Interview: Caroline Feraday, LBC (Evening Standard)
By David Rowan
IT has been quite a week for Caroline Feraday. First she turned down a £500,000 offer to move from Five Live to Capital, after a long courtship that would have seen her co-presenting Chris Tarrant's breakfast show. Then she sealed a deal with LBC to give her the key drivetime show when the station relaunches on FM in January.
And in the gaps between her GMTV showbiz slots, her Five Live star interviews, her nightclub DJ sets and her lucrative voiceovers, she also found time over the weekend to move home, ponder her next piece for Cosmo and treat herself to a new Peugeot 206 Cabriolet. "I think I deserve it," the bubbly 25-year-old says in those relentlessly enthusiastic tones that have made her one of radio's hottest new stars.
Capital's former Flying Eye traffic reporter could make an M25 tailback sound like a not-to-miss party. The voice that advertises Branston Pickle and Asda as well as countless TV shows on BBC1 and Channel 4 ranges refreshingly widely over Feraday's views on her employers past and present - so much so that she occasionally has to stop herself to ask if she is talking too much.
She implies that Capital Radio, for instance, the station that launched her, may now require the sort of cull that befell Radio 1 in the early Eighties. "Capital has an image problem similar to Radio 1 when Matthew Bannister took over there," she says.
"Its DJs have grown older - and though they've started to nurture new talent, there will always be a difficulty when a 55-year-old man is talking about Ja Rule. Chris Tarrant [recently turned 56] is brilliant, but it's very difficult to pull that off." Her insouciance will surprise those Capital executives who bet the station's future on the pair's on-air chemistry.
So much for Capital. But she is equally outspoken about her current employers, for whom she presents a weekend news-and-entertainment show with Matthew Bannister. "The BBC is not an easy place - I thought Capital was a corporate station till I worked at Five Live," she says, in terms that may not be entirely welcomed within the hierarchy. "It's a slow process to get decisions made, and I never really understood what all the job titles meant. For someone like me, I want it now. I'd get very frustrated at the delays."
She texts later to clarify that she hoped she did not sound too negative about the BBC, adding that it "has unique qualities".
On Radio 1, though she is a fan of Chris Moyles and Mark and Lard, she "cannot bear" the ageing hipster Tim Westwood. "He's the only person on the radio I have to switch off," she says. "His biggest problem is Ali G - because he is Ali G." As for her Five Live colleagues, she enthuses about Nicky Campbell ("the most gifted natural broadcaster I've worked with") and Victoria Derbyshire ("I get on very well with Victoria"), but when asked about working alongside Bannister will only say: "It's fine."
Less guarded are her views towards her former lover Frank Skinner, 20 years her senior, with whom she shared a lively public row after they separated last year. Soon after they split she took offence at remarks he made denouncing single women in their thirties. At the time, he was promoting his autobiography; believing he was capitalising on their separationshe condemned his views as "truly horrible", adding: "Frank's problem is that he just can't handle intelligent women." Even today she does not appear to have forgiven him.
"That spat wasn't my fault," she reflects. "I was put into a situation I found embarrassing, and incredibly disloyal. I don't see the need to make money from these things, but I'm sure he's got a lovely new house out of it. It's just boring, knowing how hard I've worked, to have something like that put me in the public eye."
Her current boyfriend, Andy Hipkiss, is a record plugger for Warner Music. In an ironic reference to the growing media interest in her life, she says they are about to "live in sin" in her Clapham house. "And with the new job, I'll be looking forward to having my weekends back," she says.
"Andy's been very understanding about my hours, but they don't help." The hours were only one factor in Feraday choosing the offer from LBC, now owned by Chrysalis Radio. A bright, well-connected networker - she has, she points out, worked with every breakfast DJ in London - she had kept in touch with Pete Simmons, Chrysalis's head of programming, since he gave her her first break at Capital.
"It just sounded like an interesting prospect," she says. "I liked the idea of working on a London station that's targeting me - a cosmopolitan station with quite a sassy, smart feel to it." Focusing on news and entertainment, the station must, she believes, avoid the Americanisms such as "travel on the ones" - formatted reports repeated every 10 minutes - that "don't cut any ice with the listeners".
"I could have taken the easy route and gone to Capital," she says. "Foxy [Neil Fox] and I piloted a breakfast show in the summer. But the easy route isn't really me. And three years was too long to commit myself."
Feraday certainly appears to be in a hurry. While studying for Communications Studies and English A-levels at a college in Maidstone, she was making herself useful at BBC Radio Kent and earning cash DJing at local parties. By the time the A-level results were out, she had found a research job at Capital and was soon surveying the jams on the Flying Eye. But that eventually proved too "lonely", so when Five Live approached in late 2000 she negotiated her own entertainment show. This in turn put her on the party lists that ensure she's a regular in the 3AM Girls' columns.
BUT what is it about Feraday that has generated such a buzz? "She's just so different from the typical male presenter," a colleague says. "There are a lot of middle-aged blokes in radio broadcasting, and she brings a sense of youth, of being a girl who goes to parties rather than home to Newsnight and a cup of cocoa. She's quick on her feet, she knows who So Solid Crew are and she's very unstuffy. And she's got a very good voice."
Others point to her nose for useful self-publicity. "The Skinner publicity didn't harm her, and she kept it going to her advantage," says one. Feraday admits that she is careful to control her media presence, pointing out that she rejected an offer to appear in I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here ... - although it would not take a PR genius to warn of the career risks that a "Yes" might have brought.
And her next move? Currently filling in for Jakki Brambles as an LA correspondent for GMTV, Feraday has decided that Brambles "has got the best job in British TV". "In about five years," she says, "it will be good to spend two years there."
Somehow you can imagine the television executives already drawing up the contracts.
(Evening Standard, November 6 2002)
IT has been quite a week for Caroline Feraday. First she turned down a £500,000 offer to move from Five Live to Capital, after a long courtship that would have seen her co-presenting Chris Tarrant's breakfast show. Then she sealed a deal with LBC to give her the key drivetime show when the station relaunches on FM in January.
And in the gaps between her GMTV showbiz slots, her Five Live star interviews, her nightclub DJ sets and her lucrative voiceovers, she also found time over the weekend to move home, ponder her next piece for Cosmo and treat herself to a new Peugeot 206 Cabriolet. "I think I deserve it," the bubbly 25-year-old says in those relentlessly enthusiastic tones that have made her one of radio's hottest new stars.
Capital's former Flying Eye traffic reporter could make an M25 tailback sound like a not-to-miss party. The voice that advertises Branston Pickle and Asda as well as countless TV shows on BBC1 and Channel 4 ranges refreshingly widely over Feraday's views on her employers past and present - so much so that she occasionally has to stop herself to ask if she is talking too much.
She implies that Capital Radio, for instance, the station that launched her, may now require the sort of cull that befell Radio 1 in the early Eighties. "Capital has an image problem similar to Radio 1 when Matthew Bannister took over there," she says.
"Its DJs have grown older - and though they've started to nurture new talent, there will always be a difficulty when a 55-year-old man is talking about Ja Rule. Chris Tarrant [recently turned 56] is brilliant, but it's very difficult to pull that off." Her insouciance will surprise those Capital executives who bet the station's future on the pair's on-air chemistry.
So much for Capital. But she is equally outspoken about her current employers, for whom she presents a weekend news-and-entertainment show with Matthew Bannister. "The BBC is not an easy place - I thought Capital was a corporate station till I worked at Five Live," she says, in terms that may not be entirely welcomed within the hierarchy. "It's a slow process to get decisions made, and I never really understood what all the job titles meant. For someone like me, I want it now. I'd get very frustrated at the delays."
She texts later to clarify that she hoped she did not sound too negative about the BBC, adding that it "has unique qualities".
On Radio 1, though she is a fan of Chris Moyles and Mark and Lard, she "cannot bear" the ageing hipster Tim Westwood. "He's the only person on the radio I have to switch off," she says. "His biggest problem is Ali G - because he is Ali G." As for her Five Live colleagues, she enthuses about Nicky Campbell ("the most gifted natural broadcaster I've worked with") and Victoria Derbyshire ("I get on very well with Victoria"), but when asked about working alongside Bannister will only say: "It's fine."
Less guarded are her views towards her former lover Frank Skinner, 20 years her senior, with whom she shared a lively public row after they separated last year. Soon after they split she took offence at remarks he made denouncing single women in their thirties. At the time, he was promoting his autobiography; believing he was capitalising on their separationshe condemned his views as "truly horrible", adding: "Frank's problem is that he just can't handle intelligent women." Even today she does not appear to have forgiven him.
"That spat wasn't my fault," she reflects. "I was put into a situation I found embarrassing, and incredibly disloyal. I don't see the need to make money from these things, but I'm sure he's got a lovely new house out of it. It's just boring, knowing how hard I've worked, to have something like that put me in the public eye."
Her current boyfriend, Andy Hipkiss, is a record plugger for Warner Music. In an ironic reference to the growing media interest in her life, she says they are about to "live in sin" in her Clapham house. "And with the new job, I'll be looking forward to having my weekends back," she says.
"Andy's been very understanding about my hours, but they don't help." The hours were only one factor in Feraday choosing the offer from LBC, now owned by Chrysalis Radio. A bright, well-connected networker - she has, she points out, worked with every breakfast DJ in London - she had kept in touch with Pete Simmons, Chrysalis's head of programming, since he gave her her first break at Capital.
"It just sounded like an interesting prospect," she says. "I liked the idea of working on a London station that's targeting me - a cosmopolitan station with quite a sassy, smart feel to it." Focusing on news and entertainment, the station must, she believes, avoid the Americanisms such as "travel on the ones" - formatted reports repeated every 10 minutes - that "don't cut any ice with the listeners".
"I could have taken the easy route and gone to Capital," she says. "Foxy [Neil Fox] and I piloted a breakfast show in the summer. But the easy route isn't really me. And three years was too long to commit myself."
Feraday certainly appears to be in a hurry. While studying for Communications Studies and English A-levels at a college in Maidstone, she was making herself useful at BBC Radio Kent and earning cash DJing at local parties. By the time the A-level results were out, she had found a research job at Capital and was soon surveying the jams on the Flying Eye. But that eventually proved too "lonely", so when Five Live approached in late 2000 she negotiated her own entertainment show. This in turn put her on the party lists that ensure she's a regular in the 3AM Girls' columns.
BUT what is it about Feraday that has generated such a buzz? "She's just so different from the typical male presenter," a colleague says. "There are a lot of middle-aged blokes in radio broadcasting, and she brings a sense of youth, of being a girl who goes to parties rather than home to Newsnight and a cup of cocoa. She's quick on her feet, she knows who So Solid Crew are and she's very unstuffy. And she's got a very good voice."
Others point to her nose for useful self-publicity. "The Skinner publicity didn't harm her, and she kept it going to her advantage," says one. Feraday admits that she is careful to control her media presence, pointing out that she rejected an offer to appear in I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here ... - although it would not take a PR genius to warn of the career risks that a "Yes" might have brought.
And her next move? Currently filling in for Jakki Brambles as an LA correspondent for GMTV, Feraday has decided that Brambles "has got the best job in British TV". "In about five years," she says, "it will be good to spend two years there."
Somehow you can imagine the television executives already drawing up the contracts.
(Evening Standard, November 6 2002)
posted by David Rowan at Wednesday, November 06, 2002
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