Leaderboard

For me, it’s the playlist, the presenters and the news output. Radio 1 has a much wider and more varied playlist than its commercial rivals, and I love the fact that they devote more airtime to smaller artists, many of whom just aren’t being played by competing stations. The presenters on Radio 1 are given greater freedom to be themselves on air, rather than having to stick to short and sometimes very infrequent links, which greatly reduces the personality of a presenter in my opinion. Listeners are therefore much more able to connect with presenters, and are often featured as part of their shows. Greg in particular features listeners for much of his show, which is what makes it such a fun and entertaining listen. Newsbeat provides regular bulletins which make the news of the day to more accessible to young people, without any patronisation. Radio 1 are the only radio station I know of that air two long-form (ie longer than 2/3 minutes) news bulletins each weekday, which is therefore a unique service. Overall, Radio 1 know how to make radio interesting and exciting for a generation of people who have many options when it comes to entertainment, and are succeeding at getting them to listen.