Radio 1: Still a country for old men

The Guardian has a fairly in-depth interview with Radio 1 controller Ben Cooper this morning, with a couple of interesting headlines.

The first is that Cooper wants Radio 1 to become "the Netflix of music radio":

“I want Radio 1 to be the Netflix of music radio,” he says, trundling out the catchy soundbite to back his latest plan: taking a leaf out of the hugely successful US streaming service’s book by making programmes available on demand.

But... the programmes already are available on demand, aren't they?

Turns out these are different programmes:

He is starting out with 25 hours of on-demand “phone-first” content, such as a weekly “Top 10 most-played tracks of the week” programme, but intends to seriously ramp up the hours next year. “In this job, you’ve got to keep across what young audiences are doing. They want content on whatever device they are using, increasingly the phone, when they want it, and that is the key for us to stay relevant and stay young.”

There's a few problems with this - if people aren't listening to Radio 1, why would they give a raspberry tuppence about listening to a programme which plays the 'most played' tracks? "Hey kids, those programmes you're ignoring? Want to listen to the sort of music they're playing that isn't encouraging you to listen to them?"

More importantly, if you were looking for a Netflix for music radio, you might think that's a space that Spotify are already in.

And Radio 1 as Netflix would only work if Netflix concerned itself solely with, say, romcoms and slasher flicks. If you're looking for something akin to Netflix, you'd need something that covers a range of styles and genres. Something like, ooh, iPlayer Radio.

To be fair, though, Cooper has had some degree of success at extending Radio 1 as a brand beyond radio - a large swathe of its audience never tune in on DAB or FM. On YouTube, Radio 1 is thriving, or at least doing as well as Zoella.

Then there's the Grimshaw question:

Meanwhile, shouldn’t he be more worried about Nick Grimshaw? Earlier this year, the station’s breakfast show audience reached its lowest level in more than 13 years. Grimshaw, who took over the coveted gig from Chris Moyles, is about to become older than the station’s average listener. After four years of trying, is his use-by date looming?

“I’m not operating Logan’s Run,” quips Cooper, referring to the 1976 sci-fi film where people get systematically vaporised when they turn 30. “Grimmy was asked to do a job and it was a difficult job. Chris’s job was to build the biggest audience he could, the most successful breakfast show Radio 1 ever had. The BBC Trust asked me to get Radio 1 younger so I brought in Nick to do that. Grimmy has come in and he is the No 1 youth presenter in the UK. He is knocking it out of the ballpark when it comes to connecting with young audiences on a daily basis.”

Is he the "number one youth presenter in the UK", though? If he is, why has he settled so comfortably into the X Factor Home for The Formerly Influential?

But then, the 46 year-old Cooper isn't going to willingly suggest the route to a younger audience is through a perpetually younger team, is he?

It's the monthly "Top Of The Pops revival" moment

As has happened probably ever three hours since Top of The Pops was axed, we're going through a 'they're going to bring back Top Of The Pops' period. Except it's not bringing back TOTP, as Ben Cooper tried to explain:

He said: "I am working hard with Bob Shennan, asking, 'What are the ingredients that would work for today?'

"When people ask about whether Top of the Pops is coming back, what they are really saying is, 'When can we get a once-a-week primetime BBC1 music slot?'

"I have had this conversation with agents, independent production companies, and with Simon Cowell a few weeks back."

The appearance of Simon Cowell in the discussions suggest we're not really talking about Top Of The Pops, right?

He said: "With The Voice going to ITV, that does give you an opportunity, a moment in history, to go, 'Right, let's crack this, what can we do to bring the music and entertainment together for a primetime BBC1 audience? That's the Holy Grail!

"The music industry would like a weekly moment to showcase the best new British music."

I'd be more tempted, were I a tabloid editor, to suggest they sound more like they're reviving something closer to House Party or Swap Shop, if indeed anything.

The Mail, of course, has its own take:

Not entirely sure why Gary Glitter is included in there. Or, indeed, if that trio are such a problem, the BBC has carried on doing Top Of The Pops on Christmas Day for the last couple of years. Still, I'm sure it makes sense to the Mail.

Thatcher: A rival campaign, as Cooper fluffs it

Whoever would have thought the legacy of Thatcher would turn out not to be a debate over the merits of Keynes against Alan Walters, but a silly spat over a song from The Wizard Of Oz.

It's telling that the big fans of Thatcher have, through their orchestrated attacks on the BBC, managed to turn what might have been a sombre week of reflection into a giggling morass of point and counterpoint over the Munchkin's signature tune.

It then gets funnier, because they cry "but you keep talking about it", thereby churning the story on and on. What would have been a Facebook campaign to control the commanding heights of the lower 20s of the chart has instead become the dominant theme of Thatcher coverage.

Clearly, now, more people are buying the record to make Charles Moore go even more vermillion in the face than to dance on Maggie's grave. Every column inch in the Mail turns what had been a bad taste kick of a corpse into a much more cheerful tweak of the establishment's nose.

But hey: why don't the Thatcher fans try and counter this protest by showing how much she was loved by a portion of the population?

Ooh, Louise Mensch. I understand you've got an idea?

HASHTAG OF THE WEEK for whoever came up with #GranthamStyle - to buy #ImInLoveWithMargaretThatcher here - itunes.apple.com/gb/album/im-in…

— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) April 12, 2013

Uh... I was thinking more of that Thatcher single where she read the Gettysburg Address, or maybe Telstar, which was one of her favourites. But, er, yes, if you want to endorse The NotSensibles, a group who were self-identifying as being not sensible, clearly taking the very piss out of the idea of anyone being in love with Margaret Thatcher, go for it.

I'm expecting Nadine Dorries to be pushing Shipbuilding in the belief that all that talk about reopening the shipyards is an endorsement of Thatcher's industrial policies.

Meanwhile, after days of speculation over whether the BBC will or won't play Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead on Sunday, Radio One's uncomfortable-in-a-suit controller Ben Cooper has managed to concoct the most wonderful fudge by proclaiming that they'll play five seconds and talk about the song.

He was on BBC News a short while ago, trying to suggest that what might appear to be fudge is something else entirely - maybe butterscotch, or cinder toffee.

At one point he said something which will only prolong the agonies - that it was inappropriate to play an attack on a person "who hasn't yet been buried".

Which means that a week on Sunday, once the former Prime Minister is in the ground, he might have to drag through the decision again. Does the change in status from above to below the horizon suddenly make a difference?

There's no indication why five seconds is any worse or better than the full fifty-six seconds. Either the song is offensive - in which case, don't play it; or it isn't, in which case play it in full.

Cooper suggests when Rage Against The Machine was number one, they edited that record and this is the same thing. Except it isn't, is it? There's a difference between removing a "fuck" from a record going out on the radio, and removing fifty one seconds of a track not because of the content of the song but because of the imputed motivations of the people buying it.

Cooper wasn't going to please everyone; instead, he's created an illogical mess.

Radio One remixes dance programming

Radio One is overhauling its specialist line-up, which MediaGuardian suggests might be to do with making the station younger:

Radio 1 has come under pressure from both its commercial rivals and the BBC Trust to attract a younger audience after the average age of its listenership kept creeping up.

[Ben] Cooper added: "It's important that Radio 1 continues to develop new talent and the station keeps evolving for our young listeners. These changes to our evening schedule will strengthen the range and depth of the specialist music offering on the network."

However, while three of the more durable specialists are stepping down - so long Kissy Sell Out, Judge Jules and Gilles Peterson - others are staying. Annie Mac remains, despite having had half a decade's start on Kissy Sell Out; 45 year-old Judge Jules will be waved off by the 51 year-old Pete Tong, still on the station; and although forty-something Peterson is hoping to find a new home at 6Music, Annie Nightingale remains on One for her 70th birthday year. It could very well be, simply, that Cooper thinks some of the specialists were starting to sound played out, and wanted to bring some fresh sounds - rather than younger blood - to the station.

The full list of changes, as detailed by the press office, are:

The Essential Mix will move from Saturdays (3.00am-5.00am) to Saturday (1.00am-3.00am)

Annie Nightingale moves from Fridays (2.00am-4.00am) to Saturdays (3.00-5.00am)

The Punk Show with Mike Davies will move from Tuesdays (2am-4am) to Wednesdays (12midnight-2am)

Nihal moves from Wednesdays (12midnight-2am) to Wednesdays (2.00am-4.00am)

Annie Mac, Fridays 7-9

Pete Tong, Friday, 9-11

Skream & Benga take Fridays, 11-1.

Toddla T, Fridays 2-4

Charlie Sloth, Tuesdays, 2-4

It did appear that Radio 1 had got totally funky by hiring someone with an asterisk in their name, as the press office reported this:

Friction* will be joining the station to host his own drum & bass show on Mondays (2am-4am).

But it turned out to just be pointing to a footnote inviting journalists to not confuse Friction and Bobby Friction.

Meanwhile, over on Radio One

Chris Moyles has come under a bit of a sustained attack recently, with the Guardian suggesting he's too old, and Gordon Smart filling a page announcing his departure. Today, Ben Cooper, deputy controller of Radio One, gave him the sort of backing that would have a Championship Manager packing up his office:

Cooper was asked at a radio conference today whether Moyles would still be presenting Radio 1's breakfast show in 12 months' time, after a front page story in the Sun nine days ago claimed that he would be dropped by the station later this year.

"Make sure that you keep listening and you will find out by listening every day," was Cooper's non-committal reply.

Pressed further, Cooper said: "We have got contracts to negotiate … I think he is a very good broadcaster and I want him to stay on breakfast so long as he keeps connecting with the young audience we want him to."

Yes, you wouldn't want to say too much if there's a contract up for negotiation, but 'tune in every day to see if he's still there' is a somewhat weak endorsement of the man's position. You could look in the Radio Times, I guess, but given the last-minute yanking of the Andy Kershaw interview, even that wouldn't guarantee his job.

Still, on the bright side for Moyles, at least there wasn't a hint that he might be yanked off mid-show.

Cooper was talking at Radio Reborn, which had earlier seen Paul Gambaccini relaunch his now slightly obsessive attacks on Moyles:

Speaking earlier at the conference, Gambaccini said Moyles "encouraged bullying" and caused "human suffering" after a show in which he changed the lyrics to two Will Young songs and sang them in an effeminate, high-pitched voice.

Cooper counters that if he thought Chris Moyles was a homophobic bully, he wouldn't put him on the radio. You wonder how loudly Cooper would listen to the small voice of doubt as he draws up the schedule.

The Great Gambo's attack might have had a bit more weight to it if he didn't seem to be moaning about Moyles every time he goes out in public.

And it's not as if Gambaccini isn't above a little lazy stereotyping himself:

If Gambaccini had a modicum of sympathy for Moyles, then it was because the Radio 1 breakfast show had been extended from two hours, as it once was, to three-and-a-half hours today.

"Traditionally it was two hours," said Gambaccini. "That's what killed [former breakfast host] Sara Cox because three hours was too much to demand of a woman who had never been on radio.

"Now Chris is told to fill three-and-a-half hours at a time when there aren't any new good records. The factors really are working against an artist who engages in what I call blog radio. Just open the mic and hope something interesting comes out."

I'm sure Gambaccini didn't really mean to make it sound like he was suggesting that it was unnatural to expect a woman particularly to make a long radio programme - but sometimes when you write these things down, they can look quite bad, can't they?

And the suggestion that there just aren't enough "good records" to fill a programme really is the elder statesman showing his age. You seriously believe that Moyles talks a lot because there simply aren't enough songs to fill until the next weather forecast? You seriously believe that, even if Moyles did decide to shut up, there isn't enough worth playing to fill the gap?