Will Nick Grimshaw still be the Radio 1 Breakfast Show host this time next year?
ronant
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Personally, I think probably not, and if he is, he'll be hanging on for grim life.
I still listen (although a lot less), simply because of my extreme lack of options on my way to work (Radios 1-5, Heart, Classic, Talksport, BBC Local). But to my ears the programme is getting worse, it's sounding increasingly desperate to attract certain demo's. A big example of this was the football match on Tuesday, because they clearly have a problem attracting young men. The whole team hate football and sounded incredibly out of place. It was really cringey.
Unlike Moyles who already had a massive hit daytime show, Grimshaw never came in with a developed show, and they still haven't developed a decent show, 15 months in.
Rajars show he's well down, but of course they're clinging onto a 'bigger proportion of younger listeners'. But look at the podcast chart. The breakfast show has given huge promotion to the podcast, but it's rarely even in the top 100, far, far behind Greg James and Scott Mills.
By the way, I am in R1's target demo and IMO Scott Mills' show is by far the best, I really don't care that he's 40!
I can only see Grimshaw's figures getting worse, and I really think 2014 will see the end of his Breakfast show. He's too niche a personality and the show is frankly poor. They're in danger of losing a lot of listeners for good if they don't replace him.
I still listen (although a lot less), simply because of my extreme lack of options on my way to work (Radios 1-5, Heart, Classic, Talksport, BBC Local). But to my ears the programme is getting worse, it's sounding increasingly desperate to attract certain demo's. A big example of this was the football match on Tuesday, because they clearly have a problem attracting young men. The whole team hate football and sounded incredibly out of place. It was really cringey.
Unlike Moyles who already had a massive hit daytime show, Grimshaw never came in with a developed show, and they still haven't developed a decent show, 15 months in.
Rajars show he's well down, but of course they're clinging onto a 'bigger proportion of younger listeners'. But look at the podcast chart. The breakfast show has given huge promotion to the podcast, but it's rarely even in the top 100, far, far behind Greg James and Scott Mills.
By the way, I am in R1's target demo and IMO Scott Mills' show is by far the best, I really don't care that he's 40!
I can only see Grimshaw's figures getting worse, and I really think 2014 will see the end of his Breakfast show. He's too niche a personality and the show is frankly poor. They're in danger of losing a lot of listeners for good if they don't replace him.
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I don't think this is the problem. Steve Wright came to Breakfast with a 'developed show' in the '90s as did, later on that decade, Mark Radcliffe and Mark Riley.
The issue here is the BBC Charter.
Radio 1 follows this to the letter, otherwise they would do what Radio 2 recognised that they had to do when Wogan retired, i.e. sign a populist replacement. And, boy, was Moyles populist; even I liked him - and I'm in my late fifties!
The irony is that Grimshaw may end up with fewer listeners of the 'correct' demographic than Moyles had, so shedding the oldies from the book will become irrelevant - unless, that is, you're bitterly intent on excluding people from your club for credibility's sake alone.
While it's absolutely imperative that Radio 1 caters for a young audience in the daytime, and especially the evenings, they're gonna have to face the facts and sign someone like Scott.
What were we told about ILR in the Eighties?
'It's ratings by day, darlings, reputation by night'.
Grimshaw's playing in the wrong position, like a less extreme version of the mistake that was putting Mark and Lard on at breakfast. Night-time cult shows rarely translate into breakfast hits. Had he had more time to work his way through the daytime schedule then it may have worked. He is a good presenter and has tons of stars for mates but he's on the wrong show, and it has a constant sound of management-approved fun - stuff the Radio 1 bosses want promoted, never being controversial, the opposite of Moyles - and sounds flat as a result.
On the populist appeal of Moyles - this is very true. However, he did a show that would have been very unlikely to be replicated on any commercial radio station. Indeed, when he was on commercial radio he was normally dumped on at nights and almost certainly wouldn't find a place these days.
It'll be tough to admit that they picked the wrong man for the job but as has been said before, who else was there?
I am thinking they thought Scott was too old for the job.
Why can't they get a DJ from 1extra??. Grimmy feels like he appeals to a very specific demographic.Girls aged 15-25 mainly. He's being pushed everywhere by the BBC but it doesn't seem to be working.
he is also FAR too closely linked to 1D. They will fall out of fashion one day & he'll be seen as a cheesy hanger-oner of the band. He should be wiser & build a distance btw them & him. He will struggle to return to his Indie roots as he grows older because of the 1D connection. I now associate Grimmy v much with a specific generation of cheesy pop:Rita Ora,1D etc
The problem for Radio 1 is that for the audience it's been told it has to serve, traditional radio is increasingly irrelevant.
When Moyles started on breakfast there was no YouTube, no Facebook, no Twitter, no Instagram and crucially no smartphones or tablets. For the average 20-year-old in 2004, it was pretty much a choice between TV, gaming, slow internet or radio so the station had a much bigger share of overall media consumption among teens and twenty-somethings. Not any more.
Ben Cooper knows that and is increasingly putting Radio 1's content on to other platforms. But it's an uphill struggle - technology's moving very fast and the BBC is notoriously slow at catching up.
So there's the dilemma. Moyles was still pulling a big audience but it wasn't the audience the BBC wanted. Grimshaw's as good as anyone for the audience the BBC wants, but that audience isn't listening in the huge numbers it used to, and will continue to dwindle.
Radio 1's days as a traditional mass market radio station are lurching to an end. Rajar will continue to decline. But Rajar, of course, doesn't measure the people who may not listen to Radio 1 live but who do consume its content via YouTube or wherever. The BBC needs to (and, slowly, is starting to) put its "youth" content on a variety of platforms and recognise, as Ben Cooper does, that it's the smartphone and not the radio that is now where it's at and that old-fashioned Rajar isn't a reliable gauge of the audience.
Frankly, anyone who still listens to Radio 1 on FM probably isn't in the target audience.
Absolutely spot on
You might be slightly over-egging the pudding there. I would imagine FM is still the medium of choice for young people in cars, especially since many young people drive an older car which probably doesn't have DAB.
And where radio one is still listened to in the work place it's likely to be on a radio, especially in a non-office environment.
I'd wager FM still accounts for more than 50% of Radio 1's audience, even if it isn't much more that than.
Hirsty's Daily Dose is Brilliant Hirsty Danny & JoJo have one of the best Breakfast Show's in the country
but to be totally Honest Simon Hirst on his own would be perfect for Radio 2
If Greg is like Mayo, he'll suit breakfast very well as Simon had 5 very successful years hosting the Radio 1 breakfast show.
He'd only serve to drive up the audience age though I think. He's a bit too folkie and he admits it.
Chris Moyles was there as the Breakfast Presenter
Grimmy is there as a role model.
Grimmy gets lots of awards such as GQ and radio awards because people apparently can relate to him and being in his celebrity circle with Harry Styles it makes him very popular.
Greg has got excellent features at the moment. Rage Against the Answer Machine is amazing! Greg could go to Breakfast with Chris Smith and bring back the zoo format as that is what it is really missing! Showbot does not need to exist. The idea of Siri is a thing of the past now most people have Iphones so why not use the producer to read out questions like Aled/Rachel did back in the day?
Would a radio show work with Greg and Matt Edmonson together or would they need females?
I don't get how young people "relate" to Grimmy. He mixes in almost exclusively celeby circles,his life is nothing like that of his demographic. and the 1D connection only appeals to young girls,not guys or young professionals in their 20's.
I think they'd waste them both if they joined together. I'd personally have Greg on Breakfast (with Chris Smith) and then have Matt take over from Scott, when it's his time to leave R1, but keep Chris Stark with him as they've work well together when he's covered. But as Stark is Scott's pal, maybe he wouldn't do that?
Although to be fair on Moyles, he did work his way up. I first heard him on the Hot FM in 1994/1995 and he did a 7pm-10pm slot. The DJ before Moyles that day promoted him as somebody different to and they were right. I stayed with Moyles until he left the airwaves in 2012.
When GWR took over the Hot FM group in Sept 1995, he would have been out of place and he was given a 10pm-1am slot. Around 1996, he left the GWR group and went onto Capital Radio and did a Fri/Sat 10pm-1am slot. Within a year, he was at Radio 1 and build himsef up from there.
The pre Radio 1 Moyles was a one man show but he engaged with the audience brilliantly, he must have done something right for me to follow him around the radio dial.
I expect this is what the eventual plan is Breakfast: Greg James and Russell Kane, Drivetime: Nick Grimshaw.
I happened to be watching the Comedy Awards last night where Jonathan Ross mentioned Russel Kane was 50, surely too old for Radio 1. If Russel Kane is suitable why not bring Moyles back>
I think Jonathan was joking about him looking a lot older, comedy awards still on 4od if you want to watch, it's part of the opening monologue.
Anyway 33 is not the age to start a career at Radio 1, he's 10 years too late!
Totally agree.plus he has a pleasant voice to listen to.and. he is compulsive to listen to.