Back when I had to drive to school, I’d often have the radio on. If I had a normal start at 8:45am, I’d stick it on Heart for Jagger and Woody. This is partly because they’re funny and local, but partly because I hate Chris Moyles. Although, if I started at 10:25am, I’d stick it on Radio 1 to hear a bit of Jo Whiley with her WTF (Wiley’s Trivia Fun) and decent sort of music taste – as much as she got to chose it, anyway…
Then on the way home at lunchtime’s I’d have Edith Bowman going, with her relaxed sort of presenting style and with some more tunes. Obviously, if I was coming home at normal time, it would be The Scott Mill’s Show with the classic ‘Oh! What’s Occurring?" segment, which is classic.
Now I’m on holiday, I kind of just turn on the radio to keep me from falling back to sleep again when I wake up. Imagine my annoyance when I wake up to hear Chris Moyles (Wait, there’s more) saying he’d got another year-long contract when Jo Whiley hadn’t. Yeah, apparently he’s better than her.
I did a bit of research on my iPod – mainly because I’m too lazy to get up and go on the laptop – and found out that a BBC shake-up meant both her and Edith were to be shunned to small weekend slots and were going to be replaced by Greg James and Fearne Cotton respectively. I was like "What the hell, BBC?"
About twenty minutes before this, one of the people on the Chris Moyles Show was talking about their appearance on Hole In The Wall, which this series isn’t going to be hosted by Dale Winton. No Dale Winton means the show’s just stupid and pointless. The only reason I watched it was to see Dale go "BRING ON THE WALL!" really excitedly. But alas, no more of that.
Then a couple of weeks ago, news spread that Arlene Phillips (That judge on Strictly Come Dancing), who is a choreographer, was axed in favour of Alesha Dixon, a singer. Sure, she won one of the series, but still. A professional loses their job to an amateur? What’s going on there? Well, ageism.
That’s the call, anyway. Critics are outraged the BBC are axing some of their finest presenters in favour of younger models to appeal to the younger viewer/listener. Okay, Radio 1′s always been a place for young people, but Strictly Come Dancing?!
The BBC Trust wanted to steer Radio 1 back on track so to speak, to appeal to the 15-29 age range it was designed for. Currently, they’re hitting that, but the average age of the listener is within the top half of that bracket. That’s not what they want.
Fearne and Greg are supposed to bring a fresh face to the weekday line-up to keep things new and exciting. Ignoring the fact Fearne’s been around about as long as I have presenting so much stuff, it’s hardly a fresh face. If anything, I’d like to hear the familiar voice of the weekday over a fancy new one. Things that aren’t broken shouldn’t be fixed.
I think age is a state of mind. I’m going to be one of those dads who tries to be in with the kids, I can just sense it. I think while Jo and Edith are perhaps getting on a bit (for Radio 1′s image, anyway) their heart’s in the right place. Don’t get me wrong, Fearne and Greg are good in their own ways, but Jo and Edith have a certain… je ne sais quoi. Some indescribable, likable talent and should have been kept.
But hey ho, new things are good too, I suppose. We’ll have to see come mid-September. Seems a shame, though.
Nice article. Very well written!
Thanks.