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London?!

Hard to see it as anything but a demotion - going from the Afternoon slot succeeding Scott Mills and recently doing a fair bit of Breakfast cover to now Early Breakfast which is deemed a more off-peak slot. Though it may work out better in the long run for Dean. He seemed to draw a lot of the ire with criticism of Radio 1 recently and with his fast-track to weekday afternoons and then covering Greg recently there was the risk of him being seen as a bit of a 'golden child' fuelling even more backlash especially when popular DJs like Matt & Mollie and Katie were overlooked Whereas now he has a chance to make a slot his own and build a little community with the Early Breakfat crew. Plus with Matt & Mollie and Katie on daytimes now it's less likely to be viewed as him getting slots over them.

For whatever reason, Danny Beard will be looking after the slot until July.

I agree…I think it’s been a big decision for her to relocate to London.

James Cusack is an excellent presenter by himself but they have clearly put him with others recently including Mollie and Nat to prove that he can also do it with other people. He's popular, warm, funny and entertaining and his shows should be on weekly. I'm sure r1 have learnt that going for people that are the opposite of this, is the mistake of how d&v ended up. It's a no brainer for Aled to give him the afternoon show on a weekend and he's the last piece in a very strong weekday and weekend line up now

I am really pleased for Dean that he is getting a show of his own. I'll be honest, I don't think I ever listened to his show when he was on weekends, and I know people have commented how much better he was then compared to when put on afternoons with Vicky (no shade to Vicky here). I used to be up at the crack of dawn, early enough to listen to early breakfast, and the style and tone of presenter is so important at that time in the morning. When Dean has covered Greg on breakfast this year, I think he could be the perfect fit to lift the mood of the early morning listeners. Can't help but feel there is a demotion there, of course - but a fresh start for him to hopefully put the controversy of 'taking over from Scott' behind him, and show his own worth as a presenter in his own right.

Sounds lol

Hopefully Matt and Mollie take producer Amy with them to weekdays - she has helped to make their weekend show even better in the past couple of years and was obviously Scott’s producer before he left too

And this move would probably happen in July, meaning their stint at weekend breakfast would be almost a year.

Moving Sam & Danni to weekend afternoons and replacing them on weekend breakfast with a solo presenter does feel like the more natural move. They've doubled up the presenters on Katie's old slot, so they may need to make a saving there. I don't really think 3 duos in a row is necessary. They only started in September 2023, but I think that is largely irrelevant. These things change for the greater good. Dev & Alice only did 6 months before they were swapped with Matt & Mollie back in 2018. Grimmy only did it for 9 months before they moved him to the evening slot.

Agree, I do think there's 2 options when it comes to Greg's Breakfast cover going forward.... 1) Matt & Mollie (with Sam & Danni probably covering them in the afternoons) 2) Dean I do think Katie would also be great, but do you let her go solo with the other 2 remaining on drive? As it's obvious Vick has no interest in Breakfast, cover or otherwise. Funny to think Greg has had so many people cover him on Breakfast (Scott & Chris, Matt & Mollie, Jordan & Katie, Dean) when Grimmy basically only ever had Scott & Chris.

Matt and Mollie were a comfortable breakfast duo because putting them on breakfast wouldn't disrupt the weekday schedule. Now, they don't have that choice, which means it has to be someone from the weekdays. I don't see Vick, Katie and Jamie, because three presenters could be too heavy in place of Greg. It can still be M&M, but also Dean. Your point about early breakfast presenters not covering breakfast is fair, but Dean is not a traditional early breakfast presenter, as his profile is arguably higher than that of the usual early breakfast presenter, and he has already covered the breakfast show. Not sure about Dean presenting breakfast permanently - with the current trends it must be at least a duo.

I could see him being genuinely happy about this. He obviously was aware of their show being poorly received and this provides not only an out but an opportunity to do as @1_tw said above. It's a much better springboard in to becoming a "star" imo even if also a demotion.

If anything this allows Dean to develop his style and skills to suit the radio 1 audience, with a view to breakfast in the future?

It could still be Dean.

With no disrespect to him - he is naturally going to put a brave face on this.

Dean and Vicky's example serves as a reminder that duos should have some sort of connection and not just be thrown together randomly. When you look at other successful Radio 1 duos, you see that either it happened naturally over time (Scott and Chris, Matt and Molle) or they're really good mates (Sam and Danni, RMC). The only recent exception I would say is Vick and Jordan, who were thrown together randomly but managed to make it work. Btw, I believe Dean and Vicky would be perfectly fine for commercial radio, where the links are more scripted. However, on the BBC, you must have a real connection to make it work.

That will be unlistenable - you know that already.

Having Katie there will also dilute Jamie. Radio 1 really has pulled out the stops to compensate for Jordan's departure. You do get the impression station management realised how bad the situation was and had to strengthen the line-up a lot.

Conor Knight is covering for Sam and Danni on Sunday. I think that’s the first day off their show since they started in September!

I do feel a little sorry for Dean and Vicky. The show hasn't worked but I am inclined to blame management more than them. Dean's recent Breakfast covers have shown that he has more potential than some of us gave credit.

I'm not even going to sugarcoat it. Good riddance to Dean and Vicky, their show is easily the worst of the weekday shows by a long way. The only surprise is that it took this long for the bosses to realise.

I'm not convinced its a last minute decision, I just reckon the logistics of it needed more time to work out (e.g. will Katie be in London for the show or Salford, who would go into Katie's slot). So I reckon they announced Jamie first because they had to get on the front-foot from a PR perspective after Jordan's departure - but then once all the above was resolved they can announce the Katie addition.

I think they might move Sam and Danni to weekend afternoons in the summer unless they’ve got someone else in mind.

Vick still has a lot of work outside radio where she may need cover, same for Jamie. makes sense to make Katie a permanent fixture so the show has its intended presenters most of the time, she will be great loved hearing her pair with Jordan and vick

Jono pointed out it's rare that James Cusack goes to New Broadcasting House, and he was photographed there this week.

James Cusack is my guess.

I wonder what is happpening fri to sun afternoons

This place has done well over the last 20 years, a big part of that is that Scott has been so relevant since 1998 up till now. But I do feel this place is now more of a radio 1 forum than Scott Mills fansite these days. It's a combination of the youngest of his listeners from his last days at Radio 1, and the fact that his radio 2 show is a bit of a culture shock to that same age group. It's very play-it-safe in comparison to all of his radio 1 work. For us older crew we've naturally transitioned over to Radio 2 with Scott. But for those who are only still young and have only heard him from about 2018ish, then I do understand it's a jump too soon. chrismoyles.net is a treasure trove to his radio 1 days. Which of course are his best. But considering he's been back on the air on a major commercial radio station for a number of years now. It's very very quiet. Granted his listeners back then are the generation after Scott's mostly. So probably just don't do forums anymore. For the past DJ's there is a Mark and Lard Facebook group, which is members only sorta thing. I'm in there and we got a massive hint that they would be getting back together near the back end of last year. Someone who's obviously connected with them posted a photo shoot they did together in there last year. When they left in 2004 biggedybong.com was started up but dried up about 2007ish. The fb group nowdays though is very active. For radio 1 jocks to have their own fansite back in the day, they would have to be pretty special and top of their game.

Big shout out to you for saying this 20 hours ago - looks like the bosses agree

Although my friend has been an avid listener but says the music has gone in a different direction. I suppose maybe that's the direction of travel we are going in with FAST channels on telly.

She's just announced she's pregnant so I guess it might mean just Chris and Jordan on the breakfast show in the future?