Steve & Karen's Breakfast Show
| Other names | The Hits Radio Breakfast Show |
|---|---|
| Genre | Music radio |
| Running time | 240 minutes |
| Country of origin |  United Kingdom |
| Language(s) | English |
| Home station | Hits Radio (North East/Teesside) |
| Hosted by | Steve Furnell & Karen Oxley |
| Produced by | Danny Coucill |
| Recording studio | Newcastle upon Tyne |
| Original release | 1 June 1999 |
| Website | Steve & Karen's Breakfast Show |
Steve & Karen's Breakfast Show is the Hits Radio weekday breakfast show airing in the North East and Teesside. It is presented by Steve Furnell and Karen Oxley (née Wight).
History
[edit]The radio breakfast show began on Tuesday 1 June 1999 when Steve Furnell launched regional radio station Galaxy North East. Karen Oxley became his co-presenter in January 2001 after a year as senior broadcast journalist with the station.[1]
Galaxy was rebranded as Capital North East on 3 January 2011 as part of a merger of Global Radio's Galaxy and Hit Music networks to form the nine-station Capital radio network.[2] Furnell and Oxley were retained at the relaunched station.[3]
On 14 July 2011, Metro Radio breakfast presenter Tony Horne left, prior to his contract ending.[4] Furnell and Oxley were announced as his replacements two months later, remaining at Capital until 23 December 2011.[5] The Steve & Karen Breakfast Show aired on Metro for the first time on 6 June 2012 after 5 months of being off-air due to a clause in the contracts issued by their previous employers, Global Radio.[6][7][8]
The show resumed airing in Teesside and North Yorkshire on Monday 8 April 2013 when TFM merged with Metro and ceased all local programming apart from news.[9]
On 17 April 2024 both Metro Radio and TFM were rebranded to Hits Radio with Steve & Karen’s Breakfast Show unaffected. [10]
From 10-14 February 2025, no local breakfast programming was broadcast from studios in Newcastle. Instead, London based networked programming was relayed. This is because of the new Media Act which now allows 24/7 programming from outside the broadcast area.[11]
On 20 March 2025, Bauer announced it would end its regional Hits Radio breakfast show for the North East and replace it with a new national breakfast show for England and Wales on 9 June 2025.[12] However the pair will then present a new national breakfast show on DAB spin-off station Hits Radio 90s, and will be produced from Bauer's Newcastle studios.[13]
Awards and nominations
[edit]| Year | Award | Entry | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Breakfast Show of the Year (under 2 Million TSA) | Steve & Karen's Breakfast Show | Gold |
| 2013 | Presenter of the Year (under 2 Million TSA) | Steve Furnell & Karen Oxley | Gold |
| 2014 | Presenter of the Year (under 2 Million TSA) | Steve Furnell & Karen Oxley | Gold |
| 2015 | Presenter of the Year (under 2 Million TSA) | Steve Furnell & Karen Oxley | Silver |
| Year | Award | Entry | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Breakfast Show of the Year (under 10 million) | Steve & Karen's Breakfast Show | Silver |
Features
[edit]Current features
[edit]The show currently uses the following features in its broadcasts:
- First Bit Last Bit - Listeners get the first bit and last bit of a song, film, tv show or something else; and have to figure out what it is.
- Scrambled Songs - Steve or Karen sing lyrics from one artist over music by another and the caller has to guess the two artists, winning a Steve and Karen Breakfast Show Mug.
- The Wonky Minute - Listeners come on and have to answer 10 questions correctly in one minute to win £1,000.
- Charva Choons - Every Friday, at 9:30am, listeners choose their favourite Charva Choon, a song typically heard in the club scene in the North East in the 90s and 00s.
Previous features
[edit]- Hummer Bummer - Steve or Karen hum a song and a caller must answer correctly.
- Missing Link - Karen gives a caller two things for them to guess the link.
- Morning Glory - Answer a question correctly and win the 'Morning Glory'.
- Tombola of Doom - Two contestants compete in answering some random questions in a certain amount of time. The player with the most points wins an 'I took on the Tombola of Doom and won' t-shirt.
- Baby Jukebox Generator - A song from the year a caller's child was conceived is played.
- Birthday Bangers - Call in if it’s your birthday for a treat and to choose a song from either Steve or Karen’s selections.
References
[edit]- ^ Breaking into…Working with Words Newcastle University, 11 March 2009
- ^ Global Radio takes Capital national, Brand Republic, 13 September 2010
- ^ Local Capital line-ups revealed Archived 23 November 2010 at the Wayback Machine, RadioToday, 16 November 2010
- ^ Tony Horne exits Metro Radio breakfast, RadioToday, 14 July 2011
- ^ Capital breakfast team join Metro, Radio Today, 25 September 2011
- ^ New Breakfast Duo For Metro, Bauer Radio, 26 April 2012
- ^ Presenters Steve Furnell and Karen Oxley join Metro Radio, The Drum, 6 June 2012
- ^ Steve and Karen start on Metro Radio, Radio Today, 6 June 2012
- ^ Backlash from listeners as Bauer moves TFM out of Teesside Prolific North, 8 April 2013
- ^ "Bauer to rebrand heritage FM stations in England and Wales to Hits Radio". RadioToday. 10 January 2024. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
- ^ Fleur East, James and Matt cover Steve and Karen at Hits Radio North East, Roy Martin, Radio Today, 12 February 2025
- ^ "Hits Radio to launch national Breakfast Show across England and Wales". Bauer Media. 20 March 2025. Retrieved 20 March 2025.
- ^ "Steve and Karen to host breakfast on Hits Radio 90s". RadioToday. 20 March 2025. Retrieved 20 March 2025.