Desperately seeking the new Enfant Terrible

Background viewing: The BBC2 programmes "Blood On The Carpet: Walking With Disc Jockeys" (concerning Matthew Bannister's revamping of Radio 1 during the 90s) and "When Moyles Met The Radio 1 Breakfast DJs" (a chronological who's who of the Radio 1 Breakfast programme).

BBC Radio 1 has a problem. Since the Bannister Reforms of the 90s when the ageing "dinosaur" DJs were pensioned off and replaced by new, younger talent, there has been something of a tradition of having an enfant terrible presenting the station's flagship breakfast show. Viewing Steve Wright as one of the dinosaurs, (which divides opinion; he was undoubtedly younger in style than many of his contemporaries, but was properly old-school in hating most of the music he was playing), the first of the demon toddlers to throw tantrums on air was Chris Evans. Evans' diva reputation is well documented, not only at Radio 1, but on through his media career for the next decade. The fundamental key was that Evans got people talking about him, his show and Radio 1, something that hadn't regularly happened since the station's heyday in the 70s.

The precedent had been set. Following Evans' unexpected departure from Radio 1, Mark Goodier sat in briefly as a caretaker before Mark Radcliffe and Mark "Lard" Riley took over. The consensus was that the latter was a failure, but i think that it was harshly judged at the time. Nevertheless, after a short stint they were replaced by Zoe Ball and Kevin Greening.

Unsurprisingly, the partnership of Ball and Greening didn't last very long. Although there was no apparent problems with the relationship between the two, the quietly professional Greening was dropped in favour of Zoe Ball presenting solo and thus the second era of the sensationalist presenter was properly under way. This era was heralded not so much by the non-conformity and endless creative stream that Chris Evans had provided, but more stories of excess, partying and something dubbed by the media as "ladette culture". This was gold for Radio 1, who had somebody on their hands once again who had the attention of the press and could be demonised by them. Listening figures rose accordingly. Zoe Ball's tenure ended in 2000 when she left to devote more time to her family. As an aside, she has since returned to the BBC covering for various presenters on Radio 2 and her style has matured brilliantly whilst still being good fun.

Her friend Sara Cox was waiting in the wings to take on the job and followed the same brash ladette formula as had worked for Ball. Initially there was some success and ratings rose to record levels for the era, but the show started sliding and by the middle of 2003 was in freefall. Cox was exhausted and creatively spent following 18-odd months of heavy pressure to improve the show.

Thus Chris Moyles, the self styled saviour of whichever slot he happened to be working in at the time was enlisted from the start of 2004 and Cox was shifted over to drivetime for the interim until going on maternity leave. Even at the start of his stint on Breakfast, Moyles was a considerably reformed character from the angry brat who had appeared on early breakfast (4am - 7am) in 1997, at which time he had been honing his act on various commercial broadcasters and gradually building a reputation for being outrageous but crucially popular.

There is a marked difference between the Chris Moyles of Early Breakfast (97), weekday afternoons (c. 2001), breakfast (2004) and today. He is undoubtedly mellowing with age and growing accustomed to his celebrity status and with this comes comfort and a reduced level of anger. The hear the evolution for yourself, check out the sound archives on ChrisMoyles.net.

My conclusion of this is that Moyles is no longer the enfant terrible he was marketed as in 2004, and in my opinion he was past his controversial peak by then too. He has recently confirmed that he has a contract to present the show until 2014, shortly before the departure of boss Andy Parfitt from Radio 1 was announced. I'm not saying the two are connected, but the presence of Moyles gives the whole station stability.

The question is who will replace Moyles when he does eventually leave? Greg James is currently favourite in the running, but possibly lacks the headline grabbing impetus that the station needs. I also think he'll be off to TV before long. Of the other up and coming presenters on the station, Nick Grimshaw is a possibility but will likely be tempted by other offers, Dev's show has a sense of painful desperation about it, Huw Stephens is a solid daytime or evening jock and Matt Edmondson is already occupied with several other projects, which is a shame as his style has the most potential of anybody at the moment.

The other problem is that there isn't the breeding ground for new talent on commercial radio any more. If you look at the career of Chris Moyles before he came to Radio 1, none of the stations are now operated independently and evening programming is widely networked, reducing the opportunity for presenters to bring a club radio offering. Club radio is incredibly important to building the careers of radio personalities. By making their show an appointment to listen and making the listeners involved in its success, their popularity grows and their listeners become more religious about tuning in. It also makes it harder for them to be sacked (although it never stopped Moyles from being dismissed at least once) and therefore a more desirable talent for other broadcasters. But can you imagine something like Moyles' Chiltern Network Late Bit show now being broadcast by Heart? You could probably listen to Heart for four hours of an evening without giving a toss about who the presenter is, as they are all identikit smooth voices. Club radio is on life support and Heart, Bauer et al are in danger of killing it.