The week in radio and podcasts: All New Heart Breakfast

All New Heart Breakfast (Heart)

OK. Deep breath. I’m going to talk about Heart’s new national breakfast show. This started on Monday, with long-standing Heart London breakfast presenter Jamie Theakston being joined by Amanda Holden (full title: Amanda from Britain’s Got Talent and the M&S talk-at-you tills Holden). The show was pretty much as you might expect. Holden is a natural performer: funny, silly, confiding without actually telling you anything you didn’t already know. I wish she wouldn’t pretend to be stupid (“The periodic table? What’s that?”), but this might be early, please-like-me nerves. Holden is friendly and thoroughly professional. Ashley Roberts, ex-Pussycat Doll and Strictly almost-winner, is another new hiring, in to give us showbiz news (stuff about Love Island), and there’s also the usual win-a-load-of‑cash phone-in competition to keep you listening.

The deep breath is not because of any of this, but because Heart’s brand new national breakfast show means I have to talk about the current state of the UK’s commercial radio stations. Wait! Come back! Like many things in this world, the story is interesting and boring at the same time.

Here goes with the boring bit. Last October, Ofcom, which is in charge of the UK’s radio (including the BBC), made a change to the rules that govern commercial local radio’s output. Previously, these so-called “localness guidelines” insisted that any commercial local radio station had to feature at least seven hours of locally made output between 6am and 7pm, and this had to include the breakfast show. After October, such a station only had to feature three hours of local output, and the breakfast show did not have to be included.

Ooooh, thought the three main commercial radio brands – Global, Bauer and Wireless Group, since you ask – these new rules mean that we can give the same breakfast show to lots of our local radio stations, making it, effectively, a national radio show. Global has already done this on Capital, with Roman Kemp, Vick Hope and Sonny Jay (who presented Capital’s London breakfast show) going national on 8 April. Smooth Breakfast will go national before the end of the year, and there have been rumours that the presenting job was offered to Davina McCall (supposedly she wanted all school holidays off, so that was a no-no). Wireless, which doesn’t own as many commercial local stations in the UK (it has a few in Ireland), has already made its big breakfast show move, by hiring Chris Evans to do Virgin’s breakfast: a success. Bauer, which owns Hits, Kiss and Magic, is slightly behind, mostly because it’s been busy buying up loads of other radio stations. Also, the most likely Bauer breakfast show to go national, Hits Manchester (which replaced Key 103), has not been a massive success, with the new breakfast show team of Gethin Jones, Dave Vitty and Gemma Atkinson being shunted aside after just one year’s broadcasting (though Atkinson will get a drivetime show, with Wes Butters, after her maternity leave).

Is any of this important? Well, if you liked the old local breakfast presenters, then, yes, it is. Jamie and Amanda are replacing 21 different breakfast shows, and the trade website Radio Today estimates that around 70 presenters and producers are being moved from that slot. All the other Heart shows are national now, too, except for the drivetime slot (remember that three hours’ local output rule); there are 12 different regional Heart drivetime shows, and some of the old breakfast show presenters are moving there. Many more, of course, will be kicking their heels, and several of Global’s regional buildings are being shuttered.

The bigger question is, of course, do listeners want this? Does it matter if a breakfast show comes from London if the news and the traffic and travel is local? Or if, indeed, the whole day’s output comes from the capital, apart from a three-hour drivetime show? I might be part of the London meeja elite, but to lose all this local talent does seem sad, even if Amanda Holden can generate national headlines simply by changing her frock.

Three shows about… money

Futureproof
A new show hosted by 1Xtra’s Jamz Supernova, this podcast aimed at 20- to 30-year-olds comes from Bud, a company that uses data to help banks, customers and financial providers. Futureproof was inspired by a six-month investigation into young UK adults and their money desires and disasters. Each week, Jamz talks to an interviewee about subjects such as saving to buy a property, how to beat paycheck panic, and whether social media is ruining your career prospects.

Planet Money
Planet Money has been going a long time – there are more than 900 episodes to choose from! – and knows what it’s doing. It’s always entertaining, whether relating the story of how Japanese people started to eat raw salmon, or how the US unemployment rate got so low, or exactly what Trump’s relationship is with debt. Contributors are lively, with great communication skills (no time is wasted). For the UK listener, it can be a bit American, but you can’t fail to find a story that grabs you.

FT Money Show
This Financial Times weekly podcast has been running for over six years, so, again, there’s a big back-catalogue. It’s a simple format: host talks to various experts, about ISAs, pensions, credit scores etc. It’s news-based – this week’s episode discusses fund manager Neil Woodford and YouTube millionaires – so you can feel on top of what’s going on. Be warned: this podcast’s USP is clarity and calm (again, no surprise), so if you’re looking for fireworks, better try a different show.