BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the BBC which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock or interviews. It is aimed primarily at the 15–29 age group. Radio 1 was launched at 7:00am on 30 September 1967 as a direct response to the popularity of offshore pirate radio stations such as Radio Caroline, which had been outlawed by Act of Parliament.

History

First broadcast

The first DJ to broadcast on the new station was Tony Blackburn, whose cheery style, first heard on Radio Caroline and 'Wonderful Radio London', won him the prime slot on what became known as the "Radio 1 Breakfast Show" (although its original formal title, as shown in the Radio Times was Daily Disc Delivery, while Blackburn himself referred to it eponymously as the Tony Blackburn Show). The first words on Radio 1 – after a "countdown" by the Controller of Radios 1 and 2, Robin Scott, and a jingle, recorded at PAMS in Dallas, Texas, beginning "The voice of Radio 1" – were "... And, good morning everyone. Welcome to the exciting new sound of Radio 1". This was the first use of US-style jingles on BBC radio, but the style was familiar to listeners who were acquainted with Blackburn and other DJs from their days on pirate radio. The first complete record played on Radio 1 was "Flowers in the Rain" by The Move (although technically the first music played was "Theme One" by George Martin leading into part of "Beefeaters (On Parade)" by Johnny Dankworth, Blackburn's signature tune carried over from pirate radio). The second single was "Massachusetts" by The Bee Gees. There has been some speculation that the inclusion of "Flowers in the Rain" was intended to signal the end of the "flower power" "Summer of Love" of 1967. The breakfast show remains the most prized slot in the Radio 1 schedule, with every change of breakfast show presenter exciting considerable media interest.The initial rota of staff included John Peel (who remained with the station until his death in October 2004) and a gaggle of others, some hired from pirates, such as Ed Stewart, Terry Wogan, Jimmy Young, Dave Cash, Kenny Everett, Simon Dee, Pete Murray, and Bob Holness. Annie Nightingale, who joined just after the launch in 1970, was effectively Britain's first female DJ and is now the longest serving presenter, having constantly evolved her musical tastes with the times.

Seventies peak

Initially, the station was unpopular with some of its target audience who, it is claimed, disliked the fact that much of its airtime was shared with Radio 2 and that it was less unequivocally aimed at a young audience than the offshore stations, with some DJs such as Jimmy Young being in their 40s. The very fact that it was part of an "establishment" institution such as the BBC was a turn-off for some, and needle time restrictions prevented it from playing as many records as offshore stations had. It also had limited finances (partially because the BBC did not increase its licence fee to fund the new station) and often, as in January 1975, suffered disproportionately when the BBC had to make financial cutbacks, strengthening an impression that it was regarded as a lower priority by senior BBC executives.

Despite this, it gained massive audiences, becoming the most listened to station in the world with audiences of over 10 million claimed for some of its shows (up to 20 million for Blackburn's Breakfast Show). In the early-mid 1970s Radio 1 presenters were rarely out of the British tabloids. The popularity of its touring summer live broadcasts the Radio 1 Roadshow drew some of the largest crowds of the decade and the station undoubtedly played a role in maintaining the high sales of 45 rpm single records although it benefited from a lack of competition. (Independent Local Radio did not begin until October 1973 and took many years to cover virtually all of the UK).

Nineties changes

In his last few months as controller, Johnny Beerling commissioned a handful of new shows that in some ways set the tone for what was to come under Matthew Bannister. One of these "Loud'n'proud" was the UK's first national radio series aimed at a gay audience (made in Manchester and aired from August 1993). Far from being a parting quirk, the show was a surprise hit and led to the network's first coverage of the large outdoor Gay Pride event in 1994. Bannister took the reins fully in October 1993. His aim was to rid the station of its 'Smashie and Nicey' image and make it appeal to the under 25s. Although originally launched as a youth station, by the early 1990s, its loyal listeners (and DJs) had aged with the station over its 25 year history. Many long-standing DJs, such as Simon Bates, Dave Lee Travis, Alan Freeman, Bob Harris, Gary Davies, and later Steve Wright, Bruno Brookes and Johnnie Walker left the station or were sacked, and in January 1995 old music (typically anything recorded before 1990) was banned from the daytime playlist.

Many listeners rebelled as the first new DJs to be introduced represented a crossover from other parts of the BBC (notably Bannister and Trevor Dann's former colleagues at the BBC's London station, GLR) with Emma Freud and Danny Baker. Another problem was that, at the time, Radio 2 was sticking resolutely to a format which appealed mainly to those who had been listening since the days of the Light Programme, and commercial radio, which was targeting the "Radio 1 and a half" audience, consequently enjoyed a massive increase in its audience share at the expense of Radio One.

After the departure of Steve Wright, who had been unsuccessfully moved from his long-running afternoon show to the breakfast show in January 1994, Bannister hired Chris Evans to present the prime morning slot in April 1995. Evans was a popular but controversial presenter who was eventually sacked in 1997 after he demanded to present the breakfast show for only four days per week. Evans was replaced from February 17, 1997 by Mark and Lard – Mark Radcliffe (along with his sidekick Marc Riley), who found the slick, mass-audience style required for a breakfast show did not come naturally to them. They were replaced by Zoe Ball and Kevin Greening eight months later in October 1997, with Greening moving on and leaving Ball as solo presenter. The re-invention of the station happened at a fortuitous time, with the rise of Britpop in the mid-90s – bands like Oasis, Blur and Pulp were popular and credible at the time and the station's popularity rose with them. Documentaries like John Peel's "Lost In Music" which looked at the influence that the use of drugs have had over popular musicians received critical acclaim but were slated inside Broadcasting House.

Later in the 90s the Britpop boom declined, and manufactured chart pop (boy bands and acts aimed at sub-teenagers) came to dominate the charts. New-genre music occupied the evenings (indie on weekdays and dance at weekends), with a mix of specialist shows and playlist fillers through late nights. The rise of rave culture through the late 80s and early 90s gave the station the opportunity to move into a controversial and youth-orientated movement by bringing in a club DJ, Pete Tong. This quickly gave birth to the Essential Mix where underground DJs mixed rave and club based music in a two hour slot. Dance music has been a permanent feature on Radio 1 since with club DJ's such as Judge Jules, Danny Rampling and Seb Fontaine all having shows as well as Radio 1 hosting an annual weekend in Ibiza.

Listening figures continued to decline but the station succeeded in targeting a younger age-group. Eventually, this change in content was reflected by a rise in audience that is continuing to this day. Notably, the station has received praise for shows such as The Sunday Surgery, Bobby Friction and Nihal, The Evening Session with Steve Lamacq and its successor Zane Lowe. Its website has also been well received.

A new evening schedule was introduced in September 2006, dividing the week by genre. Monday is mainly pop-funkrock-oriented, Tuesday is R&B and hip-hop, Thursday and Friday are primarily dance, with specialist R&B and reggae shows.

However, the breakfast show and the UK Top 40 continued to struggle. In 2000, Zoe Ball was replaced in the mornings by friend and fellow ladette Sara Cox, but, despite heavy promotion, listening figures for the breakfast show continued to fall. In 2004 Cox was replaced by Chris Moyles. The newly rebranded breakfast show is known as The Chris Moyles Show and has increased its audience, now ahead of The Today Programme on Radio 4 as the second most popular breakfast show (after 'Wake up with Wogan' hosted by Terry Wogan), Moyles though continued to use innovative ways to try to tempt listeners from the 'Wake up with Wogan' show by, in 2006, creating a 'SAY NO TO WOGAN' campaign live on-air, this angered the BBC hierarchy though the row simmered down when it was clear that the 'campaign' had totally failed to alter the listening trends of the time – Wogan still increases figures at a faster rate than Moyles. The chart show's ratings fell after the departure of long-time host Mark Goodier, amid falling single sales in the UK. Ratings for the show fell in 2002 whilst Goodier was still presenting the show, meaning that commercial radio's Network Chart overtook it in the ratings for the first time. However, the BBC denied he was being sacked. The BBC show now competes with networked commercial radio's The Big Top 40 Show which is broadcast at the same time.

Many DJs either ousted by Bannister or who left during his tenure (such as Johnnie Walker, Bob Harris and Steve Wright) have joined Radio 2 which has now overtaken Radio 1 as the UK's most popular radio station, using a style that Radio 1 had until the early 1990s.

The success of Moyles' show has come alongside increased success for the station in general. In 2006, DJs Chris Moyles, Scott Mills and Zane Lowe all won gold Sony Radio Awards, while the station itself came away with the best station award.

Following the death of John Peel in October 2004, Annie Nightingale is now the longest serving presenter, having worked there since 1970.

40th birthday

On 30 September 2007, Radio 1 celebrated its 40th birthday. To mark this anniversary Radio 1 hosted special features, including:

• Special shows hosted by music legends at 9:00pm each weekday.
• Between 9:00am and 10:00am on the Chris Moyles show, the best music from the last 40 years (a re-creation of Simon Bates' Golden Hour).
• Playing Radio 1's old jingles, which were created by JAM productions of Dallas.
• 40 different artists performed 40 different covers, one from each year since Radio 1 was established. All 40 songs were played in the weeks leading up to the release of the compilation album Radio 1 Established 1967.

Today

As of 21 September 2009, the main weekday presenters on the network include: Dev (early breakfast), Chris Moyles (breakfast), Fearne Cotton (mid-mornings), Greg James (afternoons), Scott Mills (drive-time), Zane Lowe (evenings), and Nick Grimshaw (nights).

Evenings and overnights play host to eclectic and specialised content.

The weekend daytime slots now house a number of former prominent daytime presenters, including Jo Whiley (afternoons), Sara Cox (Sunday mid-morning) and Edith Bowman (breakfast).

Saturday evenings include twelve hours of urban music which, since October 2009, has been simulcast entirely on 1Xtra. Sunday evenings include the Switch magazine show, advice show The Surgery and, since September 2009, replays of the previous week's 9pm Mon-Thu shows.

A number of new programs have also been introduced, including a weekly review show hosted by DJ Nihal.

Broadcast

Studios

From inception for over 20 years, Radio 1 broadcast from an adjacent pair of continuity suites (originally Con A and Con B) in the main control room of Broadcasting House. These cons were configured to allow DJs to operate the equipment themselves and play their own records and jingle cartridges (called self-op). This was a departure from traditional BBC practice, where a studio manager would play in discs from the studio control cubicle. Due to needle time restrictions much of the music was played from tapes of BBC session recordings. The DJs were assisted by one or more technical operators (TOs) who would set up tapes and control sound levels during broadcasts.

The current studios are located in the basement of Yalding House (near to BBC Broadcasting House) which is on Great Portland Street in central London. The station moved there in 1996 from Egton House, which was demolished in 2003 to make way for the extensions to Broadcasting House.

Radio 1 also uses the BBC Maida Vale Studios in West London, where artists record music sessions for various shows, including the popular Live Lounge for The Jo Whiley Show. There are also live performances held there in front of Radio 1 competition winners.

Programmes have also regularly been broadcast from the regions, notably the Mark and Lard show, broadcast every weekday from New Broadcasting House, Oxford Road, Manchester for over a decade (October 1993-March 2004) – the longest regular broadcast on the network from outside the capital.

UK analogue frequencies

Radio 1 initially broadcast on 1214 kHz medium wave (or 247 metres as it was referred to at the time) and moved to 1053/1089 kHz (275/285 m) on 23 November 1978. (It was the only BBC National station without a dedicated FM frequency.) In the 1970s and early 1980s it was allowed to take over Radio 2's FM transmitters for a few hours per week – Saturday afternoons, Sunday teatime and evening – most notably for the Top 40 Singles Chart on Sunday afternoons – and 10:00 pm to midnight on weeknights including Sounds of the Seventies until 1975, and thereafter the John Peel show. In 1988 the 97–99 MHz frequencies became available when the existing police communication allocation changed, and Radio 1 acquired them for its own national FM network. This was rolled out as of 1 September 1988, starting with the Central Scotland, Midlands & Yorkshire areas (FM broadcasts were available in London as of 31 October 1987, but this was at low power on 104.8 MHz FM – see here). Its old medium wave frequencies were reallocated to commercial stations in 1994 (Radio 1's last broadcast on MW was on 1 July that year, with Stephen Duffy's "Kiss Me" being the last record played on MW just before 9:00am). In the 1990s it also began broadcasting on spare audio subcarriers on Sky Television's analogue satellite service, initially in mono (on UK Gold) and later in stereo (on UK Living).

Digital distribution

Today it can be heard on DAB, Freeview, Virgin Media, Sky Digital and the Internet as well as FM. In July 2005, Sirius Satellite Radio began simulcasting Radio 1 across the United States as channel 11 on its own service and channel 6011 on Dish Network satellite TV. Sirius Canada began simulcasting Radio 1 when they launched on 1 December 2005 (also on channel 11). The Sirius simulcasts are time shifted five hours to allow U.S. and Canadian listeners in the Eastern Time Zone to hear Radio 1 at the same time of day as UK listeners. On 12 November 2008, Radio 1 made its debut on XM Satellite Radio in both the US and Canada on channel 29. Radio 1 will now reach approximately 20.6 million listeners in North America on satellite radio alone.

Regionalisation

Since 1999, Radio 1 has split the home nations for localised programming in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, to allow the broadcast of a showcase programme for regional talent.

Scotland's show is presented by Vic Galloway (who also presents for BBC Radio Scotland); he has presented the Radio 1 show on his own since 2004, after original co-host Gill Mills departed.

Wales's show is hosted by Bethan Elfyn, who previously hosted as part of a duo with Huw Stephens, until Stephens left to join the national network (Stephens can still be heard in Wales, as he also broadcasts Welsh-language music programming on BBC Radio Cymru, and hosts Radio 1's Wednesday 9pm-10pm show.)

Rory McConnell currently presents the Northern Irish programme. Before joining the national network, Colin Murray was a presenter on the Session In Northern Ireland, along with Donna Legge; after Murray's promotion to the network Legge hosted alone for a time, and on her departure McConnell took her place.

The regional opt-outs originally went out from 8:00pm to 10:00pm on Thursdays (the Evening Session's time slot) and were known as the Session In The Nations (the 'Session' tag was later dropped due to the demise of the Evening Session); they later moved to run from 7:30pm to 9:00pm, with the first half hour of Zane Lowe's programme going out across the whole of the UK. Since the early hours of 18 October 2007 the regional programmes have aired Wednesday night/Thursday mornings from 12:00am to 2:00am under the BBC Introducing banner, allowing Lowe's Thursday show to air across the network; prior to this change Huw Stephens had presented the Wednesday midnight show nationally, and continues to host the slot in England.

This practice has also been used in Radio 1's T in the Park coverage where broadcasts to Scotland provide extended coverage of the festival which the rest of the United Kingdom does not receive (it instead has the normal Radio 1 schedule). This Scotland-only coverage has been presented by Vic Galloway in recent years.

These opt-outs are only available to listeners on the FM frequencies. Because of the way the DAB and digital TV services of Radio 1 are broadcast (a single-frequency network on DAB and a single broadcast feed of R1 on TV platforms), the digital version of the station cannot currently be regionalised.

Controllers