THE BOO Boys will feel they have been disenfranchised by Boro’s controversial decision to pull the plug on Century. The club insist it is a sensible commercial decision that benefits the club to end the Century coverage and hand the BBC a matchday monopoly and given that we have not seen the figures it would be churlish to question that.
But reception of that message among Ali and Bernie’s sizeable armchair audience has been patchy at best. There is a widespread feeling that the club have miscalculated in shelving an important force for promoting the brand, the wider Boro experience and for capturing unforgettable aural snapshots of the emotional turmoil that surrounds the team - and that there is plenty of room on the dial for two stations.
Worst still, right or wrong there is a strong belief among the grumpier element of the Boro fan base that the move is motivated by a desire to silence the troublesome dissident voices that Century often give airtime to.
To be fair you can see why some would think that the club would want to gag Bernie, and not just because his syntax-crunching, cliche-spattered Glaswegian growl. He has frequently been scathing about Boro on-air: he has slated individual players as lazy, woeful or not committed, especially the foreign lads, often seemingly in defiance of the reality of the match unfolding before him and to such an extent that some critics suspect he has an industrial axe grinding machine at home; he has blasted sterile, spineless performances and turgid tactics; savaged some of the club's commercial and ticketing policies and has so often refused to hand over the Man of the Match bottle of bubbly that you not be surprised if it was revealed he was trying to foist his teetotalism on others.
Moreover, club loyalists - listeners as well as those within the Riverside - have not always been happy with his studio persona while representing the Boro on the Three Legends. He has been accused of too readily agreeing with the moaning militant tendency, no matter how ill-informed they were, while being too eager to quiz and slap down the few optimistic callers. Being so closely identified with the boo-boy mentality has made Slaven fair game in a wider battle among the supporters. Over the past few years there have been some close to the knuckle threads attacking him as a Celtic-supporting, cynical, opportunist misery guts on the Fly Me To The Moon message board and the end of the Living Legend has been welcomed in some quarters - although just as many have been rallying to his defence as a Catchphrase style "say what you see" stream-of-true-fan-consciouness commentator who is only making vocal what thousands of people across Teesside are muttering. A kind of populist pessimism by proxy.
So it is to be expected that at times he was in conflict with the club, especially when the team were struggling and he made clear his concerns in a passionate way that struck a chord with his audience. We've all been there and had to take the flak for forceful opinions made public. In his Gazette column last week Bernie suggested that on occasion Boro have asked Century chiefs for the tapes of shows after particularly robust outbursts and it is clear that relations behind the scenes were not always smooth.
But it is a massive leap from there to suggest that the deal was not renewed simply to silence Bernie. It doesn't make sense. While some may feel that such a ‘half-empty’ perspective is unjustified and corrosive there can be no doubt that it reflects a significant - and vocal - section of Boro's fan base. Bernie was the Pied Piper of Doom, the dark fears of the Chickenrun psyche given voice - but Century also offered the other side of the Boro coin and in Ali Brownlee they also had a vocal counterpoint, the silver-lining seeking eternal optimist and ra-ra personified, an evangelist who was always on-message.
Brownlee has been the voice of Boro over three decades now since a debut in 1982 and there can be no question he is totally committed to the cause. His unquenchable enthusiasm has been a powerful antidote to the gloomy shroud of Slavenism, if only because a lifetime of Boro arguments has given him all the rhetorical tools to dismantle the boo-boy position.
Any retrospective official action to defuse Bernie was pointless because Ali always did it instantly and far more effectively than some remote rebuke could do. Brownlee could put down Bernie with panache and wit and with a practiced ease born of years of debating all matters Boro in the pubs and clubs of Teesside. He knew the perfect riposte before Bernie had even finished his sentence. It was a time honoured dialogue of the kind we all engage in almost daily and that was a key part of the duo's success. Far from being persuaded one way or the other by the pair, listeners could simply select the view from whichever end of the spectrum suited their prejudices and feel satisfied they were being represented.
So radio silence falling on the popular long-running Ali and Bernie commentary sit-com will create a massive cultural vacuum because the sparring that is the reality of Boro fandom will be suppressed - and it is the armchair negativists who will feel that most profoundly.
Instinctive pessimists - an important part of the Teesside demographic - will be denied a valuable outlet for their pent-up frustrations and their sincere if sometimes stinging criticism. Their matchday comrades can just boo the players with more vigour and glower in stony silence with even more fury but those at home with Simply Red on speed-dial who are looking to discharge some dark energy built up listening to the match will have no outlet. Instead they will step up their chuntering output down the pub - with a new added grievance - to anyone who will listen and it will deepen the bad-will factor that eats at the foundations of Boro's grand project.
But what of the BBC? Surely the entire shebang will transfer to the cock-a-hoop monopolists, the newly dubbed Radio Tees? I'm not so sure. The more journalistically balanced and analytical ethos of the polished BBC coverage can easily step up to the plate with its matchday commentary and colour. Paul Addison and Gary Gill are a confident and complimentary pairing who have a good knowledge of the game and excellent communication skills while both are local lads and Boro fans who are can sizzle with passion when the occasion demands. They have been overshadowed in the public eye by the showbiz razzamatazz, multi-media marketing machine and slick pre-written ad-libs of the Century pairing but will now be able to take centre-stage and show a wider audience what they can do.
But can the BBC fully reflect the complex and swiftly shifting extremes of Planet Boro's psychological landscape? Because that has been Century’s strong suit and what will be most missed. The BBC have staged successful fans’ forums and a lively Q&A with Gareth Southgate that proved a hit and so clearly have far more to offer beyond just the gantry but they will be restrained by the respectability, objectivity and balance enshrined by the BBC Charter and also by their obligations to listeners who are following Darlington, Hartlepool and other spots. A claim that they are "Boro biased and proud" will not sit comfortably with the Reithian ethos.
For instance, if they run a post-match phone-in if is unlikely it will nurture the dark end of the popular spectrum in a naked bid for ratings. Neither of the frontline pairing are natural shock jocks and even if they tried to pursue that course the powers that be are far more likely to restrain them with clearly defined editorial standards than a commercial station that would look at the ad-revenues as the main barometer of success, which could be good news for the pub banter populism of Jeff Winter's Saturday phone-in on Tfm .
The Beeb will need some nifty footwork now to ensure they get the maximum return from their exclusivity and offer something compelling and different so as not to be seen as Century-lite.
**In best reality show exit style, here's some of the lads best bits...
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