Frank Skinner is to join Absolute Radio to present a Saturday morning breakfast show.
The stand-up comic and former chatshow host will join the national rock music station – formerly Virgin Radio – for a three month run.
It will be Skinner’s first regular radio presenting job and will be produced by Avalon Television, the first time an Absolute show has been taken out of house.
The Absolute Radio chief operating officer, Clive Dickens, said Skinner was a “seasoned professional and a fantastic communicator who would be hugely popular with our audience”.
“He is bloody funny and tells great stories and that is what you should expect from his Saturday show. I can see the enthusiasm with which he has approached it – radio is a medium that Frank very much wants to conquer.”
Skinner will be joined by co-presenter and radio newcomer Emily Dean for the show which begins on Saturday. It will be produced by Paul Raffaelli, who has produced shows on BBC Radio 6Music and Global Radio’s Xfm, and executive produced by Avalon’s Jon Thoday and Richard Allen-Turner.
Running from 8am to 10am, Skinner’s Absolute show will avoid going head to head with BBC Radio 2′s Jonathan Ross, whose show begins at 10am.
“I am very conscious that Jonathan does a great job on Radio 2 and I can understand why people might compare them but I see Frank and Jonathan doing two very different things,” said Dickens.
Dickens said there was a gap in the market between 8am and 10am on Saturday mornings.
“We are trying to carve out a new daypart and we are very excited by that. Frank is learning to drive the desk and he will very much be the anchor of the show.”
Skinner’s long-time production and management company, Avalon was responsible for his long-running ITV1 chatshow. It also produces shows including Harry Hill’s TV Burp and Al Murray’s Happy Hour, also on ITV1, and BBC1 sitcom Not Going Out.
