16 Jul 12

Moyles To Move On

by Emma Murray-Smith, Account Manager

Last week the self titled ‘saviour of Radio 1’ announced that after 8 and a half years presenting Radio 1’s flagship show he is to leave in September. This announcement was not totally unexpected – it is thought that the new controller of Radio 1 (Ben Cooper) has been under pressure to bring the average age of the stations listening audience down from the current figure of 32. Though Greg James was expected to be named as his replacement the winner of the prestigious title of Radio 1 Breakfast Show host is Nick Grimshaw. Nick not only presents specialist evening shows on Radio 1 but is also a presenter on T4, therefore having the potential to bring in many of the 15-29 year olds that the station is looking for.

Though this may be sad news for regular listeners, commercial stations will be counting down the days until Chris’s departure in September. Will the 30+’s that Radio 1 are happy to lose defect to the other Chris (Evans) on Radio 2 or will they completely ditch the BBC and look to a commercial station? There is no doubt that there is potential for shows such as Christian O’Connell’s show on Absolute to pick up some decent numbers with Moyles leaving an audience of 7.1 million weekly listeners. The BBC have have said that the impact is generally minimal when losing a big named presenter but they could have underestimated the strength of Moyles’s following and rumours of them being happy to lose their 30+’ers certainly might put some peoples noses out of joint!

Lets just hope that Nick knows when to keep his mouth shut – over the last 8 and a half years Moyles has caused much controversy and has been reprimanded by not only the BBC but also the Broadcasting Standards Commission and Ofcom after making many, many, many inappropriate comments on air. How did he get away with it for so long!?