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Magic for Fox as he leads radio breakfast battle
Amar Singh, Evening Standard24.07.08
Veteran DJ Neil Fox today claimed victory in the battle for London's most popular breakfast show.
Official industry figures from radio audience researcher Rajar put the 47-yearold's morning show on Magic ahead of easy-listening rivals Jamie Theakston and Harriet Scott.
Fox's breakfast show, which attracts 868,000 listeners each morning, leapfrogged Theakston and Scott's programme on Heart, which reaches 844,000 listeners.
It is the first time the former Capital Radio DJ is No1 across all measures of reach, audience and share in London.
He said today: "Ever since the first day I walked into a radio studio, it has been my dream to be No 1 in London, and that dream has now come true.
"When I joined Magic less than three years ago, we had the No1 spot in our sights and it is amazing to have achieved that goal. Nothing can beat this feeling."
There was bad news for Johnny Vaughan and Denise Van Outen, reunited at the start of the year to revive the fortunes of Capital's breakfast show.
The pair, both on million-pound-plus contracts, are failing to pull in more listeners and their reach is down to 772,000 between 6am and 9am.
Bosses at Capital were desperate to see the duo - who rose to fame together in the Nineties hosting Channel 4's Big Breakfast - build up a "head of steam" by the time the Rajar figures were published, but will be disappointed to see they have slipped further behind their rivals.
Britain's most popular breakfast show remains Radio 2's Wake Up With Wogan, with Terry Wogan attracting 7.75 million listeners.
After achieving a record 7.72 million listeners and a ratings increase for six quarters in a row, The Chris Moyles Show on Radio 1 dropped to 7.21 million listeners.
The most popular station in London is BBC Radio 4, which attracts 2.43 million in the capital.
The figures were boosted by the continued popularity of the station's flagship current affairs show, the Today programme.
A Radio 4 spokesman said the weekly reach for Today listeners went up this quarter compared with the same quarter last year.
The number of listeners stands at
6.26 million, whereas the same figure last year was 6.18 million.
The figures show that 17.9% of all radio listening is now via a digital platform - such as DAB, digital TV or the internet - up from 12.8% in the same period last year.
Radio listening via mobile phone also continues to rise - among people aged 15 and over it increased to 12.2% from 8.9% this time last year.
Rajar said 45.1 million listeners now tune into a radio station each week.
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Notice I live in London my friend, its different every day and the only bad thing is that he is not called Dr Fox anymore!
- Steve, London
How much longer is Mr Wogan going to continue to present the breakfast show on R2. If I recall correctly back in 2005 he said that he and his late producer, would call it a day in 2007: but then he goes and signs another contract for two more years, last year.
As for the commercial stations' it amazes me how people tune in to hear the same old, same old, shouty style presentation every day, coupled with the same old playlists. In short, radio could be better in the UK.
- Boris, Herefordshire
