What is the future for local radio as Big John at Breakfast comes to an end? - Yorkshire Post Letters

It is with great sadness that I read of the end of Big John at Breakfast at the former Hallam FM as of June 6.

It is very much the end of an era as the end of Big John's show will signal the end of nearly half a century of commercial radio programming on FM Radio coming from Sheffield.

Big John took over from local legend Darryl Denham in the year 2000, at a time when Hallam FM was one of only three choices for chart music, and the only local choice - much better than London centric Radio 1.

Darryl was a hard act to follow but John stepped up and has become the last man standing at the station with his show having become the only one produced from Herries Road studio in Sheffield back in 2019 when the drivetime show was replaced with a networked offering from Manchester simulcast nationwide with 20 odd other radio stations.

We are lucky to have held on to a local breakfast show for so long, given the 2019 Ofcom rules enabled greater sharing of programmes within the wider "Ofcom approved area" - Hallam could have become a brand name sharing a regional breakfast show with West and East Yorkshire seven years ago, but has somehow managed to cling onto its own bit of localness for far longer.

I wondered if any readers had any memories of listening to Big John and of Hallam in general?

I recall as a teenager loving Darryl Denham at breakfast and the far more ‘adult’ version of the show broadcast for a time in late evening at the weekend, with Big John who remembers the stuntman's wind-ups, Big John making his own trance anthem ‘Big John's Anthem’, Hallamster and Big John's Sunday Service.

As the former Hallam FM prepares to go fully networked and we start to wake up to Fleur East at breakfast instead (who is actually very good) it remains to be seen what will become of local radio.

We went through a similar scenario a few years ago when one of BBC Radio 2's most popular daytime shows - Simon Mayo on Drivetime was resurrected by commercial rivals Greatest Hits Radio, followed the year before last by Ken Bruce jumping ship, doubling the station's listenership in the process.

Local radio still has a lot to offer and there is very much a demand for it, as evidenced by the huge success of DAB stations This Is The Coast and YorMix, set up in the wake of the closure of the local radio stations for the Yorkshire Coast and York respectively a few years back.

It has been a while since Sheffield had truly local radio, I wonder if anyone will resurrect Big John @ Breakfast in a similar way Greatest Hits Radio did with Ken Bruce and Simon Mayo's shows to great success? We will wait and see.

In the meantime, a big thank you to Big John and team for keeping us all entertained the last quarter century. It has been and is, appreciated by a great many.