What do they know of Brit-pop, who only Britpop know?

Radio X - the radio station that used to be known as XFM - has polled its listeners to find the best song ever.

We wish they hadn't:

"Wonderwall" is the best British song of all time; at least, so say the listeners of Radio X.

More than 50,000 votes were cast for the music station's inaugural Best of British poll (via RadioToday); which saw Oasis utterly dominate the results, occupying all four of the top positions. "Don't Look Back in Anger" came in at number two, "Champagne Supernova" at three, and "Live Forever" at four.

Normally, this sort of thing pukes up a list of Beatles titles so I suppose there's some sort of progress that we've moved on to people pretending to be the Beatles.

Here's the full chart:

1. "Wonderwall", Oasis
2. "Don’t Look Back In Anger", Oasis
3. "Champagne Supernova", Oasis
4. "Live Forever", Oasis
5. "I Am The Resurrection", The Stone Roses
6. "I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor", Arctic Monkeys
7. "Heroes", David Bowie
8. "Life On Mars?", David Bowie
9. "Bittersweet Symphony", The Verve
10. "Gimme Shelter", The Rolling Stones
11. "One Day Like This", Elbow
12. "Bohemian Rhapsody", Queen
13. "Hey Jude", The Beatles
14. "Common People", Pulp
15. "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out", The Smiths
16. "Slide Away", Oasis
17. "Fool’s Gold", The Stone Roses
18. "How Soon Is Now", The Smiths
19. "A Day In The Life", The Beatles
20. "Love Will Tear Us Apart", Joy Division

Hang on; don't sob yet. There's worse to come:

The poll also revealed how its presenters voted; DJ Chris Moyles plumping for Coldplay's "Viva La Vida", while Vernon Kay backed The Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the UK"

Vernon Kay. Anarchy In The UK. Obviously, this does make sense - The Sex Pistols and Vernon Kay are both about as threatening to the status quo as each other. But you know that Vernon and his agent probably had a ten minute conversation before deciding to go with such an edgy option.

Chris Moyles tries to distance 'some of my best friends' style comment by saying he's aware it's a 'some of my best friends' comment

Miranda Sawyer delivered a sympathetic interview with Chris Moyles for yesterday's Observer; she was firm with him and, for his part, he came across warmer than he has for quite a while. Although he still tried to skip the difficult questions:

I ask him about being involved in a tax avoidance scheme, and he gets frustrated again. He gives me a very long explanation that boils down to: he thought it was OK and it turned out it wasn’t and he paid it back in full.

Yeah. Because if you're claiming tax for being a second-hand car salesperson, and you don't sell cars, what possible reason for thinking it might be dodgy could there be?

Sawyer talks about sexuality, and his apparent problems with it, and as in the past he reaches for his transgender friend as proof that he can't possibly be homophobic. He's tried this tack in the past, and has been derided for such an obvious "some of my best friends are..." pitch; but he seems to have come up with an answer for that:

“I’m not homophobic, but what can I say about that?” he says. “Whatever I say sounds like ‘some of my best friends are black’. Christ almighty, one of my best friends came out a couple of years ago as transgender. Simon is now Steph, which is fine. But I don’t know what to say about that. Because if I say the wrong thing, I’ll be crucified in Leicester Square.”

The trouble is, having gay friends doesn't 'prove' that you're not gay; not really knowing the difference between transgender people and gay people doesn't entirely make the case any stronger.

Let's just remind ourselves of Moyles' Will Young joke, shall we?

During the imitation the presenter adopted an effeminate and high pitched
voice.

When singing his alternative version of ‘Evergreen’, Chris Moyles broadcast the
lyrics: “It’s my birthday, gonna wear my new dress tonight. And I smell nice. I’ve had
a shower and I’ve shaved my legs. Going out later, might go to Nob-oooh for dinner.”

During the alternative version of ‘Leave Right Now’, Chris Moyles broadcast the
lyrics: “Oooh Will Young here, mmmmh. I’m here, it’s Will’s birthday and as the years
go by I get more very gay. When you saw me years ago you didn’t know, but now I’m
the gayest fella you probably know. mmm I like to wear a silly hat, I get camper by
the hour, oh would you look at the muck in here. I’m Will Young and I’m gay.”

But it's okay, because he's got one friend who is a transgender person.

I think all that really proves, Chris, is that Steph is more tolerant than you are.

What the pop papers say: Missing by Moyles

Week three of the car-crash that is Free NME looking for an identity, and it manages to make last week's Robert Pattinson cover look like a wise choice. For staring out of the front page this time round, it's Chris Moyles.

Now, a Chris Moyles cover by itself doesn't have to be bad, if it was leading into a piece about Chris Moyles written out of curiosity. Instead, it just waves off four pages of fawning.

Moyles kicks off by announcing he's a feminist; he underpins this by listing the women he works with and muttering about tax on sanitary products. They ask about the whole "offering to fuck Charlotte Church now she's 16" thing - Moyles' defence is that he "said it once. I moved on." And how does NME counter this? Er, by just moving on to the next thing.

The next thing is his homophobia and racism. Unbelievably, Moyles uses the human shield defence - "one of my best friends is transgender".

Does the NME point out that this justification - don't judge me on what I do, judge me on who I know - is incredibly weak? No. Just write it down, type it up, print it out, move it on.

His continuing beef with Radio 1 is given paragraphs of space - which could have made for some interesting commentary; Moyles at Radio X suggests a man who's still obsessed with his Radio Ex, using the platform to try and convince Radio 1 that he's having a great time and he's really glad that they split up. Is there any attempt to quiz him on his obsession with Ben Cooper? Nope.

His tax arrangements? Mentioned just to allow Moyles to trot out a "I didn't break the law, and I paid it anyway" line before moving on. Yes, given the chance to ask him about his second hand car business, the NME blinks. Any opportunity to explore the question is gone.

Even on the reformatting of XFM as Radio X, which you think the NME would have once cared about, is treated in a way that will have Global Radio PR purring:

Don't expect to come to Moyles to find obscure new grime artists or cutting-edge psych-rock bands. Radio X has retained new-music champion John Kennedy's late-night X-Posure show for that. Moyles is here for the express purpose of entertaining people as they battle hangovers, get ready for another mind-numbing day in the office or peel out of bed before going to college.

That radio station which was supposed to be the home of alternative music on British radio? Don't worry, they've kept a tiny rump of that late at night - presumably when the 'real' audience is out building up those hangovers for the morning.

Back when Radio One was shunting John Peel ever further into the night, NME called the BBC on the bullshit claim that you can support new music best by putting it where nobody is listening.

Why on earth would NME give such a free pass to the new Radio X?

Clearly, in part, because the idea of taking something that used to be a distinctive, alternative voice for new music and pissing it down to yet another chart-and-chat platform might resonate with NME. The token music piece this week is a very, very, very short feature on Wolf Alice. They're dubbed "the best new band in Britain". The NME first wrote about Wolf Alice three years ago. The proper NME did. If they're pretending that Wolf Alice are a discovery now, no wonder they'd think John Kennedy is more than enough of that cutting-edge stuff.

The more prosaic reason for the free passes handed to Moyles and Radio X is probably the two page advert that appears immediately before the interview.

One other sign that the NME has lost its mojo quite badly - the person who used to maintain Wikipedia's list of NME covers hasn't bothered to update the list with the new ones. You can see why.

Chris Moyles quits

Chris Moyles - who older readers might remember was once Tony Blackburn - is quitting showbusiness, presumably to better concentrate on his used car business.

Speaking at Glastonbury, which he attended for fun rather than work, Moylesy con­­firmed: “I’m retired now. I haven’t got any plans and I’m just having a lot of fun.

"I honestly don’t know what I want to do. I’ve done a lot of time on radio and I’ve put myself out there. So, yes, I’m retired. I get to do things like this, come to Glastonbury and hang out.”

Moyles, if you're putting yourself out there and hanging out, it might be time to think about elasticated waistbands.

This is tragic news, as it suggests we might never hear those exciting other projects he claimed Radio One was lining up for him when they eased him off breakfasts.

Chris Moyles: Would you buy a used car from this man?

The really odd thing about Chris Moyles' tax scam - where he signed papers during his tenure as breakfast show presenter on Radio One claiming to be a second hand car dealer for tax purposes - is how would anyone think this a good idea in the first place?

The only possibility is that Moyles' accountant actually does double-up as a second-hand car salesperson. Let's hope he's better at flogging Ladas than doing sums.

Let's enjoy those Moyles 'apology' tweets, shall we?

I want to comment about a recent tribunal tax ruling.

— Chris Moyles (@CHRISDJMOYLES) February 21, 2014

Upon advice, I signed up to a scheme which I was assured was legal. Despite this, my knowledge of the dealings of the scheme were naive.

— Chris Moyles (@CHRISDJMOYLES) February 21, 2014

I take full responsibility and have learnt a valuable lesson.

— Chris Moyles (@CHRISDJMOYLES) February 21, 2014

"I take full responsibility for this matter, by, erm, saying someone else told me to do it and I don't have the expert tax knowledge to grasp that pretending to be selling second hand cars while presenting one of the highest profile radio programmes in Europe wasn't entirely legitimate. I mean, that's the sort of thing you'd need years of professional experience to understand, right, when you sign a piece of paper that says 'I make a living selling second hand cars' despite not ever having done so much as hung a piney tree in a 1996 Skoda, that you might be claiming something that isn't true. But, yeah, full responsibility up until that point."

Rajars: Grim figures

The new bunch of Rajar figures out today are showing there's been a drop in the Radio One breakfast show audience.

That, presumably, the network was expecting with the departure of Chris Moyles. The size of the drop, though, might come as something of a shock - a million have gone elsewhere.

In effect, the audience has reverted back to where it was before Moyles took over, as MediaGuardian explains:

The 28-year-old presenter, who took over from Moyles last September, shipped 900,000 listeners compared to the final three months of 2012 and was nearly a million down on Moyles' last quarterly audience of 6.7 million.

It is the lowest audience for the Radio 1 breakfast show since it was presented by Sara Cox in 2003. Cox had 5.5 million listeners in her last three months in the job before she was replaced by Moyles, who fashioned himself as the "saviour of Radio 1".

Radio One are making noises about how their focus is on the demographic, not the absolute numbers. Which is true - they're under orders to make their audience younger, and presumably this helps - but it still can't feel great to lose so many, so quickly.

Taxi for Mr Moyles

Windows Phone doesn't have a lot of luck, so it's nice to see Nokia falling lucky with an inadvertently appropriate bit of advertising...

Moyles after dark

There's a lot of excitement at the possibility that Chris Moyles might be shunted off to night-time Radio One, not least because of who used to sit there:

Radio 1 DJ who will step down from breakfast show in September could take 10pm slot once occupied by John Peel

It's true that 10pm was once John Peel's slot. But they moved him round rather a lot - he did earlier evenings, there was that strange period of Saturday afternoons and Sunday evenings; just before he died he was on at 11pm.

Equally, 10pm hasn't always been a "proper" music slot - after all, it's the timeslot where Nicky Campbell would be "back from the weekend", guessing star signs and so on. Which would feel like a more obvious precedent form Moyles at night.

That's if it's going to happen at all, as MediaGuardian did hedge its bets somewhat when predicting the new schedule:

A move to the late-night slot is of a number of options being considered by Radio 1 controller – and one-time Moyles producer – Ben Cooper, as he seeks to find his most popular DJ a new role on the station.

Moyles, who had been tipped for a switch to Radio 2, lost half a million listeners in the latest official Rajar audience figures, slumping to his lowest audience for more than five years in the three months to the end of June.

The DJ may also move to weekends or a weekly show, or may leave the network altogether. His current £1m contract with Radio 1 expires in 2014.

So, that's clear: he'll either be at 10pm, or on weekends. Or maybe in a weekly slot. Or possibly on Radio 2. Or not on the BBC at all. MediaGuardian have really stuck their neck out by choosing not to add-in an arse-covering "he may become a regular presenter on Women's Hour or maybe take over George Galloway's old show on Press TV."

Moyles not on the market

So, what now for Chris Moyles? Radio 1 Controller Ben Cooper has told MediaGuardian that he won't be released back into the wild:

"I've got an idea of a new role for him on the station. Maybe we'll surprise people again in a short time," Cooper said on Wednesday.

Given that the his motivation for shifting Moyles out of breakfast - he wouldn't admit in so many words that it was his idea, but clearly it was - is to try and bring down the average audience age as instructed by the BBC Trust, it's hard to imagine that Moyles would be given the same amount of air time as he has now. It's equally hard to think of something that would "surprise" us - unless it's a partnership with Zane Lowe?

Moyles packs up

Chris Moyles is finally leaving the Radio One Breakfast Show in September, or "a good five years after he should have gone."

There's two questions, of course - the first is who will take over? MediaGuardian reckons Greg James is the most likely candidate, although there's every chance the station could try Fearne Cotton in the job for an awkward nine-month period before realising it won't fly and having a panicky reshuffle.

Question two is: what now for Moyles? You've got to suspect part of the reason he's stuck in the role for so long is because there's nothing obvious for him to go on to - Radio 2 doesn't seem an obvious fit; 6Music way beyond his reach. Noel Edmonds is showing no sign of tiring of Deal Or No Deal and proper television isn't really something he excels at - that quiz thing on Channel 4 is only made bearable by playing the 'how did this get commissioned again' game.

As DLT has proven, it can be difficult for someone who fitted the perfect mould of Radio One Breakfast Show host to make that shape slide in elsewhere. Chris Moyles, like Prince Charles, is looking forward to years of not having the role for which he was bred.

Rajars: Evans widens his gap over Moyles

Latest radio audience figures are out this morning, with the headline that Chris Evans now has a lead of two million plus over Chris Moyles at breakfast time.

Evans' value to Radio 2 is shown by his follow-on presenters also enjoying record audiences - both Ken Bruce and Jeremy Vine are getting more listeners than ever before.

It's arguable that Radio 1 might not be chasing the biggest breakfast show, and, as part of the remit that might be desirable. But, unarguably, the Moyles programme isn't designed to not strive to be the biggest. It's ten years since Chris Moyles claimed he could kick anyone's arse at breakfast; that's clearly no longer true. Hopefully the BBC are coming up with a way for him to make a dignified exit.

John Humphrys snapping at Chris Moyles

Here, perhaps, is a sign that it might be time for Radio One to review their breakfast show: the battle between Chris Evans and Chris Moyles for morning crown is now well over; instead, Chris Moyles is struggling to avoid being beaten by Today. MediaGuardian does the RAJARs:

BBC Radio 4's Today programme had an average weekly audience of 7.15 million in the last three months of 2011, a whisker away from its biggest ever listenership and just 90,000 behind Moyles on Radio 1, who had an audience of 7.24 million.

In other good news, 6Music again reported a record audience. If Mark Thompson had had his way, the station would have been off the air by now.

Gordon in the morning: Good news for Chris Evans

Colin Robertson files for Gordon with details of a deal done:

MOTORMOUTH DJ Chris Moyles will clock up a DECADE on the Radio 1 breakfast show after signing a £1.25million new deal last night.

The 2½-year contract will take the 37-year-old presenter up to New Year 2014 and will end with his tenth anniversary on the show.

It's a bad contract if it's guaranteed him the breakfast show for the next thirty months. And it seems to be less about any enthusiasm for Moyles than the lack of any obvious heir:

While emerging R1 names such as Matt Edmondson and Greg James are seen as possible heirs, they are said to be still too "green". Fearne Cotton, who follows Chris at 10am on weekdays, has also been talked about as a contender. Scott Mills, 37, would love the job - but he will be too old by 2014.

If you're seriously thinking about Fearne Cotton, you've got a tremendous succession problem.

Andy Parfitt isn't in hock to Chris Moyles

Banging on for ages about not having been paid? No, no, that's not crossing the line, says Andy Parfitt.

But he's not in hock to his celebrity presenter.

And when Moyles does step over the line?

That's not really a problem either:

He added that the number of times the DJ has been censured by the BBC or Ofcom could be "counted on the fingers of one hand, probably on two or three fingers".

"Management – ie me – are not in hock to Chris. Chris and I have a long-term relationship and he is absolutely clear where the red lines are," said Parfitt.

Given that Ofcom or the BBC getting involved at this sort of level is a pretty serious injunction, you might wonder if every presenter who got "two or three" black spots next to their name would still be indulged after a clankingly bad programme like last week's. You'd suspect not - but, hey, Andy Parfitt isn't in hock to Chris Moyles. So probably everyone gets a third or fourth or fifth or sixth chance, right?

I'm not sure why Gareth Evans was canned while Moyles is still crept around by BBC Management. (Evans posted on his own Facebook page about a minor dispute with a council, but had never mentioned it on air.)

But nobody is in hock to Chris Moyles.

Tim Davie proves he doesn't really know about radio

Tim Davie has had a fair chance to prove wrong those who thought flogging teeth-rotting drinks might not be a transferable skill to running radio stations. But he's not really doing that, is he?

Today, he's been talking to the MediaGuardian podcast about Chris Moyles' banging on about how he had a minor HR problem for half an hour. He doesn't think it was wrong:

"I don't think it was utterly inappropriate," Davie told the Guardian's Media Talk podcast. "I think at the end of the day, Chris is always going to be someone who speaks his mind. His listeners know that. It was a lively broadcast, he said he had a pretty rough morning, but that's what listeners expect from Moyles.

"There's a huge difference between deep editorial issues that are causing offence to the audience and whether a DJ like Chris is talking about, or frankly ranting about, something for a while. People like myself are very clear that we want to give DJs space to do their thing, that's what we do. It's different to whether there's a breach of editorial standards, where we've got to be very tough."

No, Tim. No. There's a difference between 'having a valid point', 'having an interesting rant' and 'whining about a minor adminsitrative error'. I know Davie probably wants to keep Moyles sweet, but it was a self-indulgent chunk of pity party, and it's okay to say 'he had a valid point, but my God, if he churns out another dull half-hour like this, he's going to have to worry about if he's got a job, never mind if he's getting paid'.

Moyles unpaid: BBC neglect to give Chris quids

Unquestionably, it's wrong for the BBC, due to whatever administrative cock-up, to have not paid Chris Moyles since July.

Having said that: it happens quite often at the BBC when people change roles or jump contracts. It's an administrative error, not the BBC withholding the funds indefinitely. And if Moyles really is such a financial basket-case that he can't cope with the interruption, I'm sure the BBC would find a way to pay him informally and recoup later.

What you shouldn't do, in this situation, is to go on to the radio and moan about it:

For about 30 minutes from the start of his show at 6.30am, during which no records were played, Moyles railed against BBC management, accusing them of showing a "huge lack of respect" and delivering a "massive FU to me". He said he knew who was responsible for his not getting paid and branded them a "moronic div".

Moyles opened the show after the 6.30am news bulletin sounding downcast and launched into his long, rambling monologue by saying: "Do you know what, I wasn't going to come in today. I hate the fact I've been put into a position by Radio 1 and the BBC that I don't want to be in.

"I'm very very angry, very very angry or being put into this position. I can't tell you how furious I am. I haven't been paid since the end of July and no-one cares about it. No one's bothered."

After being quizzed by his team why he was feeling so low, Moyles said: "Yesterday I thought why should I even bother hauling myself out of bed at 5.30am, 5.45am. Why should I bother if they can't be bothered?"

He continued: "They can't be bothered to pay me. Why should I come in? It's a two way street. What annoys me is the fact I mentioned it to people this week. Fix it, just get it fixed. It's a huge lack of respect and a massive FU to me. 'It doesn't matter'? Really? It's for free? I love my job, don't get me wrong I love my job."

It's not a huge lack of respect. Not in the way that, say, slagging off your employer when you're supposed to be working is.

Moyles then moves on:

"It's to do with our new contracts. Some dope, I pretty much know who's responsible in this building. I even know the name of the moronic div. I bet you any money their ass is getting paid," he said.
[...]
Sounding at the end of his tether, Moyles said his agent Vivienne Clore "texted me last night and said you've got to do the show for the listeners, they haven't done wrong ..."

Moyles appeared to refer to his personal life – he reportedly recently split up with his girlfriend Sophie Waite and spent last night sleeping on a friend's sofa – when he told listeners: "I don't need it at the moment. I don't need any more stress in my life at the moment and they know that and yet they can't be arsed. 'It doesn't matter, it's only Chris, it doesn't matter.' I've had enough. I don't need it. Every morning I'm in, like the rest of us are. Every day flogging it, working it every single day we care about this show more than anyone else on this network. We work so hard - 'Oh, youv'e not been paid, don't worry about it.'

"I know a lot of people think 'whinge, whinge, whinge'... it's respect... I'm sick of it"

Yes, it's unacceptable. And, perhaps, not turning up would be justified. But turning up and banging on? That's showing a real lack of respect for your audience.

What would you do if you went into a coffee shop and, instead of making you a coffee, the assistant instead spent twenty minutes talking about his problems with HR? Or a surgeon used time you thought for was for a consultation to whinge about trouble getting his parking space assigned.

Yes, Chris, you should be paid. But don't moan to the audience about it. It's respect. We're sick of it.

Kennedy was shot

Shaking off the traveller's dust from my boots, I'm still trying to understand the astonishing Telegraph piece where Sarah Kennedy fumes at rumours she was drunk during one of her Radio 2 programmes:

Kennedy admitted that she had done a bad edition of her Dawn Patrollers show on Radio 2 in early August, during which she had sounded slurred, but put it down to not having slept the night before.

“I wasn’t sleeping. I was grieving from two unexpected deaths and I had got into a right tiswas with my sleep. I live near Wormwood Scrubs prison and that night there had been a police helicopter with its noise and its lights. Then the police started, with their dogs. I took a sleeping pill but I overrode it. I just couldn’t sleep. But you can’t just ring the BBC and say I can’t come in.

“I agree that I sounded slurred. I have a lazy tongue, if I’m not giving it my all.”

Kennedy also blamed her Radio 2 producer, Mark Hagen, who she said had not told her there had been a problem with her show. “What’s the point of a producer if he allows you to do a bad show and go home thinking it was OK?” said Kennedy. “If the producer doesn’t say, ‘You’re sounding slurred’, what the ****’s the producer there for? We could have put records on back-to-back. That happens when people are being sick in waste baskets.”

So according to Kennedy, it's impossible to ring up and tell the BBC you're sick, but your producer will quite happily let you sit in the studio while he plays records back to back because you're too unwell to work?

I was going to have a go at Kennedy for blaming everyone but herself for her bad show, but I suppose she did at least have the grace to include her tongue as one of the many conspirators who brought her down, alongside the police, prisoners at the Scrubs, her producer, manufacturers of inadequate sleeping pills and the rest of the world. Mind you, she even makes her tongue sound like an outside agent of collusion rather than part of her own body.

In addition, Kennedy then started trying to work out who claimed she had been broadcasting drunk (apparently unaware that 'anyone who heard this or many other of her shows' is the answer to that one):

“I have no quibble with the BBC,” said Kennedy. “But please put this in your piece. I would give my two feet to know who’s got it in for me at the BBC. Is it Alan Dedicoat? I have known for an awfully long time that I have got an enemy at the BBC and I would love to know who it is.

“I go in and I smile and I do my best. I don’t do the politics. You don’t see me in Boujis. You don’t see me in The Grey Horse or wherever it is they go. Chris Moyles - I’ve never met. Dermot O’Leary - I’ve never met. Yet they’re believing in these urban myths.

She doesn't get involved in the politics. But she will happily name names to the Telegraph and insist they appear in print.

Still, she's leaving Radio 2 with her head held high:

“Sometimes you have to step away,” said Kennedy. “I walked out of Game for a Laugh, I walked out of Busman’s Holiday. You know when it’s time.”

Busman's Holiday? Surely that's just a step-up from saying 'I turned my back on the six items or less checkout in Morrisons the other day'?

Quick radio listening figure round-up

That 6Music closure? The gift that keeps on giving for the network - it's had a year-on-year doubling of audience in this morning's RAJAR figures.

Can I just point out the Guardian's coverage of digital radio figures seems to have been written in a bit of a rush - it says 6 is up, Asian Network is up, 1Xtra and 5Live Sports Extra are down, and then that Radio 7 "bucked the corporation's digital trend" because its figures were up. Eh?

Also might have been worth mentioning alongside this:

NME Radio rose 17.7% on a year ago and was up 11.9% on the previous quarter to 253,000 listeners.

... that the station was canned during the period.

What's clear from these figures is that the digital audience appears to be volatile, which you have to suspect is down to the methodology of counting rather than the actual audiences:

Smash Hits was up 16.1% on the previous quarter, although down 14.3% year on year, to 990,000 listeners.

A crash in listeners you can believe. A rally in listeners you can believe. But this rushing up and down by such large amounts each quarter kind of undermines the credibility of the numbers.

In the battle between Chris Evans and Chris Moyles, Evans is winning the who can shed the most listeners race - Evans has misplaced a million in three months, Moyles just 200,000.

6Music: Here come the listeners

The couple of Sonys might not have done much to protect 6Music from the long journey at sunrise, but the latest listening figures might. 6Music has broken the million listeners barrier for the first time, reports MediaGuardian:

6 Music had an average weekly reach of 1.02 million listeners in the first three months of this year, up from 695,000 in the final three months of last year, according to official Rajar figures published today.

It turns out the plans to close the network were more effective than any marketing campaign the BBC has tried so far.

In other RAJARs news, Chris Evans remains safely ahead of Chris Moyles at breakfast - both saw their audiences grow. So fears that Evans would lose Wogan's listeners were misplaced; nor, apparently, has Evans brought in a younger crowd. The average age of a Radio 2 listener is still 51.

Evan's figures, 9.53 million, gives him the largest radio audience since the current RAJAR methodology came in back in 1999.

Sonys for 6 and Asian Network

The idea that Frankie from The Saturdays presented Jarvis Cocker with a rising star award is no more strange than the suggestion that it is, somehow, in the national interest for George Osborne to be in the Treasury with a booster seat and a talking calculator.

Yes, it's the Sony Awards, and although there are prizes for Adam And Joe (comedy) and Jarvis (aforementioned rising star), there wasn't very much applause for 6Music, and doesn't really conjure an image of Mark Thompson putting his head in his hands and asking "what have I done?" Good at comedy and giving Jarvis a show - while both good things - aren't quite what 6Music is primarily designed for, and not really the focus of the save the network campaigns.

Nihal's prize for the Asian Network - best speech programming - has a bit more heft to it, because it treats AN as really having a bit of breadth and influence.

Mind you, the whole awards ceremony is suspect, given that the Bono Elvis poem thing won a prize - despite everyone in the entire world having had their ears removed in shame after hearing it.

Zane Lowe won two prizes, and not for the first time, and Scott Mills is apparently better than Chris Moyles.

Winners in full over on the Sony site.