[madmusician]

First full house on Ten to the Top today.  Yes, it's still not Popmaster but with a better host in charge of the format it's working so much better.

I think it's the third - at least one, if not two or more, with Gary Davies. But first with Vernon presenting. 

I'd say he's settling in well - I preferred Ken in many ways, but Vernon's doing what he needs to. I think it's, perhaps surprisingly, a much smoother transition than Steve Wright to Scott Mills, despite the latter being more experienced than Vernon and them having much more time to plan the transition.

I guess this is because there was a deliberate plan to change the presentation style (and music policy) of the afternoon show when they shifted it from Steve Wright to Scott Mills, and there wasn’t much desire to change the presentation style/music mix of the mid-morning show (they didn’t want to lose Ken, after all). So they’ve deliberately gone for the evolution-not-revolution route for the mids show, which has worked really well. 

And credit to the management of Radio 2, they have dealt with the whole ‘Ken leaving for commercial radio’ situation really, really well - taking him off at a sensible time (despite some criticism at the time, I do think they made the right strategic move here), to get a caretaker host (and new quiz format) in place before Ken’s GHR show launched, use a well-liked cover presenter to do a couple of months to allow Ken to settle in at GHR before bringing in the new permanent host, who was chosen well and suits the slot/show style, and not really change much about the structure, presentation or music of the show. Tremendous work in a tricky situation.

The afternoon situation was different - they clearly wanted a big ‘generational’ change in style, and decided not to evolve but to really shake it up. Yes, they used OJ Borg to fill the gap between Steve and Scott, but OJ was very much doing a show in the style of Steve Wright (not with the Big Show jingles, characters and features, sure, but lots of interviews and a similar music policy and show style) before there was a clunking change when Scott started. And that was their choice, which did jar a bit. They’ve proved now that they are capable of doing gentle evolution - and that clearly wasn’t the desire for the afternoon shift.

And, to be fair, the RAJARs have shown that the afternoon changes have largely done their job, getting the average age down whilst maintaining the audience.