BBC Radio 1

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BBC Radio 1

Broadcast area	UK - National FM & DAB Sirius Satellite Radio Dish Network
First air date	30 September 1967
Frequency	FM: 97.7 MHz - 99.7 MHz (UK) DAB: 12B Freeview: 700 Virgin Media: 901 Sky: 0101 Sirius(USA & Canada): 11 Dish Network(USA): 6011 Live Stream Real/WM
Format	Contemporary
Owner	BBC
Website	www.bbc.co.uk/radio1

“Radio 1” redirects here. For other uses, see Radio 1 (disambiguation).

BBC Radio 1 is a British radio station operated by the BBC, specialising in popular music aimed at the 14-36 age bracket. Radio 1 was launched at 7 a.m. on 30 September 1967 as a direct response to the popularity of offshore pirate radio stations such as Radio Caroline, which had been outlawed by Act of Parliament.

1 History
2 Chart Show
3 Music
4 Presenters
5 News and current affairs
6 Regionalisation
7 Radio 1's Big Weekend
8 Radio 1 locations
9 Controllers of BBC Radio 1
10 Radio 1 chart show presenters
11 Radio 1 breakfast show presenters
12 Audio clips
13 See also
14 External links

[edit] History

The first DJ to broadcast on the new station was Tony Blackburn, whose cheery style, first heard on Radios Caroline and 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 spoken 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 familiar 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 this was preceded by a broadcast of part of Beefeaters (On Parade) by Johnny Dankworth, being Blackburn's signature tune carried over from pirate radio). There has been some speculation that the inclusion of Flowers in the Rain was intended to signal the end of the "flower power" "Summer of Love" of 1967. The breakfast show remains the most prized slot in the Radio 1 schedule, with every change of breakfast show presenter exciting considerable media interest.

The initial rota of staff included the legendary John Peel (who remained with the station until his death in October 2004) and a gaggle of others, some hired from pirates, such as Ed Stewart, Terry Wogan, Jimmy Young, Dave Cash, Kenny Everett, Simon Dee, Pete Murray, and Bob Holness. Initially, the station was unpopular with some of its target audience, who 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 itself a turn-off for some, and the needle time restrictions prevented it from playing as many records as the 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 disproprtionately 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 (although it benefitted from a lack of competition: Independent Local Radio did not begin until 1973 and it took many years to cover virtually all of the UK) with audiences of over 10 million claimed for some of its shows.

Radio 1 initially broadcast on 1214 kHz mediumwave (or 247 metres as it was referred to at the time) and moved to 1053/1089 kHz (275/285 metres) on 23rd November 1978 (it was the only BBC National station without a dedicated FM frequency). In the 1970s and early 1980s it was allowed to take over Radio 2's FM transmitters for a few hours per week, most notably for the Top 40 Singles Chart on Sunday afternoons and for some late evening programmes including Sounds of the Seventies until 1975, and thereafter the John Peel show. 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 1st September 1988, starting with the Central Scotland, Midlands & Yorkshire areas (FM broadcasts were available in London as of 31st October 1987, but this was at low power on 104.8 MHz FM - see here). Its old mediumwave frequencies were reallocated to commercial stations in 1994 (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 9am). In the 1990s 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). Today it can be heard on DAB, Freeview, Virgin Media cable television services, Sky Digital and the Internet as well as FM. In July of 2005, Sirius Satellite Radio began simulcasting Radio 1 across the United States on channel 11, and Sirius Canada began simulcasting Radio 1 when they launched on 1 December 2005 (also on channel 11). The simulcast is timeshifted five hours to allow US and Canadian listeners in the Eastern Time Zone to hear Radio 1 at the same time of day as UK listeners.

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 aired from August 1993). Far from being a parting quirk, the show was a surprise hit and led to the networks 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 expressly 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 only commercial radio, which consequently enjoyed a massive increase in its audience share at the expense of the BBC, was targeting the "Radio 1 and a half" audience.

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 promoted Chris Evans to 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 February 17, 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 didn't come naturally to them. They were in turn replaced by Zoe Ball and Kevin Greening just 8 months later in October 1997, with Greening eventually moving on and leaving Ball as a 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 both popular and 'credible' at the time and the station's popularity rose with them. Documentaries like John Peels "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 the dusty corridors of 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. Radio 1 found itself again in the position it had been in the late 80s, with increasingly bland chart music dominating the daytime shows. 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 completely youth-orientated movement by bringing in a club DJ, Pete Tong. This quickly gave birth to the Essential Mix where underground DJs mix rave and club based music in a two hour slot.

Listening figures continued to decline but the station succeeded in its aim of targeting a younger age group. Eventually, this change in content was reflected by a rise in audience that is continuing to the day. Notably, the station has received praise for shows such as The Sunday Surgery, Bobby Friction and Nihal, The Evening Session with Steve Lamacq and its successor Zane Lowe. Its website has also been well received.

A new evening schedule was introduced in September 2006, dividing up the week by genres; Monday is mainly rock-oriented, Tuesday is R&B and hip-hop, Thursday and Friday are primarily dance, with specialist R&B and reggae shows.

However, the station's two showcase shows, 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 iconic 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 dramatically increased its audience, now ahead of The Today Programme on Radio 4 as the second most popular breakfast show (after Terry Wogan). The chart show's ratings fell after the departure of long-time host Mark Goodier, amid falling single sales in the UK. The show now competes with networked commercial radio's hit40uk which is broadcast at the same time.

Many of the DJs either ousted by Bannister or who left during his tenure (such as Johnnie Walker, Bob Harris and Steve Wright) have subsequently joined Radio 2 which has now overtaken Radio 1 as the UK's most popular radio station, using a style that Radio 1 had up 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, whilst the station itself came away with the best station award.

Following the death of John Peel in October 2004, Annie Nightingale is now the longest serving presenter at the station having worked there since 1969.

[edit] Chart Show

Radio 1's long running chart show is broadcast on Sunday afternoons between 4pm and 7pm, and has always ended at 7pm since the station's inception, although the format, length and starting time has varied considerably. Until 2002, the show was hosted by veteran DJ Mark Goodier, and the format was a countdown of all the top 40 selling singles in the UK for that week, from #40 to #1. Since that date, the show has taken on new presenters (currently Jason King and Joel Ross) and a new, more chat-oriented, format. The show no longer plays all the top 40 singles; instead, the entire top 20 is played along with a selection of some tracks between #21 and #40, interviews and other features. The chart is compiled by The Official UK Charts Company; Radio 1 is therefore the only station to broadcast the "official" UK singles chart.

[edit] Music

While most commercial stations concentrate on a particular theme, such as 1980s music or "classic rock", Radio 1 plays a diverse mix of current songs, including independent/alternative, rock, house/electronica, drum 'n' bass, world, pop and rap.

Due to restrictions on the amount of commercial music that could be played on radio in the UK until 1988 (the so-called "needle time" limitation) the station has recorded a great many live performances and studio sessions over the years, many of which have subsequently found their way onto 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 some much-needed diversity. The needletime restrictions meant that the station tended to have a higher level of speech by DJ's. While the station is often criticised for (often banal) "waffling" by presenters, an experimental "more music day" in 1988 was declared a failure after only a third of callers favoured it.

[edit] Presenters

Current presenters on this station include Steve Lamacq, Colin Murray, Zane Lowe, Mary Anne Hobbs, and Mike Davies, who all host their own respective rock and indie oriented shows. Also in the station's stable are Urban and Electronica supremos such as Grooverider and Rob Da Bank and dance specialists Pete Tong and Judge Jules.

An alphabetical list of present presenters is below

Daytime

Edith Bowman - Monday - Friday 1PM To 4PMListen
Mark "Chappers" Chapman (Chappers and Dave) Scott Mills show Mon - Friday 4PM-7PM Listen
Fearne Cotton -Weekends 7AM-10AM Listen to Fearne & Reggie
Sara Cox - Weekends 1PM - 4PM Listen
Natalie JamiesonShowbiz reporter and currently presenting Early Breakfasts on Fridays with James King
Vernon Kay - Weekends 10AM - 1PM Listen to Vernon Kay
Jason King (JK and Joel)Monday- Thursday 4AM-7AM and Sundays 4PM-7PM - Listen to JK & Joel
James King Resident movie buff and currently presenting Early Breakfasts on Fridays with Natalie Jamieson
Scott Mills Weekdays 4PM-7PMListen to Scott Mills
Chris Moyles "The Saviour", 7AM-10PM Weekdays(The Chris Moyles Show) - Listen to Chris Moyles
Trevor Nelson -Saturdays 4PM-7PM Listen to Trevor Nelson
Joel Ross (JK and Joel)Monday- Thursday 4AM-7AM and Sundays 4PM-7PM - Listen to JK & Joel
Comedy Dave Vitty (Chappers and Dave) / (The Chris Moyles Show) - Listen to Chris Moyles
Jo Whiley - Listen to Jo Whiley / Listen to In New Live Music We Trust with Jo Whiley
Reggie Yates - Weekends 7AM-10AM Listen to Fearne & Reggie

Evenings

Annie Mac - Listen to Annie's Mash Up show / Listen to Annie's Sunday show
Annie Nightingale - Listen to Annie's show
Bethan Elfyn - Listen to Bethan's show
Bobby Friction - Listen to Bobby Friction & Nihal's show
Chris Goldfinger - Listen to Chris Goldfinger's show
Colin Murray - Listen to Colin's show: Listen
Daniel P Carter - Listen to The Radio 1 Rock Show
Dave Pearce - Listen to Dance Anthems with Dave Pearce
Eddie Halliwell - Listen to Eddie Halliwell
Fabio - Listen to Fabio & Grooverider
Gilles Peterson - Listen to Gilles Peterson
Grooverider - Listen to Fabio & Grooverider
Huw Stephens - Listen to Huw Stephens
James King
Judge Jules - Listen to Judge Jules
Letitia - Listen to the Radio 1 Surgery
Dr. Mark Hamilton - Listen to the Radio 1 Surgery
Mary Anne Hobbs - Listen to Mary Anne Hobbs
Mike Davies - Listen to the Radio 1 Punk Show
Nihal - Listen to Bobby Friction & Nihal's show
Pete Tong - Listen to Pete Tong
Ras Kwame - Listen to Ras Kwame
Rob da Bank - Listen to Rob da Bank
Rory McConnell - Listen to Rory McConnell
Steve Lamacq - Listen to In New Music We Trust with Steve Lamacq
Tim Westwood - Listen to In New Music We Trust with Tim Westwood / Listen to Tim Westwood
Vic Galloway - Listen to Vic Galloway
Zane Lowe - Listen to Zane Lowe: Listen

[edit] News and current affairs

Radio 1 has a public service broadcasting obligation to provide news programming, which it fulfills through its Newsbeat bulletins throughout the day. Short news summaries are provided roughly hourly on the half hour with two longer 15 minute news bulletins at 12:45 and 17:45. The main presenter is Georgina Bowman, with Sports news read by David Garrido. However, there are other presenters, such as Dominic Byrne and Carrie Davies who read the news and sport (respectively) on The Chris Moyles Show and Mark Chapman who reads the sports news in the afternoon and the Scott Mills show.

[edit] Regionalisation

Since 1999, Radio 1 has split the home nations on a Thursday night with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland broadcasting their own shows showcasing regional talent with Zane Lowe still being heard in England. Scotland's show is presented by Vic Galloway (who also has a position on BBC Radio Scotland) who has presented the show on his own since 2004 after original co-host Gill Mills departed. Wales's show is hosted by One Music's Huw Stephens and Bethan Elfyn, whilst Rory McConnell presents the Northern Irish programme.

They originally went out from 20.00-22.00 on the Evening Session's time slot but now broadcasts from 19.30-21.00 with the first half hour of Zane Lowe going out across the whole of the UK before going their separate ways.

This practice has also been used in Radio 1's T in the Park coverage where broadcasts to Scotland provide extended coverage of the festival which the rest of the United Kingdom does not receive (they instead have the normal Radio 1 schedule at that time). This Scotland-only coverage has been presented by Vic Galloway in recent years.

[edit] Radio 1's Big Weekend

The Radio 1 roadshows began in 1973, with the first one being hosted by Alan Freeman in Newquay, Cornwall and the final one was held in 1999. Roadshows usually involved Radio 1 DJs and high profile pop stars travelling around the most popular seaside destinations in the UK. Although the style of the events changed in later years along with the style of the station itself, for example with the introduction in 1994 of whistle stop audio postcards of each location ("2minuteTour"), they were still considered to be 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. In March 2000, Radio 1 decided to change the format and renamed it One Big Sunday. Several of these 'big' Sundays were held each year in city-centre parks around the country.

In 2003, the event changed again, and was renamed One Big Weekend. The event now lasted two days and occurred twice a year. Under this name; One Big Weekend visited London 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 again renamed and the desicison was taken to only hold one a year, this time as Radio 1's Big Weekend. Venues under the new name include Sunderland and Dundee. Moor Park in Preston has been announced as the venue for Radio 1's Big Weekend 2007, and will have a first for the event: a third stage. The line-up is as yet unnannounced.

[edit] Radio 1 locations

Radio 1 studios since 1996 are at Yalding House which is on Great Portland Street in Central London.

Radio 1 moved to Yalding House in 1996, and Egton House was demolished in 2003 to make way for the new extensions to Broadcasting House.

Radio 1 also uses the BBC Maida Vale studios where artist record their Live Lounge sections for the The Jo Whiley Show and puts on special gigs where the tickets are won by Radio 1 listners.

[edit] Controllers of BBC Radio 1

1967–1968: Robin Scott
1968–1976: Douglas Muggeridge
1976–1978: Charles McLelland
1978–1985: Derek Chinnery
1985–1993: Johnny Beerling
1993–1998: Matthew Bannister
1998–present: Andy Parfitt

[edit] Radio 1 chart show presenters

Alan Freeman - October 1, 1967 to September 24, 1972 (Pick of the Pops, featuring new entries between numbers 21 and 30 and the complete Top 20)
Tom Browne - October 1, 1972 to March 26, 1978 (initially a three-hour show called Solid Gold Sixty, featuring new releases, climbers and chart entries below the Top 20 from 4-6 pm, and the Top 20 itself from 6-7 pm: from March 24, 1974 just the Top 20 from 6-7 pm)
Simon Bates - April 2, 1978 to August 26, 1979 (extended from an hour-long Top 20 from 6-7 pm to a two-hour Top 40 from 5-7 pm from November 12, 1978)
Tony Blackburn - September 2, 1979 to January 3, 1982
Tommy Vance - January 10, 1982 to January 1, 1984
Simon Bates for a second stint - January 8, 1984 to September 23, 1984
Richard Skinner - September 30, 1984 to around March/April 1986
Bruno Brookes - around March/April 1986 to September 23, 1990
Mark Goodier - September 30, 1990 to March 1, 1992 (extended to a two-and-a-half-hour Top 40 from 4:30pm-7 pm from January 6, 1991)
Bruno Brookes for a second stint - March 15, 1992 to April 16, 1995, extended from March 15, 1992 to a three-hour Top 40 from 4-7 pm (the March 8 1992 show was hosted by Tommy Vance)
Mark Goodier for a second stint - April 23, 1995 to November 17, 2002 (there was then an interim where various DJs from the station guest-hosted the show)
Wes Butters - February 9, 2003 to January 16, 2005 (there was then an interim where various DJs from the station guest-hosted the show)
JK and Joel - March 6, 2005 to date