The Rise of Early Breakfast
beermole
Posts: 21 Forum Member
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After all the consolidation and cost cutting by the big groups, it's interesting that there are now more stations broadcasting an Early Breakfast show than probably ever before. Okay, largely networked but I'm wondering what lies behind the business decisions to replace a single overnight show with two shows of 2 to 3 hours duration.
Can any industry insiders or experts explain the rise of the Early Breakfast show? Does the audience change - in scale or interests - after 4am, maybe as it changes from overnighters to early risers? Is it driven by London and networking means that the rest of the country just follows?
I'm not against more shows by any means - just interested to know how the decision gets past the accountants.
Can any industry insiders or experts explain the rise of the Early Breakfast show? Does the audience change - in scale or interests - after 4am, maybe as it changes from overnighters to early risers? Is it driven by London and networking means that the rest of the country just follows?
I'm not against more shows by any means - just interested to know how the decision gets past the accountants.
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From Radio Rewind : Adrian presented the first early morning show on Radio 1 (the station had previously carried the Radio 2 early show presented by Ray Moore
His warm and relaxed style Made him an ideal presenter to wake up to.
Adrian was a Disc Jockey on the QE2 Liner before moving to Radio 1 in 1983. Whilst here he presented Top of the Pops and toured the UK with the Summer Roadshow.
Adrian had to get up at 3.15 each weekday morning for his 6am show, as he lived an hour's drive away from central London.
That's not correct. Mike Smith presented the early show in 1982, before Adrian John took over in 1983.
It clearly did all start with Adrian John because as stated Ray Moore was already doing early breakfast on Radio 1 and 2, so was he the first? Who was on at 6am on day 2 of radios 1 & 2?
Mike Smith was on 6-7 am, I think. It might have been his first show after leaving Capital. Not sure.
The hour long Early Show ran for quite a long time. It's interesting to revisit the schedules to see how the BBC slowly brought the start time forward. First 5.30am and then to 5am before eventually Radio 1 went 24 hours a day.
Then it was 4am-6.
moyles mills jk +joel did 4-7
I'm sure you are correct but I thought Adrian John was a Topshop Jock. I can remember when Capital axed Night Flight (02.00-06.30) and introduced the Early Show if I remember with the Fledgling Richard Allinson and I think Philip Schofield, Mitch Johnson, Paul Phear all had a bash after him. Personally I prefer the all night LIVE show to be 01.00-05.00 with breakfast starting at 05.00.
Never a fan of Adrian John to be honest
ofcom dictates daytime hours are 0600-1900 which when networking must include local breakfast .thats why globals breakfast shows start at 6
seems somewhat archaic that an organisation dictates programming to that extent .
Yes but the first Early Breakfast of the 24hr era was 4-6.
Yes, Mayo then did breakfast 6-9am. Was Simon Mayo the only Radio 1 breakfast show presenter who started that early with all the others 6:30 or 7?
Interestingly Radio 1 breakfast never used to run as late as 10am either finishing at 9 or 9:30, it was actually Mayo's departure from Radio 1 in 2001 which caused breakfast to be extended to 10am as they used this to reduce the no./s of shows between breakfast and drive from 3 (mornings, lunch, afternoon) to 2. Jo Whiley then got 10-1, Mark Radclife pulled forward to 1pm and Moyles was given an extra hour of his drive show starting at 3.
Mark Radclife was always seen as too alternative daytime for more than 2 hours, so never got extended which was a shame, afternoon slot then got increased to 3 hours from 1 to 4 and drive moved from 3-6 to 4-7 which then allowed them to drop another show, late drive, with Dave Pearce's departure from daytime this was all in 2004.
Interesting that 11 years on and Radio 1 still sticks with this same schedule of early breakfast, breakfast, mornings, afternoons and drive. I guess with the current cuts we're unlikely to see a lunch or late drive show return or though Radio 2 still manage to have a lunch show.
Never understood why Radio 2 don't start live programming until 5am when Radio 1 start at 4am, surely the older Radio 2 demographic are more likely to be up between 4 and 5am on a weekday that Radio 1's? Why can't Radio 2 have a 2.5 hour early breakfast like Radio 1, 1.5 hours seems a very short show in this day and age.
Paul Easton did a blog recently and mentioned that 1.36 million people listen to radio in London between 4 and 6am - approx 12% of the TSA.
https://pauleaston.wordpress.com/2015/07/05/london-calling/
I would imagine nationally there is a sizeable audience available as well which is why I would guess networks have gone for early breakfast shows.
The more potential audience you can reach the more it makes it worth your while to do it.
I imagine the audience does change at 4am - you go from nightworkers to a mixture of nightworkers and early risers. When Nick Abbot filled in on Talk Radio overnights in the 90s he said he found callers dropped off at 4am as nightworkers were winding down and early risers were getting up so didn't want to call.
Certainly if you look at the regular show on Talk Radio at that point of history - Ian Collins - there did seem to be change in content and direction around 5am.
Not really - there's nothing to stop them starting their breakfast shows at 5 if they wanted to.
I can see why they don't though. Yes there is a sizeable audience from 5-6am nationally and in bigger markets. However as the markets get smaller is it worth the breakfast teams putting energy into content for 5-6am hour when more people are going to listen later on?
However I do suspect that if by any chance Ofcom were to define daytime as starting at 5am we could see some breakfast shows starting then - probably with a "Best Of" voicetracked hour.
Surely 5-6am needs to be live it's when people are waking up and what live content to start there day and no what's going on in the world.
As I said there is a sizeable audience if you look at big markets and nationally - but as you look at stations with small-medium sized TSAs is it worth their while having somewhere live at 5am?
I've never understood the point of Radio 1 doing those early morning Radio 2 relays as by the early 1980's Radio 2 which had switched to 24 hour programmes had its own slots on Medium Wave as well as the lions share of time on 88 to 91 FM.
Agreed no point a small local being live at 5am, but many locals are now part of a network e.g. Heart, Capital. I'd expect these to have big networked early show. Is Jenni Faulkner live, I know she also does Sunday earlies? I'd really expect Heart to be live at 5am weekdays, maybe undertsand the Sunday show being voice tracked.
Jenni Falconer is live, I think. Don't know about Sun
Was the first early show the one on Piccadilly Radio in the late seventies? It was called the Earlybird Show and ran from 3.00am to 7.00am.
Also around that time Mike Read couldn't get up in a morning so Beerling (who wanted to fire him) let him start at 7:30