Radio return for Leeds broadcast star Chris Moyles on new ‘male-focused’ station alongside Ricky Wilson

Chris Moyles is returning to radio. Picture by Ian West/ PA Wire.

The self-proclaimed “saviour of Radio One”, who grew up in Temple Newsam, will host an early morning show from 6.30am to 10am after a three-year radio exile.

The 41-year-old, who left BBC Radio One’s breakfast show after masterminding a boost in listeners in 2012, has joined the new station which will replace Global’s XFM on Monday September 21.

Fellow Leeds native and Kaiser Chiefs frontman Ricky Wilson and TV’s Vernon Kay will be among other big name hosts on what aims to be the “first truly male-focused” station targeting listeners aged 25 to 44.

Global’s founder and executive president, Ashley Tabor, said: “Radio X will focus on fresh rock and guitar-based music alongside huge personalities. And personalities don’t get any bigger than Chris Moyles.

“Chris is a broadcasting genius and as Global makes a multi-million pound investment in launching Radio X on a national scale, I couldn’t think of anyone better to host the station’s breakfast show.

“Along with Vernon Kay, Johnny Vaughan and Ricky Wilson, the UK has never had a radio station like Radio X before.”

Moyles took over Radio One’s breakfast show in 2004 and helped the station’s audience grow to 10.87 million a day.

The former Mount St Mary’s RC High School pupil had risen to prominence after starting out on hospital radio on Wakefield’s Broadcast to Hospitals Service as a teenager.

Fellow Radio X DJ Vernon Kay said: “I’m excited to be getting back on the radio. The launch of Radio X is the dawn of a new era in radio. There is a real buzz around the station because we know that this is going to be a lot of fun. It’s going to be a real honour to have Chris Moyles as my warm-up, bringing his unique style of broadcasting back on to the radio waves.”

Wilson added that he is “proud and excited” to be part of Radio X at the beginning of a new chapter.

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

Ricky Wilson performing with the Kaiser Chiefs. Picture by David Wood.

Popular and at times controversial, Chris Moyles is one of the UK’s best known broadcasters.

He was still at school when he started working on Wakefield’s Broadcast to Hospitals Service, before he got a job as an assistant at Aire FM in Leeds where he presented Radio Top Shop.

He later joined Capital Radio in 1996 and BBC Radio One a year later.