Well what's the bigger story? The fact that Chris Tarrant has finally confirmed he will retire from the Capital Radio breakfast show. The fact Johnny Vaughan has been hired to take over the show. Or the fact Neil Fox, long promised an internal transfer to breakfast, has not.
Capital confirmed yesterday what had long been assumed - that Tarrant will leave the breakfast show at the beginning of next year. Former Big Breakfast host Johnny Vaughan will take over in deal worth an estimated £1.5 million. He will host the Capital show alongside a new sports phone in he has been hired to present for BBC Radio 5 and a new series of his chat show for BBC3.
Commenting on his appointment Vaughan told reporters: "To be asked to fill CT's big headphones is an honour. To me London is the greatest city in the world and Capital the only radio station. I'm used to early mornings so getting up won't be a problem. My only hope is that I look as good as Chris does in 15 years time!"
Tarrant added: "I love Capital and Johnny is a great choice as my successor. I'm going to enjoy life without the early starts and I won't miss the alarm going off."
But away from the official announcements about the future of the breakfast show, Capital insiders are more interested in what this means for Neil Fox. The station's drive time presenter has long been the fill in presenter on the Breakfast Show - something which became an increasingly big job as Tarrant's holiday allowance increased. After much speculation last year as to who might take over from Tarrant when it looked like CT would be leaving sooner (Davina McCall, Ant & Dec and Xfm's Christian O'Connell were among those rumoured to be up for consideration) the station eventually said it was revamping its breakfast slot so that the format was more important than any one presenter's personality. This led to something of an assumption that Neil Fox, already running that format during Tarrant's absences, would take over full time once CT retired. The decision to go for Vaughan - a strong personality presenter - goes back on that original plan.
Fox was clearly disappointed at Vaughan's appointment, telling reporters that Capital has been managed "appallingly" over the past couple of years and that "dreadful management decisions" had been taken over music policy.
While indicating recent management changes at the station had fixed some of the problems, he went on: "I think I was probably led to believe it may be my job. I do have a window of opportunity now if I want to leave Capital. I don't think they want me to leave, the share price might fall even further if I did. But Pop Idol has opened up an amazing shop window for me to go on and do more TV shows." The window of opportunity probably refers to a clause believed to be in Fox's contract that allows him to leave the station quickly and hassle free if he isn't given the breakfast show.
However Fox wouldn't be drawn on his immediate plans: "I've said I'm not going to give them an instant decision, because I don't know yet... For the next month or so I will see where it takes me. I'm in no rush to make a decision and won't be rushed in to one."
Fox's lukewarm reception to Vaughan's appointment differed from comments made by Capital boss Keith Pringle who earlier in the day had said Fox was "really excited about Johnny coming to Capital"