The station is trying a number of ways to revitalise audience figures at its flagship London station. In the last set of Rajars for the second quarter of 2003, Capital 95.8FM saw its weekly reach fall to 7.7m, down from 7.8m in the last period of 2002. Its share of audience fell to 11.9% from 12.1% last time.
It has already adjusted its music policy to reflect the tastes of Londoners and including more urban sounds, rather than the traditional high dose of pop that used to fill the Capital schedule.
Enticing Bam Bam, whose breakfast show attracts 854,000 listeners, could help boost the station's 15- to 24-year-old audience. Bam Bam's show has 22% share of this hard-to-reach group, compared with Radio 1 breakfast DJ Sara Cox's 18.1% share of that age group and Chris Tarrant's 7.8%.
Speculation has suggested that the talks were about getting Bam Bam to take over from Tarrant, whose current contract runs out at the end of the year. However, Capital has denied this is the case and said that it is not yet clear when Tarrant will leave.
A spokeswoman for Capital said: "We have been talking to Bam Bam but not about the breakfast show. He has expressed an interest in talking to us, but his ambitions didn't fit ours."
Capital is understood to have offered the Kiss DJ £1.4m, according to people close to the DJ.
Bam Bam's contract with Kiss runs out early next year and a spokeswoman said discussions were ongoing with the presenter, as part of the station's "talent management".
Mark Storey, Emap managing director of radio programming, said Kiss had been Bam Bam's home for five years and that he "expects him to remain at the station for many more years to come".
He said: "I'm delighted that Capital has given a vote of confidence to his unique broadcasting skills and that the law of easy money doesn't always get talent to defect."
If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the .
.jpg)
.jpg)