Things are always changing at BBC Radio One. That’s what makes it interesting and ‘new’. It’s what it has to do in order to be in the thick of all that’s ‘new’.
And, thankfully, unlike commercial music radio, it is still personality led. Over the years since Tony Blackburn first welcomed us to the station, Radio One has been the base, the ‘home page’, the fall-back, the radio station I come back to. I don’t listen to it solidly, although I have done more so in recent times as the commercial radio sector refuses to provide less and less of an alternative to ‘radio’ and more an alternative to ‘iPod’.
I like the current Radio One sound. The music is about right, with the accent on ‘new’, and the programming is presented by people rather than disembodied voices. I do have a few niggles with the management paranoia that makes them want to copy the commercial sector’s obsession with fearing the songs (I talked about that madness here), but generally the personalities maintain an enthusiastic friendship with the songs. That’s the way it should be.
Over the years of course, the personalities have come and gone. We’ve long left the cheese phase, and today we have good talented people able to entertain us inbetween the songs. It must be hard to move on from where it is now, but slowly it must.
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| A young Greg James |
We know that Chris Moyles has two years left on his contract for the breakfast show, after which it seems fairly sure that the much younger Greg James will take over. The style of the breakfast show will of course change totally when he does, but probably it will be the right time for it to, in order that Radio One moves forward.
Already we’ve seen the side-lining of Scott Mills. Scott was always the natural substitute for Chris whenever he was off, and held down the drive time show for many years. Had Chris left years ago, breakfasts would have been Scott’s. However, it’s all got a bit too late now.
Scott has now swapped his drive time show with Greg’s afternoon show. No matter how you try to spin it, for Scott this is a bad move. Greg is now the host of the coveted drive time show. Greg is now the station’s number two behind Chris. He’s poised and waiting for that breakfast show.
Scott and Chris are the same age and both nearly 40, whilst Greg is in his mid-20s. That explains it all, and it’s right. Listening to Scott or Chris it is easy to hear the disconnect they have with the songs they play.
So what will happen to Scott and Chris? Will Scott ‘go’ before Chris?
One thing is for sure about Chris. Recently he sat in on the mid-afternoon show after the usual substitute DJs were all unavailable. It was a breath of fresh air to hear him DJing rather than just monologuing. The breakfast show format is very talk heavy, and is stuck that way, using songs like pauses for breath and a quick fag break.
Chris was doing less chat and playing more songs when he stood in for this one-off afternoon. And he sounded good. He was funny, entertaining, yet was being relevant to the playlist, and wasn’t frightened of the songs. This was the Chris Moyles I first thought was brilliant back in 1997 when he was doing late nights on London’s Capital Radio. He hadn’t lost it.
When he loses the breakfast show, will it be enough for him to shuffle to a temporary spot where he returns to being a DJ, or will he exit completely?
Inevitably, both Scott and Chris have to go in order to allow the ‘new’ generation of presenters in. Early morning Dev is now very feature rich in order to showcase his talents and prove that he should maybe be heading for drive when Greg heads to breakfasts.
So, the stage is set for the next phase of Radio One, life after Mills and Moyles. I only hope that they are set for a life after Radio One, and that somehow they find somewhere to entertain us from.
England's England 
I also heard chris filling in for Greg on Radio one on monday and tuesday this week , and i agree , he was very good. All this after he he had already done his own breakfast show only three hours earlier.
I also think the current primetime (daytime) presenters on Radio 1 are the best they have had for many years. I can't stand Sarah Cox – who still stands in sometimes to cover for holidays – she has a really annoying voice and accent. Mark and Lard had it's moments but again , i found the accents a bit annoying. When the night time presenters sometimes stand in for the daytime ones , i find that a big turn off – none of them are nearly as good as Chris, Fern , greg and Scott IMO. When they do the swap round usually after new year , for a week of having the nightime presenters on during the day , i find that a major turn off – they are just so dull and the music is so obscure as to be too abstract for me – i doubt i am the only one. So to sum up – i think Rdaio 1 is the currently the best it's been for a number of years but it won't be able to keep up the standard for much longer i don;t think. If only there was another station that was similar to Radio 1 but with a touch of Radio 2 as well – maybe new music with perhaps an older song that fitted in in style to the modern ones , but was not the usual predictable over played stuff the current commercial station spew out all the time. there must be a commercial company out there willing to fill this big gap in the market – surely ?
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