{"id":699384,"date":"2026-07-19T03:24:35","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T03:24:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/699384\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T03:24:35","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T03:24:35","slug":"radio-1-wont-survive-unless-it-gives-up-on-the-youth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/699384\/","title":{"rendered":"Radio 1 won’t survive unless it gives up on ‘the youth’"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been listening to Radio 1<\/a> since I was about 12 years old. It shaped my taste in music, it forged my love of radio, and its voices, in-jokes and jingles \u2013 just as much as its playlists \u2013 have soundtracked decades of rushed mornings and slow afternoons and big nights.<\/p>\n

Tuning in now, to the Greg James<\/a> breakfast show, gives me a nostalgic connection to the past \u2013 when Radio 1 was cool, anarchic, and unmissable, a way to be part of something bigger, connected to a scene that felt like another universe from everyday, suburban tedium. I know how formative radio was for me as a teenager and in my twenties, and how long this was a cultural force to be reckoned with for the generations that came before. So it\u2019s not easy for me to say this. But I think it\u2019s got to give up chasing the young.<\/p>\n

Yesterday the station announced a big shake-up of its schedule, resulting in six presenters leaving \u2013 including Melvin Odoom, Rickie Haywood-Williams and Dean McCullough. Among those added to the line-up are TikTok stars GK Barry and Charley Marlowe, which has prompted the now familiar outcry about influencers being appointed to jobs that ought to go to experienced, skilled DJs who have risen the ranks and earned it.<\/p>\n

My feeling on that is that while it\u2019s not a good look<\/a>, some successful \u201ccontent creators\u201d really are good broadcasters whose popularity depends on a genuine connection with their fans, of precisely the same kind that great radio DJs build. So I can understand why stations might give shows to figures like Barry, with big opinions and big followings and most importantly, big personalities, in a bid to draw their followers to listen or cash in on their popularity. I also think it will never work.<\/p>\n

Radio 1\u2019s problem runs too deep to be fixed by any desperate, panicked \u201crefresh\u201d. I think about it every time I listen to Greg James, and wonder how long he will last before he gets a better offer and what in the world they\u2019ll do without him. They must be terrified. Because it is his show, which will turn eight in August, and his show alone that retains the galvanised community and authority of Radio 1\u2019s heyday. He is their last-surviving big hitter \u2013 see his invitation to Taylor Swift\u2019s wedding for confirmation of that \u2013 and when he goes, Radio 1\u2019s struggle for relevance will be graver than ever.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not Radio 1\u2019s fault, and it\u2019s not the only victim. We all know what it\u2019s up against. Radio competes with social media and short-form video for attention. It competes with podcasts for listeners. It competes with algorithms and streamers for new music. And BBC radio specifically competes with better-funded commercial rivals for big-name presenting talent.<\/p>\n

None of these other mediums, in my view, have a hope at creating the live frisson, intimacy, or companionship of the community around a good radio programme. But the only people who know how important that is are those, like me, who already have it ingrained and would mourn its absence. It\u2019s not ingrained in young people who have grown up around diffuse media, to be consumed on demand, where something communal and mainstream is bland compared to all the podcasts and YouTube videos that cater to the very nichest of interests and tastes.<\/p>\n

Radio 1 is hit hardest by the threats to the industry because part of its purpose is to ingrain the relationship with the medium: to engage with the culture of an audience that is more fragmented than ever, bring people together, and keep them listening.<\/p>\n

\"TXThe trio of Melvin Odoom, Charlie Hedges and Rickie Haywood-Williams is being split up (Photo: Leigh Keily\/BBC)<\/p>\n

As it contends with budget cuts and white papers and the ever-divisive licence fee, the BBC talks a lot about meeting audiences \u201cwhere they are\u201d. That means prioritising streaming before linear TV, it means podcasts before live broadcasts, it means a bombardment with short-form video on social media and it can mean putting \u201cpersonalities\u201d before products and programmes. It probably rested on its legacy for too long before accepting the reality of the existential threats that risk destroying it, but meeting audiences \u201cwhere they are\u201d is its best chance of survival.<\/p>\n

But does that really work with Radio 1? Radio 1 is supposed to be the \u201cplace\u201d its audience wants to be. A conversation you don\u2019t want to miss out on, the first play of a song the world is waiting to hear, an interview with the most exciting and most famous people in the world, an exclusive live performance of a cover an artist has never played before. It\u2019s supposed to be a club, a friendship group, full of in-jokes and anecdotes and shared memories \u2013 but one that everybody is allowed to join.<\/p>\n

Ten, 20 years ago, when listeners didn\u2019t have so many distractions nor so much choice, Radio 1 and its presenters felt like a team, who would take you along with them to the Brit Awards, to their Christmas party, to Glastonbury. Only Greg James\u2019s show continues this same spirit.<\/p>\n

Shouldn\u2019t that community be what it aims to build? Young people are so disengaged with radio and the BBC that the measures to appeal to them are growing desperate. And thanks to tech and streamers, Radio 1 can never again be at music\u2019s cutting edge. So rather than trying and failing to relate to an audience that is less and less interested, and ending up with a muddled voice and a confused identity, perhaps it should abandon the burdensome \u201cyouth\u201d label altogether.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it should focus instead on the millennials who still remember Radio 1 as a place of rowdy unpredictability, of possibility, of reliable, funny, smart presenters and teams that don\u2019t take themselves too seriously and who you imagine you might be friends with, rather than big attention-seeking ones you can\u2019t relate to playing tinny TikTok music.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a gap in the market, isn\u2019t there? All this panic about \u201cyouth\u201d neglects the number of millennials left in limbo by the BBC. I suspect that a significant proportion of James\u2019s 4.23m weekly listeners do not lie in Radio 1\u2019s 15-29 \u201cyouth\u201d bracket at all but are people between 30 and 40 who grew up with the station and haven\u2019t fully kicked the habit.<\/p>\n

\"TheRadio 1 in the era of Annie Nightingale used to be a cultural force to be reckoned with (Photo: Peter Stone\/Mirrorpix\/Getty)<\/p>\n

His programme, once safe compared to others on the roster, is the only one on there that hasn\u2019t quite aged us out: other shows presented by millennials, like Matt and Molly at lunchtime and Going Home with Vick, Katie and Jamie, feel geared to the more juvenile listener. And yet there doesn\u2019t seem a clear place for us to go next. Even with its rejigs to incorporate more Noughties and 90s music, Radio 2<\/a> still feels about seven years too old to be relatable for youngish professionals, and 6 Music<\/a> has better songs but is a lot less fun. Would it really be such a betrayal for Radio 1 to park the youngest demographic as a lost cause for now and try instead to recapture the millennials left adrift?<\/p>\n

Easier said than done, of course: part of the crisis Radio 1 faces is that Greg James does not have any clones, nor any obvious successors. Its problems are all exacerbated because radio\u2019s diminishing impact is cutting off the pipeline of rising stars. People who would once have earned their stripes in local radio or in the graveyard slots either give up because the opportunities aren\u2019t there, or make their own content, start podcasts, or go on reality TV, and if they\u2019re successful then the BBC can\u2019t afford to appoint them anyway.<\/p>\n

But if Radio 1 is to survive, it would do better to spend time and resources appealing to the listeners it lost, not the ones too young to care. James is proof that there is still an audience for mature, human programmes with a silly streak, that take risks, that stop underestimating listeners\u2019 intelligence when it comes to conversations and more importantly stop underestimating their age when it comes to the music choices.<\/p>\n

More programmes like this are Radio 1\u2019s best chance of sincerely meeting listeners in every sense of \u201cwhere they are\u201d\u2013 and of restoring the prestige and community powerful enough that it might once again capture the elusive, all-important \u201cyouth\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019ve been listening to Radio 1 since I was about 12 years old. It shaped my taste in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":699385,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[243,84046,96,167489,128,2820,73263,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-699384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-bbc","tag-bbc-radio-1","tag-entertainment","tag-greg-james","tag-music","tag-pop-music","tag-radio-1","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}