Foxy To Leave Hit 40 After More Than A Decade

Neil ‘Doctor’ Fox has confirmed that he is stepping down as presenter of the Hit 40 chart show next year after more than a decade.

Fox, also a judge on ITV’s Pop Idol, will continue to present his weekly afternoon show on London’s Capital 95.8 FM and will head up the search for a replacement to the Sunday afternoon Hit 40 chart show.

Fox, who is widely known as Dr Fox or Foxy, started presenting Hit 40 UK in 1992 and in 1994 the Pepsi Chart, as it was then known, overtook Radio 1’s Top 40 to become UK’s biggest chart show, a position it has held ever since.

Commenting on his departure, Fox said: “Over the last six months I have been juggling my five daily shows at 95.8 Capital FM with Pop Idol on ITV every Saturday, the Hit 40 UK show on Sundays, and everything else in between – it has become almost an eight day a week job. Something just had to give, and I decided that sadly it had to be Hit 40 UK.”

Rob Corlett, managing director of Hit 40 UK, added: “Neil has made a fantastic contribution to making Hit 40 UK Britain’s market-leading chart show and the whole commercial radio industry owes him a huge vote of thanks. It will be a sad day when he leaves but we have big plans for 2004 which will lay the foundations for another ten years of success for Hit 40 UK.”

Capital Radio, GWR, Chrysalis and Scottish Radio Holdings share ownership of the Hit 40 UK, which was developed to replace the Pepsi Chart earlier this year. Earlier this year Woolworths was secured as the multimillion pound sponsor of the networked radio brand, in what is thought to be the biggest sponsorship deal in British radio history (see Woolworths Signed As New Chart Show Sponsor).

The BBC recently threatened to challenge the commercial dominance of the chart with the announcement that Coca-Cola is to become the multi-million pound sponsor of the weekly music charts used by Radio One and Top Of The Pops (see BBC Comes Under Fire Over Coke’s Chart Sponsorship).

Capital Radio: 020 7766 6000 www.capitalradiogroup.co.uk

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