Just to be clear - my problem isn't with the presenters. They're on at the same time every day, so you can easily ignore them. I've done it with KB for years.
My problem is with the callers. In an age of twitter, facebook etc, I don't understand the need for talkback. The idiot public will never boost the status of a radio station - they can only lower it. And this is especially the case on a station that is deliberately a low-brow footy station for 90% of the time. As we heard through the Essendon saga, on the occasion that you do get an insightful, well spoken caller, he (or she) will quickly be shouted down by a bevy of idiots.
I can already imagine how this is going to play out with Whateley. They bring him in because he's an articulate, intelligent speaker, and it will hopefully lift the tone of the station (from what the trolls like Bartlett and Fine have created). But because of what SEN is, and what I suspect it wants to be, he will still be encouraged to give the peanut gallery a right of reply, and his attempts to lift the tone of the station will fail as a result.
Essendon is only one example. I can also imagine him on the radio dealing with issues like Heather Mouncey, or Eddie + "king kong" - if anything, I can foreshadow the tone of talkback getting worse if they're going to insist on keeping talkback, because Whateley has what some view as "lefty" views on social issues, and it's only going to incite more idiots to call up and have their say, regardless of whether they know what they're talking about, or whether they have an opinion that is worth being heard.