Shock jock

A shock jock is a type of radio broadcaster or disc jockey who entertains listeners or attracts attention using humor and/or melodramatic exaggeration that some portion of the listening audience may find offensive. The term is usually used pejoratively to describe provocative or irreverent broadcasters whose mannerisms, statements and actions are typically offensive to many members of the community. It is a popular term, generally not used within the radio industry. A shock jock is considered to be the radio equivalent of the tabloid newspaper, for which entertaining readers is as important as, or more important than, providing factual information. Within the radio industry, a radio station that relies primarily on shock jocks for its programming is said to have a hot talk format.

Confusingly, the term has been used in two broad (but sometimes overlapping) contexts:

Shock Jock

Shock Jock was an Australian television comedy series, broadcast on TV1.

The series lasted for two series (2001–2002) and was created by comedian Tim Ferguson. It also starred Tim Ferguson along with Matthew Dyktynski, Michael Veitch, Tom Budge, Rod Mullinar, Sancia Robinson, Fiona Todd, Cassandra Magrath and featured many well-known Australian actors and comedians in guest roles.

It focussed on an Australian talkback radio station, CHAT-AM, in the 1980s. The introduction of FM radio in the early 1980s was leading to the slow demise of the AM band. CHAT-AM discovered shock jock Barry Gold (Matthew Dyktynski) and its fortunes were reversed.

See also