Neil Fox, who was left bitterly disappointed when Capital FM opted to bring in Johnny Vaughan to replace Chris Tarrant on breakfast rather than promote their chief breakfast-fill-in-guy to the job, is going to enter the London breakfast show battle after all. He has been hired to take over the London breakfast show on EMAP's Magic, replacing Graham Dene, who will move to drive time.
With Capital, Heart and Magic all very close in the battle to be the London's favourite radio station, Fox will presumably be a key part in the EMAP station's bid to gain some ground on its competitors, though cynics might argue Magic's decision to fight that battle by hiring chatty celebrity presenters is quite risky, given that Magic's main appeal has always been the absence of chatty celebrity presenters in its output.
That said, Fox was keen to stress he wouldn't be too chatty in his new role, telling reporters: "I am really excited to be back on the air in London. Magic is the station I have been listening to most in the last couple of years and it will be great to work for a radio station that wants its breakfast host to play lots of music".
As previously reported, the battle for London's breakfast show audience is going to get increasingly competitive this Autumn with new shows from Jono Coleman at BBC London, Christian O'Connell at Virgin and, now, Neil Fox at Magic competing with Johnny Vaughan at Capital and Jamie Theakston at Heart. The likely winner? Terry Wogan probably.