IT'S A rare thing to see broadcaster Stephen Nolan stumped for an answer. But then, it's not every day that your razor-smart editor suddenly jump ship for a top role advising the Northern Ireland government in strategic communications issues – the same government from which you've made a reputation holding it up to public scrutiny and account.
So when Nolan is asked would he have taken a job like that, he's uncharacteristically silent.
Eventually, after a pause that'd be too long were this a radio interview, he says: "The professional, artificial answer to that is to dodge it but the reality is, who knows? If I wasn't in the BBC, then I would look at my options."
A few Stormont politicians might wilt at the thought of Nolan 'going to the dark side', as journalists crossing over to the PR industry known in the trade.
However, he's not critical of David Gordon, who after working with Nolan on his Radio Ulster show for the past five years, will be soon advising his new bosses, First Minister Arlene Foster and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness – collectively known to politicos as Marlene.
It's a classic case of 'poacher turned gamekeeper' and one that raised hackles as well as eyebrows – Gordon's £75,000 a year appointment was criticised after it was revealed to be a Spad role (Special Advisor) which had required a change in legislation to bring about and was not competitively recruited.
But for Nolan, it will be business as usual when his ex-editor takes up his new role.
"David Gordon was extraordinarily important to the programme and to me.You won't find me saying anything bad about him, as how could you?" the broadcaster says.
"He's a very talented man, he was very much by my side on this radio show and I wish him the best for the show. But he knows the score. He has a job to do in government and we have a job to do on The Nolan Show.
"The good thing about him being placed in government I can absolutely say that he is a man of integrity. He knows how we do things in here. Our journalism is aggressive, but we try to be fair and play it straight.
"And now there's a guy in the heart of government who knows that. I think that's a good thing for both sides."
The 'spin doctor' row has made a change from speculation – fuelled in particular by the DUP's Gregory Campbell – about how much 43-year-old Nolan, born in Belfast's Shankill Road, earns from his radio show, his television show Nolan Live (which started again this week) and his Radio 5 Live UK-wide radio show.
A Sunday paper estimated that it might be as much as £300,000 a year. Whatever the figure, it is likely that it will be over the £150,000 threshold for BBC presenters set by the corporation when salaries are revealed next year.
Nolan says that he won't be lobbying the BBC against revealing his details.
"If the BBC decides to publish my salary I will be putting up no opposition whatsoever and no doubt it will be discussed on the show openly," he says. "I think they publish a total figure which is why I'm thinking it will combine the three jobs. It's going to be a lot of money.
"It will be interesting to see how fair the reporting around that is, and if people will forget that I'm working three jobs, seven days a week. It will be just interesting to see what happens."
While he admits he likes money, he revealed that he has turned down a more lucrative offer that most in his position would jump at.
"I had an offer to go national 18 months ago that would have earned me a lot more money – this does not bode well for any future contract negotiations with the BBC – but I decided that I wanted to work in the BBC," he says – admitting, in fact, that he had wanted to work there since boyhood.
Nolan is very much in the same league as some of the best BBC presenters. A multi-award-winning radio journalist, he has just been nominated for the Speech Broadcaster of the Year award along with Kirsty Young, Jeremy Vine, Jane Garvey and DJ Nihal. He's still disbelieving of his own success, however.
"Honestly, I genuinely think 'How am I in there?'" he says. "I know I have an ability to connect with an audience but I don't think that I'm at that level – but yet I'm playing at that level."
Nolan works hard for his success and says he has not had time for a partner. But he tells me he's acutely aware that is life is a far cry from his working class background when his mother, affectionately known as Big Audrey to listeners, used to leave home in the middle of the night to do a night shift.
He's also aware that he won't be able to keep up the workload forever.
"I've been going at a 20-year-old's pace for the last 20 years, so I am starting to get a little bit tired," he concedes. "I don't know how to relax and I have to work incredibly hard to keep the shows up there.
"The Nolan Show is the most listened to show in Northern Ireland. Do I take any comfort in that? Probably not. What I take from that is, how do I keep it there?"
He was on our television screens twice last week with his new run of Nolan Live on Wednesdays and his new business documentary, Made in Northern Ireland last Monday, alongside his morning radio show on Radio Ulster and 5 Live.
The new five-part TV series looks at local entrepreneurs, how they designed their own products and brought them to market. Nolan says that he himself has a few product ideas – not just programme ideas – up his sleeve too.
"I genuinely over the next year or two will launch something as I've been inspired by the people from the show, by this 19-year-old who's exporting around the world and I think to myself, 'I want a go at that too' so yes I have ideas that I mean to work on."
Despite his obvious success, Nolan says he still feels that he's just an ordinary guy made good.
"That's who I still am, a wee boy from Belfast," he says. "There's a conflict between some people who perceive me as an assured, sometimes arrogant guy but I'm still that wee fella from Belfast who's trying to make it. And you try making it in this business. It's difficult – and trying to keep making it is even harder.
"Don't underestimate how that feels. I don't walk around thinking 'Aren't I brilliant?"
:: Made in Northern Ireland is on BBC One Northern Ireland, Mondays, 7.30pm; Nolan Live is on BBC One Northern Ireland, Wednesdays, 10.45pm; The Nolan Show in on BBC Radio Ulster, Monday to Friday, 9.03am.
