Evs wrote:Anyone reckon we could get Masterman or Pippa to take over the "Ask Aled" section? Would be good to get some behind the scenes of the Radio X show.
I thought about this recently. Aled was so *on* the social side of what the fans were thinking and feeling about the show, especially on here. Does anyone think Pippa and Dave even bother with this site? I'd quite happily put a cheeky 50p wager on Masterman being oblivious to our existence. It's not the kinda place I imagine he's ever had to deal with, per his previous shows. That's a shame because Aled had it nailed, but this new show feels like it's wrapped itself in a bit of a bubble.
Having read the last few posts, I had to laugh when listening to the podcast and hearing Chris say that he's doing the best radio he's ever done. I'm sure he means it, too. Without being namedroppy, I spoke to someone on the show recently (strictly professional!) and they reiterated how freeing they find Radio X compared to the BBC. In Chris' mind, I have no doubt that he is probably very happy to no longer have to walk through minefields just to get a show on the air. When Howard Stern left terrestrial radio to move to satellite radio where he could swear and be free of FCC (US equiv. of OFCOM) regulation, he felt he was doing the best radio of his life too. And for a little while, the shows were pretty great. So as a broadcaster, it must be so liberating to have your professional and social ducks in a row and feel like you're in a calm, happy and sensible place.
And yet for me as a listener, the best radio comes from everything they are so happy to have escaped. I love conflict radio. Almost all of my favourite moments of the old show came from the collective exasperation at what they were facing from upper management. One of Chris' greatest strengths (and the main staple of Stern's success too) was creating the feeling of us vs. them! Chris was on Radio 1 in spite of Radio 1 and gave us the show we wanted because he was fighting for it, not because they (the BBC) wanted us to have it. Lord knows how many years we all spent knowing that someone at the BBC wanted to replace him with a younger talent. But that in itself was kinda exhilarating. Remember when Danny Baker went mental about Radio London live on air and everyone raved about how great it was? Because it was great, but it was also Danny rallying against the nameless suits who don't care about us as individual listeners. He was ranting on our behalf and we ate it up. Same for Chris. So many people hated him and wanted him to fail, but we never did. We always stuck with the team because it felt like the team always stuck with us. Go back and listen to the Sound Vault and pick almost any feature or funny bit from '06-'12: it's a great platform to hear so many different battles going on behind the scenes. I'm sure it gave Chris nightmares at times, but for the listener (read: me) it was a reason to get out of bed and listen. I just couldn't spend my day without it.
Today? I mean, it's not a bad show. It's funny, Dave and Pippa are perfect foils and I will never begrudge Dom getting a more prominent role. It may have its faults - Dave is too intimidated of Chris in a way that Aled and Rachel never afforded him; it can only be listened to in the edited non-commercial/music version; and I'd love some of the backroom staff to get more time on air because more voices are desperately needed - but it's still the best show out there right now. But there is very little conflict and I hate to say this at the risk of seeming ungrateful or even resentful of the team, at times it does just feel like four people doing a radio show. And I can hear people doing a radio show anywhere at this point. There's no urgency or feeling that this show is being done out of necessity. It's almost, and it kills me to say this, milquetoast at times. And whilst another voice certainly might help, it's not going to do much more than paper over the cracks. Occasionally, the old Chris will come to the surface and you can begin to see little issues forming with Chris vs. Radio X or Global and I get excited that the show is finally going to burst out of its bubble. But then everything is fairy liquid again and I sink back into my seat, defeated.
Now having said all that, my favourite show of the week of any show at all is the podcast intro! For some reason that I still can't work out, the podcast intro feels like a completely different team doing a completely different show. I don't know if it's because it's looser, less structured and more like four people forced into a room and told to fill 15 minutes worth of tape, or because it's just better in and of itself, but I could happily live with the "best bits" being removed and just listening to a full hour of a podcast intro. It's funny, it's whimsical and it's * entertaining. THAT'S the Chris Moyles Show that I grew to love and it shows ultimately that the talent is still there. So in all the negativity, I can only praise the podcast intros and hope that they become more of a thing. I get the point of them: advertise the live shows, give Global some cool podcast numbers to report in their financial meetings, etc. But scrap the clips and give us more original content because it's the best damn thing going right now.
chrismoyles.net
