BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a
British radio station, specialising in
popular music aimed at the 16-24 age bracket. Radio 1 was launched at 7 a.m. on
September 30,
1967 as a direct response to the popularity of offshore
pirate radio stations such as
Radio Caroline, which had been outlawed by Act of Parliament.
The first DJ to broadcast on the new station was
Tony Blackburn, whose cheery style, first heard on Radios Caroline and London, won him the prime slot on what became known as the "Radio 1 Breakfast Show" (although its original formal title, as shown in the
Radio Times was
Daily Disc Delivery, while Blackburn himself referred to it eponymously as the
Tony Blackburn Show). The first words spoken on Radio 1 - after a "countdown" by the Controller of Radios 1 and
2, Robin Scott, and a jingle, recorded at PAMS in
Detroit, Michigan, beginning "The voice of Radio 1" - were "... And, good morning everyone. Welcome to the exciting new sound of Radio 1". The first record played on Radio 1 was
Flowers in the Rain by
The Move. There has been some speculation that this was intended to signal the end of the "
flower power" "
Summer of Love" of 1967. The breakfast programme remains the most prized slot in the Radio 1 schedules, with every change of presenter exciting considerable media interest.
The initial rota of staff included the legendary
John Peel (who remained with the station until his death in October 2004) and a gaggle of others, some hired from pirates, such as
Ed Stewart,
Terry Wogan,
Jimmy Young,
Dave Cash,
Kenny Everett,
Simon Dee,
Pete Murray, and
Bob Holness.
Radio 1 initially broadcast on 1214 kHz
mediumwave (or 247 metres as it was referred to at the time) and moved to 1053/1089 kHz (275/285 metres) in 1978 (it was the only BBC National station without a dedicated
FM frequency). In the 1970s and early 1980s it was allowed to take over
Radio 2's FM transmitters for a few hours per week, most notably for the Top 40 Singles Chart on Sunday afternoons and for some evening programmes including
John Peel's show. In 1988 the 97â€"99 MHz frequencies became available when the existing
police communication allocation changed, and Radio 1 acquired them for its own national FM network. Its old mediumwave frequencies were reallocated to commercial stations in 1994 (Radio 1's last broadcast on MW was on
July 1 that year, with
Stephen Duffy's "Kiss Me" being the last record played on MW just before 9am). In the 1990s it also began broadcasting on spare audio subcarriers on
Sky Television's analogue satellite service, initially in mono (on
UK Gold) and later in stereo (on
UK Living). Today it can be heard on
DAB,
Freeview,
NTL and
Telewest Broadband cable television services,
Sky Digital and the
Internet as well as FM. In July of
2005,
Sirius Satellite Radio began
simulcasting Radio 1 across the
United States on channel 11, and
Sirius Canada began simulcasting Radio 1 when they launched on
December 1 2005 (also on channel 11). The simulcast is
timeshifted five hours to allow US and Canadian listeners in the
Eastern Time Zone to hear Radio 1 at the same time of day as UK listeners.
There were major changes to the station in the mid-1990s by the then controller,
Matthew Bannister. He led a campaign to rid the station of its '
Smashie and Nicey' image and revert it to a youth station catering for the under 25s. Although originally launched as a youth station, by the early 1990s, its loyal listeners (and DJs) had aged with the station over its 25 year history. Bannister had a ruthless purge of the older DJs and banned old music (typically anything recorded before 1990) from the daytime playlist. Listeners rebelled as the first new DJs to be introduced represented a crossover from other parts of the BBC (notably Bannister and Trevor Dann's former colleagues at the BBC's London station, GLR) with
Emma Freud and
Danny Baker. Bannister promoted
Chris Evans to the prime morning slot even though Evans' own media interests were in conflict with the public benefit remit of the station. Evans was eventually sacked in 1997, and was replaced by
Mark and Lard -
Mark Radcliffe (along with his sidekick
Marc Riley), who found the slick, mass-audience style required for a breakfast show didn't come naturally to them. They were in turn replaced by
Zoe Ball and
Kevin Greening just 6 months later in October 1997, with Greening eventually moving on and leaving Ball as a solo presenter. The re-invention of the station happened at a fortuitous time, with the rise of
Britpop in the early 90s - bands like Oasis, Blur and Pulp were both popular and 'credible' at the time and the station's popularity rose with them. As the 90s went on the Britpop boom declined and manufactured chart pop (
boy bands and acts aimed at sub-teenagers) came to dominate the charts Radio 1 found itself again in the position it had been in the late 80s, where bland playlisted chart music dominated the daytime shows and new genre music (through most of the late 90s, indie on weekdays and dance at weekends) occupied the evenings with a mix of specialist shows and playlist filler through late nights.
Listening figures continued to decline but the station succeeded in its aim to target a younger age group. Eventually, this change in content was reflected by a rise in audience that is continuing to the day. Notably, the station has received praise for shows such as
The Sunday Surgery,
Bobby Friction and
Nihal,
The Evening Session with
Steve Lamacq and its successor
Zane Lowe. Its
website has also been well received.
A new evening schedule introduced recently divides up the week by genres; Tuesday is mainly rock-oriented, Wednesday is R&B and hip-hop, Thursday is dance, Friday and Saturday are primarily dance with specialist R&B and reggae shows.
However, the station's two showcase shows, the breakfast show and the
UK Top 40 continued to struggle. In 2000, Zoe Ball was replaced in the mornings by friend and fellow
ladette Sara Cox, but despite heavy promotion listening figures for the iconic breakfast show continued to fall. In 2004 Cox was replaced by
Chris Moyles. The new rebranded breakfast show is known as
The Chris Moyles Show and has dramatically increased its audience to challenge
Today programme on
Radio 4 as the second most popular breakfast show (after
Terry Wogan). The chart show has struggled as single sales in the UK fell and
Wes Butters unsuccessfully replaced long-time host
Mark Goodier. Current hosts
JK and Joel now present only the second most popular radio chart show, losing out to networked commercial radio's
hit40uk.
Many of the DJs either ousted by Bannister or who left during his tenure (such as
Johnnie Walker and
Steve Wright) have subsequently joined
Radio 2 which has now overtaken Radio 1 as the UK's most popular radio station, using a style that Radio 1 had up until the early 1990s.
The success of Moyles' show has come alongside increased success for the station in general. In 2006, DJs Chris Moyles,
Scott Mills and
Zane Lowe all won gold
Sony Radio Awards, whilst the station itself came away with the best station award.
Following the death of
John Peel in October 2004,
Annie Nightingale is now the longest serving presenter at the station having worked there since 1969.
Radio 1 is notable for the range of music it plays. While most commercial stations concentrate on a particular theme, such as 1980s music or "classic rock", Radio 1 plays a diverse mix of current songs, including
independent/alternative, rock,
house/electronica, drum 'n' bass, world,
pop and
rap. It is also known, however, to concentrate mainly on songs and artists which are in the top 40. It is also radically different from mainstream American radio stations. For example,
Sheryl Crow is known as a mainstream artist in the US, but she recently performed a live session on the 'slower-paced' Radio 2 in the UK, instead of performing on Radio One.
Due to restrictions on the amount of commercial music that could be played on radio in the UK until 1988 (the so-called "
needle time" limitation) the station has recorded a great many live performances and studio sessions over the years, many of which have subsequently (and perhaps ironically) found their way onto commercially-available LPs and CDs. There have also been innumerable
rockumentary shows and interviews. Although this type of programming arose from necessity it has given the station some much-needed diversity. The needletime restrictions meant that the station tended to have a higher level of speech by DJ's. While the station is often criticised for (often banal) "waffling" by presenters, an experimental "more music day" in 1988 was declared a failure after only a third of callers favoured it.
Current presenters on this station include
Steve Lamacq,
Zane Lowe,
Mary Anne Hobbs, and
Mike Davies, who all host their own respective rock and indie oriented shows. Also in the station's stable are
R&B,
garage and rap supremos such as
Tim Westwood and
Trevor Nelson. Club
DJs include
Pete Tong,
Fergie and
Judge Jules.
An alphabetical list of present presenters is below
Daytime*
Edith Bowman (
Colin and Edith)
*
Mark "Chappers" Chapman (
Chappers and Dave) / (
The Scott Mills Show)
*
Fearne Cotton*
Sara Cox*
Vernon Kay*
Jason King (
JK and Joel)
*
Scott Mills (
The Scott Mills Show)
*
Chris Moyles (
The Chris Moyles Show)
*
Colin Murray (
Colin and Edith)
*
Trevor Nelson*
Joel Ross (
JK and Joel)
*
Spoony*
Comedy Dave Vitty (
Chappers and Dave) / (
The Chris Moyles Show)
*
Jo Whiley*
Reggie YatesOther*
Annie Mac*
Annie Nightingale*
Bethan Elfyn*
Bobby Friction*
Chris Coco*
Chris Goldfinger*
Dave Pearce*
Fabio*
Fergie*
Gilles Peterson*
Grooverider*
Huw Stephens*
James King*
Judge Jules*
Letitia*
Dr. Mark Hamilton*
Mary Anne Hobbs*
Mike Davies*
Nihal*
Pete Tong*
Ras Kwame*
Rob da Bank*
Rory McConnell*
Steve Lamacq*
Tim Westwood*
Vic Galloway*
Zane LoweAs a public sector broadcaster, Radio 1 has an obligation to provide news programming. It does this through its
Newsbeat bulletins throughout the day. Short news summaries are provided roughly hourly on the half
hour with two longer 15 minute news bulletins at 12:45 and 17:45. The main presenter is
Georgina Bowman, with Sports news read by
David Garrido. However, there are other presenters, such as
Dominic Byrne and
Mark Chapman.
Since 1999, Radio 1 has split the
home nations on a Thursday night with
Scotland,
Wales and
Northern Ireland broadcasting their own shows showcasing regional talent with Zane Lowe still being heard in
England. Scotland's show is presented by
Vic Galloway (who also has a position on
Radio Scotland) who has presented the show on his own since 2004 after original co-host
Gill Mills departed. Wales's show is hosted by One Music's
Huw Stephens and
Bethan Elfyn, whilst
Rory McConnell presents the Northern Irish programme, taking over from
Donna Legge who continues to present
Across the Line (BBC Radio Ulster).
They originally went out from 20.00-22.00 on the Evening Session's time slot but now broadcasts from 19.30-21.00 with the first half hour of Zane Lowe going out across the whole of the UK before going their separate ways.
This practice has also been used in Radio 1's
T in the Park coverage where broadcasts to Scotland provide extended coverage of the festival, that the rest of the
United Kingdom does not receive, they instead have the normal Radio 1 schedule at that time, This has been presented by Vic Galloway in recent years.
*1967–1968:
Robin Scott*1968–1975:
Douglas Muggeridge*1975–1978:
Charles McLelland*1978–1985:
Derek Chinnery*1985–1993:
Johnny Beerling*1993–1998:
Matthew Bannister*1998–present:
Andy Parfitt*
The Close of Radio 1 on Mediumwave*
List of BBC radio stations*BBC Radio 1 locations:
Egton House,
Yalding House,
Maida Vale*
bbc.co.uk - BBC Radio 1*
The Official UK Charts Company*
Radio Rewind's BBC Radio 1 historic website
