May the best team win

13th May 2011 will be a key day for music radio in the UK: it will see release of the first audience figures for the new national and almost national radio stations that hope to pick away at the dominance of Radio 1 and Radio 2.

In the clear head-on battle, Smooth Radio now brands itself as the "new alternative to Radio 2".  So it's Andrew Miller, CEO of the Guardian Media Group, taking on Mark Thompson of the BBC; Stuart Taylor, of GMG Radio v Tim Davie of BBC Audio and Music; and  John Simons and Andy Carter of Smooth v Bob Shennan, Controller Radio 2.



On air, the titanic struggle will be between Simon Bates, 63 and Chris Evans, 44.  This week, Bob has oddly let Chris off to record the woeful Famous and Fearless for C4 - so Richard Madeley, 54, is battening down the hatches in Western House. 





Capital's "national" strategy, under Richard Park, is complex.  Nine stations get their own, different, breakfast and drivetime hosts, but Roberto (10-1) and Bassman (1-4) can be heard across the country.  They take on the might of Fearne Cotton and Greg James at Radio 1 (though for this week, again in a bizarre piece of dep scheduling, it's Annie Mac and Huw Stephens; Marketing ace Tim Davie may want to have a word with Andy Parfitt and Bob Shennan).  

Meanwhile Absolute Radio is plugging away with Christian O'Connell as a slightly-more-wholesome-and-certainly-funnier alternative to Chris Moyles.  He gets two DAB frequencies for breakfast - Absolute and Absolute 80s - which might boost his personal figures.