There's nothing quite so annoying as the "regular caller" on a talk show. And there are few quite as irritating as the guy who ID's himself as "Sonny From Richmond Hill." He's a black man originally from South Africa and I believe he lived through the unforgiveable era of Apartheid, so his attitude on racial issues is somewhat understandable, if extreme. 

The topic came up on Jerry Agar's show on NT1010 Tuesday, and to my surprise, the call screener put him on the air. The two went back and forth as you might expect, with each calling the other a bigot. But when Sonny admitted he would have gladly help burn down a church primarily attended by Aboriginals to protest residential schools, Agar lost patience with him, noting "burning churches, especially for faiths that had nothing to do with the schools, is completely wrong."

At that point, the argument grew even more heated, and Agar not only hung up on him, but declared he was banned from his show for the future. 

Anyone who's listened to talk radio for any length of time has heard Sonny. He calls every show he can get on all the time, always arguing about race or politics from a racial point of view. The man is clearly obsessed with the topic. And he can be very obnoxious. Most shows have long since declared him persona non grata.

The only one who hasn't, to my knowledge, is Tom McConnell on CKTB, who lets him on quite often. McConnell's tactic when his caller goes too far is to wryly insult him, refute his arguments, and then gently say his goodbyes. But he always takes his call.

I'm curious about this "banning" policy in general. (And I know a lot of people hate Agar, but this isn't about him, per se.) Is it better radio to let the obsessed person spout his insanity, correct him and say goodbye, or never let him on in the first place? I only had to do it once in my career and not because the guy was obnoxious. But he called every single day over and over trying to get on and eventually it just became too much. So we restricted him to only once a week, which helped.