The lovely Lauren Laverne will be taking over breakfast at London radio station Xfm following Christian O'Connell's defection, sorry, I mean rational career move to Virgin Radio. Laverne, who has fronted the station's drive time show for just under two years, will be the only female player in the increasingly competitive fight for London's listeners at breakfast - competing with Johnny Vaughan, Jamie Theakston, Jono Coleman, Neil Fox and, of course, the aforementioned O'Connell in his new slot over at Virgin. Presumably Xfm hope that Lauren, being the only girl fighting the breakfast fight in her own right, might give them an edge on the competition, while her undeniable passion for great music will keep the Xfm faithful happy and her increased profile as one of the new hosts of CD:UK might win the station some newer younger listeners. Time will tell I guess. Meanwhile insiders reckon Xfm newcomer Lucio will get the drive time slot.
The appointment of Laverne to the flagship presenting role at Xfm was overshadowed, somewhat, by the news that the station's MD Graham Bryce was leaving. Bryce is the latest former Capital Radio exec to leave GCap since the departure of former Capital boss David Mansfield from the chief exec role at the merged radio company - cynics would have grounds for saying the merger is fast becoming a GWR takeover. What that means for Xfm remains to be seen. Bryce won much acclaim, certainly within the Capital Radio Group, for making the station a successful commercial entity despite its 'alternative' status. He was set a similar task with Choice FM after it was acquired by the Capital Radio Group, and was even given the job of MD for oldies station Capital Gold. Whether Xfm and Choice will now suffer from commercial interference from higher up the GCap hierarchy remains to be seen.