Iain Lee’s New Show On Virgin Radio - A Review
I was absolutely gutted when Iain Lee quit his brilliant show on LBC Radio, and changed my schedule due to him no longer being on air 6 days a week.
This all happened at the end of November, and no-one really knew when he would be back on radio.
Luckily, it didn’t take long for Virgin Radio to snap him up, although he only secured one show a week, that of the 10pm - 1am slot on Sunday nights.
I can fully understand why Virgin chose that slot for him, and only gave him one show a week, because it’s a music station, whereas Iain specialises in talk radio. The good thing is he’s gone from local radio to national radio, which is a definite step up.
Iain started on the 6th January, and has now done two shows on the station, both of which I have listened to. So far, I’m quite impressed, although it’s obvious Iain is going to take a bit of time to settle in, and get a feel for both the station, and time slot.
Agent Chris, Iain’s producer and sidekick on LBC has unfortunately gone, and it’s now Dave or Dayyyyve in the assistant’s chair. I actually quite like him, but it’s obvious he’s not used to speech based radio. The chemistry between the two is gradually getting better, and as long as it continues to improve, I think it could work.
As for the music interludes, well luckily Virgin play music which isn’t totally offensive to my ears, so it hardly bothers me. The only time it’s annoying is when Iain, or a caller, is on an inspired rant, but a song kicks in and ruins the flow.
Iain does seem to have a bit of leeway about playing less songs than the rest of the hosts, and music and adverts only take up maybe a third of the show. Once you factor in the news from LBC, the content of the show is probably about the same length as before.
The themes and tone of the show is very similar to Iain’s LBC show, just with slightly less sweariness, and freedom to talk about taboo subjects. So far, there has been a nice mixture of old and new callers, which is exactly what the show needed.
Iain Lee is still an acquired taste, but I guarantee you’ll be hooked after one listen. Those veterans out there need to tune in and get back in the swing of things, as the old master is back, and on form.
You can listen live on:
http://www.virginradio.co.uk/listen/
DAB Radio
105.8FM in London and the South East
1215 AM/MW across the UK (In some areas on 1197,1233,1242 or 1260)
http://www.worldspace.com/ across Europe, Africa or the Middle East
Freeview channel 727
Virgin TV channel 915
Sky channel 0107
Or archived shows on:
http://iainleevirgin.blogspot.com/
http://mickynwa.com/IainLee.aspx
Iain Lee, Virgin Radio, Radio, Cult, DAB, LBC, Internet, UK, British
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