Vernon Kay on Radio 2: How does the new man compare to the old master Ken Bruce?

Hopefully by the time Vernon played Doris Day singing Secret Love followed fairly quickly by A Foggy Day by Frank Sinatra, they will have realised their mistake.

The playlist, it seems, is no less diverse as it was when Ken was at the mic. And that is just one of the reasons why Vernon's first day in the big chair was a success.

I am a Ken fan and a Popmaster fan and not afraid to admit it, and I have followed him to his new home, Greatest Hits Radio, where I think he is arguably even better than he was on the Beeb – as I argued in this piece earlier this month.

But I was very keen to hear how, after a long build-up, the man chosen to be his permanent replacement got on. And I have to admit I was quite impressed.

Ken Bruce had UK radio's biggest audience when he did the morning show on R2 and the first set of listening figures that come out showing how many have gone with him to GHR and how many have stayed with R2 will be fascinating.

There will be Ken fans who have gone with him, some of whom may never listen to Radio 2 again; there will be Radio 2 devotees who have stuck with the station and will grow used to Vernon, and there will probably be a third group who don't like the ads on GHR and don't care much for Vernon.

They, I am sure, will find someone else to entertain their ears on weekday mornings. That's the beauty of radio – there's so much choice out there, so much more than even a decade ago.

My own view is that Vernon will do well on Radio 2 and his audience numbers will be strong, and will probably grow over time.

He came across on day one as natural, as someone relaxed in a high-profile role. He knows he must strike a balance between working hard at delivering this key show, but must not come across at trying too hard.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast less than an hour before he started he said he was ‘very, very excited’ and said of the show: “Nothing's changed – just the voice behind the microphone.” He was right, though that one change will be too much for some.

At 9.30am, 'Good luck Vern' were stand-in breakfast show host Gary Davies' last words – those, incidentally, from the man who has been holding the fort for Vernon since Ken departed a little more hastily than he wanted to in early March.

“Thank you Gary – right then, here we go, the adventure begins” replied Vernon as the opening notes of Beautiful Day by U2 were heard, the host having tested out the opening track out on his two daughters.

I did wonder if the show's bosses would be tempted to start with something that you wouldn't hear on Ken's GHR show – ie, something pre-1970 or post-1999. But in fact it took Vernon three songs to play one that would not be allowed on Ken's new show on Greatest Hits Radio – so after Chic’s Good Times we had a tune by Rita Ora, who is a bit new-fangled for GHR, the station that largely sticks to the 70s, 80s and 90s, as is Harry Styles, whose As It Was was next up.

We had Noel Gallagher reading out how to enter Ten To The Top and a bit of Kylie, a spot of Sam Ryder and some welcome messages from his new colleagues to end the opening half-hour, which most would agree was a very solid, maybe safe, first 30 minutes.

Just after 10am, Ken was on air on GHR and playing Come Back and Stay by Paul Young – which maybe was a track Vernon might have considered as a plea to any former Ken devotees giving the new Radio 2 guy a try.

On went Vernon, and with a new feature. Vernon's Vault needs a little tidying up in my view but a daily delve into the BBC archive for items related to that day's date will surely be popular – listeners lover trips down memory lane, as a rule. We started with a look back at the launch of Grand Theft Auto, and Vernon is promising us many more delights to come from the Beeb’s huge back catalogue.

There was some cheery chat with travel man Richie Anderson, a smooth first hosting of Ten To The Top, the station's Popmaster replacement, and a decent mixture of tunes kept coming.

I quite liked Vernon's references to his parents, particularly mum Gladys, whose birthday it was – which was the reason for Doris Day getting a rare Radio 2 play.

There were plenty of messages from listeners read out – not with the one-liners or pay-offs that Ken delivers them with, but I think it's important to remember Vernon is not Ken, nor is he trying to be, nor should he be. The Ken era is over at Radio 2 and this is a new start, a different vibe.

The aforementioned Sinatra track was chosen by Suggs, who is Vernon's first guest on Tracks of My Years, one of the features that has survived from Ken's era. And as the clock ticked round to midday, he finished with the Rolling Stones and I Can't Get No Satisfaction.

A scroll through Twitter during and after the debut show showed the usual extremes of opinion with not much in between.

There was plenty of positivity with some saying he had smashed it out of the park, done Bolton proud and sounded like he'd been doing it for years. At the other end of the scale there were those who said they'd never be listening to Radio 2 again (whether that policy took hold for them before or after Vernon's debut was mostly unclear).

My own position? I am unlikely to listen to Vernon very often, but not because I don’t like the show. I am in the Ken camp, not minding those GHR ad breaks, and have one of my local stations, Wave 105, to entertain me before and after Ken or on his weeks off.

But that does not stop me from believing Radio 2 have done well with this particular replacement – they've judged it much better than other key schedule changes that I think they've made a mess of, such as the hole left by Steve Wright’s afternoon show, and I do still think they could have held on to Ken for a few more years if they'd wanted to. But they didn’t and that’s history.

I shall still be tuned to Radio 2 when it suits me and for those presenters whose shows I love. But for now at least, my weekday morning listening will still involve me trying not to be one year out, reach the cherished 39 points, and get three in 10.