Radio 1: as it is: epilogue

So actually there's not much point in listing the Zane Lowe, In New Music We Trust and Colin Murray playlists here, as they're all archived on Radio 1's website. Anyway, we've done twelve hours of playlisted daytime, we think we can gain an idea of our point from that.

Which is, there does seem to be a lot less music played on the station than you might expect. Four records were played three times over the daytime schedule and of the four presenters three are clearly personality led and the other, Whiley, has a lot of interruptions for the main part of her show for listener interaction and the like. Interestingly, while we've been on this this week Radio 1 has unveiled a new schedule that among other things drops the Thursday regional Zane Lowe opt-out to midnight on Wednesdays, curtailing Huw Stephens' unsigned show, the spiritual successor to Peel. Murray has the late evening slot now and has made it nothing like the Peel approach in any way, and while there's an argument that as nobody could replace his dedication to finding new music there's a far more persuasive one that, if you're running with that new tag, having a show that plays very new music at an accessible time with no easy Listen Again clause. (Also, what the hell is that Sunday evening Annie Mac show "covering all things teen-related" supposed to be? That'll change focus in three months.)

The problem is, we're railing against the methods of something on an upwards curve in terms of listeners and core audience approval. It's the old independent radio argument - you can give the listeners what you think they want, but at the end of the day they want to listen onto to what they already want.