Night Owls phone-ins to hit half a million

Jan 31 2010 Sunday Sun

RADIO legend Alan Robson is on the brink of welcoming the 500,000th caller to his Night Owls show.

And a hoot of a good time awaits the person who helps the show reach the momentous milestone, thanks to a bumper pile of prizes.

Bosses at Metro Radio have calculated that the half a millionth caller is expected to ring into the popular programme – Britain’s biggest late night talk show – any day this week.

They have compiled a list of goodies for the lucky caller, including tickets for Metro Radio Arena, dinner for two at an Italian restaurant and a tour of Metro Radio’s studios, ending with a meeting with Alan.

Alan, 54, is chuffed to bits that Night Owls has taken so many thousands of calls over the years, and can’t wait to treat the winning caller.

He said: “We’ve worked out that the 500,000th caller will ring at any moment, but we don’t know who it will be.

“And we’re going to spoil them rotten with all sorts of prizes.

“The callers are just fantastic. They are my family. They do say that friends are the family you can choose.

“Some people say ‘you have all the drunks on’, but that’s an old-fashioned perception. We don’t allow anyone on who is drunk.

“We might have some people who are mad as a hat, but we actively encourage that. I’ve got the best job on the planet.”

Alan, of Morpeth, Northumberland, has become an institution since becoming presenter of the popular late-night phone-in show in 1980, taking over the reins from shock jock James Whale.

Together with his producer and a team of six researchers, who also man the phone lines, he has won 57 national and international awards, including a New York Radio Award for the World’s Best Talk Show and a Sony award for “Katarina’s Story - The Auschwitz Special”, which told of a woman, now living in Bedlington, who lived through the Holocaust.

As the longest serving presenter at the North station, Alan has taken calls from anyone and everyone over the last 30 years, including the likes of Britney Spears, Shirley Bassey and Dame Edna Everage.

He said: “Whenever they are in the region they just call me up.

“Dame Edna Everage called me live from the stage once.

“It’s good to be in a place where you are well considered because of your position.”

But it’s the callers from the region and the ex-pats who are his favourites.