Capital's Vaughan no longer top of the morning

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Johnny Vaughan has lost Capital Radio's historic crown for the top commercial breakfast show in London.

For the first time ever, the station has been beaten in both listeners and market share to the number one spot by a rival - Heart's Jamie Theakston.

Theakston can also claim another illustrious scalp - that of Radio 1's Chris Moyles, whose audience in London has dropped to 800,000, down from 870,000 in a year.

While his popularity continues in the rest of the country, in London the motormouth DJ has slumped to fourth in the overall breakfast show tally behind Radio 2's Terry Wogan, Theakston and Vaughan, suggesting that commercial radio is fighting back against the BBC.

Radio ratings for the past three months reveal that 36-year-old Theakston has piled on listeners to just short of a million, at 948,000. He also boasts a market share of 7.3 per cent.

Vaughan, meanwhile, trails in second place with 813,000 - down nearly 200,000 in a year - and a share of six per cent.

It comes just four days after Capital bosses announced they had renewed Vaughan's breakfast contract for another three years - although he is believed to have taken a significant pay cut on the £1.5 million deal he first negotiated in 2004.

While Vaughan's audience has risen on last quarter's all time-low, radio industry experts today questioned the decision to re-sign him.

One senior executive said: "I can't understand why they've stuck with Johnny. Capital's self-stated strategy is to attract more women and the fact is he alienates them."

Another insider added: "They need someone hot, cool and current. Johnny's older than the target audience, not cool and he's tarnished goods."

Capital group operations director Steve Orchard today defended Vaughan, 40.

"We believe Johnny is the top breakfast show talent in the city," he said.

Heart is also the number one commercial station in London, reaching 1.85 million listeners. Easy listening station Magic 105.4 is in second place at 1.79 million and Capital is third at 1.46 million, fairly stable on the quarter but down 18.8 per cent on the year.

Heart managing director Barnaby Dawe said Theakston had triumphed with a mix of "topicality", humour and a "connection" with his audience.

"Jamie has grown in confidence and he's coming of age now," he added. " People are realising this is a nice listen in the morning. Jamie's appeal is wide."

He said he had just renewed Theakston contract to continue as breakfast host.

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