I wonder if it's more than that. Funny how after all these years, he suddenly gets a slot on Radio 2, just as Smooth is going national.

Perhaps the BBC realised they were sharing a presenter and decided to try exploiting this to dent Smooth a bit by getting Blackburn off their schedule. Who knows whether the offer was nothing more than to work on Radio 2 instead of Smooth, or to lose his BBC London slot if he didn't? Just how much more are the BBC likely to be paying Blackburn for one voice tracked afternoon show compared to two live breakfast shows on Smooth? I'm sure he'd have preferred to keep the breakfast show, so what was it that made Radio 2's an offer he couldn't refuse?

Still, it's only one less former Radio 1 presenter on Smooth. They have plenty to spare...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010...tony-blackburn

Perhaps he will do both the POTP and the BBC London shows live which will then give him lay ins rather than early starts!
Also the listening figures on R2 will be higher than Smooth!

However Simon Bates could have lower figures when moving from Classic FM, but might have been narked he lost the Classic FM breakfast show to later in the morning and will be glad to get the Smooth Breakfast show!


The new ads are trying to attract 40ish females and Lynn's shows do that with a lot of chat from her.
Simon Bates weekday and Dene weekends will be another change and a bit of a gamble!
Can see in a way it is trying to be a bit like the successful London Magic where a presenters personality is less important than the music!
Smooth may make some further changes if the station does get the "old mans" station image!

Has it been confirmed that Tony will not be doing his shows live?

Smooth radio have made it clear they are the rival station for Radio 2 before the went National. I'm sure that is partly the reason for the BBC to ban him from working at for Smooth. It would be good if POTPs was to be Live. Time will tell if Lynn Parsons will have the same choice.

The only real conclusion I can think of is Tony would've been on Smooth and Radio 2 on the same day and both are national stations. The BBC wouldn't be happy with that and he had to leave.

However he's still allowed to broadcast on small scale stations such as KMFM, KCFM and BBC London 94.9 which won't dent R2's Rajar on days he's not on POTP.

Really? - didn't Paul Gambaccini do the same for ages on Radio 2 and Classic FM?

With due respect to Paul, he's not exactly a Rajar puller is he? Tony on the other hand gave Smooth in London their best figures for the whole week!

Two stations with two completely different formats.

You clearly have access to Smooth Radio's half hour rajar breakdowns.

All you have to do is look at Paul Easton's London Rajar breakdown charts.

http://pauleaston.blogspot.com/2010/...ar-q22010.html

I don't think there would ever have been a problem with him doing the BBC London show.

Thanks ...now I know where to look

Smooth is not a great station.

It's oldies oriented but has lots of recent adult appealing music.

A bit close to Heart, similar to some heritage services and has nothing greatly unique about it.

It's good for a 10% reach but that's about it I suspect.

It would make more sense for Global to own it and rebrand it as Gold I think.

Was Dave Brown pre-recorded again? ( Sunday ).

Maybe Radio 2 want him to do more than POTP's in the future? I can guess he will cover shows like Dale does.

So what do you think is wrong with the others Occy?

My guess is that Lynn will be treated the same way as Tony - ie choose Radio 2 or Smooth. You can't do both.

Yeah, 'cos any business person worth their salt would sell their company that's making a profit to their main rival...

Remember, this isn't just radio... it's a business and it's there to make money...

GMG have said some time in the future they will sell the auto trader business (was in the Mail on Sunday), but not the radio business!
They seem happy with the advertising arrangement with Global!

Also Smooth is different to Gold in some ways (new and old easy listening rather than old rock/pop hits), but maybe not enough in others (motown/soul etc)!

Smooth is 1000 times better than gold and i hope it stays like that.After 1 hour of gold i switch off as its the same songs over and over at least with smooth it has a better playlist and interacts properly with its listeners i.e giving you a mention when you call or text etc when other stations dont.

Help The Heroes day ( Tuesday )

Smooth are happy they have gone from 2.8 million listeners to over 3 million!
http://radiotoday.co.uk/news.php?extend.6402.7

Yes,a good set of RAJARS - but of course this is no indication as to how well or otherwise the national station will do. We need at least two more quarters of reporting to give us an initial idea. However, it does seem that the shift towards more Motown/soul tracks and fewer "old gold" stuff is paying off.

Very true Mapperley but i must admit since it went national i have had it on most of the time.Must admit for someone to say its the same as heart God no its much better than the cheesy tracks heart play good luck to smooth i for one will stay tuned in and its nice to have presenters on through the night too

As long as it keeps a wide play list.

Not a big fan of soul, but prefer this to Heart, for the larger play list. Yes, the oldies are Motown/Soul. but like it that the new stuff does not have to fit that category.

Also like the odd curve ball like Neil Diamond etc, Think in an hour, you can have a oldies play list, that will be mainly Soul, but nice to hear the odd wow song. Still think that Heart need a few wow things in the Time Tunnel. Stuff not on the play list like U2, Oasis.