Radio 2 Breakfast Show: Knowing your audience – the key to good radio

And Zoe Ball will be more than aware of the challenge she faces when she takes to the airwaves as the new voice of boiled eggs and soldiers today.

Competition is fierce, and there has been a rash of newcomers taking over the microphone at some of the nation’s biggest stations.

He predecessor Chris Evans is moving to Virgin Radio a week today, Absolute Radio has shaken up its breakfast offering by replacing stalwart Christian O’Connell with Dave Berry, and Lauren Laverne has replaced Shaun Keaveny as the host of 6Music’s early show.

“I feel generally it’s a really exciting time for radio, and I hope we can make a success of it,” Ball has said.

But what can she do to make it a success and what makes a nation fall in love with a person enough to tune in every day?

Be humble...

“Thank you, thank you for being my friend.”

When Sir Terry Wogan’s pulled the fader down for the last time to end 16 years and 348 days as host of the Radio 2’s breakfast show Wake Up To Wogan, he was a broadcast icon.

Even now, 10 years later, his voice is still synonymous for many people with early mornings.

“The years together with you have not only been a pleasure but a privilege,” he said. “You have allowed me to share your lives with you. When you tell me how important I have been in your lives it’s very moving. You have been every bit as important in mine.”

Sir Terry was humble in his position and he knew he had to be. A radio host is nothing without the listeners after all.

Know your audience...

Zoe Ball’s new breakfast show will have to strike quite a different tone to the one she hosted on Radio 1 in the 1990s when the Britpop craze was still in full swing – and already she has made it clear she wants to be part of her audience’s lives.

“The thing we really want to do is bring lots of music, lots of energy, not too much chat – but enough, and we want people to have learned something by the end of the show,” says Ball.

“And I think the show you start with might not necessarily be the show you finish with, I’m sure the listeners will tell us very quickly if they’re loving features or not, but we want people to feel that they’re part of the show, and that we’re listening to them about things that they want.”

l It’s about the job, not the individual...

Chris Evans’s nine-year stint in what was Wogan’s hotseat is not to be sniffed at – but much like when Sir Alex Ferguson left Manchester United, following an icon was always a tough gig.

Evans was promoted from the drivetime show on Radio 2, and under his stewardship, the show has generally attracted between nine and 10 million listeners, according to industry body Rajar, which monitors ratings.

But the show also registered its lowest audience since 2012 in October after losing more than half a million listeners over the last year.

“Some of us are mountain climbers and if you get to the top of your favourite mountain and you just stay there, then you become a mountain observer,” said Evans on air before leaving the show. “I’ve got to keep climbing, so I’m going to go and go again.”

Perhaps Evans’ focus on his own career was his undoing. By no means a bad host – his career to date shows that – but perhaps he wasn’t the best fit for the breakfast show.

Grin and bear it...

Ball will be wary of the slide to-date, and tasked with turning things around – and her appointment was not exactly without its own controversy, with her colleague Sara Cox many peoples favourite for the role.

But the listeners don’t care about Rajar figures – they just want somebody to ease them into the day. So even when things are taking a turn for the worse, radio greats need to keep smiling, and plough on.

Cox herself starts on the drivetime slot today, and has enjoyed a glittering radio career including hosting the Radio 1 breakfast show.

Today begins the new dawn of morning radio – and only time will tell if the movers and shakers from the world of presenting can make a success of it.