Xfm have announced the appointment of two new presenters to its London line up, both of whom will join the station in January. First up, Paul Tonkinson, currently host of the breakfast show on Xfm's Manchester service, will be moving to the capital to take over the afternoon slot from Shaun Keaveny, who is, in turn, jumping over to digital rival BBC 6Music. Second up, Steve Harris is moving to Xfm from Virgin Radio. A new presenter for Xfm Manchester's breakfast slot is tba.
Confirming the changes, Xfm Network Programme Director Ande Macpherson told CMU: "This is the strongest line-up Xfm has ever had. Adding Tonks to afternoons and Steve to Music Response really moves the station forward. Tonks will add humour to our afternoons with a really exciting replacement lined up for him on breakfast in Manchester. Steve lives and breathes new music and will blow the speakers off the radio with exciting new bands every night. We start our 10th anniversary year with the future for Xfm having never looked better".
You know, I was thinking about Xfm's tenth birthday just the other week. The alternative station first went on air back in 1997 the day after Princess Diana died, which kind of put a dampener on the launch celebrations, what with all that public grief and all. It will be interesting to see how the tenth anniversary of her demise will be marked, and whether that will again have an impact on Xfm's celebrations.