kyle_y

1Xtra was ever threatened with closure, you must be thinking of the BBC Asian Network.

He'd be so out of place on 6Music though. He'll continue to do his Saturday night simulcast show on R1 and 1Xtra anyway, and a new Sunday night show. He was quite clearly upset and shocked by the news but kept the lightheartedness flowing. During the first two hours of the show he sounded quite sombre compared to his usual self. It's worth listening back to the last hour of the show on the iPlayer to hear exactly what he said though, it's not so easy to put into words. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/player/b01hr9s6

Westwood didn't hold back on Thursdays show in expressing how he felt, was great to listen to. DLT with self-depreciating humour. The writing was on the wall and has been for a long time. It's pretty clear Ben Cooper is a Charlie Sloth fan and has been grooming him for bigger things. There were a couple weeks in 2011 where Sloth was on 1Xtra for, literally, 12 hours in 24. He's pretty much a young Tim Westwood in terms of broadcasting and does a decent job when he regularly covers for TW, so the news comes as no massive surprise. It's a genuine shame though, I'll miss Tim. Also, having a look at the new schedule posted above it seems an awful lot of presenters are being culled, most notably Ronnie Herel and former drivetime hosts Ace & Vis.

Spot on there. I think the changes are to do with the simulcast with 1Xtra during the night, between 2 and 4am it seems.

Tragic news. Was actually listening to Gilles Peterson's show from the early hours of this morning for the third time today when I happened to see he was trending on Twitter. Devastating news. Hopefully he'll find a home on BBC 6 Music or Jazz FM. His knowledge, passion and expertise in music cannot be replaced. He'll be sorely missed by his loyal, diverse and international audience. Fabio & Grooverider leaving was expected, I suppose, when they were first shifted from the 1-3 Saturday night slot to some obscure slot on a Monday morning. Their show is still a really good listen but I guess D&B isn't as relevant as it once was, and they as DJs are no longer as relevant as they once were. Not to mention the bizarre fact that they rarely did the show together, it was more the Fabio OR Grooverider show with the two of them taking it in turns to do a show. Although on the rare occasion when they did a show together it was always great. Getting rid of Kissy Sell Out seems a very odd move. I would have thought he was apart of the new generation of DJs the R1 management would want to be promoting to the more prominent specialist slots, as a potential successor to Jules or Pete Tong in fact. I'm sure he'll find his way to XFM, Kiss or some other station very soon, if not 6 Music. Getting Skream and Benga in was inevitable I suppose after rotating them on the INMWT thingy. I'm a fan of both artists but they're not presenters, and their not radio DJs. Out-of-touch Radio 1 management trying to make a 'hip' move by dragging two funky producers from the charts into the schedule. It's not gonna work. Getting Toddla T in makes more sense though, he's alright. Once again I'm a fan of Charlie Sloth but his overexposure on 1Xtra is excrutiating. The management obviously have a thing for him, it's odd how he came out of nowhere to replace Sarah Love on the 1Xtra Hip-Hop Mix Show and moreorless immediately starts covering Westwood on Drive. In the 48 hours of Fridays and Saturdays, in the 1Xtra schedule there is 9 hours of Charlie Sloth. A bit excessive. For him to do his live hiphop show, and then for the hiphop show from the previous week to be repeated in full immediately after, and then after a 3 hour gap for him to do the Saturday morning show is crazy. Not to mention when he covers Westwood that's another 3 hours on top of that on a Friday evening, the same when he covers for Semtex which is the show immediately before his regular hiphop one which he still continues with. Considering how loud, brash and in-you-face he is, even for big fans Charlie Sloth can only be taken in tiny small dosages. Well, that's my two pennies worth..

To be fair these changes seem quite minimal, but both of your suggestions about sharing newsreaders but not the actual live bulletin would make more sense though. Simulcasting the 2-4am slot doesn't sound as horrific to me now as it did at first. Simulcasting Benji B, Gilles Peterson and Annie Nightingale makes sense but The Punk Show, Kutsi and the Essential Mix obviously wouldn't work so I guess that means minor schedule changes are on the way for the specialist shows and the culling of more specialist genre shows and DJs on 1Xtra once again..

Trevor Nelson in for Gilles Peterson? Wow. Sounds good.

Predictions for 2011: [/smugness]

Such sad news. Such a shame she lived the lifestyle she did and let her talent go to waste.

Personally I think she looks more like Chappers than Kesha. Talk about anti-climax