[Wykey]

Speaking as an ardent Moyles fan (which should be obvious due to the clipping, Tedious Links, tribute book etc), and someone who's cried more than once about the show ending, I am shocked by the level of hate for Nick Grimshaw here. I respect everyone's opinions, but it has really taken me aback how strongly anti-Grimmy everyone seems to be.

I don't hate him, I just don't think he's any good and there are a lot of things about his style, his demeanour and his persona which grate.

I do generally feel a little unsettled by adults behaving like children, or acting in a RanDOm And KeraZEE manner, and the fact that Radio 1 (or certainly the breakfast show) seems to have turned more toward 3AM / Celebrity Showbiz dreariness further grates.

But I don't hate him.

[Wykey]

The dropping of Ts is his accent! I speak to people from Oldham almost every day, that's how they talk. The campness is a different thing, though...

I'm guessing they'd also drop the ts from Littlemix though, rather than exaggerate them and selectively drop other ts - which makes me think he's putting it all on.

[daveG]

I think its wrong that the national broadcaster feels it has to be concerened about aming its headline stations at specific age groups rather than giving its stations an image and brand based on the music, the listeners can surely make up their own minds without assistance from a taste setter or any kind of positive descrimination towards an age group.
As a national broadcatser you should strive for appeal to the widest range of listeners, by chasing a specific age group you limit your listening figures. In this day and age Radio 1 is chasing a group who have way more choice and much more media in general viing for their attention. It seems like madness to cut out a lot of the listeners you had, who in many cases due to routine listend, contributed and boosted your figures.
The pirate stations radio 1 grew out of didn't care how old you were, they just played the music and had a style of presentation that the DJ who played that music fancied doing.
what next BBC1 only appropriate for the under 30s, BBC2 for the rest?
Niche stations... yes, if you have got some cash to fullfil some requirment or other then do it, radio 1 extra is fine by me.
BBC3 yup i can see its value cbeebies and Cbbc Ok, free up you daytime spots on you main channels for other stuff
These are deliberate niche products, not repurposing an established channel to alienate a proprortion of the consumers.

painful prank phone calls this morning, how low will Grimshaw sink

wasn't Mills copying Steve Penk's "comedy call" ideas 10 years ago?

Mmm Grrrrr

Keef Sweef

[daveG]

The dropping of Ts is his accent! I speak to people from Oldham almost every day, that's how they talk. The campness is a different thing, though...

I'm guessing they'd also drop the ts from Littlemix though, rather than exaggerate them and selectively drop other ts - which makes me think he's putting it all on.

has he started saying shtudio and shtudent like Cotton and some of the news beat mob yet

S Sssssssssss sh is for ship not student

once you hear it

aaaaaaarg

D

[Yudster]

I've noticed the little lisp too - that's both new, and intermittent, indicating that it is an affectation rather than an anomaly.

[neilt0]

Perhaps he wants to be a shports presenter.

[zort70]

I have left my alarm clock tuned to Radio 1, mainly as there isn't much other choice really, it is set for 6:30am and I used to be awake every day at that time and heard Dom read the news and then the Cheesy song.

Since he took over I don't think I've woken up before the second alarm goes of at 7 to tell me to really get up.

I have to say I've been listening to the old shows on the way to work so I haven't heard much else, but anything I have heard is just poor.

To be fair he had nowhere to go if the instruction from above was to break all links and wipe any mention of Chris.

[myloxyloto]

Well, instructions or otherwise he was always going to do his own thing, he was never going to be referencing Moyles frequently or copying his features and style... but he's clearly under orders to reduce the average age and I'm happy to assist in that regard!

A week of Scott was just like normal holiday and it didn't really hit home until the new show began that Chris and the team wouldn't be back. Only took a couple of days to confirm to me that Radio 1 isn't for me any more and it will take a special show to bring me back, and Grimmy isn't that... now on station rotation, at least there's plenty of different ones to try out!

[Nicola_Red]

I understand everyone's points of view, even if I don't agree with them all. I think all the negativity is just getting me down a bit. And yes I know I could just not read the thread, but as a moderator I try to keep an eye on everything.

[The Deadly]

The show is non offensive, easy radio. Ideal for the target audience it's trying to attract. I'd imagine radio 1 are delighted a lot of us here hate it so much. Job done for them.

[Tunster]

I understand everyone's points of view, even if I don't agree with them all. I think all the negativity is just getting me down a bit. And yes I know I could just not read the thread, but as a moderator I try to keep an eye on everything.

Isn't that quite understandable given the serious dumbing down the BBC has inflicted on quite a prestigious show? Their flagship show has turned into a mush of limited scope celebrity gossip and rammed with too much music without very much show chat around the personalities of the show. To push it lower than anything we can hear at any part of the day on Radio 1 is a bad, bad call in my honest opinion. I still disagree with the BBC Trusts position to force R1 to bring in more younger people listening to the station. R1 already started to turn the tables by playing harder music in the mornings and feature more bands that are favourites of the younger side of the audience. I still believe the CM show had that balance today. Yes, the balance was being lost a bit as legacy listeners were stilling tuning in, but that older audience themselves were turning into parents and their kids were probably part of the experience on school runs etc. CM had no problem adopting station policy towards the end of the show.

I personally don't dislike Grimmy and I think you're being a bit harsh on people just stating they dislike the show and being negative about it. I think he's quirky broadcaster that is a breath of fresh air to be honest in comparison to average joes on the station (Fearne, Matt E, Greg etc). But what they've done to turn the show on it's head is going to potentially give the station bad reputation in the long run, regardless whether it's claiming to be responding to the issues of not having a young enough overall average audience.

[dimtimjim]

I understand everyone's points of view, even if I don't agree with them all. I think all the negativity is just getting me down a bit. And yes I know I could just not read the thread, but as a moderator I try to keep an eye on everything.

These two things should not be related. Allow negativity to get you down as a poster only, as a mod you should be impartial to opinion and only enforce the rules as set out by Mr H.

Observation, not criticism.

[Nicola_Red]

I understand everyone's points of view, even if I don't agree with them all. I think all the negativity is just getting me down a bit. And yes I know I could just not read the thread, but as a moderator I try to keep an eye on everything.

These two things should not be related. Allow negativity to get you down as a poster only, as a mod you should be impartial to opinion and only enforce the rules as set out by Mr H.

Observation, not criticism.

I didn't mean that at all. I have been very careful to emphasise that I respect everyone's opinion and I'm not trying to tell them not to express it. (I defended Dave Bedford's right to post when others were calling for him to be banned, after all.) What I was trying to say was that although I don't like reading so many negative comments, I can't take the oft-advised route of "just don't read it then", because I'm the moderator and I can't just stay out of certain threads. Does that make sense?

(A classic example of this was the weight-loss thread in Ramble - I stated explicitly that I would stay out of it as I am pro-fat acceptance and anti-weight loss diets. Then Beadle decided to rejoin the forum and cause havoc and I ended up having to read through the whole thread and selectively delete stuff.)

[StarryEyed]

I actually feel really sorry for Grimmy. I think whoever got the gig would be getting all the same criticism. After all, It's not his decision to be aiming for the young listeners. Yeah, obviously his personality as a presenter is part of it, but the big bosses have obviously reigned him in a lot for the show. It's a shame because I really like Grimmy and thought he was excellent filling in for Greg/Scott, but it's not all his fault.

[fatboydave73]

I agree; I do actually feel sorry for Grimmy at present.

He has had to step in to a rather large pair of boots; it was always going to be tough to take over the show following Chris leaving. To be honest, I think the powers that be didn't give him a fair chance from day 1; I would have left a larger gap in the between the end of TCMS and the start of the new show, with some of the other DJs chipping in for a week each to allow for the dust to settle.

He is always going to be compared with what there was; I admit I am one of the worst for thinking negatively of the whole thing but I think he is genuinely trying to make a good fist of it.

Maybe when the dust finally does settle, and he gets a bit less flack and more confident, he wil produce a decent show.

[Wykey]

I actually feel really sorry for Grimmy. I think whoever got the gig would be getting all the same criticism. After all, It's not his decision to be aiming for the young listeners. Yeah, obviously his personality as a presenter is part of it, but the big bosses have obviously reigned him in a lot for the show. It's a shame because I really like Grimmy and thought he was excellent filling in for Greg/Scott, but it's not all his fault.

Whoever got the gig would be getting all the same criticism?

Well that's clearly not true, unless you believe that Grimshaw is simply a talking puppet.

[Nicola_Red]

I think whoever got it would suffer invariable comparison to Moyles though, don't you?

[Yudster]

Anybody getting the gig would experience comparison. Whether they suffered from it or not would depend on their performance though.

[Nicola_Red]

I certainly can't think of anyone in the current Radio 1 lineup who would match up to the expectations of diehard Moyles fans.

[Yudster]

I wasn't thinking about isolated criticism from individuals, more the overall picture.

[Tunster]

I certainly can't think of anyone in the current Radio 1 lineup who would match up to the expectations of diehard Moyles fans.

I agree to a point, but in the public eye; the new show has gone down badly. Even with its own target audience it wants to pull in. No doubt the first couple of weeks for anyone would be huge pressure, huge expectation and huge criticism. But the major issue is, there isn't really any broadcaster on Radio 1 who could stand on their own two feet and continue with their own style that CM created by himself. All previous presenters prior to CM were from a radio background. Grimmy is not. This is why my impression that the BBC exec's / producers are taking control of Grimmy is making him lose his quirky style a bit for the sake of abrupt change.

[StarryEyed]

Whoever got the gig would be getting all the same criticism?

Well that's clearly not true, unless you believe that Grimshaw is simply a talking puppet.

Yes, because like the others have said, he is going to get compared to someone set the bar high. The only person who I don't think would get as much criticism is Scott Mills, and that's based on the fact that he already has a large fan base.

And to an extent, he is a talking puppet. I can't imagine many other of the DJs who would air their dislike for Chris Brown and refuse to play his songs like Chris did. Similarly, I can't imagine another DJ having the guts to go up to the big bosses and say "we don't really want to play music for the first half hour of the show. We just want to talk about whatever comes into our heads".

Do you really think the DJs want to be talking about the Hackney weekend/big weekend/teen awards/whatever competition is running that takes over the station, for weeks on end? Or playing the jingles/trails constantly and running the ticket competitions ever 5 minutes? I'm not sure they would. It's understandable though, would you want to go up to your boss within a month of starting a new position and ask them that you want to play x type of music/speak to the team more?I know I would be hesitant. Hopefully this will change as the show settles down because I enjoyed Grimmy's shows with Annie Mac and whenever he popped in to see Chris and the team

[Wykey]

I think whoever got it would suffer invariable comparison to Moyles though, don't you?

They would be compared - some more favourably, some less favourably - the discussion about what people are listening to now instead of Grimshaw is a prime example of that (in effect they're Moyles' replacements too).

I've read most of the criticism and I don't think it's one-eyed and unfair, so I think there's a fair chance other presenters would have been criticised depending on their performance / personality / ability - but certainly not the same.

[fatboydave73]

There is quite an old adage in life; if it isn't broke, don't fix it.

Whatever the BBC Trust dictated to Radio 1's controller about target audiences and demographics etc, the fact of the matter was that the whole line up was a fairly stable, winning format across the whole day. Back in June before the announcement, Ben Cooper could have quite happily sat in his office and seen his radio station was ticking along nicely, ratings were good, he could trust the presenters etc that they didn't get him into too much controversy/trouble and his job was to just keep the good ship plotting it's course.

Now, whatever happened in the summer, and whatever happened in that discussion between CM and BC maybe we will never know; however now the ship is in total disarray; the stability has gone, the flagship show is now in trouble, and the guy he thought (or the trust thought) could do the job is flapping around and struggling.

As Chris mentioned in his closing speech; Grimmy is and always wil take a lot of flack for being the Breakfast Show host; it is the biggest show in radio and he is there to be shot at. I spoke before about him being a scapegoat etc, and potentially his whole career being screwed up by this, and I still genuinely believe that he has been put in there almost as if to say "told you it wouldn't work"

I think over the next few months, the show will morph more and more into a zoo format (as this is proven to work in the mornings) and it will improve. But only if Grimmy is allowed to do it in a winning format, not in the style it is in at the moment.

[myloxyloto]

It will be interesting to see the early audience figures, and if we get any idea of what the BBC's targets are in terms of audience retention. Guess they plan/expect to lose a sizeable chunk of their audience, and it will be a combination of numbers and age profile they will look at.

Also equally interesting will be where the "Moyles refugees" appear to have mostly ended up. Chris Evans' holiday could barely have been more badly timed, how many listeners will have been permanently lost to commercial stations who might have given him a try these past couple of weeks?

Anyway, it's a watershed moment for R1, either they go through a slump like after the early 90s clearout then recover with a new generation, or alternatively the next generation aren't interested and the station has to reinvent itself to remain viable, and redraw the boundaries between Radio 1 and 2.