The Radio 1 Breakfast Show
The Radio 1 Breakfast Show is a radio show that is broadcast across the UK from 6:30am to 10am (7am to 11am for a while due to the 2019-20 coronavirus pandemic, Monday to Thursday. The show is the most listened to broadcast on BBC Radio 1. It is hosted by Greg James who took over from Nick Grimshaw on 20 August 2018 as the show's 16th presenter.
| Other names | Radio 1 Breakfast |
|---|---|
| Genre | Music, chat |
| Running time | 240 minutes (7:00 am–11:00 am) |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Language(s) | English |
| Home station | BBC Radio 1 |
| Hosted by | Greg James |
| Produced by | Chris Sawyer, Will Foster and Daisy Jarrett |
| Recording studio | Studio 82A, Broadcasting House, London |
| Original release | 30 September 1967 – present |
| Audio format | Stereophonic sound |
| Opening theme | High Hopes by Panic! at the Disco |
| Website | Radio 1 Breakfast with Greg James |
| Podcast | Radio 1 Breakfast the best bits with Greg James |
The show ran six days a week until February 1968 (see BBC Genome Project), then five days a week until June 2018, when the Friday show was dropped and incorporated into the station's weekend schedule, hosted by Weekend Breakfast hosts Matt Edmondson and Mollie King.[1]
History
The first breakfast show presenter was Tony Blackburn, who spoke the first words on Radio 1 and remained in the slot for nearly six years. Other DJs who have hosted the breakfast show for more than five years are former hosts Nick Grimshaw, Mike Read, Simon Mayo. and Chris Moyles for eight years, Moyles was the longest-serving Radio 1 breakfast show presenter, having hosted Radio 1's The Chris Moyles Show for eight years from 2004 to 2012.
- Data supplied by the BBC Genome Project.
| No | Presenter | From | To | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tony Blackburn | 30 September 1967 | 1 June 1973 | 5 years, 244 days |
| 2 | Noel Edmonds | 4 June 1973 | 28 April 1978 | 4 years, 328 days |
| 3 | Dave Lee Travis | 2 May 1978 | 2 January 1981 | 2 years, 245 days |
| 4 | Mike Read | 5 January 1981 | 18 April 1986 | 5 years, 103 days |
| 5 | Mike Smith | 5 May 1986 | 17 May 1988 | 2 years, 12 days |
| 6 | Simon Mayo | 23 May 1988 | 3 September 1993 | 5 years, 103 days |
| 7 | Mark Goodier | 6 September 1993 | 24 December 1993 | 109 days |
| 8 | Steve Wright | 10 January 1994 | 21 April 1995 | 1 year, 101 days |
| 9 | Chris Evans | 24 April 1995 | 31 January 1997 | 1 year, 282 days |
| 10 | Mark and Lard | 17 February 1997 | 10 October 1997 | 235 days |
| 11 | Kevin Greening and Zoe Ball | 13 October 1997 | 25 September 1998 | 347 days |
| 12 | Zoe Ball | 28 September 1998 | 10 March 2000 | 1 year, 164 days |
| 13 | Sara Cox | 3 April 2000 | 19 December 2003 | 3 years, 260 days |
| 14 | Chris Moyles | 5 January 2004 | 14 September 2012 | 8 years, 253 days |
| 15 | Nick Grimshaw | 24 September 2012 | 9 August 2018 | 5 years, 319 days |
| 16 | Greg James | 20 August 2018 | present | 1 year, 314 days |
Nick Grimshaw (2012–2018)
Nick Grimshaw replaced Moyles as host of the breakfast show on 24 September 2012.[2] Features include Call or Delete – a game carried on from his previous show on Radio 1, where celebrity guests choose to either prank call a contact on their phone or delete their number altogether.[3] Other segments include The Nixtape – which sees Grimshaw select 30 minutes of party-oriented music before a DJ comes in to mix listener requests to close the week on Friday morinings, Happy Monday, a half-hour of uplifting songs on Monday mornings, Showquizness, an irreverent daily quiz based around pop culture, Happy Hardcore FM, which sees listeners phone into the show to scream over happy hardcore beats, and the daily Waking Up Song, which features celebrities encouraging listeners to get out of bed to the sound of Pharoahe Monch. Grimshaw's incarnation of the breakfast show has received strong critical reviews through his tenure[4][5] but has polarised public opinion, which is reflected in the show's often fluctuating listening figures – in February 2015, the show had 5.9 million listeners, with a small increase in listenership of 100,000.[6] On 26 October 2017, it was reported that the show recorded 4.93 million weekly listeners between July and September – down from 5.5 million last quarter, a record low.[7] The Newsbeat news and sport bulletins are presented by Tina Daheley at 6:30, 7:00, 7:30, 8:00, 8:30 and 9:30; there is also entertainment news from Sinead Garven at approximately 7:45 each morning.
Greg James (2018–present)
Greg James replaced Grimshaw as host of the breakfast show on 20 August 2018. Roisin Hastie reads the bulletins for Newsbeat every half-hour except at 09:00. Features include Yesterday’s Quiz and the Ten Minute Takeover, alongside Game of Phones and Unpopular Opinions.
In March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Radio 1 Breakfast was moved to 7am until 11am. Adele Roberts' Early Breakfast Show was extended by thirty minutes until 7am. Scott Mills, Chris Stark and Clara Amfo rotate their shows every week between 11am and 3pm and Nick Grimshaw starts his show at the earlier time of 3pm. It's to help Radio 1 promote social distancing and to limit the number of staff allowed in the studio.
Stand-ins
Holiday cover is usually provided by another prominent member of the Radio 1 presenting team – the job rarely goes to an outsider. Although in 1985, Noel Edmonds covered the programme for 2 weeks when then presenter Mike Read was on holiday. Additionally, transitions between regular hosts have often been bridged by stand-ins. These have been:
- Adrian John covered the period between Mike Read's departure and Mike Smith's arrival in April 1986.
- Mark Goodier covered the period between Mike Smith's departure and Simon Mayo's arrival in May 1988.
- Bruno Brookes covered the period between Mark Goodier's departure and Steve Wright's arrival in December 1993.
- Simon Mayo covered the period between Chris Evans's departure and the arrival of Mark Radcliffe and Marc Riley in February 1997.
- Scott Mills covered the period between Zoe Ball's departure and Sara Cox's arrival in March 2000, again in December 2003 (sharing with Emma B) preceding Sara Cox's departure and Chris Moyles' arrival, and again in September 2012 after Chris Moyles's departure and before Nick Grimshaw's arrival. He most recently covered in August 2018 in the transition period between the tenures of Nick Grimshaw's departure and Greg James's arrival.
Current cover presenters
Previous cover presenters
References
- McIntosh, Steven (10 April 2018). "Major schedule changes for BBC Radio 1" – via www.bbc.co.uk.
- Nissim, Mayer (6 August 2012). "Nick Grimshaw's BBC Radio 1 breakfast show start date revealed". Digital Spy. Digital Spy. Retrieved 18 August 2012.
- Corner, Lewis. "Ellie Goulding pranks Dougie Poynter on Radio 1 with 'Johnny Depp'". Digital Spy.
- Wolfson, Sam. "Why Nick Grimshaw can afford to lose a million listeners". The Guardian.
- Hogan, Michael (24 September 2012). "Nick Grimshaw, Radio 1 Breakfast Show, review". Telegraph.co.uk.
- "BBC 6 Music reaches two million listeners". RadioToday. 5 February 2015.
- "Worst ever listener results for Grimmy". 26 October 2017 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
- "BBC Radio 1 – Dev, The Radio 1 Breakfast Show". BBC. BBC. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
- "BBC Radio 1 – Huw Stephens, Huw's here for breakfast..." BBC. BBC. Retrieved 14 November 2016.