Breakfast is the hardest show in radio – I understand why Zoe Ball has quit

This article first appeared in the iNewspaper on Wednsday 20 November

One of the miracles of the modern media world is that not only did the advent of TV and video not kill off radio, nor has the advent of the internet and podcasts. Yes, radio has changed, and what we used to know as local radio has all but been killed off, but otherwise the radio sector is in fine fettle. 90% of adults in the UK tune in to a radio station at least once a week.

Most UK radio is personality driven, and nowhere is this more true that in the highly competitive world of Breakfast radio. As a radio station, if your breakfast show is pulling in a big audience, it trickles down the rest of the schedule to drivetime. Mid morning shows’ successes often depends almost entirely on the performance of the Breakfast show and how many listeners stick with the station after the 10am handover.

Zoe Ball’s decision to stand down from the Radio 2 Breakfast Show will send ripples of shock through the sector, as programme schedulers spot an opportunity to eat away at the already declining Radio 2 audience. When Ball took over the Breakfast slot from Chris Evans in 2019, he bequeathed an audience of nine million. Zoe Ball hands on only 6.3 million to her successor. It’s still the most listened to Breakfast show on UK radio. In addition, it leaves Radio with a gender balance issue, given that in Sarah Cox it will only have one female daytime presenter.

You have to have the constitution of an ox to present a Breakfast Show. It’s not just the 3.30 alarm call. It ruins your social life. It plays havoc with your body clock and sleep patterns. I know. I’ve done it, albeit only as cover for LBC’s Nick Ferrari for four years. I’m not going to pretend that it was the highlight of my 15 year career in radio. I knew from the first show, that while I enjoyed it, doing it day in day out would not be for me.

Nick Ferrari has been presenting the LBC Breakfast show for nearly 21 years. Five days a week, week in week out. He’s a machine. He is renowned for rarely taking a holiday, which is a vital attribute if you’re to keep your audience. Zoe Ball took a six week leave of absence this summer, which was never wholly explained. Many thought she wasn’t going to return.

Her mother died in April, and this clearly deeply affected her resilience. She also has a 14 year old son who is at a key stage in his education. Juggling everything, while presenting a Breakfast show for six years is no joke. It plays havoc with any normal life, let alone a family life. The fact that Zoe Ball lives in Brighton must also have been a factor. I live in Tunbridge Wells, but whenever I would cover the LBC Breakfast Show I would have to stay in a hotel in central London. I couldn’t face a 75 minute drive at that time of the morning and having to get up even earlier. For Zoe it would have been even worse.

Breakfast Shows are pacey, pacey, pacey. You have to project urgency, make the listener feel they’ll be missing something if they switch to a rival station. No one listens to a Breakfast show for the whole three hours. People listen for 20-40 minutes if you’re lucky. It fits into people’s morning routines. So keeping the audience is key. It means not taking as many holidays as other presenters. It means knowing how to tease ahead to an upcoming feature so people don’t switch off. It means constantly coming up with new ideas for gimmicks and features, something which is especially important on a music station and you haven’t got the news and current affairs agenda to rely on.

Radio 2 has only had eight Breakfast presenters in the last 50 years. Terry Wogan sat in the chair for 28 of those years and Chris Evans for nine. Zoe Ball lasted for six and despite the loss of audience, Scott Mills, her replacement, knows he has a huge challenge ahead of him. Any radio station that loses its breakfast, mid-morning, afternoon and drivetime presenters within the space of a few years will inevitably go through a period of uncomfortable transition. Losing Chris Evans, Ken Bruce, Steve Wright and Simon Mayo has totally transformed the Radio 2 listening experience, and in some ways the station could have easily gone into crisis mode. Commercial rivals like Heart, Smooth, Absolute and Capital are eating into its audience, even though the station remains the most listened to in the UK. But for how much longer?