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Zane Lowe
Playing at Radio 1's Big Weekend
Birth name	Alexander Zane Reid Lowe
Born	(1973-08-07) 7 August 1973 (age 38) Auckland, New Zealand
Show	The Zane Lowe Show
Station(s)	BBC Radio 1
Time slot	7–9pm Mondays–Thursdays
Style	Disc Jockey
Country	United Kingdom
Children	Jackson and Lucius
Website	zanelowe.com

Zane Lowe (born Alexander Zane Reid Lowe on 7 August 1973) also known as 'Zipper', is a radio DJ and television presenter. He was born in New Zealand and grew up in Auckland,^[1] where he was a presenter on the local music station Max TV, before moving to England.^[2] He presents BBC Radio 1's evening show, where he plays a variety of alternative music, including rock, punk, dance, drum and bass, and hip hop. He was also the presenter of the MTV Rocks show Gonzo, having been a former VJ on MTV since 1997, where he presented Brand:New.^[2] Lowe currently resides in London with his wife and two sons, Jackson and Lucius. He is best known for his boundless sycophancy.

Zane Lowe on BBC Radio 1[link]

Lowe about to take the decks at a Radio 1 event in Preston

Lowe's radio show can be heard on Mondays to Thursdays from 7pm to 9pm. Past and present features on his show have included:

• On Mondays, Fresh Meat is where the show's chatroom rate three songs from three upcoming bands; the winning track is played throughout the rest of the week
• The Hottest Record In The World this week, where a song from a hotly-tipped band or new album is played
• Sunsetter where a more mellow track is played as the sun sets each night, (seasonal)
• Encore, when listeners can text in to request a repeat of a track that has already been played, the winning track being the track most requested. (discontinued)
• U-turns, a phone-in request slot (signified by 'the screech and the beat'), also discontinued (now 'What have we missed')
• Crowd Rocker, where an anthem from the past is played (discontinued)
• Mixtape, a ninety minute themed mix which only broadcasts to listeners in England while the rest of the UK do their regional shows (Discontinued)
• Live performances and interviews with bands and artists

Lowe reading the papers while sitting next to Edith Bowman at Glastonbury 2007.

Lowe's method of DJing is rather enthusiastic and fast-paced, similar to many hip hop DJs, with samples of radio stations, interview clips and Radio 1 stings thrown in between songs, along with the occasional sound of Lowe singing along to the music.

He is extremely dedicated to new music, and many of the bands or musicians who won Fresh Meat have gone on to be very successful; Arctic Monkeys, Bloc Party, The Killers, Editors, Kasabian, The Wombats and Kaiser Chiefs are examples of bands who have benefited.

Zane Lowe played "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley for the first time on radio. The song was frequently played on Radio 1 thereafter, helping it to reach number one on the UK Singles Chart on 2 April 2006. "Crazy" was the first song in British history to go to number one based on sales of legal downloads alone; the download was made available a week before physical copies went on sale. The song also featured in Zane Lowe's TV advert, which aired in early 2006.

Prior to Muse and Foo Fighters emerging onstage at their concerts at Wembley Stadium, Lowe 'entertained' the crowd on DJ decks. More recently Zane Lowe played a large role in the Festival/Large concert "Warrior's Dance" hosted by The Prodigy, and DJ'd two sets through the evening.

Masterpieces[link]

Between 2007 and 2011, one week of Zane Lowe's show was dedicated to albums considered 'masterpieces'. Each show focused on a different album which Lowe and his team considered to be a bonafide classic. The first half of the show was dedicated to interviews and an in-depth look at the album's cultural impact. In the second half of the show, the full unabridged album was played in its entirety, complete with gaps and no lyric censorship.

On 25 July 2011, his first show after the death of Amy Winehouse, Zane told listeners that he had intended to make her album Back to Black a Masterpiece of previous series, but was unable to secure an interview with the singer. Lowe also appeared alongside other music acts The Vaccines, Darwin Deez, Union and Doorly on 7 June 2011, and again alongside Biffy Clyro, Morning Parade and Doorly on 19 July 2011 at the Mallorca Rocks hotel in Magaluf, Mallorca for the event of the same name.

During the 21 November 2011 broadcast of 'Masterpieces' featuring The Smashing Pumpkins, Lowe expressed his delight at securing the opportunity to play Siamese Dream in full, stating the album to be his favourite of all time.

On 24 November 2011, Zane Lowe announced that 2011 would be the final edition of 'Masterpieces', concluding the show with "Hallelujah" from Jeff Buckley's album Grace, stating that the idea of the feature originally came from the suggestion that the album Grace be played on the air from beginning to end.

[edit] Zane Lowe on MTV Two

Lowe started his career on MTV Two presenting shows such as Up 4 It (1997) and Brand:New (1999), and since 2002 he has presented Gonzo, its flagship music show, in which time the show has evolved from a two-hour random collection of presenting and clips, to a primetime (7pm) show featuring regular musical guests and interviews. The show is presented solely by Lowe, with the studio effectively being a blue screen and the infamous 'Brown Couch'. His presenting manner on Gonzo is more laid back than on his radio show. The show features music videos, along with news (usually ripped from the NME; Lowe can often be seen reading the news straight from the magazine) and input from the channel's message boards. The show also features mock interview done by a character called Ginger Bloke, in which popular musical artists are humorously "interviewed." Occasionally, moderators of the boards (chosen on Gonzo and by the members) contribute; one member even filled in for a week when Lowe was ill and unable to present. At Oxegen Festival 2006, Zane Lowe was reportedly "beaten up" by Didz Hammond and Carl Barat from Dirty Pretty Things on an episode of Gonzo. He has since said that the punch was in fact completely playful but unfortunately, and painfully, connected with his groin.^[10]

Ryan Jarman[link]

Zane Lowe saved Ryan Jarman's life at the 2006 NME Awards, an incident NME now refers to as "engraved in indie folklore".^[11] Ryan's band, The Cribs, accepted an award on behalf of winners, Franz Ferdinand. However, on his way to collect the trophy from presenter Russell Brand, Ryan dived onto the Kaiser Chiefs table and pierced his back with broken glass, narrowly missing his vital organs.^[11] He was quickly taken to hospital but discharged himself to return for the show's party later in the night. However, his injuries were severe and he fell unconscious in a back corridor. Luckily Zane Lowe, a fellow guest at the party, came across Ryan lying on the floor and discovered he was bleeding profusely. Zane raised the alarm and Ryan received urgently needed medical attention to stop internal bleeding.^[11]

Awards[link]

Both the Zane Lowe Show and Gonzo have won numerous awards including Best Radio Show and Best TV Show respectively at the NME Awards 2006. Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles has jokingly referred to "The Best Radio Show" award as "The Zane Lowe Award" due to Lowe's repeated success. Lowe continues this success by winning the Best Radio Show NME award in the 2007 and 2008 Awards.

Lowe won the Gold Award in The Specialist Music Programme Award, and Music Broadcaster of the Year categories at the 2006, 2010 and 2011 Sony Radio Academy Awards.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Zane Lowe

• Official website
• Zane Lowe Radio 1
• Zane Lowe on Myspace
• Zane Lowe on Twitter
• Zane Lowe on Facebook

Chris Moyles
Born	Christopher David Moyles[1] (1974-02-22) 22 February 1974 (age 38)[2] Temple Newsam, Leeds, England
Occupation	Broadcaster
Years active	1990–present
Partner	Ana Boulter (1999–2002) Sophie Waite (2002–2010)

Christopher David Moyles (born 22 February 1974) ^[2] is an English radio and television presenter and author, who currently presents The Chris Moyles Show on BBC Radio 1 and Chris Moyles' Quiz Night on Channel 4.

Born in Leeds, he attended Mount St Mary's Catholic High School in Leeds and volunteered to work at WBHS (Wakefield's Broadcast to Hospitals Service). He has worked at various radio stations including Radio Luxembourg (under the pseudonym Chris Holmes) and Capital FM. Moyles moved to BBC Radio 1 in 1997 and has remained there ever since, presenting the early breakfast show, a Saturday morning show, the drive time show and currently, the breakfast show. On 7 September 2009 he became Radio 1's longest serving breakfast presenter. Moyles has become famous for his irreverent broadcasting style on Radio 1 and has been embroiled in numerous controversies, including homophobic and sexist accusations, due to statements he has made on the air and in the press. Despite that, Moyles' regular audience figures averages 8 million listeners per annum, and remains one of the more popular presenters on BBC Radio 1.

He has achieved various Radio awards, and has helped raise money for charity by taking part in challenges, aired on T.V on behalf of Comic Relief. He has recorded a parody album and written two autobiographies. He frequently appears on television having appeared on Hotel Babylon, a celebrity version of Dale's Supermarket Sweep, Top Gear, The Charlotte Church Show, The F-Word, The Friday Night Project, The One Show, Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, Richard & Judy and The New Paul O'Grady Show. In 2009 he launched his own show, Chris Moyles' Quiz Night for Channel 4 which is currently in its fifth series.

Career[link]

Pre-Radio 1[link]

Chris Moyles was born on 22 February 1974 in Leeds and was educated at the Mount St Mary's Catholic High School in Leeds.^[2][3] While at school, he began his broadcasting career at WBHS (Wakefield's Broadcast to Hospitals Service), a voluntary staffed hospital radio station in the West Yorkshire city.

He then started out at local station Aire FM as an assistant for DJ Carl Kingston. During this time, he was also a presenter on Radio Top Shop in the Leeds Briggate branch. After hosting his own Saturday Evening Show on Aire FM (and occasionally serving as a stand-in presenter), he was then employed as a presenter at Radio Luxembourg in 1992, until the station closed.

In 1993, he gained a job at The Pulse of West Yorkshire, presenting the evening show from 7–10 pm. He remained there until early 1994 when he was dismissed^[4] for comments made about the station's previous programme controller. Moyles subsequently turned up at Signal 1 in Stoke-on-Trent – again presenting The Evening Bit from 7–10 pm. In 1995 Moyles was heard on the Chiltern Radio Network, presenting the evening show from 7–10 pm, before taking on the late show from 10 pm–1 am. This show was simulcast on Horizon Radio, Chiltern Radio, Severn Sound and Northants 96.

In 1996, Moyles joined London station Capital FM hosting his weekend show 'The Late Bit', which went out on a Friday & Saturday evening, and covering for other DJs. It was at Capital that Moyles fell out with fellow DJ 'Doctor' Neil Fox. After declining the offer of presenting the breakfast show on rival station Kiss 100,^[5] Moyles joined Radio 1 in July 1997.

Radio 1[link]

Moyles was voted one of the Faces for 97 by SKY magazine and presented his first show on Radio 1 on 28 July 1997, hosting the 4–7 am Early Breakfast show – soon called The Early Bit. In May 1998, his work was recognised with the award of the Silver Sony Awards DJ of the Year, and he was styling himself as 'The Saviour Of Early Morning Radio'. Within the year Moyles was promoted to a Saturday breakfast, then Saturday mid-morning slot from 10 am–1 pm. At Radio 1, he has presented most of his shows with David "Comedy Dave" Vitty, who worked behind the scenes at the station prior to Moyles' arrival.

After standing in regularly for Kevin Greening and Zoe Ball on the Radio 1 Breakfast Show, Moyles's next promotion came in October 1998 when he took control of the drivetime show from 4–5.45 pm. The show was extended to 3–5.45 pm in February 2001. Moyles has co-presented the show from 1998, with his sidekick.

On 5 January 2004, Moyles started presenting Radio 1's flagship programme The Breakfast Show, switching places with Sara Cox. He had been appointed to increase the ratings for the show and did so, putting on an extra 1,000,000 listeners to the audience in the first quarter of 2004. After a successful first year, Moyles was awarded 'DJ of the Year' by readers of The Sun.

By 2005, Moyles and his team had succeeded in hugely increasing the morning audience, with his programme's audience swelling to 6.5 million. This was coupled with an increase in the overall Radio 1 audience share. With 895,000 listeners in London in the third quarter of 2005, he succeeded in overtaking Johnny Vaughan to take the position of the capital's most listened to youth breakfast show. Moyles's audience rating's continued to increase each week and led to him winning a gold Sony Radio Award in 2006 for best entertainment show.

With the release of the RAJAR listening figures on 3 August 2006, Moyles had added a further 470,000 listeners to the Breakfast Show, taking the average listenership up to 6.79 million. On 10 May 2007, RAJAR figures confirmed that Moyles had increased his listening figures to 7.06 million, breaking the seven million barrier for the first time with the station having 10.55 million listeners overall. Moyles again increased his audience to 7.72 million as of 1 May 2008 slightly narrowing the gap between him and Terry Wogan, the current highest rated radio show in the UK. The station's overall listener figure is now over 11 million.

Wikinews has related news: Chris Moyles breaks record for longest running breakfast show on BBC Radio 1

On 12 May 2008 The Chris Moyles Breakfast Show won its second Sony radio gold award for 'best breakfast show'. At this time he was given another half hour on his show going from 7 am–10 am to 6.30 am–10 am.^[6]

On 7 September 2009 Moyles became the longest serving breakfast presenter on Radio 1, breaking the record previously set by Tony Blackburn.^[7]

Wikinews has related news: BBC DJ duo break radio record

In March 2011, Moyles and on-air radio personality Dave Vitty beat the record for the longest continuous Radio 1 show, on Radio 1's Longest Show Ever with Chris Moyles and Comedy Dave for Comic Relief. Between 16 and 18 March they beat both Simon Mayo's 1999 record of 37 hours^[8] and the 'Radio DJ Endurance Marathon (Team)' Guinness World Record by broadcasting for 52 hours for Comic Relief^[9] initially raising £2.4 million,^[10][11] and with an audience of 2.84 million, it was the most popular live BBC Red Button radio feature ever.^[12] The event raised a final total of £2,821,831.^{[citation needed]}

On 1 July 2011 it was announced that Moyles will remain within the BBC until at least 2014,^[13] ending speculation that he would move to a commercial rival. This would allow the presenter to reach his 10-year anniversary on The Chris Moyles Show. It is estimated that the deal is worth £1 million.^[14]

The Chris Moyles Show[link]

The Chris Moyles Show is the current BBC Radio 1 breakfast show in the UK, and has been since Chris Moyles became the station's breakfast show presenter on 5 January 2004. From 2004 to 2007, the show was broadcast 6:55–10:00 am each weekday, but since 15 October 2007 it has started from 6:30 am. It is the longest running Radio 1 breakfast show in the station's history. On 1 July 2011 it was announced that Moyles had signed a contract to keep him on the show until 2014 making it a decade on the breakfast show.^[15]

The team[link]

Comedy Dave (Dave Vitty) has worked with Moyles longer than any other team member; and currently is the self appointed "Director of Comedy" for the show. The rest of the team include the show's news reader Dominic Byrne, sports reader Tina Daheley, producer Aled Haydn Jones; Day producer Freya Mehta and assistant producer Matt Fincham. Moyles's friends also contribute to the show such as "Longman" (until 2007) and "Rob DJ". Presenters such as Andi Peters, Davina McCall Keith Chegwin and impressionist Jon Culshaw, contribute, albeit infrequently. Roy Walker appears as "Roy" the voice of the daily quiz show "Car Park Catchphrase".

Features[link]

Car Park Catchphrase 

Two listeners in their cars have to guess a catchphrase answer from an anecdote-style clue.

Tedious Link 

This feature was carried forward from Moyles' afternoon show and is a parody of Jo Whiley's now defunct feature Tenuous Link. Comedy Dave plays one song, first explaining how this song is linked to the last show's feature song with a deliberately ramshackle and vague succession of linking 'facts', some real and some ludicrous.

The Golden Hour 

Main article: The Golden Hour (radio feature)

A well-established feature, previously on Radio 1 from 1973 to 2001. For the first half, records are played that all charted in the UK Singles Chart in a certain year and listeners are invited to guess the year. The second half are random songs chosen by each member of the team.

Rob DJ's Monday Night Pub Quiz 

The team play a 5-question pub quiz against each other. The questions are taken from a real pub quiz run the previous evening by one of Chris's friends, Rob DJ, in their mutual home town of Leeds. Running totals of each team member's recent scores are kept and analysed. Listeners are able to play along via SMS, Facebook and Twitter. It is played on the tuesday morning show.

Classical Class

In this feature the team talk over classical music. It was designed to be a relaxing wake up in the morning.

Radio 1's longest show ever[link]

On 28 February 2011, it was announced that Moyles and Vitty would attempt to beat the record for the longest continuous Radio 1 show in aid of Comic Relief. The previous record of 37 hours was set by Simon Mayo in 1999.^[16]

Moyles and Vitty began their record attempt on the morning of 16 March 2011. At the beginning of the show, Moyles announced that they would attempt to break the Guinness World Record for "Radio DJ Endurance Marathon (Team)" and attempt to continuously broadcast for 51 hours 30 minutes.^[17] At 19:30 on 17 March they were joined by Simon Mayo who held the previous record and also revealed that they had raised £1,009,033. Moyles and Vitty were presented with a cake by Radio 1 controller Andy Parfitt.^[18][19]

On Friday 18 March 2011 at 08:30 Chris Moyles and Comedy Dave broke the Guinness World Record for the 'Longest Marathon Radio DJ (team)' and by the end of the show (at 10:00), they had hit the 51 and a half hour mark. The duo opted to 'round it off' by going to 10:30 and thus set a new record of 52 hours. In doing, so they raised a final total of £2,406,648 for Comic Relief,^[20] which is an average of £46,282 for each hour they were on air. During the attempt the duo were joined by many celebrity guests including The Wanted, Chipmunk, Jimmy Carr, Craig David, Katy Perry and Ricky Gervais.^[21] The grand total has since increased to £2,821,831 and with an audience of 2.84 million, the event was the most popular live BBC Red Button radio feature ever.^[22] 3.8 million people watched on the Radio 1 Website.

Work outside radio[link]

Moyles with Gabby Logan during a campaign to promote life in Leeds

BT Red Nose Climb and Speaking Clock[link]

Moyles was one of a team of celebrities who climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for Comic Relief reaching the summit on 7 March 2009.^[23] He was joined by his show's producer, Rachel Mallender and BBC Radio 1 controller, Andy Parfitt. Also on the climb were Girls Aloud members Cheryl Cole and Kimberley Walsh, Fearne Cotton, Ben Shephard, Gary Barlow, Ronan Keating, Denise Van Outen and Alesha Dixon. He recorded a parody song around this time to promote the climb, mentioning all the names of the people that were also taking part – it was based on Lily Allen's "The Fear", and was called "(A month off of) The Beer".

From 3 February – 23 March 2009, Moyles was joined by Kimberley Walsh, Cheryl Cole, Gary Barlow, Ronan Keating and Fearne Cotton to help raise money for charity by reading the time on the Speaking Clock.^[24]

Voice work in film[link]