Chris Moyles
Last week the world of music saw the departure of one Chris Moyles from the breakfast show on the UK’s largest radio station BBC Radio 1. Now, when Moyles started I was a massive fan and spent many drives to work laughing loudly in my car to his show. Originally he started out on a radio station local to Milton Keynes and it felt like a victory for the area I love. Then though, after a while and for whatever reason, his show began feeling tired and repetitive and I tuned out only to really listen again (mostly out of curiosity) during his last week just gone. Moyles now holds the record for the longest running breakfast show on Radio 1 and you can only come to the conclusion that he holds that title for the wrong reason.
Radio 1 has relatively recently been told by the licencing authorities (remember that uniquely all UK citizens who own a TV have to pay £100+ a year to fund the BBC) that it needs to lower its average listener age and it seems Moyles’ exit was directly connected to this proviso and not because the powers that be thought he was shit. Moyles isn’t shit but well beyond his peak and seemingly has, in my opinion, been held onto for so long due to complacency and fear of change. That kind of thinking has seen the average listener age of Radio 1 rise to 32. This statistic is interesting as generally 32 year olds historically should be listening to Radio 2 by now. So why have they stuck with Radio 1? What are all the teenagers and 20-somethings (who historically are the Radio 1 audience) listening to?
The first thought that comes to mind is that the current younger generation are the first to have grown up with the internet as something that has always been around. My guess is that they are getting their music fix online rather than via the wireless. Ever since Grime (or effectively what was pirate radio) became the first music scene to fully embrace the internet it has been the first port of call for those seeking the really exciting, cutting edge, forward thinking music that, importantly, is saying something new or, indeed, anything at all. Shaun Ryder makes a similar point in his recent autobiography Twistin’ My Melon Man when he describes how it’s a shame that TV and radio stations no longer follow what’s going on in music and instead just play random crap fed to them by organisations such as the Simon Cowell run Syco business (rather than music) focused companies.
For your average 32 year old that sort of music is fine as a distraction away from family life but for an inquisitive teen it’s not going to cut it. Gone are the days of your whole week, month or year revolving around a single three minute performance on Top Of The Pops or video premier on MTV. Random crap music survives due to its saturation on mainstream media rather than through any artistic merit. My contemporaries are left confused and looking stupid listening to Radio 1 but there is still hope now that the new generation have connected to an undiluted source.
Radio 1 has relatively recently been told by the licencing authorities (remember that uniquely all UK citizens who own a TV have to pay £100+ a year to fund the BBC) that it needs to lower its average listener age and it seems Moyles’ exit was directly connected to this proviso and not because the powers that be thought he was shit. Moyles isn’t shit but well beyond his peak and seemingly has, in my opinion, been held onto for so long due to complacency and fear of change. That kind of thinking has seen the average listener age of Radio 1 rise to 32. This statistic is interesting as generally 32 year olds historically should be listening to Radio 2 by now. So why have they stuck with Radio 1? What are all the teenagers and 20-somethings (who historically are the Radio 1 audience) listening to?
The first thought that comes to mind is that the current younger generation are the first to have grown up with the internet as something that has always been around. My guess is that they are getting their music fix online rather than via the wireless. Ever since Grime (or effectively what was pirate radio) became the first music scene to fully embrace the internet it has been the first port of call for those seeking the really exciting, cutting edge, forward thinking music that, importantly, is saying something new or, indeed, anything at all. Shaun Ryder makes a similar point in his recent autobiography Twistin’ My Melon Man when he describes how it’s a shame that TV and radio stations no longer follow what’s going on in music and instead just play random crap fed to them by organisations such as the Simon Cowell run Syco business (rather than music) focused companies.
For your average 32 year old that sort of music is fine as a distraction away from family life but for an inquisitive teen it’s not going to cut it. Gone are the days of your whole week, month or year revolving around a single three minute performance on Top Of The Pops or video premier on MTV. Random crap music survives due to its saturation on mainstream media rather than through any artistic merit. My contemporaries are left confused and looking stupid listening to Radio 1 but there is still hope now that the new generation have connected to an undiluted source.
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