I couldn’t let tomorrow go past without an acknowledgement.
For you see, Monday 7 September marks the date when Chris Moyles’s becomes the longest-serving breakfast DJ on Radio One, overtaking the record of 2,072 days set by Tony Blackburn over 30 years ago.
Personally, I always remember Noel Edmonds’ tenure of the post as my favourite. It was in my late teens and I loved waking up to his innovative mix of risque comedy, daft features and great music. A template which he went on to use to good effect when he moved to Saturday night television, Mr Blobby notwithstanding. Although, in his defence, there were some very funny spoofs upstaging celebrities and my daughter loved the big pink and yellow blob. We even visited Blobbyland with her dressed in a matching pink frock with yellow spots and had a photo taken with him.
Moyles’s tongue-in-cheek insistence that he ‘saved Radio One’ is not far wrong. After Noel went on to bigger and better things, there were a succession of DJs, some more successful than others but audience figures were being hard fought over with the advent of breakfast television and numerous other local and national radio stations joining the battle for listeners. Ratings began to fall and then Moyles arrived.
I came to the latest incarnation of the Breakfast Show late, because my children’s father always tuned in to Sir Terry over at Radio Two. However, when I started walking to work, I had a choice and, since I wanted to try to keep up with current musical genres and groups so as to have some knowledge of the subject when I talked with my young teenagers, I chose Radio One to come through my headphones.
When I used to leave Ruf’s at 4.35am in order to drive back in time for work, I always sang along to the Brand New Cheesy Song at 6.30am.
To a lot of people, Moyles is a gobby, Northern lardyarse but I like it when he refuses to interview celebs who turn up late without a proper reason. I also enjoy his relaxed yet inquisitorial style. He’s very matey with the subjects and not afraid to say when they’ve said something daft, but he’s also very happy to share his personal appreciation of their work/assets. As a result, most lower their guard and show the real side of their personalities rather than their PR-moulded face – although sometimes this is not such a good thing, depending on your viewpoint. Some seem to thrive on negative publicity.
Moyles also writes some very catchy jingles and some superb spoofs of current hits by recording them with his own lyrics. He’s actually not a bad singer – as was evidenced by his appearance on the celebrity X Factor which ran a couple of years ago.
These days, though, breakfast shows are not just about the presenter. There is always a team involved both in production and scripting, but also going out over the airwaves. Now the producers, the newsreaders, the sports newsreaders, the weather people, the script writers are all involved and almost as well known as the main DJ himself.
Hence, Comedy Dave often DJs for Radio One and Dom has become involved in children’s television. Together, they formed the group, Folkface, and perform at various outdoor concerts over the summer. They even auditioned in front of Sir Andrew Lloyd Weber to represent the UK in last year’s Eurovision Song Contest.
I think my favourite parody has to be this one:
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