic Tiger rates of pay is not really true. I often wonder why there isn’t the same fuss over the salaries paid to footballers like John O’Shea, earning more in three weeks than Marian Finucane earns in a year. There is a double standard there. These people put themselves on the line, they entertain the nation week in, week out, and yet they are paid a trivial amount compared to footballers.”

He has also courted controversy beyond Montrose. During a High Court case in 2008 over the ownership of a nearby field, Pat’s neighbour, a retired solicitor, alleged that he had placed a lock on Gorse Hill without the neighbour’s knowledge.

The disputed owner of the 0.2-acre strip of land, Gerard Charlton, aged 73 at the time of the trial, claimed that a physical confrontation between the two broke out, with Pat running at the elderly man “with his fists raised”.

Kenny and his wife Kathy claimed they used the land as a “nature reserve” planted on it, pruned trees, and put up fencing.

Mr Charlton and his wife Maeve claimed they were the rightful owners. The case was eventually settled with the Kennys buying the piece of land for something approaching €1m.

Despite these less than flattering moments, RTÉ colleagues are almost universal in their regard for Kenny, pointing to his off-screen affability compared to his sometimes stilted on-screen persona.

“He’s far less wooden than he sometimes appears on television,” columnist Ian O’Doherty says.

“He’s a good raconteur and enjoyable company. He’s also quite funny, which is something that often struggles to come through on television.”

His big-heartedness is illustrated by an incident that occurred in Nov 2006 when Kenny was still hosting The Late Late Show. A disgruntled viewer, Paul Stokes, managed to breach security and confront Kenny live on air, calling him and his predecessor “insufferable arseholes”.

Eight days later, Stokes rammed his car into the entrance of RTÉ’s television centre and was subsequently charged with harassment after daubing walls near Kenny’s home with threatening messages. By coincidence, Stokes’s daughter Aoife worked as a researcher for The Late Late Show at the time and she was mortified by her father’s behaviour. Kenny was the first to try to console her.

So now the question is who will replace him? Ireland’s great broadcast entertainer was hedging his bets on that one. “I haven’t a clue,” said Gay Byrne. “No idea whatsoever.”

Sound bites

Noel Curran: ‘Every effort’.

*RTÉ director general Noel Curran: “Pat Kenny’s contract with RTÉ expired earlier this year and we have been aware for some time that he had an offer from commercial radio. Through lengthy negotiations every effort was made to retain Pat’s services but unfortunately we could not come to an agreement”.

*Pat Kenny: “I have accepted an offer from Newstalk to host a mid-morning current affairs and features show, with the objective of building a major audience in that time slot. I am relishing the opportunity and the challenge to work in the independent commercial sector”.

*Newstalk station editor Garrett Harte: “Pat Kenny’s arrival marks a significant milestone for Newstalk. His addition to the Newstalk team will greatly add to our on-air offering and is a further demonstration of the ambition of this station”.