Getting A Bigger Bite Of Breakfast
The battle for supremacy amongst London’s radio stations is closer than ever, with high-profile TV personalities being brought in by broadcasters to bolster competing schedules. Paul Chantler, programming consultant and former group programme director of The Wireless Group, Essex Radio Group and Chiltern Radio Network explains how, despite their household names, the current slew of telly favourites could yet be toppled…
Newly departed Heart FM breakfast show host Jono Coleman is having the last laugh at the expense of his former Chrysalis Radio colleagues.
The latest Rajar figures show he increased his audience by a massive 28% or 224,000 listeners to a reach of 972,000. His valedictory performance was one of the main factors in Heart overtaking Capital to become London’s most listened to station.
With only a 1% share of listening between the top three stations, getting a bigger bite of breakfast is now vital to London’s radio programmers.
Now Jono’s gone with a bravura display of his ear-catching skills, Chrysalis bosses could be forgiven for wondering if they made the right decision to replace him with TV pretty boy Jamie Theakston, the latest TV face to become a radio DJ thanks to a high public profile.
Capital has Johnny Vaughan at breakfast and now former Blue Peter presenter Richard Bacon on its afternoon show. Indeed, Heart has another children’s TV favourite Toby Anstis on its daytime roster.
So does the TV magic of these guys work for radio? So far, the signs are mixed. To state the obvious, radio ain’t TV and different skills are needed. Johnny Vaughan is starting to find his feet, increasing his audience by 108,000 for his fourth quarter hosting the show. But he has 140,000 fewer listeners year-on-year from when he took over from Chris Tarrant, himself a TV presenter turned radio jock.
Vaughan still seems to lack that certain something on radio which made him such a worthy successor to Chris Evans on Channel Four’s Big Breakfast, surely the closest thing to breakfast radio on TV.
The reality is that the key to success for the breakfast boys is chemistry with a co-presenter. When you get it right, it’s a powerful, potent and indestructible listener magnet. It’s all about banter, and getting a better bit of banter is the secret of success.
Banter is what made viewers turn onto the Big Breakfast with Vaughan and Denise van Outen. And banter between Jono and his co-presenter Harriet Scott is what made Heart’s breakfast show.
Early evidence shows the on-air chemistry is something you cannot manufacture. Theakston and Harriet just don’t seem to fit properly yet. And Vaughan and Zoe on Capital sometimes struggle.
Creating chemistry between presenters is the issue which exercises most radio programmers in the UK.
In the mid 90s, this literally became a science with formulae used to “cast” a breakfast show team, sitcom-style. The main presenter would be “the brother” – a young man who loves parties, drinking, sports and gadgets; the travel presenter played “the sister” – outwardly a ladette but sensitive at heart; and the newsreader was cast as the “older brother”, sensible but liking a laugh.
So if Heart and Capital are slogging it out with TV talent and chemistry experiments, what of the third contender for the top spot in London radio?
Magic has benefited from the consistency of its more-music-less-talk approach, just behind Capital in market share. The breakfast show is fronted, at the moment, by veteran radio DJ Graham Dene whose career didn’t start in front of a TV camera.
Will a little TV magic be sprinkled on Magic? There have already been rumours of a move to Magic by Neil Fox (who has a TV profile thanks to Pop Idol). With Theakston and Vaughan battling it out, the temptation of a big name breakfast star must be irresistible.
The ideal of course is the ultimate combination that would destroy Messrs Theakston and Vaughan (as well as Messrs Wogan and Moyles). It’s the radio equivalent of an atomic bomb – a duo who combine high profile, fun and perfect chemistry.
Ant and Dec have a successful TV career at the moment. But their manager, former Radio One DJ Peter Powell, knows and loves radio. One day you can be sure they will turn up on a radio set near you.
And I suspect they will have the last laugh on everyone.