First thoughts | 7 June 2018

Headlines announcing that Radio 4’s flagship Today programme is losing its audience while Radio 3’s Breakfast has put on numbers got me up and listening extra early to find out which of all the presenters is most likely to keep me tuned in. Why have the efforts to brighten up Today, with longer interviews, more arts coverage, puzzles and news items from the web, not gone down well? What’s been happening on 3 to encourage more people to tune in first thing? And, further afield, how’s Classic FM doing, or those other breakfast stalwarts, Nick Grimshaw and Chris Evans?

Evans was off-duty when I tuned in to Radio 2 one morning last week, but Sara Cox sounded as if she was loving every minute of being in his chair. Evans had better watch out. She was so cheerful and encouraging, in that let’s-get-up-and-enjoy-whatever-comes sort of way that she really changed my day. Who could be grumpy after listening to Alicia Keys in the ‘diva o’clock’ slot at eight, after which Cox recommended that we all, ‘Full on yodel at the lights’?

It’s not just her enthusiasm that draws you in; she knows how to make an immediate connection, talking about what’s going on in the studio and asking her manager to ‘boost him up’ when she realised that Gary, the travel reporter, was not on full throttle. Or creating a theme for the morning from the lies that parents tell their children. Listen to this, she says, mock horror in her voice, as she tells us about the dad who had phoned in to say that he had told his kids they couldn’t have a pet guinea pig because it would grow up into a pig and there wouldn’t be space in the house for it.