Changes at 5 live include Adrian Chiles hosting Drive once a week, and a new presenting rota for Fighting Talk between Christian O’Connell, Jonathan Pearce and Matt Johnson.
Chiles will co-present Drive once a week, starting Friday 8 November, whilst Peter Allen continues to host 5 live Drive Monday to Thursday, both with Anna Foster.
Chiles previously presented Wake Up To Money on Radio 5 live when the station was formed in 1994, as well as Chiles On Saturday and has presented the football phone-in, 606.
Fighting Talk returns this Saturday and for the new season 5 live are splitting it between the three presenters.
Absolute Radio’s Christian O’Connell previously hosted the show from 2004 to 2005 and will be in charge for the opening show on 31 August. Football commentator and presenter Jonathan Pearce, well known to audiences from his work on Match Of The Day and Radio 5 live, will present on Sat 7 Sept with Matt Johnson, who is a regular presenter on ITV’s This Morning, making his 5 live and Fighting Talk debut on 14 September. The three will then share presenting duties across the season.
Here are the quotes:
Jonathan Wall, Controller, BBC Radio 5 live and 5 live sports extra, says: “It’s great to be welcoming Adrian to the 5 live Drive team. He’s such a strong broadcaster and the perfect fit to present the show alongside Anna Foster on Fridays. I also can’t wait to unleash the new look Fighting Talk – we’ve gathered a brilliant fresh squad of presenters.”
Adrian Chiles says: “It’s very exciting to be coming back to Radio 5 live. It was a privilege to have been there right at the beginning when it launched, and I’m thrilled to have been asked back. It’ll be great to tackle news, current affairs and business stuff, as well as sport. All the time I’ve been away from 5 live I’ve remained an avid fan and it’ll be good to be part of it again.“
Of his return to Fighting Talk, Christian O’Connell says: “The world of sport is littered with ill-advised comebacks, this promises to be another. Being serious, I’m so excited about being back on 5 live. My warm-up guy Danny Baker is pretty good too. Fighting Talk is the best format on radio, maybe ever, it still works and Saturday can’t come soon enough.”
Gregor Cameron, Executive Producer, Fighting Talk, adds: “Fighting Talk is about to celebrate its 10th anniversary and its grown to be a bigger show than any single man could handle so why not change the presenter line-up from being a solo to a team event? We are incredibly pleased to announce our impressive starting line-up of presenters.”
Fighting Talk is a World’s End production for BBC Radio 5 live.
Posted on Thursday, August 29th, 2013 at 12:15 pm by RadioToday UK