unfortunately I believe you are right

I guess Contracts still on going from switch over.

Lets wait and see what happens before we write the station off completely. There is some hard acts to follow. If it dosn't succeed then Global will have some red faces and have to think why did we lose these big names.

... you're right. I was getting over-excited at the prospect of a Castle free Wimbledon. Actually that's not really fair - there are far worse than Castle when it comes to tennis commentary.


Your last few posts on here have not had your usual abundance of positivity occy. Are you getting fed up with Smooth? You're usually very up-beat about Smooth.

No I'm not getting fed up with Smooth. It's sad too see Simon and Lynn going. Radio is very rare now too get into with all the merges. I hope both will end up somewhere soon?

Thanks for answering. I, too hope both Lynn & Simon will soon find another spot somewhere. I like both of them. They're both too good not to be on the air.

At 67 years of age maybe Simon fancies taking it a bit easy, I certainly wouldn't want to get out of bed at 4am every day and I've got 20 years on him.

As for Lynn, maybe cover at Radio 2 will be her best bet now but with Sara Cox now officially leaving Radio 2 I would say she was now number one choice for Vanessa's cover as she's proving this week.

As we know Simon spent many years presenting Classic FM's Breakfast Show so if any move to the BBC was considered then maybe Radio 3 would be an option

I reckon Bates would be excellent on the Saturday slot currently held by Anneka Rice,AND what about,,Simon Bates;Love Songs LIVE on Sunday 9-11 with Our Tune thrown in.I can only fantasise...

Someone mentioned that it's to do with politics why he'd never end up on Radio 2.

Very unlike you to have a personal "anorak ***K Fest moment " over such things. I have to agree I too reckon Bates would be great on 2 Always good to have a massive debate over such matters!

A few blog posts on this week's news:

http://pauleaston.blogspot.co.uk/201...off-telly.html

http://www.johnco.co.uk/2014/02/25/p...up-the-ladder/

http://earshotcreative.com/2014/02/s...h-tv-stardust/

Tony Blackburn still gets up early to do his stuff and once a week Sky News paper review.

The same Howard Hughes who also does a brilliant podcast The Unexplained with Howard Hughes, a show he once did nationally on Talksport a decade ago. For those who are sick of Smooth and who fancy a bit of talk instead then I fully recommend downloading his podcasts from his website or iTunes onto your mp3's / iPods.

If you (and others here & elsewhere) hate this Smooth Radio station now, like me, then IGNORE IT!

DO NOT LISTEN TO IT FOR ONE MOMENT MORE. Change channel or better still buy an iPod and put all your fave music on it, ten times the Smooth playlists.

Complaining yet listening is no good, it only encourages them. Starve them of the oxygen of listenership and then the pips will start squeaking when the advertisers see the graph taking a downward turn.

If enough people stop listening to this cynical and bland style of radio then it will surely die a deserved death. But not until people STOP LISTENING to it once and for all.

You're being overly generous David. I prefer the word automatons myself. That's all they are.

As for that "Your Relaxing Music Mix" strapline, well I agree will all your Zzzzzzzzz's. It just had to have that utterly clichéd commercial radio word "mix" in the phrase didn't it! Ughh, mindless generic trash.

You do know that 67 is the new 47 don't you?

Does Simon have any interest in American music? I recall he used to talk with Jonathan King on his mid morning Radio 1 show back in the 80's about it. Maybe if Paul Gambaccini was unable to return to his America's Greatest Hits show on Radio 2 on Saturday evenings then Simon Bates could be a possibility to keep that style of slot going? Also some good suggestions from Uptothevocal.



I've been playing catch up with the thread over the past few weeks, hence the consecutive posts all at once.

I would love to hear the reaction from Radio 3 listeners if Bates turned up. It is hard to see where he might go next although I think he would fit in well on a BBC local station.

Presenters over a certain age like Mike Harding, Terry Wogan, Roger Day etc are being dropped from radio. Also appart from TOTPs reruns Simon is rarely on TV?

Sara Cox is becoming more part of R2 (leaving R1) and will do more cover, so Lynn Parsons may find it harder to get back on R2, especially as her face is not so well seen on TV and seen by listeners?
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/media/ne...o-radio-2.html

Simon could have taking over Andrew Castle on LBC. ( I think he did LBC in the early days before Classic FM and after Radio 1? ). Doesn't he still do movie reviews? He might just go and do corporate stuff.

Will that mean Johnny Gould and his producer Seb will go too?

Emma B back to Sundays as well as Saturday breakfast which she went too after the change a few months back. I forgot she was moved over from the old smooth too. So she must have survived.

They went when Smooth had its previous makeover.

No they didn't. Johnny reads sport out from the news and seb is still simon producer.

Johnny can't do it everyday, as I've seen him on Sky News doing the paper review several times recently.

Rich tea you are spot on. All global stations are off my presets. To be honest they are saying smooth will get to a bigger audience but taking it off D1 will surely decrease the audience wont it. How many people listen to AM these days.