Anton Savage always sounded incongruous on Today FM. He’s found his voice on Newstalk

In his on-air persona, Anton Savage comes across as so laid-back as to make horizontality seem uptight, so it's surprising to discover that he's a stickler for protocol. Speaking to former president Mary McAleese on his programme (the Anton Savage Show, Newstalk, Saturday), the broadcaster appears conflicted about what conversational etiquette to follow during their encounter. "It's very strange to address a former president as Mary," he says, "But I'll try to relax into it."

Truth be told, he doesn’t have to try very hard. Six months into the stewardship of his Saturday show, Savage is well-briefed and wryly observant, but above all, he’s an easy-going presence. As such, he gets on well with McAleese, who doesn’t seem overly bound by what Savage calls the “strictures” of her erstwhile presidential position. Asked if she still has to hold her tongue, she replies, “Occasionally, but not a lot.”

Sure enough, the interview that follows is free-flowing in opinion. With Savage focusing on the “rise in bigoted violence”, McAleese says that hatreds such as homophobia never went away, but rather have been lurking in the “bad boys’ corner”. She blames the Catholic Church for the persistence of such prejudices, at least partly, adding that all the churches are to some extent “conduits for homophobia”. If nothing else, McAleese makes good on her claim about not holding her tongue.

Open atmosphere prevails

But it’s not an angry conversation. Instead, an open atmosphere prevails, with McAleese responding frankly to questions, even when her answers might seem contradictory. When Savage asks how she squares her Catholicism with her vocal criticisms of the church, she replies: “It’s as near to go on as it is to go back,” adding that her faith is a choice rather than an obligation. With both host and guest on the same wavelength, it makes for a stimulating yet accessible interview.

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Unfortunately, other items on the show aren’t as successful. Savage fails to get much out of former Garda commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan, who responds to her host’s queries with the terse formality of a serving officer on a news programme. If the host has to drop his light touch with O’Sullivan, a bit more heft wouldn’t go amiss during his chat with author Amanda Brunker, who’s so breezily self-promoting that even bland inquiries about her weekend routine go unanswered.

Ultimately, Savage is perhaps a tad too poised and self-consciously witty to be a natural fit for prime time radio audiences: his tenure as a Today FM presenter always seemed slightly incongruous. But he makes for agreeable company on a Saturday morning, when the ability to quote cowboy star Jack Palance during an item on a vision-impaired “memory orchestra” seems raffishly endearing rather than merely smart-arsed. There’s a time to chill, after all.

Over on the Hard Shoulder (Newstalk, weekdays), Kieran Cuddihy runs a pretty casual shop too. On Wednesday, for instance, he makes his distaste for the concept of coffee-flavoured stout clear with an audible "yuck". Similarly, he treats his guests with an air of familiarity, but isn't afraid to turn up the heat on them if needed. His discussion on legalising cannabis sees him press both People Before Profit TD Gino Kenny and psychiatrist Prof Bobby Smyth to informative effect.

Kenny, who seeks to decriminalise marijuana, says such a measure would reduce the power of criminal gangs, while Smyth points to a rise teenagers smoking cannabis daily wherever it’s been legalised. Cuddihy pushes Smyth, claiming the current system doesn’t work; the psychiatrist replies that solely focusing on drug laws means other aspects are ignored, such as the increased potency of cannabis. “I’m way more worried about cannabis than 15 years ago, but public perception has moved in the opposite direction,” Smyth says.

It could be a sensationalist item, but under Cuddihy's steady moderation, it's a keenly contested debate, factually enlightening without suggesting easy solutions. The host's wariness of simple fixes is again on show during his interview with former Housing Agency chief Conor Skehan, who claims that policies prioritising cycling are killing towns. Instead, he proposes large car parks be built, to encourage people back into urban centres.

Distinctly dubious

It’s the kind of contrarian proposal tailor-made for drive-time audiences, one which Skehan gleefully embraces, right down to the large price tags for new parking spaces. Cuddihy, on the other hand, sounds distinctly dubious, claiming his guest’s plans would cause more traffic congestion, while ignoring the need to reduce carbon emissions. But Skehan is unbowed, leading his host to end the interview on a perplexed note: “It’s been interesting.”

Equally, Cuddihy keeps his sense of humour intact throughout. As he recalls an impressive car park he saw while at a ski resort in Sierra Nevada, the host checks himself: “It’s not a very relatable story, I know.” Maybe not, but Cuddihy is tuned into his audience, as his absorbing items and unbuttoned manner attest.

When it comes to playing it cool on the airwaves, Seán Moncrieff (Newstalk, weekdays) is the past master. Admittedly, he doesn’t host much current affairs material to get agitated about, but his ability to remain unruffled in the face of the ostensibly irrational is arguably more impressive.

On Wednesday, he hears English film-maker David Rolfe lay out his belief that the Turin shroud bears the image of Jesus Christ, despite carbon dating that suggests it hails from mediaeval times. “It’s a perfect encapsulation of what we imagine Christ to be,” he says.

Rolfe, who made a documentary on the shroud in the 1970s, now argues that the dating process was flawed, meaning that “there’s only one conclusion” regarding the shroud’s image.

Moncrieff hears out his guest, before pointing out that those institutions who carried out the carbon dating, including the British Museum, refute Rolfe’s arguments. “Could it be that this scientific finding just doesn’t suit you?” the host asks. That said, he remains as calm and polite as his guest, leaving it to the listener to “make up your own mind”. It makes for diverting rather than contentious radio. Rather than getting hot under the collar, Moncrieff prefers to take it easy.

Radio Moment of the Week  
As the regular stand-in for Brendan O'Connor (RTÉ Radio 1, weekends), Dearbhail McDonald has proved a fine host, handling news stories and long-form interviews with equal deftness.

She's in her element when talking to American writer Patrick Radden Keefe, author of acclaimed books such as Say Nothing, on the disappeared during the Troubles. McDonald draws out Keefe on various topics, but as a journalist from the North, she doesn't hide her feelings on her guest's work, calling Say Nothing the book about the North she wishes she'd written.

“I have such professional jealousy, or is it envy? I never know the difference.” Credit to McDonald for her honesty. Clearly, she has no truck with the old northern adage, whatever you say. . .