Why Kev will be back on the Peterborough airwaves at breakfast time this month

Kev, who has been a breakfast show  constant in the city since joining Hereward in 1997, announced he is joining local community station PCRfm and will make his debut on August 17 with the firm intention to, as he puts it, “bring back local “.

”Since the days of Hereward (he later presented on Lite FM and Heart) I feel the local-ness has pretty much vanished, and I feel really sad about that,” he said.

”I have been working for the BBC for just over a year which was great, but it was part-Peterborough, part-Cambridge, and it is not right that a city like Peterborough, which I love, does not have a breakfast show that is truly local.

”Throughout my radio career that is one of the things that I have always stood for and will be bringing back - playing great music, championing local causes. having fun, coming up with things for people to do and being part of the community that I will be broadcasting from.

“From 7am to 10 am, Monday to Friday, it will be me being me.”

Kev joined the BBC in June last year on a freelance contract, which he says was expected to be extended until the coronavirus pandemic hit and the BBC started looking for savings.

”It was a real shock, to be honest,” he said. “I think both sides expected my contract to be extended.  It was an awkward conversation with four weeks to go. But I am not cutting my ties and while I will no longer be doing a weekday breakfast show, I will be doing covers, where needed, and will still be part of the BBC family.”

Looking to the future, he added: “Since the late 1990s I have been presenting breakfast shows, that’s what I am good at. I looked at what they were doing at PCR, and spoke to the guys that run it to see if I could be involved in bringing local back. It was a kind of obvious choice.

”I know things are different now to when I started out, but I still believe when you wake up there should be someone on the radio creating the right feeling and mood to set you up for the day. That is more important than ever.

“I want people waking up and shouting at their smart speaker ‘play PCRfm’.”

Head of Programming at PCR 103.2fm, Chris Tibbles said: “Kev is a household name across Peterborough who has entertained people in the mornings for over 20 years. We have worked together a lot in the past and I am really excited to welcome him to PCRfm. I cannot wait for him to bring his passion and creativity to the station with his new Breakfast Show”.