[XIII]

It's a win, win situation for both parties.

Radio 2 has been gradually evolving towards targeting the next group of middle aged listeners who were born in the late 70s and early 80s with presenters who were on Radio 1 in the 2000s  (Ball/Mills/Cox/Whiley), with Ken leaving, they can revamp the mid-morning slot as well.    When Mills replaced Steve Wright, the music policy has skewed towards the noughties.

Ken gets his final swansong on a commercial radio network and will bring a substantial amount of older listeners to Greatest Hits Radio.  He also market leads in Scotland currently on Radio 2, so will prop up the numbers on Bauer's classic hits stations north of the border which aren't exactly great on reach at the moment.  The highest being Clyde 2 on 172k.  All are rebranding to Greatest Hits as Ken starts in April.

It’s a risk through because it might just further increase the impression a lot of older people have that the BBC is ageist and obsessed with younger audiences.

No it doesn't and the audience for Radio 2 isn't exactly young.