Jamie's Loaded attack

The capital's breakfast radio DJs are set for war - with new kid on the block Jamie Theakston mounting a scathing attack on his rivals. The 33-year-old takes over the morning slot on Heart 106.2 next Monday.

In a sign that he means business in the fight for listeners, he has hit out at the "laddish" mentality of Capital's Johnny Vaughan, Radio1's Chris Moyles and Virgin Radio's Pete Mitchell and Geoff Lloyd.

He said he planned to follow in the footsteps of more seasoned pros such as Radio 2 stars Terry Wogan and Jonathan Ross. "Breakfast DJs like Wogan and Ross are brilliant at understanding what their audience wants," said Theakston.

"Whereas other DJs in that breakfast market, who tend to be white middle-class men of a similar age - Johnny, Pete and Geoff, Chris Moyles - they ignore their audience and talk at them rather than to them. There's an element there of liking the sound of their own voice."

Referring to the men's magazine seen as a founding force of "Lad" culture, Theakston added: "It's that shouty laddish schtick that's oldfashioned and I think people have moved on from that Loaded way of doing things."

Theakston, who takes over the breakfast slot from Jono Coleman, added: "Wogan and Ross have this understanding of their audience's expectation, like Jono did before me ... I want to talk to Heart listeners and not just at them."

The breakfast slot is possibly the most vicious battleground in radio - nowhere more so than in London. Coleman, Theakston's predecessor, was ditched after more than six years at the helm only days after ratings figures showed he had lost nearly 130,000 listeners in a year.

The traditional rivalry has been between Heart and Capital, but recent Rajar radio figures showed Heart had slumped to third place behind Magic for the first time.

Vaughan lured 100,000 new fans to Capital in the last three months of 2004, his first boost since he took over from Chris Tarrant last spring. Theakston, who is dating model Erin O'Connor, is not the first breakfast DJ to criticise his rivals.

Moyles and Wogan had an on-air slanging match after Wogan, 65, accused Moyles and his predecessor Sara Cox of being "tasteless". Moyles, 30, hit back with jibes about Wogan wearing a wig.