Today’s Radio 1 reshuffle is interesting, and is obviously a clear response to the BBC Trust findings that Radio 1 was getting too old.
Off to weekends go Jo Whiley and Edith Bowman, as Fearne Cotton and Greg James fill up the gaps.
With a remit that targets 15-29 year olds, having a significant number of DJs outside that age group makes things harder. Having younger DJs is one way to help this.
That said, it’d be very ageist to suggest everyone should be under 30 on Radio 1. The station still has Pete Tong who’ll be 50 next year, and Tim Westwood is already 51. They’re specialist, and while the music they play is still relevant to the audience, their ages probably aren’t relevant. John Peel was still on the station at 65 after all.
Overall, a good move then.
That said, I really wouldn’t want to have Fearne Cotton inflicted on my worst enemey, so that should leave lots of opportunity for commercial rivals (or even Ken Bruce on Radio 2) to take advantage…