[ChunkyMunky]

When the Radio X show started, it was quite enjoyable, with enough content to make it interesting.
As time has gone on, it's become more difficult to listen to the show, with the content worth listening to becoming a rarity.

I still tried listening to it, enjoying occasional small parts of it, but most of it wasn't enjoyable at all ( I touched on this in a previous post).

Sometime at the beginning of this year, I actually stopped listening to it, annoyed by how many times they'd talk about (promote) a cash or prize giveaway, pretend to go on to something else for a minute or two, and then go back to the promotion for the same amount of time as before the slight tangent.
It was relentless, and combined with the lack of good ideas for content and the poor playlist, I found myself getting quite annoyed how rubbish the show was now.

Bear in mind, I'm talking about listening to the show from the archive, where all the music and ads are removed.
How anyone listens to the show live is beyond me.

Anyway, I thought I'd give the show another go at the start of the Euros, as the old show usually did a good job of talking about the football.
Holy ******* ****!
It was awful.
I got through about 3 shows before deciding enough was enough.

They were giving away holidays, so it was the constant "Text in. Someone's got to win it!" promotion, again and again and again, with very little in between.
The same boring songs from the same boring bands, with only the occasional decent song or band, and Chris' obsession with the overrated Oasis and Stereophonics is as annoying as ever.
There's so much great guitar music out there, why do they play such a limited selection of it.

We know that Chris can be funny (as long as he's not talking to the public, because he's always been rubbish at that), and we know that Dom can be very funny.
What we have now is Chris sounding like he couldn't give a toss about the lack of quality on the show, and Dom seems to have lost so much of what made him so funny, resorting to just agreeing with Chris in a mumbling way under his breath.

Great audio clips, and some occasionally really funny bits from a couple of features they usually play at the end of the show were the only thing that kept me listening, but it's not enough, and not even funny most of the time.

I think that it's obvious just how much Dave brought to the show, not just in his presence, but in his writing/ideas etc.
And I think it's also obvious just how much Aled brought to the show. Sometimes on-air, but always in his efforts off-air.
The show was always tight, with great ideas/features/foolishness, well produced, and a lot of laughs in the process.

What the hell do the producers/ asst producers etc actually do on the show now?
Where's the creativity?
Where's the fun?

It's almost like each contract negotiation, the bosses have managed to wear away more and more of the freedom and time Chris has, and he has gone along with it.
I've said before that he should be proud of his time in the business, especially at the BBC.
But he can't be proud of most of his time at Radio X.
He has become the type of DJ that he enjoyed taking the piss out of for years.
Next, he'll be doing corporate gigs and ads for life insurance (Alan Partridge anyone?)

What we have now is just poor music, adverts, and promotions, and Chris just seem happy to fill the few gaps that are left with talking about rubbish, again and again and again.

When he left Radio 1, I always hoped that he would end up on Radio 6, where he would at least have a broad range of music he could play, and would have probably talked a bit more than they would have liked.
Of course, with his friendship with Dave ruptured by then, who's to say if it would have worked.

I have been tempted to take an episode of the current show, and break it down into how much time is spent on promotions, talking/ etc, but I haven't got around to it yet.
But I am really curious if it's as bad as I think it is.

Anyway, I only wrote this post because I've always been a big fan of Chris and the show, but it's impossible to ignore how pretentious he's become, and how poor the show has become.

I'm currently listening to the old shows from 2006, and the difference is black and white.
You wouldn't think it was the same guy.

Such a shame.

CM

[ritchie]

Couldn't agree more - although I stopped 18 months ago - for all the same reasons.

I live in hope that after another hiatus he returns to the BBC with Dave.

[fish heads]

After seeing the site's Twitter account re-activate and try and get some of the production team to engage, I thought I'd see what the latest posts on the forum were. Wonder if Moyles would rip into this on air like the old days, especially as the tweets proclaim the site loves him (I mean I'm sure Chris H and the the mods etc all do, just a funny contrast).

I don't listen to the show as regularly anymore, and I do recognise some of the criticisms but not all of them. Not sure you can bag him for playing the same old music too much, Radio X haven't added much to their hard rotation this side of Chris debuting on the Radio 1 breakfast show and it's a commercial station. In terms of the bosses taking away his freedom, if anything I think he has too much freedom, hence the slight lack of direction of the show. You only have to listen to a lot of the Radio X output outside of breakfast to see how they would want the show if they could.

Giveaways aside - and I wouldn't put it past them single handily paying for the show and then some hence the hard sell - the show kind of exists in it's own little world. That can be both good and bad - you mention the Euros in the past being a great example of the show reflecting the real world - that was a huge part of Radio 1 - now it's just MoylesWorld (catchy name) and co and I bet any random show from the archive could have come from any year of Radio X at first listen. The exception for that was probably the first six months of the pandemic where I think they really ramped up the connection with the audience in a strange time and it really worked, but now the show is kind of back to where it was.

One criticism I would have with the current show is that it is obsessed with booze to an unhealthy degree. In terms of freedom, I can't think of any other breakfast show - commercial or otherwise - that would get away with the amount of times they have highlighted members of the team (including Toby) getting legless so often. I know it's a bit of fun but it's constant, and like a lot of the Radio X show it's a bit like a needle getting stuck on a record and becomes a groove they struggle to get out of.

In terms of features I do think they do big events well more often than not. I think Prize Dump, Car Roulette and 20 Seconds to 20K have all provided some really good fun moments - although I understand they have to do the hard sell to get to those moments but that's a commercial radio trade off unfortunately.

[obidankenobi]

I have to disagree - I think the Radio X show has improved over the years and now I love it and listen every day.. I do think that if you're invested and listen regularly, then it's a lot more enjoyable than just dipping in every now and then. I do agree the competitions can be a bit annoying but I always listen on catchup and if a competition is getting too repetitive I just skip through it and get back to the team having fun! (that said, I do think they are at least trying to make the competitions enjoyable to listen to a lot of the time, especially the bigger ones)

[neilt0]

I can't disagree with the criticisms voiced, but still enjoy every show. It's still very entertaining.

I have to skip the competitions, as I don't care about them. I also now skip the constant plugging of chrismoyles.shop Keep that to Insta, Chris. If I'm a fan, I'll follow you there and see the plugging anyway.

And are you not paid enough to not need to hawk tat?

The whining about IR35 is also getting a bit much. If you have to pay a lot of tax, that means you are paid a lot. It's a good problem to have. Anyone on a 6 figure salary can STFU, please.

[ChunkyMunky]

I can't disagree with the criticisms voiced, but still enjoy every show. It's still very entertaining.

I have to skip the competitions, as I don't care about them.

Yeah, I'm sure I'm missing the occasional little gem in the middle of all the crap, but as the title suggests, I find it hard to bother listening because it's got so bad.

I did a little compare, like I said I might previously, and the amount of time promoting the offers/prizes/cash etc aren't that much more than the BBC show used to promote their own branded stuff during the old show, which surprised me.
What I did find out, through further comparison of old shows to new shows, is that both filled the gaps talking about nonsense, which sometimes turned out funny, but in the new show, not only is Chris' delivery very drab and uninteresting compared to the old show, but it's like the others have been instructed not to interrupt, or are wary of doing so. Dom doesn't contribute or introject anywhere near as much as he used to, and as I've mentioned before, spends a lot of time mumbling agreement with Chris, so Chris can continue his story. That wasn't the case at the start of the Radio X era, so I don't know what's changed.

So the bottom line is that the show isn't as saturated with promo plugs as I thought, it's just that when the bits in-between are dull and boring, it seems like they go on forever.
I think they all seem a bit too comfortable, and need a rocket up their arse!
When lock-down first hit us, I think they were great keeping everyone upbeat for the first 6 months.
I have no idea what's happened to the show since then.

I also now skip the constant plugging of chrismoyles.shop Keep that to Insta, Chris. If I'm a fan, I'll follow you there and see the plugging anyway.

Well, I must have missed this because of my avoidance of the show.
I thought you were joking.
Just went and had a look at it....Oh Crap. How embarrassing!
You're right. Just how desperate is he?
Can you imagine on the old show how much he would have taken the piss out of a DJ for doing something like that?
He would be relentless!
Sad days.

The whining about IR35 is also getting a bit much. If you have to pay a lot of tax, that means you are paid a lot. It's a good problem to have. Anyone on a 6 figure salary can STFU, please.

Has he really been complaining about the Anti-Tax-Avoidance laws?
Seriously?
With his record on the subject?

I'm at a loss for words.
Unbelievable!

I may have to start listening again, just to witness it.
Any idea when this was?

I guess it's good that we have the archive of the old days with Dave, Chris and Dom.
I work from home, so like something to listen to in the background, and the old shows really are great (most of the time, not always, obviously).

Chris Moyles selling T-shirts and Mugs, and moaning he's not able to avoid paying his taxes?!!!

[myloxyloto]

While I do like (most of) the music and it certainly beats R1 playlist in the later days, if not the entire breakfast show era… the show probably has gone a bit stale. Too many competitions of which most are boring, and guests who are occasionally interesting but usually just plugging something.

I liked it better in the Judas Dave era, as at least he added something to the show as he was a proper music man, whereas James and Matt are just there to have the piss taken out of them really. They made more effort with features for a while in lockdown (though Dom’s made-up-names games got very tedious!) but it’s kind of back to old routine now.

Still no idea what else I’d listen to in the morning though. Too old for R1, too young for R2, not enough of a music geek for R6, and everything else is too cheesy and commercial.

[Longview01]

I turned off years ago

[DarroM]

I turned off years ago

Man, it has been over 3 1/2 years since I last posted something and it was another year or so before that.

I stopped listening about 5 years ago around the summer of 2016, as I just didn't really enjoy it to be honest mainly because of the repetitive playlist and most of the links were not that entertaining so I have no idea what it has been like for the most part the past 5 years. I listened to the show and the old ones at a time when I didn't have much to listen to during the night shift but unfortunately that has changed since then and thus it went by the wayside because of how uninteresting I found it.

I also thought the last number of months of the R1 show were pretty poor and was the reason why I started listening to from the start of the breakfast show since they were pretty much all there at this point.

[swaddon1903]

I will agree that it's getting quite repetitive and boring.

James eats jam. Dom watches mucky videos. Matt killed a turtle. All these tropes and more crop up on a daily basis, and it's long past the point where it's not funny any more.

I doubt Chris has much choice of what music he plays, so the playlist of endless Foo Fighters, Muse and Oasis isn't really his fault.

As myloxyloto said, there isn't much in the way of an alternative at breakfast time on the radio. "Hilarious" banter on the Dave Berry show on Absolute, Zoe Ball (no thank you) on Radio 2, young people's guff on Radio 1 or the interminable Jamie and Amanda on Heart. I'd still rather listen to a poor Chris Moyles show than any of those.

[ScottishJohn]

Hi All....a VERY long time lurker here, first time poster!

I hate to say it, but I'm at the point where I just don't bother listening any more, and I used to listen religiously every morning.

I was a bit of a latecomer to CM - I think originally I believed some of the paper talk "loudmouth roly poly dj" etc so decided i didn't want to like him. Ended up with it on in the car one day back in the R1 days and couldn't breathe for laughing - I loved it, but that was probably only 2 or 3 years before he finished the show.

I think the difference for me is that there's a distinct lack of energy....or dare I say even effort, it seems like. Unless I'm looking with rose-tinted specs, I remember there was this whole irreverence about the show - it bounced around so quickly from one gag to the next, one piss take to another, moments that were funny then were gone....I'll always remember one comment about Ban Ki Moon - I've no idea how it came up or why (I guess something in the news) but I remember Chris making some comment about it sounding like a game show host and then he played a daft gameshow jingle and announced "please welcome Ban Ki Moon" or something like that. Reading it back, it sounds dull - but in that moment of joke after joke and the whole atmosphere of the show it was just absolutely hilarious to the point I remember having to slow my car down because I had tears rolling down my face. By the way, if anyone possibly remembers that and could tell me when it was I'd love to hear it again and see if it's as funny as I remember!

Fast forward to today and we have the "gag" about James eating jam which (a) wasn't very amusing to begin with and (b) has now been dragged out for what, literally 3 years? Same with Doms mucky magazines, etc.

I also don't think some of the interviews with people on facetime work, nor do some of the activities or things they discuss when you can't see what they're talking about - I fully get now that they need to generate video content for social media but that doesn't translate into great radio!

Finally....I haven't listened for so long that I didn't know about the Chris Moyles Shop and I thought it was a joke until I've just googled it. OH. MY. GOD. What is he doing??!! It's cringe at its absolute cringiest - I mean, who would want to buy merchandise for ANY radio show/presenter these days, even if he was still top of the tree at Radio 1? It's not the days of Smash Hits, Tony Blackburn and Top Of The Pops and swearing your allegiance to your favourite pop DJ. Add to that that it's the laziest selection of merchandise you could think of - "stick the logo on a couple of mugs and water bottles, and throw a couple of Fruit Of The Loom t-shirts on there too". Honestly, I think that's an embarassment.

Anyway....there's my 2p!