5Live breakfast leaves a bad taste

I'm growing increasingly concerned about the content of the Radio 5Live Breakfast show. In fact, I think it's going down the pan.

There was a time when I didn't listen to anything else on weekday mornings but, as the show's output seems to be aiming at people with a lower IQ than it once did, I've found myself searching (usually in vain) for an alternative, usually ending up consoled by a brief mention for Tranmere on City Talk's hourly sports bulletin.

Things changed for 5Live when they rejigged the format, allowing Nicky Campbell to slip on his Watchdog Man of the People hat for the phone-in between 9am and 10am.

The trouble is that the breakfast show has to plug the phone-in during the course of the morning. It also seems that the phone-in dictates the news agenda, rather than the other way around. How else could a respected news channel make Katie Price's marrying a cage fighter the third story on its national news bulletin?

In fact it was a phone in on Jordan that first got me thinking about the way 5Live is changing. The title for the phone in was "Jordan: Slapper or post-ironic businesswoman of the year?" - or something like that.

Last week's nonsense focused on the John Terry/Wayne Bridge story with a phone-in asking nutters to call in and answer the question: "Have you ever forgiven someone?"

Carry on at this rate and Jeremy Kyle will be out of a job.