Month: December 2024

Nation Radio South is moving Steve Power to breakfast and has hired Mark Collins for the mid-morning show.
It means from January, Nation Radio will have a line-up almost identical to Wave 105 of old.
Steve Power hosted Wave 105 breakfast for around 17 years, whilst Mark Collins was on mid-mornings for almost 20 years
Wave 105 turned into Greatest Hits Radio earlier this year and ever since, Nation has been hiring almost all of the presenters who left.
Only Rick Jackson remains on the former Wave 105 frequencies for the time being.
Steve Power said: “Listeners deserve a breakfast show from the South for the South. I’m delighted to return to a time of the day I know well.
“Since joining Nation Radio along with my longtime co-host Selina Ross, we have a renewed love for radio and can’t wait to bring Steve Power at Breakfast back to radio in the South.”
Mark Collins said ‘I can’t wait to be back on the radio across the South on the show I love doing best. I’ll have great songs, The Golden Hour at 9am and our fiendishly tricky quiz, the Weekday Link, back at 11:15 – love it or hate it!”
Current Nation Radio breakfast and mid-morning hosts Neil Fox and Russ Williams will continue to host their shows across the rest of the Nation Radio network of stations.
At Nation South, Andy Jackson will replace Steve Power on Drive.
Nation’s founder Jason Bryant said; “This is the next part of our plan to bring listeners across the South the station they deserve. With the South’s Best Variety of Hits, friendly and much loved local presenters, we have the perfect combination for audience figures to soar in 2025.”

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Former BBC Radio Lancashire presenter John Gillmore is to host a one-off show on Red Rose Radio.
Gilly has worked on radio in Lancashire since joining the original Red Rose Radio in 1985, where he stayed for 13 years. He then settled at BBC Radio Lancashire after a stint on Breakfast at The Bay in Lancaster.
He was at BBC Radio Lancashire from 2005 until recently when his show was part of the recent cuts.
John said: ‘I’m looking forward to presenting a Christmas Day programme on Red Rose Radio again where I previously presented Christmas morning every year from 1987 until 1997.’
John will host 11am to 1pm on Christmas Day on the new DAB version of Red Rose Radio, run by Rob Charles.

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National speech radio station talkSPORT wants to turn off seven of its 18 transmitters.

The move would reduce its national AM radio coverage from 92% to 88.9% of the UK adult population.
Ofcom says it is minded to approve the request, and wanted to let the industry know it is minded to make similar decisions should any other broadcaster ask to reduce AM coverage.
The transmitter sites talkSPORT is requesting to close are; Clipstone (Nottinghamshire), Duxhurst (Surrey), Lisnagarvey (in County Antrim, Northern Ireland), Lydd (Kent), Stockton (Durham/North Yorkshire), Southwick/Brighton (West Sussex) and Rusthall (Tunbridge Wells).
The reasons given by talkSPORT for these proposed changes include declining listenership to its AM service as people turn to alternative platforms, considered against the ongoing viability of each transmitter site.
“Before reaching a final decision we are giving stakeholders an opportunity to make comments on the request and our provisional decision. This is because, if the changes are permitted, some listeners will lose their ability to receive talkSPORT on the AM (medium wave) band, and because other commercial radio stations might be interested in the approach that we are minded to take in this case,” Ofcom said.
The talkSPORT broadcasting licence was initially awarded by an auction process in July 1994 to Talk Radio UK, and has subsequently been renewed on three occasions.
The station will remain available nationally on DAB and other platforms.
Absolute Radio, which held the only other national AM licence for commercial radio, switched off all its transmitters in January 2023 and was fined £25,000 for doing so.

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Jazz FM’s Sarah Ward has decided to step back from her weekly show on Jazz FM at the end of the year after seven decades on-air.
“The Sarah Ward Collection” has seen Sarah broadcast from the middle of her personal collection at home on the edge of Dartmoor for almost a decade, and before that she re-joined Jazz FM to host Dinner Jazz when it launched in 2008.
Sarah was also one of the Jazz FM originals, having joined the station not long after launch in 1990.
She has also been a launch presenter on the original BBC Radio 5 presenting the Breakfast Show, and a commercial radio pioneer when she was part of the launch lineup of the UK’s first commercial radio station Capital Radio in the 1973, remaining there into the 1980s.
She had also been a presenter of youth programmes for BBCTV in the 1960s.
Sarah said: “I’ve so loved my time at Jazz FM. It’s been a family affair, making great friends and embracing brilliant colleagues.
“And the joy of discovering jazz more and more, from both jazz’s rich past and its thrilling present as well has been immense.
“It’s been such a privilege to gather music and share it with the people listening, and I’ve so loved putting my programmes together. I will miss our weekly musical conversations. And of course, it all goes way, way back.
“We’re talking about a career that stretches back to the sixties where I started my broadcasting career in Africa before doing it here in the UK, and that’s where my heart beats.”
Of Sarah’s decision to stand down, Jazz FM and Magic Classical Content Director Nick Pitts says: “Sarah has always been a jewel in the crown of Jazz FM’s programmes.
“Either as host of her collection or until recently this summer also as our musical tour guide on Jazz Travels, she has always given her every towards her programmes and those who listen, and we are all so incredibly thankful for this.
“As a family member of Jazz FM, the entire team have always had so much affection for Sarah meaning we will miss her so much along with her passion for and her knowledge of the music. We thank her from the bottom of our hearts for being such an important part of Jazz FM and everyone sends her and her life partner Ken much love as they get to enjoy more time together.”
Sarah’s final “The Sarah Ward Collection” will broadcast on Saturday 28th December (1800-2100). This programme will be followed immediately (2100-2200) by a specially produced documentary called “The Sarah Ward Celebration” in which her broadcast colleagues and the musicians she has changed the lives of will pay tribute to Sarah alongside a rare interview with Sarah herself about her career.
Sarah’s Saturday night replacement will be announced in due course.

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