Normally an H&J fan, but I was bored with them talking cricket, so thought I would give Jon Holmes a try - very good so far!

I caught the end of James Whale's show tonight. He's broadcasting live from a military awards ceremony tomorrow.

Yesterday he said he would be filling in for JHB next week. I wonder if he'll change his presenting style for that show or do his normal thing?

The contestant on this week's Paul Rossmaster was "Id", the usual tech-op on Iain's show and who produces James Whale and George Galloway. Jon was particularly interested in the fact that he produces Galloway and tried to probe what he is like to work with. Ed was diplomatic and made no complaints. Nevertheless, Jon talked about the time George had a major dispute with his producer on air (who wasn't Ed) and then played the now well known clip where George threatens to put down his "earphones" and leave.

George Galloway is doing Monday to Friday 7-10pm next week.

Being outside TalkRADIO's DAB coverage here in the South West, it's great to have an Amazon Echo and Dot to be able to listen.

I can tune in by searching for talkRADIO with the Alexa app, but voice command is giving me a foreign music station called Talk Radio!!

Has anyone here got an Echo and having the same problem?

Doesn't reflect well on George, that little strop.

If the website schedule is to be believed, then talkRADIO doesn't seem to be pulling out all the stops for Xmas, which will be a real shame. Xmas Eve shows the normal magazine shows then repeats of the two Mikes and Iain Lee from 6pm onwards. So nothing live on Xmas Eve... very poor. I feel.

It actually says "Late Nights with Iain Lee", suggesting a live show rather than a best of. I'm pretty sure it means best of though. Iain would have mentioned it by now if he was doing Xmas Eve, given that he mentioned doing New Year's Eve a long time ago. Basically it is the same Saturday schedule that we had for many weeks when Anna Williamson went on maternity leave, although now we've got Dr Pam.

I wasn't expecting much from the Christmas schedule given that several of the main presenters are on holiday and if I recall correctly, the Christmas/New Year period is not surveyed in RAJAR.

If you look a bit further to Christmas Day (http://talkradio.co.uk/radio/schedule/2016-12-25) and Boxing Day (http://talkradio.co.uk/radio/schedule/2016-12-26) it's the regular schedule, so I'm guessing they haven't updated it yet?

I thought that, but they have replaced Dr Pam/Anna with Iain on Christmas Eve which looks like something which would probably be done deliberately.

I wouldn't rely to much on the online schedule, they never seem that up to date, the same with Virgin's which doesn't have Jon Holmes listed as doing breakfast in for Edith next week.

Weird morning so far.

The simulcast with talkSPORT continued until 6.11 so we heard the beginning of Fisherman's Blues. Then it suddenly switched to Martin Roberts. That was on instead of Best of Iain Lee. Jake Yapp is sick so Laura's hosting with her own sidekick this morning.

Yes, that`s what I thought. (Also the Xmas Eve Iain Lee entry has it down as a best bits, not a live show, re an earlier post of your radamfi).

Oh yes, I was only looking at the heading where it says "Late Nights with Iain Lee". I didn't notice the small print below says "best bits". It normally says "Best of Late Nights with Iain Lee" when it is a best of.

James Max is in for JHB over the Christmas week.

He did Friday, too.

i thoiught it was james whale

I'm back! Here's the number. 0344 499 1000. Call now and tell me if the threat from Russia is real. Or fabricated by the US? https://twitter.com/thejamesmax/stat...952576/photo/1

Whale next week, Max the following week.

Not really to do with the new station but today is the 10th anniversary of the death of Mike Dickin.

I only came on this thread to post the same thing myself. I haven't placed anything since late October. I was just glancing through the resurrected Dickin thread from back in 2006 and noted talk about Clash Of The Titans that was always a TalkSport festive treat. I've no intention reading back through weeks of this, so if it's been mentioned apologies but have TalkRadio chosen to bring back the old Clash Of The Titans this Christmas? A shame if not.

There is one on Xmas Eve on talksport. 4pm I think. Whether they are actually titans is open to interpretation - Mike Parry, Adrian Durham, Mark Saggers and one other.

I guess it beats the repeating one of their bore-umentries such as the golden generation. Painful dirge.

Mike Parry also mentioned about one on talkRADIO when someone asked on twitter, he said that there was something in the pipeline.

So James Whale replaced Julia Hartley-Brewer today. I ttuned into the first hour and a bit of the third hour. I listened to the first hour for so long because I was interested in what the guest had to say. That interview was very long, and although it was better than it would probably have been had it taken place in the evening, James Whale seemed to be all over the place. He wasn't giving his guest much time to answer questions. Afterwards, it was the turn of Ken Livingstone. Then the hour was up and they moved on to binge drinking. I didn't listen to that hour, but I listened to a bit of the final hour, when the topic was achieving integration through the swearing of an oath of loyalty. I didn't listen long enough for the listener contributions.