Magic has hired Great British Bake Off’s Mel Giedroyc and actors Patsy Kensit and John Hannah to front new radio shows.
Parent company Bauer Media has made the big-name hires ahead of digital spin-offs Mellow Magic and Magic Chilled being launched nationally.
Giedroyc, who presented the BBC’s Eurovision: You Decide competition to select the 2016 UK entry, will present a new Saturday lunchtime show on the flagship Magic Radio station.
Mellow Magic, which is being transformed on 14 March from an evening programme broadcast in London for the last decade to a national digital station, has hired names including former Emmerdale and Holby City actress Patsy Kensit, who will host weekday mornings.
John Hannah, who has film credits including Four Weddings and a Funeral, The Mummy and Sliding Doors, will host the weekend mid-morning show.
Other names signed up include former BBC Radio presenter Lynn Parsons, Fran Godfrey, known from her time on BBC Radio 2’s Wake up to Wogan breakfast show, and former BBC Radio 4 presenter Alice Arnold.
Magic Chilled, a completely new digital station launching on 21 March, has hired presenters including former Sugababes member Jade Ewen, and TV broadcaster Pips Taylor.
“Digital is the future for all of us and with 6 Bauer Media services added to the forthcoming new national digital multiplex we are cementing our claim as the leader of the commercial digital radio space to deliver new stations, more diversity and more choice that listeners now demand,” said Dee Ford, group managing director of Bauer Radio.
