Opinion
Media on Trial: Johnny and Denise 95.8 Breakfast Show
22.02.2008Tom Drummond, Radio Manager In the highly competitive London breakfast market, Denise Van Outen has joined the breakfast team on Capital 95.8, reuniting her with former Big Breakfast host Johnny Vaughan. This is one of a number of changes made by Paul Jackson, the MD of Capital, in a drive to change the fortunes of the London station.
Johnny took over in April 2004 and the industry was told to give him two years to develop the show. Four years on, the show has suffered audience losses as a result of strong competition from the BBC as well as it’s commercial competitors; Jamie and Harriet on Heart, Neil Fox on Magic and Ricky and Melvin on Kiss.
In November Denise made a guest appearance on the show where the old banter from the Big Breakfast days was resurrected, a prelude perhaps to the current show making Denise the third female presenter since Johnny first took over the mic.
The show aims to have a London feel about it, and undeniably has the two most London centric DJ’s of any breakfast show in the capital. Both presenters clearly have a personal as well as a professional relationship which is reflected throughout the show as they both vie for as much airtime as possible. At times the jokes seem to be between the two of them or at the expense of others rather than being inclusive of the audience, which is perhaps at odds with one of the great strengths of radio, the listener feeling part of something.
Both clearly have the potential to create a great show as they did back in their television hey day, but perhaps it would be prudent for them to realise radio is very different to TV and requires a different skill set. The challenge for the team is for Johnny and Denise to evolve the relationship they had back in the late nineties making it relevant not only to today but to the medium.
Perhaps this is best summed up by Johnny’s suggestion to Denise in their first week that radio “is trickier than you thought, isn’t it?”
