Capital Radio holds on to Vaughan at breakfast
LONDON - Capital Radio has renewed the contract of its breakfast show host Johnny Vaughan, keeping faith with its big name despite him retaining less than two-thirds of the audience he inherited from Chris Tarrant three years ago.
Vaughan, who has secured a second three-year deal that will run until April 2010, is one of few to have ridden out the turbulence of the last few years at the station.
The painful merger of Capital and GWR in 2005 and the declining popularity of the London station amid competition from Emap's Magic and Chrysalis' Heart claimed their fair share of scalps, including former Capital Radio chief executive David Mansfield and Capital station managing director Keith Pringle and programme director Nik Goodman.
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In the most recent Rajar figures for the third quarter of 2006, Vaughan's show had an audience of 782,000. It remains the most popular commercial breakfast show, narrowly ahead of Jamie Theakston on Heart on 768,000. Nevertheless, almost half of the 1.38m listeners who were tuning in to Tarrant's show in the first quarter of 2004 have deserted Capital.
After long-running speculation that GCap would part company with Vaughan, the contract renewal comes with a degree of recognition that Capital is unlikely to recover its dominance of the London radio market, but its best chance of rebuilding lies with retaining Vaughan.
Steve Orchard, GCap's chief operating officer, endorsed Vaughan together with Scott Muller, Capital's programme director who joined last summer.
Orchard said: "No one can deliver the warmth and humour that Londoners want from their breakfast show as well as Johnny can, and we are confident that the show will thrive in 2007 with Johnny at the helm."
Vaughan admitted his first three years had been a "tremendous challenge" after taking over from "a living legend with 17 years under his belt".
He said: "Thanks to all at Capital and the breakfast team for their boundless support and enthusiasm, I look forward to many more mornings at the helm of London's breakfast show."
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Vaughan: staying at Capital breakfast
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