What’s the direction of travel from here at Radio 1?
Jordan has been passed on another promotion, Grimmy and Scott stay put; what happens now?
Another year, another sweeping change to the Radio 1 line-up, with the biggest change to weekday daytimes since the Greg/Grimshaw straight swap back in 2018, with a new late morning show launching and the evenings being rejigged yet again. And as seems customary now whenever changes are implemented to the Radio 1 schedule, Jordan North has been passed over for a well deserved promotion once again; what does this tell us about Radio 1’s direction moving forwards.
Firstly, it tells us there’ll almost certainly be no more big changes to the line-up for the rest of 2021; the new schedule will launch in September 2021 and that’ll be left to bed in, with no big surprises for the foreseeable. Making too many changes at once can be jarring, and Aled is clearly being cautious about the “too much too quickly” ailment that has afflicted Radio 1 controllers of old.
The immediate problem with Aled’s latest changes are that the rising star, Jordan North, has been passed over for a weekday promotion in yet another set of changes. I think there’s solid reasoning here. Essentially, Rickie, Melvin and Charlie needed to move to daytimes, it was probably long discussed as the end game when Radio 1 poached them, and when Clara’s shift opened up it seemed like the right place to put them.
The next, and perhaps more telling aspect, is that management clearly thought this wasn’t the right slot or the right time for Jordan; 10.30am isn’t the ideal slot for him, but he could have made it his own if it was the only thing on offer, I think this probably tells us that they have plans for a bigger gig, and expect another weekday slot to open up in the foreseeable for him to take.
I think we can get a rough idea of what might happen in 2022; almost certainly we can anticipate another set of schedule changes as Aled continues to evolve the station line-up. If I had to take a punt right now, I wouldn’t bet on Scott Mills leaving afternoons next year, I think he’s in place for now, and if he was going we’d hear about it sometime around now, before the September schedule launches. The weak link on daytimes is Grimshaw on drive, and I think after 3–4 years, 2021 will be when he’s moved off drive, onto either weekends, or possibly away from the network.
Changing your drive show is a big deal for any station, that programme is an anchor at the end of the day, the second biggest gig on the entire station, and an iconic slot, with the likes of Greg James, Scott Mills, and Chris Moyles (not to mention Sara Cox briefly) all having had excellent stints on there, and often acting as a springboard for future stars of Radio 1 Breakfast, such as Kevin Greening, Moyles (of course), and Greg James himself! In other words, this slot is a big deal, and you don’t change it lightly; but Grimmy’s show is tired and it isn’t the future of the station, I think the best bet would be a shakeup next year, and I suspect this is Aled’s plan.
If I were head of Radio 1 right now, my biggest management concern would be keeping Jordan on side, clued in, and making sure he wasn’t tempted away by any offerings of immediate promotion to drive or breakfast on another station somewhere in the world of commercial radio. Presumably he has been assured there’s a plan for him, because as all these changes go through with no promotion you’d imagine him feeling a bit pied off if not.
For now North is anchoring weekends, with the highest profile slot you can get on weekend radio, so it’s not a bad place to wait for a promotion, but anyone with a decent ear can see he’ll almost certainly be integral to the weekday line-up within a few years. So we could potentially read the passing over of the late morning promotion as proof North is next in line for drive, and when Grimshaw goes (likely sometime next year) he’ll be the new host of Radio 1 Drive, making the new weekday line-up even stronger:
7–10.30: Greg James
10.30–1: Rickie, Melvin and Charlie
1–3.30: Scott Mills
3.30–6: Jordan North
That’s easily the strongest daytime schedule for weekdays since Get Up With Moyles, Go Home With Mills; no weak links in that schedule whatsoever!
Another big issue flagged up by the latest changes is a dearth of female talent on the daytime entertainment shows (the specialist schedules have more high profile women), and this is something we need to see addressed; Radio 1’s job is to trailblaze with these things, two things can we true at once: this can be an excellent September reshuffle AND women can be underrepresented in the schedule.
The daytime female talents with the greatest potential are Vick Hope and Katie Thisleton, and in 2022 the potential shift of the weekend schedule’s star Jordan North to Radio 1 Drive should prompt some big promotions with the weekend schedule for those two, putting them in pole position for weekdays as soon as another slot (potentially afternoons) opens up. In other words, when Jordan gets drive, let’s ideally see Vick and Katie get the 10am weekend slot, and be the stars and anchors of weekend Radio 1, with its flagship programme.
Much like with Rickie, Melvin and Charlie, you don’t hire someone with the talent and presenting range of Vick Hope without a longer term plan for bigger things than 4pm on a Sunday; and let’s not forget Katie left CBBC to focus on Radio 1, she clearly has longer term ambitions on the network as well. As well as introducing more female representation, these two are top grade presenters, and I’d be advocating this shift with or without the need for more female primetime DJs.
In other words, 2021 is an exciting revamp, but look to 2022 for some more crucial changes at Radio 1.
