chrismoyles.net
- Tue Feb 28, 2006 7:27 pm
#220854
With Johnnie Walker leaving, Chris Evans is one of the favorites to take his place...
Media Guardian wrote:BBC Radio 2 is set to make a big name signing to replace Johnnie Walker, who is stepping down from the drivetime show after seven years, with Chris Evans and Stuart Maconie as possible contenders.
Walker leaves the show at the end of March but will remain on Radio 2 with a new Sunday programme, as well as conducting high-profile rock interviews and deputising for Terry Wogan on the breakfast show.
His departure will make way for a new host on one of the flagship shows at the UK's biggest radio station, and the Radio 2 controller, Lesley Douglas, is unlikely to have left the succession to chance.
Ms Douglas has had a long time to ponder Walker's replacement - the DJ opened talks about moving to a Sunday slot a year ago - and the hottest name in the frame is that of Evans, who hinted on his Radio 2 show last Saturday he had a new job.
Evans is highly rated by Ms Douglas, who successfully fought off a challenge from commercial radio to sign the media maverick to a Saturday afternoon slot last year, calling him "one of the UK's most innovative broadcasters".
But Evans' contract with Radio 2, theatrically signed live on stage at last summer's annual radio industry conference, was for seven months only and runs out in March, coincidentally just as Walker leaves.
Meanwhile, Evans' agent, Michael Foster, is believed to have been working on a forthcoming major announcement for his client.
However, he is not the only contender for the drivetime slot. Others could include Maconie, who stood in on as presenter on the Radio 2 drivetime show for six months last year when Walker was off work due to ill health.
Maconie also presents a Sunday show on digital station 6 Music and already fronts documentaries on Radio 2.
Radio industry insiders believe that Evans' return to a daily radio show would be an ideal solution for Ms Douglas, who will have to address the question of a successor for Wogan on the country's favourite breakfast show at some point soon.
Industry sources believe Evans would be agreeable to a return to the daily radio airwaves, six years after he was sacked from Virgin Radio's breakfast show after not turning up for work during a five-day drinking binge.
Evans' attempts to resurrect his TV career in the past couple of years have met with mixed results, but on radio he has been well received, first as the host of UK Radio Aid and then on his Radio 2 Saturday show.
