Friday, June 30, 2006

EDITH BOWMAN FINALLY SHAKES OFF COLIN MURRAY

Radio One have sort-of announced a shake-up to their evening schedules - or "specialist shows" as they call them nowadays, which is a bit of an awkward term. Surely it's a bit off-putting to suggest that the music played after Scott Mills has gone to bed is "specialist", like you'll need some sort of degree and electronic hand-held device in the field to be able to tune in; it's like when the Open University used to preface their programmes with a large, angry man yelling "go away, thickity people, this is only for mega-brains."

Anyway, the nine o'clock shows are being revamped into something called In New Music We Trust, which means, unfortunately, they've started naming their programmes after their marketing slogans now. Details are sketchy, but it looks like this means Bobby Friction and the Desi show is going to be downsized, as instead we're promised "one stop guides to everything that's happening in a particular genre fronted by the experts in that field." That really does sound like it should end "with graphs and a viva exam at the end of each programme. This counts as seven course credits."

The big surprise is Colin Murray is being given what old people like us think of as "the Peel slot" (Monday to Thursday at 10), although we suspect it might be more accurately considered "the Nicky Campbell slot" under these circumstances. Apart from meaning Edith will be now free of him during the afternoon, this does raise a question of what's going to happen to One Music, supposedly the torch-bearer for "Keeping it Peel" - unless Murray's only going to do an hour a day, and assuming the slot isn't being axed, that means the programme is getting shoved back to the witches and mugging side of midnight. When the network insisted they were determined to keep the spirit of John Peel as a presence on Radio One, who knew they intended to really honour that by giving it worse and worse slots in the schedule every shake-up?

Fergie and Chris Coco haven't been found a new home in the new-look Radio One, and will be looking for other jobs.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Andy Parfitt has been waiting years for the opportunity to kill off John Peel and his legacy, and his finally been able to do it! Well done that man. Peel will be turning in his grave.

Chris Brown said...

The Radio 1 site confirms that Murray is doing 10-12, and that the specialist shows are extended by "four hours per week", which can only be into the middle of the night. And on Newsbeat he explained that there's an hour of each night's show when nothing will happen unless the listeners text in. Looking at some of the other TBC content I see worrying signs that they're trying to make it more personality led as well.

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