DJ sacked for pulling plug on 'boring' Queen

December 30, 2009

_media_offbeat

Wed Dec 30, 6:57 AM

LONDON (AFP) - A Birmingham radio presenter has been sacked after he pulled the

plug on Queen II's traditional Christmas Day speech, telling listeners

it was " boring. "

Tom Binns has lost his job at radio station BRMB after a number of listeners

complained over his interruption of the monarch's traditional December 25

broadcast to Britain and the Commonwealth.

" Two words: Bor-ring, " he said on air as he stopped the broadcast, before

quipping " from one Queen to another... " as he put on " Last Christmas " by pop duo

Wham, featuring openly gay singer .

Binns explained that the incident occurred after the Queen's Speech -- a

decades-old tradition still watched by millions of Britons and others every year

-- came on at a point when he had expected a regular news bulletin.

" I was working on my own on Christmas Day; I'd even had to let myself into the

studio. After the guy before me finished, we should have taken the news from

Sky, and then my show would start, " he told the Chortle comedy website.

" But instead of the news, we got the Queen's speech. I knew it shouldn't be

there, but having never heard it before, I didn't know how long it was going to

go on for.

" I'm not trained to make editorial decisions, but I decided to get rid of it and

make a joke. I said, 'Two words: bor-ring'.

" I then went into an old riff about how people say the royal family are good for

tourism, but the French beheaded theirs and people still visit France, " before

cueing up the Wham song, he said.

He added that one listener got really angry, " he sent me a message saying I

should be sent to Basra and hoped I'd get killed by a roadside bomb... but other

than that almost all the texts we received were in support of what I'd done. "

The radio station's parent company, the Orion Media Group programme, said the

DJ's comments were " inappropriate, " adding: " We do not condone what he said in

any way, whether said in jest or not.

" Tom will now not be featuring again on our radio stations, " said its programme

and marketing director, Lloyd, quoted by the Birmingham Post.

Binns added: " Nobody would have tuned in to hear the Queen's speech; and I tried

to deal with it in a funny way. After all, they employ comedians to make jokes. "

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