[fish heads]

Taken from http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/no ... lradio.smg

Virgin Radio has signed JK and Joel to present a weekend morning show to go up against Radio 1's Vernon Kay and Jonathan Ross on Radio 2.

The former Radio 1 DJs will join Virgin at the beginning of next year, part of a refreshed weekend line-up under new programme director David Lloyd that also sees the arrival of former LBC presenter Iain Lee.

JK and Joel - real names Jason King and Joel Ross - hosted the Sunday afternoon chart show and the early breakfast slot on Radio 1 until September this year.

They will take over the Saturday and Sunday morning slots on Virgin between 10am and 1pm.

They replace Virgin Radio DJ Leona Graham, who is expected to stay with the station in a new role still to be confirmed.

Lloyd said he wanted to put the "energy" back into the Virgin weekend schedule.

"I have long been an admirer of these two guys - they are natural communicators and really radio people," said Lloyd.

"I think commercial radio can do a lot better at weekends. So much of the time it seems to be an area that we don't spend too much time worrying about, but we want to put the energy back in weekends in a number of ways.

"Iain Lee was the first salvo fired, and JK and Joel are the second. When you are up against Jonathan Ross you need to do something more, and we are putting significant investment into weekends."

Lloyd, who joined Virgin Radio from LBC earlier this year, said the pair would be given "three hours just to have fun ... Virgin is a mischievous brand on occasions, and they can make mischief on Saturday and Sunday morning.

"The thing that really distinguishes you [from other radio stations] is the power of the words between the records. That is why we are going for entertainers. We need as an industry to embrace slightly leftfield DJs."

JK and Joel's first show will air on Virgin on Saturday January 5. In a joint statement, the pair said: "No longer are we hauling our arses out of bed at 3am looking like crap, instead we are really looking forward to doing weekends.

"It'll be great to go up against our old mate Vernon at 10a. That's if he can be bothered to turn up - his random game show schedule is demanding don't you know!"

Did Moyles mention this this morning? I missed the show unfortunatly.

From the sounds of this press release though it sounds like they were really hacked of at their place in the schedule at Radio 1