Roy Plomley by the guest's choice of music. His contract was renewed for a further 15 shows. In the end he presented 1,791 editions of the programme stretching over 43 years. Its success was attributed to his skill as an interviewer and to his meticulous research. Plomley was succeeded as presenter by Michael Parkinson (1985–1988), then by Sue Lawley (1988–2006), and most recently by Kirsty Young. "Desert Island Discs" is the second longest-running radio programme in the world (after the Grand Ole Opry), and it is still running. Until late September 2009, unlike many other BBC radio programmes, "Desert Island Discs" was
Smooth Radio presenter history Nottingham and Emma Caldwell of Capital FM, while Nigel Freshman of Free Radio and Charlie Jordan, previously a Smooth presenter in the West Midlands joined Smooth West Midlands. Changes continued throughout 2015, which included the axe of the Saturday and Sunday soul shows and several weekday shows were reduced from four to three hours a day. In May 2015, Paul Phear replaced Chris Skinner as presenter of the Saturday evening show "The Great British Songbook", whilst Skinner replaced Phear as presenter of Sunday afternoons. "The Great British Songbook" was eventually dropped in October 2015 and replaced with the "Saturday Sanctuary".