TV presenters Fiona Phillips and Julia Bradbury are reported to be the frontrunners to take over from Shelagh Fogarty on BBC Radio 5 Live breakfast.
Shelagh is moving to a lunchtime slot on the station in April when Gabby Logan leaves, leaving the way open for a new co-host for Nicky Campbell on the morning show.
[link=http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/3380059/Fiona-Phillips-vs-Julia-Bradbury.html]The Sun[/link] claims ex-GMTV host Fiona – who [link=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1158081/Fiona-Phillips-axed-radio-station-fails-pull-new-listeners.html]used to do a weekend show on Smooth Radio[/link] – and Nicky's former Watchdog co-host Julia are the ideal candidates since they're 'older women' so would help the BBC show it isn't ageist. It follows the recent lost age discrimination case brought by Miriam O'Reilly.
Fiona started her broadcasting career in commercial radio at stations including Guildford's County Sound as well as Hereward Radio and Mercury FM in Crawley. She went on to spend 18 years on the ITV breakfast television sofa. She's been on 5 Live before – covering for Simon Mayo on the afternoon show for a week in 2009.
Julia has mainly worked in TV, although has presented for BBC London 94.9, and in an interview a few years ago [link=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/my-life-in-media-presenter-julia-bradbury-398186.html]admitted to being a fan of Campbell on 5 Live breakfast[/link].
A 'BBC insider' told The Sun: "Fiona would be great, but there's concern she wouldn't be seen as impartial on political stories as she's been close to Labour. And Nicky and Julia get on well as they were on Watchdog together."
Posted on Monday, January 31st, 2011 at 12:10 pm by RadioToday UK