BBC Radio 1 has been in something of a wobbly state since Chris Moyles left the breakfast show. Daytime DJs are aware that their listening demographic has changed since Nick Grimshaw took over in the mornings and the station's output as a whole doesn't gel as well as it used to. Certain shows on their own work well, but Greg James in particular seems to have let the talk of him being the Next Big Thing go to his head and the drivetime show is considerably less entertaining than his early breakfast show used to be. The friendly, engaging character who came from student radio is something of a distant memory in the face of some pretty lame radio output at times. In particular, Feet up Friday has now become some excruciatingly drawn out contest between several teams of listeners which leads to a low rent version of Scott Mills' old Wonder Years feature from 5pm on Fridays.
Later on in the weekday schedule, Several presenters (Annie Mac, Huw Stephens and Phil Taggart) have been hotdesking on the Monday to Thursday late night slot prior to the announcement that Taggart and newcomer Alice Levine would be taking it over on a permanent basis from January. This is a step in the right direction - Phil Taggart has been solid on these late night slots and sounds enthusiastic about what he's doing. Whilst Huw Stephens is a great broadcaster, he has sounded rather overworked at times recently cover this, along with Scott Mills show, his own weekend show and the Wednesday midnight indie show. I didn't manage to catch any of Annie Mac's shows in this slot.
The other ear-opener i've recently found is Adele Roberts who spent just over a week covering for Dev on the weekday early breakfast show. Whilst she was mostly working with Dev's features, she was a breath of fresh air from some of the self absorbed nonsense that goes on during daytimes. She is one of the best presenters i've heard come from 1Xtra to Radio 1, with MistaJam being the only other one i really rate.
A lot of criticism gets levelled at Radio 1 (particularly at the bottom of RadioToday articles) for sounding like a student radio station or harvesting all their talent from 1Xtra, but ultimately the problem remains that the breeding grounds for past stars of the station has been commercial local radio. The broadcast of tapes of teenage Scott Mills on air in Hampshire; or Chris Moyles on Radio Luxembourg or one of JK and Joel on Yorkshire Coast Radio only serve to illustrate how few opportunities there are for distinctive voices to flourish with heavily networked programming, particularly off peak amongst the larger commercial groups. The recent furore with Danny Baker on BBC London has served to illustrate that a tremendously popular broadcaster who generates huge loyalty from his audience is unlikely to get recruited because he *shock*horror* may have opinions occasionally rather than being the bland cardboard cut outs who fill two minutes of every hour on Heart between the mind numbing feelshit playlist and adverts.
But at least Radio 1 are gaining distinctive new voices, and not going down the Heart route of solely recruiting people who are already c-list celebrities. The station still has a lot of work to do in order to regain the momentum it had three or four years ago, sorting out the cheap and nasty sounding station imaging might be a start because every time i hear that girl with her teeth pressed against her lips saying the name of the DJ as if she's looking to start a fight with them, i still cringe...
Friday 14 December 2012
Wednesday 12 December 2012
It'll soon be time to stuff the trimmings and decorate the turkey....
Christmas on the wireless is often a challenging time. Many normal listeners are not there, a few extra people who don't normally listen to radio will find themselves listening to something which isn't a normal show. It might be a stand in DJ, a one-off special or a blast from the past. After a slightly disappointing showing in 2011, the BBC are giving us loads of them this year on both national and local radio.
I'll start with a bit of a history lesson. One of the oldest tapes i have (somewhere) is of a pre-taped christmas morning show on Radio Bristol with Terry Scott and June Whitfield. There was something of a tradition during the 80s that the star names from that year's Bristol Hippodrome Pantomime would record the links for an hours worth of local radio on the 25th and this was such an example. The intro was by far the most entertaining part as Scott and Whitfield painted a lovely sound picture of turning up at a tumbledown radio studio in a shed, nestling in a city that was asleep. If nothing else, it gives an indication of how much times have changed since then (and despite researching it online, i haven't yet found a conclusive answer as to which year it was), Bristol now being a city when Christmas Day traffic is just as bad as the rest of the year and every branch of Tesco Express is open for business.
But i digress, although i took an interest in Radio 4's entertaining special editions of comedy series, i didn't pay a great deal of attention to what was happening on music radio until the mid 2000s. Being newly reborn into the early Moyles and Mills era of Radio 1, i was entertained by the likes of Nihal and Mark "Chappers" Chapman. Chappers shows were often based around a mix of Scott Mills' best bits and his own features with freeform input from the audience, a fresher and less lazy version of Steve Wright's interminable "Best of the Guests" show format.
When iPlayer and recordable DAB streams began to appear for BBC Local Radio, i also started taking an interest in their seasonal output. The ever reliable Steve Yabsley produced a Christmas Morning show in 2008 which was a lot less reliant on cliches i had expected; whilst there were a number of conversation points based around Christmas material (playing tetris with food in the fridge in order to get it all in was an amusing image) a minimum of christmas music was played and even the standard BBC Local Radio playlist had been opened to include a wider range than the usual easygoing wallpaper.
In 2010 on 23rd December, Ed Stewart popped up sitting in for the BBC Bristol and Somerset afternoon show and spent quite a long time chattering about films. I'm not sure if he was enjoying himself particularly and to my knowledge he hasn't reappeared on there since, although will be on Radio 2 this year.
Another feature of BBC Local Radio over recent years has been the seasonal one-off appearances of Adrian Juste. I have vague memories of his weekend shows from the 80s and its fair to say 25 years haven't changed his style. The technology makes it easier for him to put his Kenny Everett style tricks together, but his delivery is still as good as ever and in my opinion it makes a refreshing change to hear somebody who puts a phenomenal level of prep work into their output. Sadly his 2011 show was only broadcast on four of the Beeb locals in Devon, Glos, Wilts and Guernsey (thank heavens for iPlayer!), but he returns to Bristol, Somerset and Cornwall for 2012 too. In addition he's doubling his annual output with a show on BBC Radio Devon on New Year's Day 2013.
There are also a number of specials across the national networks, aside from the spoken word output of Radio 4 and 5-Live. Here are some i'm looking forward to:
Radio 1:
Christmas Eve 21h00: Matt Edmondson has an extra show in the usual Radio 1 Stories slot. It'll probably be a best of compilation of his Wednesday night show.
Christmas Day 21h00: Dan and Phil who will take over a weekend show in the new year, having had a longer slot last year billed by their YouTube handles of "AmazingPhil and DanIsNotOnFire".
26-8th 16h00: Dance DJ Danny Howard presents his first non-genre specific shows.
Boxing Day 21h00: Comedian Nick Helm has an hour long show.
27th Dec 21h00: Comic Roisin Conaty (from BBC Three's popular dare show Impractical Jokers)
Radio 2:
Throughout Christmas and New Year, Richard Allinson sits in for Chris Evans on Breakfast.
From Christmas Eve until New Year, Mark Goodier covers the Midday Jeremy Vine shouting match slot. It'll be interesting to see what he brings to a BBC National audience after over a decade away.
Christmas Day 09h00: Ed Stewart resurrects Junior Choice for two hours.
25/26/27th 14h00: French and Saunders.
Boxing Day 21h00: Rory Bremner documentary on Mike Yarwood.
Fri 28th Dec 14h00: Danny Baker returns to music radio for the first time since leaving BBC London. I'll be disappointed if "It's Bernie!" doesn't get an airing...
Several new documentaries also start in the week of New Year too.
6 Music:
Christmas Day 13h00: John Cooper Clarke. It could be brilliant, it will certainly be eclectic.
Loads of daytime shows by 6 Music stand in regulars Jon Hillcock, Tom Ravenscroft, Chris Hawkins, Jo Good and Nemone appear over the season, plus Craig Charles on daytimes.
If nothing else, it'll be a good opportunity for those of us who mainly listen to daytime radio to hear some new voices.
I'll start with a bit of a history lesson. One of the oldest tapes i have (somewhere) is of a pre-taped christmas morning show on Radio Bristol with Terry Scott and June Whitfield. There was something of a tradition during the 80s that the star names from that year's Bristol Hippodrome Pantomime would record the links for an hours worth of local radio on the 25th and this was such an example. The intro was by far the most entertaining part as Scott and Whitfield painted a lovely sound picture of turning up at a tumbledown radio studio in a shed, nestling in a city that was asleep. If nothing else, it gives an indication of how much times have changed since then (and despite researching it online, i haven't yet found a conclusive answer as to which year it was), Bristol now being a city when Christmas Day traffic is just as bad as the rest of the year and every branch of Tesco Express is open for business.
But i digress, although i took an interest in Radio 4's entertaining special editions of comedy series, i didn't pay a great deal of attention to what was happening on music radio until the mid 2000s. Being newly reborn into the early Moyles and Mills era of Radio 1, i was entertained by the likes of Nihal and Mark "Chappers" Chapman. Chappers shows were often based around a mix of Scott Mills' best bits and his own features with freeform input from the audience, a fresher and less lazy version of Steve Wright's interminable "Best of the Guests" show format.
When iPlayer and recordable DAB streams began to appear for BBC Local Radio, i also started taking an interest in their seasonal output. The ever reliable Steve Yabsley produced a Christmas Morning show in 2008 which was a lot less reliant on cliches i had expected; whilst there were a number of conversation points based around Christmas material (playing tetris with food in the fridge in order to get it all in was an amusing image) a minimum of christmas music was played and even the standard BBC Local Radio playlist had been opened to include a wider range than the usual easygoing wallpaper.
In 2010 on 23rd December, Ed Stewart popped up sitting in for the BBC Bristol and Somerset afternoon show and spent quite a long time chattering about films. I'm not sure if he was enjoying himself particularly and to my knowledge he hasn't reappeared on there since, although will be on Radio 2 this year.
Another feature of BBC Local Radio over recent years has been the seasonal one-off appearances of Adrian Juste. I have vague memories of his weekend shows from the 80s and its fair to say 25 years haven't changed his style. The technology makes it easier for him to put his Kenny Everett style tricks together, but his delivery is still as good as ever and in my opinion it makes a refreshing change to hear somebody who puts a phenomenal level of prep work into their output. Sadly his 2011 show was only broadcast on four of the Beeb locals in Devon, Glos, Wilts and Guernsey (thank heavens for iPlayer!), but he returns to Bristol, Somerset and Cornwall for 2012 too. In addition he's doubling his annual output with a show on BBC Radio Devon on New Year's Day 2013.
There are also a number of specials across the national networks, aside from the spoken word output of Radio 4 and 5-Live. Here are some i'm looking forward to:
Radio 1:
Christmas Eve 21h00: Matt Edmondson has an extra show in the usual Radio 1 Stories slot. It'll probably be a best of compilation of his Wednesday night show.
Christmas Day 21h00: Dan and Phil who will take over a weekend show in the new year, having had a longer slot last year billed by their YouTube handles of "AmazingPhil and DanIsNotOnFire".
26-8th 16h00: Dance DJ Danny Howard presents his first non-genre specific shows.
Boxing Day 21h00: Comedian Nick Helm has an hour long show.
27th Dec 21h00: Comic Roisin Conaty (from BBC Three's popular dare show Impractical Jokers)
Radio 2:
Throughout Christmas and New Year, Richard Allinson sits in for Chris Evans on Breakfast.
From Christmas Eve until New Year, Mark Goodier covers the Midday Jeremy Vine shouting match slot. It'll be interesting to see what he brings to a BBC National audience after over a decade away.
Christmas Day 09h00: Ed Stewart resurrects Junior Choice for two hours.
25/26/27th 14h00: French and Saunders.
Boxing Day 21h00: Rory Bremner documentary on Mike Yarwood.
Fri 28th Dec 14h00: Danny Baker returns to music radio for the first time since leaving BBC London. I'll be disappointed if "It's Bernie!" doesn't get an airing...
Several new documentaries also start in the week of New Year too.
6 Music:
Christmas Day 13h00: John Cooper Clarke. It could be brilliant, it will certainly be eclectic.
Loads of daytime shows by 6 Music stand in regulars Jon Hillcock, Tom Ravenscroft, Chris Hawkins, Jo Good and Nemone appear over the season, plus Craig Charles on daytimes.
If nothing else, it'll be a good opportunity for those of us who mainly listen to daytime radio to hear some new voices.
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