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Presenter rotation at Free Radio or Free rotation if that's what you want to call?
Martin Kong
Posts: 2,933 Forum Member
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Okay.
Here goes....
Jo and Sparky move from Free Radio drive in Brum to breakfast on Free Radio in the Black Country and Shropshire, who replaces Ed and Cat as Ed replaces Tom Newitt at drive in the Black Country and Shropshire, as Tom moves to Coventry and Warwickshire Drivetime, who replaces Ben Burrell in which Ben takesover the Birmingham drive show......
Phew.......
...Oh and Cat moves to another slot (wherever that is?)
All the info via Radio Today.
On the bright side no jobs losses.:)
Here goes....
Jo and Sparky move from Free Radio drive in Brum to breakfast on Free Radio in the Black Country and Shropshire, who replaces Ed and Cat as Ed replaces Tom Newitt at drive in the Black Country and Shropshire, as Tom moves to Coventry and Warwickshire Drivetime, who replaces Ben Burrell in which Ben takesover the Birmingham drive show......
Phew.......
...Oh and Cat moves to another slot (wherever that is?)
All the info via Radio Today.
On the bright side no jobs losses.:)
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Comments
Travel Tom is also being taken off air to work behind the scenes from next week.
I would have put Jo and Sparky on breakfast as will happen, but Ed Nell to Jo and Sparky's slot. Then get Cat to learn from the best joining JD in Coventry and Warwickshire while Roisin is off. After that I didn't think about.
I can now see the reason Ben Burrell has done stints of cover in Birmingham at breakfast and drivetime; I think he really did well during this time. Coventry and Warwickshire will be new territory for Tom Newitt, I'll be listening in to see how he gets on. Ben was a big personality and Tom is different.
Tom has been doing more on air with Tom 'Travel Tom' Stokes recently, I'm most surprised and disappoined that he is being taken off air completely. Tom has a great personality and will be a great loss to the on-air team. When Tom Newitt has done travel broadcasts himself, he has got himself in a mess several times. I feel that Chiara was most likely pushed to leave, following the threat of being taken off air like Tom. She certainly has a future in radio and belongs on air, possibly even as a solo presenter. Might suit the Heart format although that would put me off listening straight away.
There are now a few things that puzzle me:
Where will Cat James go?
Will Tom Newitt still do Saturday breakfast across Shropshire and the Black Country?
Who will be doing Naomi's Sunday afternoon show? (Tom Newitt is on this week, the way he phrased it on his show today made it sound like it was just cover and not permanent. It will most likely be the last time he's heard in Shropshire and the Black Country for a while.)
I think I'll just have to listen to find out. I'll be listening to various Free Radio stations all weekend.
I agree...it's a joke...a NUMBER of fully licensed stations do not seem to be bothering either....It's their BUSINESS,,,radio.and they don't even seem to want to show off their wares...DATING.yes.....all the 'go to a radio station website' things like that...ridiculous.
Oh.sorry..I forgot.the radio is actually secondary ,,,,,,,,,
(And the local rag still prints the Gold schedule under the Free Radio 80's heading!)
The Warwickshire territory isn't quite new to Tom as I'm sure he did 'FM102 The Bear'.
Think it's a demotion for Jo & Sparky no matter what way it's dressed up. Yes, breakfast is the main show, but I'd be surprised if the Rajar for BC breakfast was bigger than Brum drive. I stand to be corrected.
I'm sure the RAJAR will go through the roof with Jo & Sparky. It's a great move for Orion. Although I predict a slight fall in the RAJAR for Birmingham. New presenters Ben and Naomi are impressive so far but the public aren't happy they're losing some big names: Jo & Sparky, Producer Paul from breakfast and Chiara Glorioso.
The schedule is still available on the Radioplayer app I'm currently using on Android. It is often wrong when normal presenters are off but it's a rough guide.
I'm not doubting the RAJAR will go up on BC breakfast as I didn't rate Ed Nell and thought he was the wrong choice for breakfast. I'm doubting Jo & Sparky's future. The Jo show (Birmingham's bigger breakfast) didn't fare well and she moved to Brum drive. I think the move to BC breakfast is another demotion. Yes, its breakfast, but on a smaller station. I can't see it bring dressed up as a positive move for them.
Chiara was doing her morning shift and then never appeared in the evening travel and that was it, she was gone. She even apologised on her Facebook page. It must be horrible to work in an industry where you can loose your job without being given notice.
Without mentioning names, have you noticed who her feller is?
Yeah, she has been with him years though and on air the guys used to mock him. There was quite an edgy joke the other week about prison but those who wouldn't know would not have got it!
Both jobless then!
I had his book for a quid from a local charity shop!
Without wanting to name names? Her partner? I don't understand why this is needed in a Free Radio thread.
Plus, as both of them talk about each other on their respective twitter and Facebook feeds, AND the fact its been mentioned a number of times in Birmingham Mail and easily accessible online, its no big secret that her fella is ex BBC newsreader and serial criminal Ashley Blake.
Good luck to them both.
She's been doing Saturday breakfast on Gem 106 for a while now and is usually first on the list for any cover slots.
She has co-hosted a breakfast show before, she was on Radio Aire breakfast for a while and before that did Leicester Sound breakfast twice, once with Robin Banks, and then with Damien St John. They also did drive together for a while before she moved to breakfast when Robin Banks arrived.
Most recently Naomi presented weekday breakfast on Heat.
On air currently is a woman who goes by the name 'Gem' and she was on for the first time last Saturday evening. Has James Hall left Orion now? He's a brilliant presenter but I'm not staying up until the early hours to hear him on Bauer overnights.
So it isn't, but I wasn't going to start a thread just to mention it!
(Don't let this place get like Tvforum.co.uk, for christ's sake! That's the reason I left!)
Haha. Forgot about that forum! No problem! 😁
Have you nothing better to do?
If you have to slag me off, at least read the rest of the thread first before doing so!
He probably still does cover on Free. Orion and Bauer are sharing presenters it seems these days, certainly there freelancers. Obviously there marketing is already shared.
As for the Ashley thing, I know how funny Digital Spy is at censoring things....so thought I'd be cautious.
They really need to refresh evenings....if I hear Adam talk about his girlfriend one more time....and I wish overnights were not VT'd as a night shift worker.
You think Adam's bad? Naomi Kent had more mentions of her boyfriend or ("boyf") in three hours on a Sunday afternoon than Adam does in his 25 hours a week on air. I think Adam is limited with regard to content because I think he finishes at 22:00 and the remaining two hours are pieced together using clips from earlier in the show and often repeat content from the previous day's show.
For anyone who's interested, Ben Burrell and Ed Nell's first shows have been uploaded to http://aircheckdownloads.com/uk.htm.
I've now had chance to listen to each of the new shows from Monday.
Tom Newitt: good, as usual, had a good idea to introduce himself while mentioning Coventry and Warwickshire so many times making good local connections even if I think they were white lies, travel news given as if he knows the area like the back of his hand
Ben Burrell: lacked any introduction but was not completely neccessary given that he's spent about four weeks covering in Birmingham recently, relevant content although there were probably too many people in Birmingham who have the same problem as Ben's friend and could have taken offence
Ed Nell: gave and repeated the introduction that Nelly was to be known by his real name, Ed and promoted Jo and Sparky right at the start which probably wasn't by choice as he is the outgoing breakfast presenter, content was lacking and I feel that he has been affected by his hopeless stint on breakfast - compare this latest aircheck with the other one from Free Birmingham in August 2013
Jo & Sparky: sounded right at home on breakfast, gave a warm greeting with Sparky sounding like an excited child saying, "hello, we're new!", I feel that a little on-air bickering is a sign of a good radio couple and it certainly is here, Sparky made one minor mistake with a road name in the travel news which he quickly corrected, the Thousand Pound Minute was done well too with Jo reading the questions and Sparky reviewing the answers at the end, only complaint is the removal of long-standing features dating back to Fresh and Jo I think - Thingamajog Junior and the Weather Kids - my thought now is that this may only be temporary during the children's summer holidays
I've written more than I intended there; it's a little like a school report! Still, it's something to think about. I've got no audio files to listen back to on Tom and Jo & Sparky but I've got my evaluation here to remember the shows.
Today (Sunday) she is on the show usually presented by David Francis, who is on in Birmingham on the show that has had no regular presenter since Alex Duffy left. Cover solutions have included Tom Newitt on in DF's place and DF in Birmingham and several times Andy Martindale across Wolverhampton, the Black Country and Shropshire and DF on two usually separate shows in Birmingham, Coventry and Warwickshire with a lot of split links. (Worth noting that Tom Newitt stated that he has always lived in Coventry and Warwickshire despite spending years broadcasting from studios in Wolverhampton/ Oldbury and previously on Herefordshire and Worcestershire's Wyvern.)
I think this may be Cat's permanent show. I really hope it is because she's something different. I really think she was sounding good today, not having to carry Ed Nell along was a real benefit so we could really see what she was capable of. So far she has carried Freewind well and done a good news teaser and I've heard no technical programming hiccups which even the most experienced presenters make. I can't help feeling that these two shows were a test and the management told her that if they weren't good enough, she's out. Well Orion, if that ever was the case, she should stay. If I was in management at Orion, I would also consider asking her to cover drivetime occasionally. I wonder if she might cover the few weeks of paternity leave for Nell? I don't know how long he can have off now.