In What ways has Nick Grimshaw helped the Breakfast show to lower the BBC Radio1

target audience?

Contents

Introduction Page 3

Political Economy of BBC Radio 1 Page 4-Page 6

Discourse Analysis in to The Nick Grimshaw

Breakfast Show

Page 6- Page 12

Audience Research using Virtual

Ethnography

Page 13-Page 14

Conclusion of my findings Page 15

Further Research to be undertaken Page 16

Bibliography Page 17- Page 19

Introduction

As a keen Radio1 listener I was surpriced when I heard in July 2012, it was announced that

Chris Moyles would be leaving the BBC Radio1 Breakfast Show. This move allowed Ben

Cooper, the controller of BBC Radio1, to lower the target audience from being at an average

of 32 years old to targeting the 15-29 year old demographic audience (The Guardian 2012). It

was then announced that late night Radio1 presenter, Nick Grimshaw, the celebrity obsessed

DJ, would be taking over to help bring in a teenage audience. I was worried about this as a

massive Chris Moyles fan and so I did some research to see if Grimmy would be a good

replacement.Some theorists would argue (Peterson and Anand 2004) that Nick Grimshaw

took over the Breakfast show due to being a “music radio generalist” and due to him coming

up through the “bottom up career path at the BBC”. Nick Grimshaw has built his radio career

at BBC Radio1 since 2007 where he presented the teenage strand ‘Switch’. Since Nick

Grimshaw has taken over, there has a been a rise from 32% to 57% of the show being music

played due to a loss of the zoo format (watching a show without participation) that Chris

Moyles had(Figure 1). By having more music, it has helped the BBC Radio1 remit to have

their output that includes 60 hours of specialist music and 45% of new music a week (BBC

online).

Method

Figure 1

I want to find out in what ways Nick Grimshaw is helping BBC Radio1 to target a younger

audience. Firstly, in this report I will be looking at the Political Economy of BBC Radio1 as

part of the BBC. Secondly, I am going to do a detailed discourse analysis into the Breakfast

show to see how it is targeting teenagers before carrying out a virtual ethnography to see

what audiences think about Nick Grimshaw taking over. Finally, I will summarise my

findings and look at what I can do as further research to get a better understanding into BBC

Radio1.

The Political Economy

To look at the ways that the political and economical factors have affected BBC Radio1s

output, I need to carry out a Histography which is the “main rhetorical device that historians

use”. I will be looking closely at the “narrative” of the station (Stone 1979).

The launch of BBC Radio 1

In 1967, the BBC replaced its ‘Light Service’ with the creation of BBC Radio1 for its youth

audience and BBC Radio 2 for its adult audience to “educate the public’s taste” (Simonelli

2007). In addition, some theorists (Briggs 1995) argued that the two radio stations were

launched to help re-inform John Reith’s principles of the BBC as a Public Service

Broadcaster (PSB) - to inform, educate and entertain. Meanwhile, other theorists (Percival

2011) argue that this happened through BBC Radio1 being launched to cater for the popular

culture in society as well as in the production of popular music. By setting up these stations,

it reduced the output of offshore pirate radio stations such as radio Caroline, which was being

banned by the government at the time.

McFarland (1979) saw that it was “the DJs role to play the music, play the station idents and

become the sellers of the station.” McFarland saw this was best done with personality led DJs

such as Tony Blackburn who would bring in 18million listeners (Second Disk Online 2012)

compared to the 7.3million Chris Moyles had in 2012 (Digital Spy 2012). However, other

theorists, (Rothen-Buhler and McCourt 2002) argued that having personality led DJs and

playing the play listed ‘UK Top 40 music’ helped to attract the mass market, as there was no

commercial radio stations till 1973.

The BBC as a Public Service Broadcaster (PSB)

BBC Radio1 is part of the British Broadcasting Cooperation (BBC). As the BBC is a PSB, it

has to justify the needs to serve the audience as it is paid by the licence fee. To do this, the

BBC Trust was set up as its regulator in contrast to commercial radio that has OFCOM as its

regulator. Currently, Lord Pattern is the head of the BBC Trust who re-literates the need for

the “BBC too increase the distinctiveness and quality of output...to set new standards of

openness ...and to do more to serve all audiences” (BBC Online 2012).

Note to Marker: The policy documents that follow in this essay are outdated as they

focus on Andy Parfitt’s vision from 2010/2011 and not of Ben Cooper, the current

controller of Radio1.

Firstly, as BBC Radio1 is funded by the license fee, it needs to be seen as attracting the youth

audience. For example, ex-controller Andy Parfitt states “Radio 1 has to ensure that it

constantly evolves to attract the next generation of young listeners...acting as a bridge for

younger teens, helping them make the jump....(from) CBBC with youth-orientated brands

such as Radio 1” (BBC Radio1 Policies online 2010).

Whilst Parfitt had specific challenges such as making sure that “its interactive services adapt

to meet changing habits” (BBC Radio1 Policies online 2010). By Parfitt dealing with this

issue, it means that BBC Radio1 still deserves a place in the radio market against its

competitors such as Capital Fm as it’s doing something different. The BBC needs to make

sure that it doesn’t monopolise the radio market over commercial broadcasting so that all

radio stations can still have access.

Therefore as a PSB, the policies of BBC Radio1 include having 40 educational

documentaries a year, two major social action campaigns and 60minutes of news a day

through its news service Newsbeat which has its own show at 12:45pm and at 5:45pm (BBC

Radio1 Policy documents online 2012).

Secondly, BBC Radio1 is split up into play listed daytime shows from 04:00-19:00 with an

hourly clock (figure 1.2) and specialist shows from 19:00-04:00 that include rock music,

alternative music and its BBC introducing talent shows.

Discourse Analysis

Discourses can be defined as “practices that systematically form the objects of which they

speak” (Foucault 1972). I carried out a discourse analysis on Nick Grimshaws’ Breakfast

Figure 2

show to see the power relationship that he has with his audience through songs he plays and

the features that he invites listeners to interact in. Some theorists (Frohmann 1992) see that

by doing this, I would be studying the “natural scientific theory”. I took the Breakfast show

on the 22nd November 2012 and listened for the use of semiology that Nick Grimshaw

described (Barthes 1979). When I listened to the show, I made sure that I did not focus on the

ideas and goals that the material has but instead I looked at how the text is executed

(Georgakopoulou and Goutsos’s 1997).

I have looked into where discourse analyses have been used before and found that Greg Philo

from the Glasgow University Media Group (GUMG) carried out a discourse analysis into the

reporting of disabilities. Philo (1999) stated that “there has been an increase in the number of

articles documenting the claimed ‘burden’ that disabled people are alleged to place on the

economy.” I will apply his research methods when looking at how Nick Grimshaw talks to a

younger audience to see the change in features and language on the Breakfast show that are

used.

Celebrity Guests

Firstly, BBC Radio1 is targeting the teenage audience by focussing on “iconic” (Barthes

1979) big music-celebrity artists who are current to the 12-15year old predominantly female

listeners. For example, the producer Matt Fincham made a package about how Nick

Grimshaw spoke about One Direction 71 times in a week. One Direction are the biggest boy

band in the world with teenage girls adopting their names as ‘1Ders’ on Twitter (Figure 3).

Meanwhile, with in the first month of having the new Breakfast show, Justin Beiber, the

biggest male artist amongst the same fan base was interviewed twice. The examples I have

just shown, show how Nick is trying to relate to the BBC Radio1 audience with the guests he

has which consequently alienates the older listeners who used to listen to Chris Moyles who

had guests such as Robbie Williams and Will Smith who related to both adults and teenagers.

Social Media

Secondly, Nick Grimshaw expresses a keen interest in using the social media site Twitter

with his listeners (7:55am). For example, Nick stated, “Come on One Direction fans tweet me

now what you think of One Direction’s song Little Things whilst you’re on the school buses”.

Figure 3

The example shows how Nick was conveying a message to a specific teenage audience to

lower the overall target audience by talking about how children are on school buses, failing to

mention the latter part of the audience who are off to work. Nevertheless, this could be seen

as an “indexical sign” as over 29 year olds may think they cannot tweet in as Nick is just

talking to school children (Barthes 1979). Furthermore, by incorporating social media in to

the show it helps to project BBC Radio1s policy of “being interactive” (BBC Radio1 policies

online 2011) as 64% of teenagers use smart phones for social networking compared to 36%

of adults (BBC Online 2012).

In addition, after One Direction were plugged heavily on the show, they were number 1 in the

Official UK Top 40 (figure 4). One could argue that this could be seen as an “indexical sign”

as the “cause” was the publicity Nick Grimshaw gave them saying how much he liked the

song and speaking to the band leading to teenagers downloading the song straight away with

the “effect” being that they were number 1 that week (Barthes 1979).

However, other theorists (McQuail 1972)

would argue that One Direction were number 1 that week after the publicity due to both Nick

Grimshaw and One Direction being “symbolic” (Barthes 1979) “role models”. McQuail

(1972) describes the “Uses and Gratifications model” with how media users use the “media

as escapism” to shape their identity. The Uses and Gratifications Model can be linked to

Gillespie’s (1995) theory that “The youth are powerful with new media”.

Figure 4

Nick Grimshaw is a “role model” for the Radio1 target audience as he hangs out with

celebrities such as Harry Styles from One Direction, which can be seen as an aspiration for

lots of young teenagers who want to know celebrities.

Showquizness

Thirdly, each day Nick Grimshaw interacts with a caller on air to play a quiz about the latest

showbiz news. For example, on the 22nd November 2012, the quizmaster asked “Which

celebrity got their eyebrows tattooed”. The answer was Katie Price which would only interest

a youthful audience alienating the adult audience with the questions asked.

Call or Delete

Fourthly, Nick Grimshaw has a feature called “Call or Delete”. The feature involves a

popular celebrity such as Tulisa (an X Factor judge) going through their phone book and

either prank calling or deleting a contact when the name is chosen. Some youth members will

express their emotions through prank calling or deleting contacts, which leads Nick

Grimshaw to reflect the reality of the teenage lifestyle and again being like a ‘cool friend’.

However, adult audiences may find this as an impractical feature as this would not be seen as

entertainment.

Celebrities in Photo booths

Fifthly, there has been a recent trend in having photo booths at barmitzvahs. Therefore, when

Nick Grimshaw has guests in the studio such as American singer Kelly Clarkson (Figure 4)

who won musical reality show, American Idol, he then takes them into the “InstamGrim

Booth”, as he is reflecting teenage culture who use Instagram to take pictures and upload

them to social media sites in contrast to adults who would take a picture for themselves and

not as a way of publicising their lives. This leads to youth audiences looking to him as a ‘cool

friend’.

Conversations

On the 10th December 2012, during a conversation with Nick Grimshaw and broadcaster Sara

Cox, Nick told Sara how he burnt his hand, and made a joke how “it is going to be the new

fashion amongst kids”. An example like this shows how he uses the word ‘kid’ to talk

directly to his audience and targets the audience that have “role models” (McQuail 1974)

which again isolates the older generation listened to Chris Moyles on Radio 1.

Figure 5

Summary of my findings

Therefore as can be seen Nick Grimshaw has embraced the teenage audience and has

reflected what teenagers like to do with the media. In addition, he has helped target a specific

audience by speaking directly to the listeners as the young listeners get involved with these

features when they are amongst friends and makes Nick Grimshaw a role model for them.

Audience Research

At the time of writing this essay, I did not have access to the RAJAR listener figures for

Q4 2012 as they had not been released yet.

Virtual Ethnography

I carried out a virtual ethnography to gather a range of opinions to find out what audiences

thought about the Breakfast shows target audience. Rheingold (1993) defines a virtual

community as “a group of people who ... exchange words ...on a computer bulletin board”. I

decided to use a virtual ethnography as “the internet... (Allows)...social interactions where

practices, meanings and identities are intermingled” (Dominguez et al 2007). However, my

findings will be generalised as it will just focus on the opinions on the “radio board” and

excludes the “larkers” (Mitra 1997) as well as those that are in the teenage audience that flick

between radio stations and would not participate in conversations about radio stations. To

carry out my research I posted on the Digital Spy forums and asked for feedback to what

people thought of my question that I posed, (figure 6) ‘ In What ways has Nick Grimshaw

helped the Breakfast show to lower the BBC Radio1 target audience?

Virtual Ethnography Analysis

Various users responded who used to listen to Chris Moyles or who listen to Nick Grimshaw.

One user commented on the forum “a lot of people listened to Radio 1 just for Moyles and ...

(who)... started listening to Moyles at 29 and after 8 years you're 37” . This quote shows how

the audience listened for the radio personality rather than for the station which agrees with

Percivall’s (2011) theory. In addition, the user went on to say that people liked the zoo

format of the Chris Moyles Show and would have switched Nick Grimshaw off as Nick

“talks about artists that appeal to a younger audience such as Rihanna” (Qwerty21, Digital

Spy online user 2012). Some theorists would argue (Hall 1973) that this would be due to the

reading that one would adopt. Hall (1973) stated that the reading adopted would depend on

the “class, age, gender and ethnicity that one associates themselves with”. By listeners taking

the “preferred reading” when they listened to Chris Moyles, it meant that they liked having a

zoo format in the morning and being part of the team. This is in contrast to Nick Grimshaw

who focuses on the music rather than the talk which has made the Chris Moyles listeners

adopting the “Oppositional reading” (Hall 1973). However, some listeners (user 1992 and

user Sez Babe) will listen to the show for certain features. For example, they will listen to

“Call or Delete” but will not listen to the rest of the show as it has isolated them.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the issue of who was going to take over the Breakfast show was really

important as the Radio1 audience had got so used to Chris Moyle’s zoo format over the 9

years he hosted the show and it had lead to an ageing audience.

As can be seen through this essay, since BBC Radio1 launched in 1967, there has been a

trend in employing DJs who are personalities and will attract listeners to the shows to listen

to them over the music. In 2012, Nick Grimshaw took over, and as he has this persona of

being a ‘cool’ friend it has helped to attract a younger audience who are interested in popular

culture and into music artists such as One Direction which has lead to the older audience that

listened to Chris Moyles moving onto BBC Radio2 to satisfy their needs in the morning.

As there are no RAJAR figures released yet I cannot look at the overall trend but through my

audience research, I have seen that Nick Grimshaw is not popular with the older audience

which has helped the BBC Trust to help lower the target audience. My research has shown

that it has also meant that the target audience including myself are also leaving as they prefer

the zoo format of radio with less music. However, the producers have seen this trend and are

starting to have more interaction on air and have features such as ‘Nicks Tape’ which is

similar to the Golden Hour to retain the previous younger listeners.

Further Research

It was announced at the beginning of December that Alice Levine would be taking over the

10pm John Peel slot on BBC Radio1 in 2013. Alice has come from TV like Nick Grimshaw,

Jameela Jamill and Matt Edmondson who have all recently joined the radio station. I would

be interested in seeing if by having TV presenters it has helped bring in a new audience who

are use to watching them already.

Furthermore, I would like to look at the drive time slot to see how since Greg James has

taken over it has bought in a new teenage audience since Scott Mills left the slot.

Finally, I would like to look at how other radio stations are adapting to change such as BBC

Local radio targeting the over 50s market.

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