The news was finally out
Scott and Chris began their first show after announcing that their Radio 1 partnership would end in August.
The reaction had been huge. Voice notes were arriving from listeners telling them not to go, while others were still asking whether the announcement was somehow one of the programme’s elaborate jokes.
It was not.
Scott admitted he hated confrontation and had found the announcement difficult to make. The pair had even discussed using a celebrity Cameo message to break the news before settling on a more suitably ridiculous route.
They also addressed one of the immediate assumptions surrounding a long-serving Radio 1 presenter announcing his departure.
They had not been fired.
Scott was heading to Radio 2
Scott explained that after more than two decades at Radio 1, he had been offered the opportunity to move to BBC Radio 2.
He joked about being ancient by Radio 1 standards, despite regular maintenance from doctors, dentists and every other service required to preserve the face of youth.
Behind the jokes, he sounded genuinely conflicted.
Radio 1 had been an enormous part of his life and he said he loved the station deeply. At the same time, the Radio 2 opportunity was something he was excited to take.
Chris told him he was proud of him.
The two also acknowledged how strange it was that the move meant the end of their daily partnership. Chris had first appeared on the show years earlier as a student caller, eventually becoming Scott’s full-time co-host and one of his closest friends.
They stressed that they had tried to find a way to continue broadcasting together, but it had not been possible.
Chris, meanwhile, had new projects of his own to come.
They promised to go out properly
The pair would remain on Radio 1 until the end of August.
That gave them a final run of shows to revisit old features, celebrate the programme’s history and make the ending feel deliberate rather than simply disappearing from the schedule.
Scott said they intended to go out with a bang.
The word immediately created exactly the sort of childish diversion expected from the programme, as the pair clarified that they meant the show would go out with a bang.
The sentimental section had lasted only so long before normal service resumed.
What do you imagine to fall asleep?
One of the day’s listener topics came from Chris revealing that he built detailed imaginary scenarios in his head to help him drift off.
His regular choice was being a pilot.
Listeners quickly proved he was not alone.
One woman mentally wrote an imagined fourth series of *Hannibal*, another created her own romantic comedy starring somebody resembling Heath Ledger, while pizza chef Claude preferred altogether more dangerous fantasies involving enemy lines and smuggling operations.
Scott was fascinated by the detail people constructed before sleep.
For some listeners, apparently, bedtime meant romance.
For others it meant covert operations on a cargo ship.
The Who Game went back through forgotten culture
The Who Game returned with another list of things that had once felt unavoidable and had now largely disappeared.
Suggestions included decorative “wine o’clock” kitchen signs, fishing on *The Legend of Zelda*, ThinkOfUse.com, the word “chillax”, Billy Bass fish, the Viking thunder clap, plastic tattoo chokers, Celebrity Juice, MSN statuses and “keep calm and carry on” signs.
It was particularly appropriate during a month when Scott and Chris were already looking backwards at their own Radio 1 history.
The show was beginning to feel like a farewell, but it was still very much behaving like itself.
Celebrity perfume was finally a useful specialist subject
Producer Amy’s quiz gave Scott an unusually strong round: celebrity fragrances.
He identified Lady Gaga’s Fame, Katy Perry’s Killer Queen and even Donald Trump’s Empire.
The discussion revived memories of Britney Spears’ Curious, Fahrenheit aftershave and the strange importance celebrity fragrances once held in pop culture.
On the first full show after the leaving announcement, Scott and Chris had managed to acknowledge the biggest change of their careers while still spending significant time discussing imaginary smugglers, Billy Bass and Donald Trump cologne.
That was probably the most appropriate response possible.
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