BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock or interviews. It is aimed primarily at the 15–29 age group,[1] although the average age of the audience is 33.[2]
Radio 1 was established in 1967 (along with its somewhat more adult-oriented counterpart, BBC Radio 2) as a successor to the BBC Light Programme, which had broadcast popular music and other entertainment since 1945. Radio 1 was conceived as a direct response to the popularity of offshore pirate radio stations such as Radio Caroline, which had been outlawed by Act of Parliament.[3] Radio 1 was launched at 7:00am on Saturday 30 September 1967.
The first DJ to broadcast on the new station was Tony Blackburn, whose cheery style, first heard on Radio Caroline and Radio London, won him the prime slot on what became known as the "Radio 1 Breakfast Show" (although its original formal title, as shown in the Radio Times was Daily Disc Delivery, while Blackburn himself referred to it eponymously as the Tony Blackburn Show). The first words on Radio 1 – after a "countdown" by the Controller of Radios 1 and 2, Robin Scott, and a jingle, recorded at PAMS in Dallas, Texas, beginning "The voice of Radio 1" – were "... And, good morning everyone. Welcome to the exciting new sound of Radio 1". This was the first use of US-style jingles on BBC radio, but the style was familiar to listeners who were acquainted with Blackburn and other DJs from their days on pirate radio. The first complete record played on Radio 1 was "Flowers in the Rain" by The Move (although technically the first music played was "Theme One" by George Martin leading into part of "Beefeaters (On Parade)" by Johnny Dankworth, Blackburn's signature tune carried over from pirate radio). The second single was "Massachusetts" by The Bee Gees. The breakfast show remains the most prized slot in the Radio 1 schedule, with every change of breakfast show presenter exciting considerable media interest.[4] The initial rota of staff included John Peel (who remained with the station until his death in October 2004) and a gaggle of others, some hired from pirates, such as Keith Skues, Ed Stewart, Mike Raven, David Ryder, Jim Fisher, Jimmy Young, Dave Cash, Kenny Everett, Simon Dee, Terry Wogan, Duncan Johnson, Doug Crawford, Tommy Vance, Chris Denning, Emperor Rosko, Pete Murray, and Bob Holness. Many of the most popular pirate radio voices, such as Simon Dee, had only a one-hour slot per week, ("Midday Spin.")[5] Annie Nightingale, who joined in 1970, was effectively Britain's first female DJ and is now the longest serving presenter, having constantly evolved her musical tastes with the times.[6]
I want to slag off all the people in charge of radio stations. Firstly, Radio One. They outlawed the pirates and then didn't, as they promised, cater for the market the pirates created. Radio One and Two, most afternoons, run concurrently and the whole thing has slid right back to where it was before the pirates happened. They've totally fucked it. There's no radio station for young people any more. It's all down to housewives and trendies in Islington. They're killing the country by having that play list monopoly.
Initially, the station was unpopular with some of its target audience who, it is claimed, disliked the fact that much of its airtime was shared with Radio 2 and that it was less unequivocally aimed at a young audience than the offshore stations, with some DJs such as Jimmy Young being in their 40s. The very fact that it was part of an "establishment" institution such as the BBC was a turn-off for some, and needle time restrictions prevented it from playing as many records as offshore stations had. It also had limited finances (partially because the BBC did not increase its licence fee to fund the new station) and often, as in January 1975, suffered disproportionately when the BBC had to make financial cutbacks, strengthening an impression that it was regarded as a lower priority by senior BBC executives.
Despite this, it gained massive audiences, becoming the most listened to station in the world with audiences of over 10 million claimed for some of its shows (up to 20 million for Blackburn's Breakfast Show). In the early-mid 1970s Radio 1 presenters were rarely out of the British tabloids, thanks to the Publicity Department's high profile work. The popularity of Radio 1's touring summer live broadcasts the Radio 1 Roadshow - usually as part of the BBC 'Radio Weeks' promotions that took Radio 1, 2 and 4 shows on the road - drew some of the largest crowds of the decade. The station undoubtedly played a role in maintaining the high sales of 45 rpm single records although it benefited from a lack of competition, apart from Radio Luxembourg and the tiny Manx Radio in the Isle of Man. (Independent Local Radio did not begin until October 1973 and took many years to cover virtually all of the UK). Alan Freeman's 'Saturday Rock Show' was voted 'Best Radio Show' 5 years running by readers of a national music publication, and was then axed by controller Derek Chinnery.
In his last few months as controller, Johnny Beerling commissioned a handful of new shows that in some ways set the tone for what was to come under Matthew Bannister. One of these "Loud'n'proud" was the UK's first national radio series aimed at a gay audience (made in Manchester and was aired from August 1993). Far from being a parting quirk, the show was a surprise hit and led to the network's first coverage of the large outdoor Gay Pride event in 1994. Bannister took the reins fully in October 1993. His aim was to rid the station of its 'Smashie and Nicey' image and make it appeal to the under 25s. Although originally launched as a youth station, by the early 1990s, its loyal listeners (and DJs) had aged with the station over its 25 year history. Many long-standing DJs, such as Simon Bates, Dave Lee Travis, Alan Freeman, Bob Harris, Gary Davies, and later Steve Wright, Bruno Brookes and Johnnie Walker left the station or were sacked, and in January 1995 old music (typically anything recorded before 1990) was banned from the daytime playlist.
Many listeners rebelled as the first new DJs to be introduced represented a crossover from other parts of the BBC (notably Bannister and Trevor Dann's former colleagues at the BBC's London station, GLR) with Emma Freud and Danny Baker. Another problem was that, at the time, Radio 2 was sticking resolutely to a format which appealed mainly to those who had been listening since the days of the Light Programme, and commercial radio, which was targeting the "Radio 1 and a half" audience, consequently enjoyed a massive increase in its audience share at the expense of Radio One.
After the departure of Steve Wright, who had been unsuccessfully moved from his long-running afternoon show to the breakfast show in January 1994, Bannister hired Chris Evans to present the prime morning slot in April 1995. Evans was a popular but controversial presenter who was eventually sacked in 1997 after he demanded to present the breakfast show for only four days per week. Evans was replaced from 17 February 1997 by Mark and Lard – Mark Radcliffe (along with his sidekick Marc Riley), who found the slick, mass-audience style required for a breakfast show did not come naturally to them. They were replaced by Zoë Ball and Kevin Greening eight months later in October 1997, with Greening moving on and leaving Ball as solo presenter. The re-invention of the station happened at a fortuitous time, with the rise of Britpop in the mid-90s – bands like Oasis, Blur and Pulp were popular and credible at the time and the station's popularity rose with them. Documentaries like John Peel's "Lost In Music" which looked at the influence that the use of drugs have had over popular musicians received critical acclaim but were slated inside Broadcasting House.
Later in the 90s the Britpop boom declined, and manufactured chart pop (boy bands and acts aimed at sub-teenagers) came to dominate the charts. New-genre music occupied the evenings (indie on weekdays and dance at weekends), with a mix of specialist shows and playlist fillers through late nights. The rise of rave culture through the late 80s and early 90s gave the station the opportunity to move into a controversial and youth-orientated movement by bringing in club DJ Pete Tong amongst others. There had been a dance music programme on Radio 1 since 1987 and Pete Tong was the second DJ to present an all dance music show. This quickly gave birth to the Essential Mix where underground DJs mix electronic and club based music in a two hour slot. Dance music has been a permanent feature on Radio 1 since with club DJs such as Judge Jules, Danny Rampling and Seb Fontaine all having shows as well as Radio 1 hosting an annual weekend in Ibiza.
Steve Lamacq, Jo Whiley and Zane Lowe
Listening numbers continued to decline but the station succeeded in targeting a younger age-group and more cross gender groups. Eventually, this change in content was reflected by a rise in audience that is continuing to this day. Notably, the station has received praise for shows such as The Surgery with Aled, Bobby Friction and Nihal, The Evening Session with Steve Lamacq and its successor Zane Lowe. Its website has also been well received. However, the breakfast show and the UK Top 40 continued to struggle. In 2000, Zoe Ball was replaced in the mornings by friend and fellow ladette Sara Cox, but, despite heavy promotion, listening figures for the breakfast show continued to fall. In 2004 Cox was replaced by Chris Moyles. The newly rebranded breakfast show is known as The Chris Moyles Show and has increased its audience, now ahead of The Today Programme on Radio 4 as the second most popular breakfast show (after The Chris Evans Breakfast Show hosted by Chris Evans). Moyles continued to use innovative ways to try to tempt listeners from the 'Wake up with Wogan' show; in 2006, for example, creating a 'SAY NO TO WOGAN' campaign live on-air. This angered the BBC hierarchy, though the row simmered down when it was clear that the 'campaign' had totally failed to alter the listening trends of the time – Wogan still increased figures at a faster rate than Moyles. The chart show's ratings fell after the departure of long-time host Mark Goodier, amid falling single sales in the UK. Ratings for the show fell in 2002 whilst Goodier was still presenting the show, meaning that commercial radio's Network Chart overtook it in the ratings for the first time. However, the BBC denied he was being sacked. The BBC show now competes with networked commercial radio's The Big Top 40 Show which is broadcast at the same time.
Many DJs either ousted by Bannister or who left during his tenure (such as Johnnie Walker, Bob Harris and Steve Wright) have joined Radio 2 which has now overtaken Radio 1 as the UK's most popular radio station, using a style that Radio 1 had until the early 1990s. The success of Moyles' show has come alongside increased success for the station in general. In 2006, DJs Chris Moyles, Scott Mills and Zane Lowe all won gold Sony Radio Awards, while the station itself came away with the best station award. A new evening schedule was introduced in September 2006, dividing the week by genre. Monday was mainly pop-funkrock-oriented, Tuesday was R&B and hip-hop, Thursdays and Fridays were primarily dance, with specialist R&B and reggae shows. Following the death of John Peel in October 2004, Annie Nightingale is now the longest serving presenter, having worked there since 1970.
On Sunday 30 September 2007, Radio 1 celebrated its 40th birthday.[8] To mark this anniversary Radio 1 hosted a week of special features, including:
- Special shows hosted by music legends at 9:00pm each weekday.
- Between 9:00am and 10:00am on the Chris Moyles show, the best music from the last 40 years (a re-creation of Simon Bates' Golden Hour).
- Playing Radio 1's old jingles, which were created by PAMS productions of Dallas.
- 40 different artists performed 40 different covers, one from each year since Radio 1 was established. All 40 songs were played in the weeks leading up to the release of the compilation album Radio 1 Established 1967.
- On the anniversary day Chris Moyles was joined on a special Breakfast Show by Tony Blackburn
- Vernon Kay interviewed past Breakfast Show presenters including Noel Edmonds, Dave Lee Travis and Mike Smith.
- Ex Breakfast Show hosts Sara Cox & Zoe Ball teamed up to present an anniversary show on the Sunday.
- Past newsreaders including Peter Bowes, Richard Evans & Rod McKenzie returned to present bulletins.
BBC Radio 1 operates a system that separates all of the DJs between 'Day' and 'Night' DJs.
- 'Day' DJs play music generally orientated around the Radio 1 Playlist
- 'Night' DJs play more eclectic and specialised 'New Music'.
The day presenters on the network on weekdays are: Dev (4:00AM–06:30AM), Chris Moyles (06:30AM–10:00AM), Fearne Cotton (10:00AM–12:45PM), Scott Mills (1:00PM–4:00PM) and Greg James (4:00PM–7:00PM).
The weekend day slots house: Gemma Cairney (7:00AM–10:00AM), Vernon Kay (Sat 10:00AM–1:00PM), Sara Cox (Sun 10:00AM–1:00PM), Huw Stephens (1:00PM–4:00PM) and on Saturdays (4:00PM–7:00PM) Danny Howard hosts the new 'BBC Radio 1 Dance Anthems' Show (Replacing the Radio 1 Request Show with Reggie Yates). Then on Sundays Reggie Yates presents The Official Chart (4:00PM–7:00PM).
Weekday 'Night' DJs from 7pm until 4am play host to eclectic and specialised content that include: Zane Lowe (7-9pm) and Nick Grimshaw (10-12pm). Huw Stephens, Nihal, Charlie Sloth, Rock Show with Daniel P. Carter, Punk Show with Mike Davies, Benji B and Toddla T each have a 2 hour slot either between 12-2am or 2-4am Tuesday to Friday mornings. From April 2012, a new show was introduced called BBC Radio 1's Residency, which is hosted by Chuckie, Heidi or Kutski on rotation.
Currently, between 9pm and 10pm Monday-Thursdays, there is a variety of one hour programmes including a music documentary series named BBC Radio 1's Stories on Mondays, a review show hosted by Edith Bowman on Tuesdays, a comedy show hosted by Matt Edmondson known as The Matt Edmondson Show on Wednesdays, and In New DJs We Trust on Thursday evenings.
Friday evening is Radio 1's "Dance Music Marathon" from 7pm to 7am which consists of Annie Mac (7-9pm), Pete Tong (9-11pm), Skream and Benga (11pm-1am), The Essential Mix (1-3am), Annie Nightingale (3-5am) and Rob da Bank (5-7am).
Saturday evenings include 12 hours of urban music which, since October 2009, has been simulcast entirely on 1Xtra. DJs include: Trevor Nelson (7-9pm), Tim Westwood (9-11pm) and MistaJam (11pm-1am). At 1am, the output changes every week offering four hours of the specialist genres of music that 1Xtra plays every weeknight from 10pm. This includes; Hip Hop, Dancehall, UKG, RnB and D&B. Each week, between 1am and 3am, a programme known as The 1Xtra Showcase is aired offering one of these genres of urban music. This is followed by The 1Xtra Mix which follows with the same genre of music at 3am until 5am. Each week the theme of these shows change offering four hours of each genre once every 5 weeks in the same timeslot on BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 1Xtra. Every week this is followed by My Top 10 and 1Xtra's Best of the Week at 5am and 6am before daytime programmes resume on BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 1Xtra.
Sunday evenings include a request show hosted by Jameela Jamil (7-9pm), advice show The Surgery with Aled (9-10pm) and a show hosted by Nick Grimshaw and Annie Mac (10-12pm). This is before specialist music takes over the station at midnight with BBC Introducing in the Nations with Jen Long in Wales, Phil Taggart in Northern Ireland and Ally McCrae in Scotland (12-2am) followed by Friction (2-4am).
The licence-fee funding of Radio 1, alongside Radio 2, is often criticised by the commercial sector. In the first quarter of 2011 Radio 1 was part of an efficiency review conducted by John Myers.[9] His role, according to Andrew Harrison, the chief executive of RadioCentre, was "to identify both areas of best practice and possible savings."[9]
The controller of Radio 1 and sister station 1Xtra changed to Ben Cooper on 28 October 2011, following the departure of Andy Parfitt. Ben Cooper answers to the Director of BBC Audio and Music, Tim Davie.[10]
On 7 December 2011 it was announced Ben Cooper's first major changes to the station will occur from April 2012. Skream & Benga, Toddla T, Charlie Sloth and Friction will takeover from Judge Jules, Gilles Peterson, Kissy Sell Out and Fabio & Grooverider. This will include a shuffle of most late night shows Monday to Saturday to incorporate the new line up.[11] On 28 February 2012, it was announced that Greg James and Scott Mills would swap shows and Jameela Jamil, Gemma Cairney and Danny Howard would join the station. The new line up of DJs for 'In New DJs We Trust' was also announced with B.Traits, Mosca, Jordan Suckley and Julio Bashmore hosting shows on a four weekly rotation.[12]
From inception for over 20 years, Radio 1 broadcast from an adjacent pair of continuity suites (originally Con A and Con B) in the main control room of Broadcasting House.[13] These cons were configured to allow DJs to operate the equipment themselves and play their own records and jingle cartridges (called self-op). This was a departure from traditional BBC practice, where a studio manager would play in discs from the studio control cubicle. Due to needle time restrictions much of the music was played from tapes of BBC session recordings. The DJs were assisted by one or more technical operators (TOs) who would set up tapes and control sound levels during broadcasts.
The current studios are located in the basement of Yalding House (near to BBC Broadcasting House) which is on Great Portland Street in central London. The station moved there in 1996 from Egton House, which was demolished in 2003 to make way for the extensions to Broadcasting House. Following this reconstruction work, in 2012 Radio 1 will move from Yalding House to new studios in Broadcasting House, in The John Peel Wing (formerly known during construction as the 'Egton Wing'), built on the former site of Egton House, and renamed the Peel Wing in 2012 in honour of the long-serving Radio 1 presenter.
Radio 1 also uses the BBC Maida Vale Studios in west London, where artists record music sessions for various shows, including the popular Live Lounge for Fearne Cotton's show. There are also live performances held there in front of Radio 1 competition winners.
Programmes have also regularly been broadcast from other regions, notably the Mark and Lard show, broadcast every weekday from New Broadcasting House, Oxford Road, Manchester for over a decade (October 1993-March 2004) – the longest regular broadcast on the network from outside the capital.
Radio 1 initially broadcast on 1214 kHz medium wave (or 247 metres as it was referred to at the time) and moved to 1053/1089 kHz (275/285 m) on 23 November 1978, but did not broadcast nationally on FM until 1988. The BBC was allocated three FM frequency ranges in 1955, for the then Light Programme (now BBC Radio 2), Third Programme (now BBC Radio 3) and Home Service (now BBC Radio 4) stations. This meant when Radio 1 was launched, there was no FM frequency range allocated for the station, the official reason being that there was no space even though no commercial stations had yet launched on FM. Because of this, from launch until the end of the 1980s Radio 1 was allowed to take over Radio 2's FM transmitters for a few hours per week – Saturday afternoons, Sunday teatime and evening – most notably for the Top 40 Singles Chart on Sunday afternoons – 10:00 pm to midnight on weeknights including Sounds of the Seventies until 1975, and thereafter the John Peel show and Bank Holiday Monday afternoons when Radio 2 was broadcasting a bank holiday edition of Sport on 2.
In 1988 the 97–99 MHz frequencies became available when the existing police communication allocation changed, and Radio 1 acquired them for its own national FM network. This was rolled out as of 1 September 1988, starting with the Central Scotland, Midlands & the north of England areas (FM broadcasts were available in London as of 31 October 1987, but this was at low power on 104.8 MHz FM – see here). Radio 1 made great efforts to promote its new FM service, renaming itself on-air initially to 'Radio 1 FM' and also later on as '1FM' until 1995.
The Conservative government then decided that to increase competition on AM it would disallow the simulcast of services available on both AM and FM. Therefore Radio 1's old medium wave frequencies were reallocated to Talk Radio UK in 1994 (now talkSPORT). Radio 1's last broadcast on MW was on 1 July that year, with Stephen Duffy's "Kiss Me" being the last record played on MW just before 9:00am. In the initial months after this closure a pre-recorded message with Bruno Brookes was played to warn listeners about the fact Radio 1 was now an "FM-only" station, but before the pre-launch test transmissions for Talk Radio UK, the new station played out a new recorded message in the style of a 1930s/40s BBC radio announcer played out, making fun of the legislation that made the BBC have to give up their AM frequencies, saying "goodbye to listeners everywhere".[14] During this time it also began broadcasting on spare audio subcarriers on Sky Television's analogue satellite service, initially in mono (on UK Gold) and later in stereo (on UK Living).
The BBC launched its national radio stations on DAB digital radio in 1995, however the technology was expensive at the time and so was not marketed, instead used as a test for future technologies. DAB was "officially" launched in 2002 as sets became cheaper. Today it can also be heard on UK digital TV services Freeview, Virgin Media, Sky and the Internet as well as FM. In July 2005, Sirius Satellite Radio began simulcasting Radio 1 across the United States as channel 11 on its own service and channel 6011 on Dish Network satellite TV. Sirius Canada began simulcasting Radio 1 when it was launched on 1 December 2005 (also on channel 11). The Sirius simulcasts are time shifted five hours to allow U.S. and Canadian listeners in the Eastern Time Zone to hear Radio 1 at the same time of day as UK listeners. On 12 November 2008, Radio 1 made its debut on XM Satellite Radio in both the US and Canada on channel 29,[citation needed] moving to XM 15 and Sirius 15 on 4 May 2011.[15][16] Radio 1 was able to be heard by approximately 20.6 million listeners in North America on satellite radio alone. BBC Radio 1 can be heard on the cable in the Netherlands at 105.10 FM.
As of 12AM on 9 August 2011, Sirius XM is no longer carrying BBC Radio 1 programming. Sirius XM gave no prior warning to its customers that it was going to be removed. On 10 August, the BBC issued this statement:The BBC’s commercial arm BBC Worldwide has been in partnership with SIRIUS Satellite Radio to broadcast Radio 1 on their main network, since 2005. This agreement has now unfortunately come to an end and BBC Worldwide are in current discussions with the satellite radio station to find ways to continue to bring popular music channel, BBC Radio 1, to the US audience. We will keep you posted. Press Release. Thousands of angry Sirius XM customers began a campaign on Facebook and other social media to reinstate BBC Radio 1 on Sirius XM Radio.[17]
Sirius XM to return in North America "Sirius XM has announced that BBC Radio 1 will become available again to US listeners this week, as part of a new multi-platform carriage deal with the corporation. Last week, the BBC's flagship music radio station was dropped from Sirius XM after six years on the subscription satellite radio platform, although the corporation continued talks to bring the station back to US listeners."
Sirius and the BBC have now agreed a new carriage agreement that will see Radio 1 broadcast on the Sirius XM Internet Radio platform from 19 August at 5pm ET on channel 812 however, the channel is still unavailable on the satellite platform of the service.
It was announced on 4 January 2012, The Official Chart Show with Reggie Yates will be broadcast on the 20on20 channel 3 at 4 pm Eastern, starting 15 January 2012. Many on Facebook say this is a great start in the right direction to bring back BBC Radio 1 fulltime on the satellites.
Since 1999, Radio 1 has split the home nations for localised programming in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, to allow the broadcast of a showcase programme for regional talent. This show, otherwise known as 'BBC Introducing' currently broadcasts between Midnight and 2am on Sunday Nights/Monday Mornings. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own shows, which are broadcasted on a rotational basis in England.
Scotland's show, since 2011 has been presented by Ally McCrae. Formally it was hosted by Vic Galloway (who also presents for BBC Radio Scotland); who had presented the show solo since 2004, after his original co-host Gill Mills departed.
Wales's show is hosted by Jen Long. Previously Bethan Elfyn occupied the slot, who had at one time hosted alongside Huw Stephens,[18] until Stephens left to join the national network (Stephens can still be heard in Wales, as he also broadcasts Welsh-language music programming on BBC Radio Cymru, on a Monday Night between.)
Rory McConnell currently presents the Northern Irish programme. Before joining the national network, Colin Murray was a presenter on the Session In Northern Ireland, along with Donna Legge;[18][19] after Murray's promotion to the network Legge hosted alone for a time, and on her departure McConnell took her place.
The regional opt-outs originally went out from 8:00pm to 10:00pm on Thursdays (the Evening Session's time slot) and were known as the Session In The Nations (the 'Session' tag was later dropped due to the demise of the Evening Session); they later moved to run from 7:30pm to 9:00pm, with the first half hour of Zane Lowe's programme going out across the whole of the UK. Since the early hours of 18 October 2007 the regional programmes have been aired Wednesday night/Thursday mornings from 12:00am to 2:00am under the BBC Introducing banner, allowing Lowe's Thursday show to be aired across the network; prior to this change Huw Stephens had presented the Wednesday midnight show nationally. In January 2011, BBC Introducing was moved to the new time slot of 00:00 to 02:00 on Monday mornings, and the Scottish and Welsh shows were given new presenters in the form of Ally McCrae and Jen Long.
These opt-outs are only available to listeners on the FM frequencies. Because of the way the DAB and digital TV services of Radio 1 are broadcast (a single-frequency network on DAB and a single broadcast feed of Radio 1 on TV platforms), the digital version of the station is not currently regionalised.
While most commercial stations concentrate on two main themes, 1980s music & classic rock, Radio 1 plays a mix of current songs, including independent/alternative, rap, hip hop, rock, house, electronica, dance, drum and bass, dubstep and various pop.
Due to restrictions on the amount of commercial music that could be played on radio in the UK until 1988 (the "needle time" limitation) the station has recorded many live performances and studio sessions, many of which have found their way to commercially-available LPs and CDs. The station also broadcasts documentaries and interviews. Although this type of programming arose from necessity it has given the station diversity. The needletime restrictions meant the station tended to have a higher level of speech by DJs. While the station is often criticised for "waffling" by presenters, an experimental "more music day" in 1988 was declared a failure after only a third of callers favoured it.
Radio 1 has a public service broadcasting obligation to provide news, which it fulfills through Newsbeat bulletins throughout the day. Short news summaries are provided roughly hourly on the half hour during daytime hours with two 15-minute bulletins at 12:45pm and 5:45pm. The main presenter is Tulip Mazumdar. However, there are other presenters, such as Dominic Byrne who reads the news on the Chris Moyles Show, Chris Smith, Debbie Randle and Simon Mundie who reads the sports news in the afternoon on the Scott Mills show.
[edit] The Radio 1 Chart Show
Radio 1's chart show has aired the UK Singles Chart exclusively on Sunday afternoons since the programme began. Currently broadcasting from 4.00 pm until 7.00 pm, the format, length and starting time have varied over the years, but it has always finished at 7.00pm. For many years, the show prided itself on playing all 40 singles in the top 40 but this practice ended when Wes Butters took over as presenter in 2003; then only tracks below number 20 to be played were the new entries. The show now varies between playing all 40 songs and most of them, depending on how much celebrity gossip, interviews and other features are included in the programme. The current presenter of The Official Chart show is Reggie Yates.
The breakfast show has been presented by many famous names over the years (see Radio 1 Breakfast Show presenters for more details).
Currently this slot is broadcast between 6:30am and 10:00am, Monday to Friday and has been hosted since January 2004 by Chris Moyles and his team under the alternative title The Chris Moyles Show.[20]
The current weekday Drivetime show is hosted by Greg James. Notable former presenters include Scott Mills, Sara Cox, Chris Moyles, Peter Powell, Bruno Brookes, Nicky Campbell, Mark Goodier, Kevin Greening and Dave Pearce. The show currently broadcasts from 4:00pm until 7:00pm every weekday, with a 15 minute break at 5:45pm for Newsbeat.
The 10 Hour Takeover is a stunt event run on some Bank Holiday Mondays and other public holidays since 2004, the first having been aired on Easter Monday of that year.[21] The event is a request-based special, in which the DJs on air will encourage listeners to select any available track to play. Due to the BBC's long-established and broad-scope music archive, it is often possible for a wide range of songs to be played, and as such the mix of music played may be more diverse than that on a normal weekday.
In 2009 and 2010 around 25 Radio 1 listeners were invited to record their own 15 minute show to be broadcast on Christmas Day, with the show containing a selection of songs and discussion about a chosen subject.
On 18 March 2011, BBC's Radio 1 longest serving breakfast DJ Chris Moyles and sidekick Dave Vitty broadcast for 52 hours as part of a Guinness World Record attempt, in aid of Comic Relief. The pair stayed on air for 52 hours in total setting a new world record for ‘Radio DJ Endurance Marathon (Team)’ after already breaking Simon Mayo's 12-year record for Radio 1's Longest Show of 37 hours which he set in 1999, also for Comic Relief.
The presenters started on 16 March 2011 and came off air at 10:30am on 18 March 2011. During this Fearne Cotton made a bet with DJ Chris Moyles that if they raise over £2,000,000 she will appear on the show in a swimsuit. After passing the £2,000,000 mark, Cotton appeared on the studio webcam in a stripy monochrome swimsuit. The appearance of Cotton between 10:10am and 10:30am caused the Radio 1 website to crash due to a high volume of traffic.
In total the event raised £2,622,421 for Comic Relief.[22]
In December 2011, BBC Radio 1 and BBC 1Xtra controller Ben Cooper announced a shakeup of the Radio 1 DJ schedule, which took effect on 2 April 2012.
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Note: Newsbeat airs from 1245–1300 and 1745–1800.
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- Various (BBC Radio 1's Stories on Monday)
- Edith Bowman (The Review Show on Tuesday)
- Matt Edmondson (The Matt Edmondson Show on Wednesday)
- B.Traits, Mosca, Jordan Suckley or Julio Bashmore (In New DJs We Trust on Thursday)
- Pete Tong (until 2300 on Friday)
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- Radio 1 Roadshows
The Radio 1 Roadshow, which usually involved Radio 1 DJs and pop stars travelling around popular UK seaside destinations, began in 1973, hosted by Alan Freeman in Newquay, Cornwall, with the final one held at Heaton Park, Manchester in 1999. Although the Roadshow style changed with the style of the station itself—such as the introduction of whistlestop audio postcards of each location in 1994 ("2minuteTour")—they were still considered rooted in the "cheesy" old style of the station, and, in the 1980s, they sometimes featured elements which would be seen as highly politically incorrect today, such as wet T-shirt contests.
- Radio 1's Big Weekend
In March 2000, Radio 1 decided to change the Roadshow format, renaming it One Big Sunday in the process. Several of these Sundays were held in large city-centre parks. In 2003, the event changed again and was rebranded One Big Weekend, with each event occurring biannually and covering two days. Under this name, it visited Derry in Northern Ireland, as part of the Music Lives campaign, and Perry Park in Birmingham.
The most recent change occurred in 2005 when the event was yet again renamed and the decision taken to hold only one per year, this time as Radio 1's Big Weekend. Venues under this title have included Herrington Country Park, Camperdown Country Park, Moor Park–which was the first Weekend to feature a third stage–Mote Park, Lydiard Park, Bangor and Carlisle Airport.
Tickets for each Big Weekend are given away free of charge, making it the largest free ticketed music festival in Europe.[23]
BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend will be replaced by a larger festival in 2012, named 'Radio 1's Hackney Weekend', with a crowd capacity of 100,000. The event is to take place over the weekend of 23–24 June 2012 in Hackney, Central London.[24]
- Radio 1 Switch Live
The first ever BBC Switch Live was held on 12 October 2008 at the Hammersmith Apollo. With performances from McFly, Fall out Boy, Ne-Yo, Miley Cyrus, Basshunter, N-Dubz and George Sampson. The event was hosted by Annie Mac, Nick Grimshaw, Kelly Osbourne, Fearne Cotton, Greg James and Tom Deacon. The event was strictly for 14 to 17 years only and was recorded for BBC Switch's show Sound which is shown on BBC Two and is presented by Annie Mac and Nick Grimshaw.
- Other events
On 18 July 2008, Radio 1 broadcast live from BCM Square, Magaluf, Mallorca as part of their Summer Season 2008. The broadcast started at 4:00pm with Greg James and Judge Jules presenting. Then from 7:00pm to 9:00pm it was back to the London Studio with Pete Tong, and from 9:00pm to 11:00pm it was Kissy Sell Out standing in for Annie Mac with Annie Mac's Mash Up. Then at 11:00pm it was back to Mallorca for Dave Pearce's Dance Anthems. At 1:00am Judge Jules was back to end the night in the BCM Night Club.[25]
During the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2011, Radio 1 ended each day of the festival from Monday 15 to Thursday 18 August with the Fun & Filth Cabaret. Scott Mills presented his show from 4:00pm to 7:00pm live from the BBC Bubble in Edinburgh, as did Nick Grimshaw with his show at 10:00pm. Mills and Grimshaw then hosted the cabaret between 11:00pm and midnight.
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