Radio 2 chief who made 'granny's station' fashionable says it's time to sign-off

The man credited with transforming Radio 2 from the sick old man of the airwaves to an award-winning station commanding 13 million listeners has indicated he is about to step down.

James Moir said yesterday it was time for someone with "a fresh vision" to take over the channel.

The likely departure at the end of the year of Mr Moir, 60, who had already been persuaded to stay on for an extra 12 months, will trigger a scramble for the £250,000-a-year post.

Contenders include Roger Lewis, the managing director of Classic FM, and Andy Parfitt, the controller of Radio 1.

Mr Moir told Radio Times: "I am speaking quite often to my dear friends the director-general [Greg Dyke] and the director of radio [Jenny Abramsky]. I think we've now got Radio 2 to the next stage, and it's probably right for somebody else with a fresh vision to come in and have a look at it."

Mr Moir's success has been in turning "the sort of station your mum and granny would listen to" into a channel more in tune with younger tastes.

When he took over, he said it was clear he had to act quickly. "Radio 2 absolutely dominated the mature end of the market but it wasn't growing any new listeners, which is a recipe for failure.

"We needed to create a reappraisal of Radio 2 in the minds of new listeners."

He brought in presenters such as the former Radio 1 DJ Steve Wright, Jonathan Ross, Jools Holland, Suzi Quatro and Mark Lamarr and brought down the average age of the listener. He introduced new music with Lamarr last year, winning the specialist music prize at last year's Sony awards for his Beginner's Guide to Reggae.

Mr Moir had spent most of his time in television, bringing The Generation Game and Absolutely Fabulous to the screens before turning to radio in 1995.

During his reign, Radio 2 overtook Radio 1 for listener numbers and some record companies now prefer to target its music playlists rather than its youth-oriented counterpart.

During the past 12 months, he has been forced to deal with the flak over Sir Jimmy Young's move from a weekday to a weekend slot, to be replaced by the Newsnight presenter Jeremy Vine.

Mr Moir also turned his fire on commercial stations who have claimed that Radio 2 had an unfair protected position in a crowded and competitive market.

"The commercial stations make pathetic attacks on us, claiming we have abandoned the public-sector remit. Would a commercial station run a 60-piece orchestra, spend £1m a year on religious broadcasting, and £4m on live music? No they wouldn't," he said.

* Senior executives at the BBC have been rewarded with almost £1.2m in bonuses and perks, it was reported last night, with the director general, Greg Dyke, receiving a performance-related bonus of £97,000 plus benefits of £15,000 on top of his £357,000 salary.