Chris Tarrant finally confirmed he was leaving Capital FM. Despite the initial (and expected) hit on share price following Tarrant's announcement, many inside Capital were pleased to put the 'when is he going to leave?' debate behind them. And everyone seemed to be pleased with the announcement Johnny Vaughan will take over from Tarrant in the New Year - everyone except Neil Fox of course, who had been previously assured the post-Tarrant breakfast slot was his. Fox, after throwing a small tantrum, decided to stay with Capital in the drive time slot - though at the end of the year he did announce he was quitting the commercial radio chart show so he can spend more time on "TV projects".
Capital will be putting a lot of marketing effort into the Vaughan breakfast show when it launches in the New Year in a bid to start 2004 on a high, after a year when they struggled in both listening figures and ad revenue. But there will be tough competition for London's breakfast show listeners. Radio 1 are launching a new breakfast show around the ego of Chris Moyles, Heart are sure to put more money into their strangely popular Jono Coleman show, and there continues to be stiff competition in the youth market from Kiss FM's Bam Bam.
Talking of breakfast show wars - Virgin Radio had a breakfast show war all of its own when their long running dispute with Chris Evans reached court earlier this year. Evans reckoned he was owed a big chunk of cash (£8.6 million to be precise) for his share options in Virgin Radio parent company Scottish Media Group. They argued he lost his claim on said options when he broke his contract with Virgin, leading up to his controversial sacking back in 2001. Evans denied that he broke his contract claiming the station forced him out so they could give his show to successor Steve Penk. But the courts sided with SMG handing Evans nothing but a large legal bill