Talk Back (BBC Radio Ulster)
Encyclopedia
Talk Back is BBC Radio Ulster
's award winning daily political and current-affairs phone-in programme, currently presented by Wendy Austin
. It was launched on 8 September 1986 and runs from Monday to Friday, from just after the mid-day news to 1:30pm (1pm on the Radio Foyle simulcast).
The programme's first presenter was Barry Cowan, who died in 2004, aged 56. Talk Back took the Silver Award in the 2006 Sony Radio Academy Awards for the News and Current Affairs programme of the year, and the programme marked its 20th anniversary on Friday 7 September 2006.
Barry Cowan was replaced as presenter in 1989 by David Dunseith
-- affectionately known by some Northern Ireland politicians as "the great interrupter". Until March 2009, just after Saturday's midday news headlines, he also presented the Best of Talk Back which took a look back at the top stories covered by the Talk Back team that previous week. The Saturday edition only lasted one hour.
Talk Back has been described by The Guardian
as "an alternative peace process", and by Stephen Coleman, Director of Studies at The Hansard Society for Parliamentary Government, as "a public sounding board which reaches a larger listening audience than any other European phone in.
BBC Radio Ulster
BBC Radio Ulster is one of two Northern Irish BBC radio stations, the other being BBC Radio Foyle located in the city of Derry. BBC Radio Ulster is located at Broadcasting House in the Ormeau Avenue area of Belfast city centre...
's award winning daily political and current-affairs phone-in programme, currently presented by Wendy Austin
Wendy Austin
Wendy Austin is a BBC journalist and broadcaster in BBC Northern Ireland, and presenter of BBC Radio Ulster’s current affairs programme Talkback....
. It was launched on 8 September 1986 and runs from Monday to Friday, from just after the mid-day news to 1:30pm (1pm on the Radio Foyle simulcast).
The programme's first presenter was Barry Cowan, who died in 2004, aged 56. Talk Back took the Silver Award in the 2006 Sony Radio Academy Awards for the News and Current Affairs programme of the year, and the programme marked its 20th anniversary on Friday 7 September 2006.
Barry Cowan was replaced as presenter in 1989 by David Dunseith
David Dunseith
David Dunseith was a Northern Irish journalist and broadcaster with BBC Northern Ireland. He presented BBC Radio Ulster's 'Talk Back' & 'Seven Days' programmes. His career has spanned the troubles covering the turbulent and tragic events of recent years from the Falls Curfew in 1970 to the Omagh...
-- affectionately known by some Northern Ireland politicians as "the great interrupter". Until March 2009, just after Saturday's midday news headlines, he also presented the Best of Talk Back which took a look back at the top stories covered by the Talk Back team that previous week. The Saturday edition only lasted one hour.
Talk Back has been described by The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
as "an alternative peace process", and by Stephen Coleman, Director of Studies at The Hansard Society for Parliamentary Government, as "a public sounding board which reaches a larger listening audience than any other European phone in.