Next Radio 1 boss

[Jono]

Radio 1's controller, Andy Parfitt, has clambered on to the highest rungs of the BBC's executive ladder but, to his evident exasperation, the public may remember him best for his ascent of Kilimanjaro last year. The trip raised millions for Comic Relief but prompted some uncharitable headlines after it emerged in July that Parfitt had billed the taxpayer £541.83 for "specialist clothing" – and a further £26.20 for the cost of picking it up in a cab. The corporation's critics immediately jumped on the claim as evidence of executive profligacy.

Parfitt, who says he found the coverage "uncomfortable", looks slightly pained when it is raised. "We did broadcast every day from the top of an African mountain in the freezing cold," he points out, and he was late to join the celebrities who took part in the challenge (including his star DJ, Chris Moyles). "When you go on a trip like that with the BBC there are health and safety prerogatives," Parfitt says, momentarily sounding like a parody of a BBC executive. "You have to set an example. I'm only sorry if it gave any kind of a cloud to the good work we were doing. From that perspective I wish it hadn't happened."

Why couldn't Parfitt, who receives an annual salary of £211,000, pay for his own gear? "I didn't buy it for myself," he says. "Actually it's sitting in a kit bag in Yalding House [Radio 1's London base] for anyone who might need it." He can't resist adding that next month the expedition could win Radio 1 a gong at the Sony awards, the Oscars of the industry, after it was shortlisted for best live event coverage: "I'm pleased to see it was nominated."

BBC under review

The clothing expenses claim was one of many published by the BBC as it seeks to be more transparent about how it spends the £3.4bn-a-year licence fee. It has also addressed concerns about its perceived market dominance by carrying out a strategic review that will reduce its size, leading to the closure of BBC 6 Music, among other measures. Parfitt is one of the executives who wrote the review, led by the director general, Mark Thompson. His empire includes Radio 1 Extra and Asian Network – also earmarked for closure – and he oversees pop music across the corporation as well. If anyone could save 6 Music, the subject of a noisy campaign to keep it on air, he could, but there is no chance of that. "I know personally a lot of the broadcasters on 6 Music ... but we have to take a longer-term view. It does mean some awful, tough and difficult decisions. It's hard [but] nine-odd services was just too many." The radio portfolio will be rearranged so digital stations such as Radio 7 are aligned with existing brands such as Radio 4. 1Extra, which broadcasts hip-hop, R&B and grime, will be more closely tied to Radio 1, but Parfitt stresses there are no plans to turn 6 Music into a mini-Radio 2.

The review seems to signal the end of a long period of BBC dominance in radio, talking openly about the fact that 6 Music's "average listener age of 37 means that it competes head-on for a commercially valuable audience". Radio 2 must be "increasingly distinctive", the review says, in what appears to be another tacit acknowledgement that it had encroached on Radio 1's turf, and that together they were trampling all over the ground occupied by commercial competitors. Parfitt seems to dispute the conclusions of the review, however. "You'd have to be on another planet not to see that Radio 1 and Radio 2 are completely different," he says. "The musical crossover is negligible. We share some artists occasionally" – about 4% of their playlists, says the BBC. So why the need for change? "It's about direction of travel," Parfitt says. "The BBC Trust said Radio 1 has to connect with the next generation of listeners and provide some content for younger teens. Radio 2 is much older … [but] it has to make sure the over-65s aren't ignored."

That hardly amounts to a dramatic overhaul, but Parfitt says that was not the intention. He is one of the winners from the review, because Radio 1 will now be the sole home of pop music on the BBC.

Yet the corporation has never closed services before, and many observers believe it has done so now in anticipation of a Conservative election victory. The Tories have already indicated their disapproval of the BBC's expansionist tendencies; Ed Vaizey, the shadow culture minister, even raised the prospect of privatising Radio 1. He subsequently withdrew those comments, but Parfitt is furious about the prospect, however remote. "It's one of those kind of rather cheap headlines that is frustrating because it's usually said by people who don't listen. Privatising Radio 1, which has made the contribution it has to popular culture, would be an act of cultural vandalism, to be honest with you." Radio 1's critics, he adds, take the view that: "If it's for young people, it doesn't matter much. It's kind of reminiscent of [people who say] it's all 'thump, thump, thump' music."

Thump thump thump

1Xtra, which plays plenty of "thump, thump, thump" music, is slightly less popular than 6 Music, with a weekly audience of under 600,000 compared with 700,000. Even Tim Westwood, who hosts a daily show on 1Xtra, complained that no one listened to it. "Westwood is one of the finest broadcasters there is," Parfitt says. "He was having a laugh." I suggest Westwood was actually having a moan. "He may have been having a moan, but I've got so much time for him I don't mind," his boss says. Even so, it is easier to close 6 Music, which is popular with white, middle-class dads in their mid-30s, than it is to take a station aimed at an urban audience off air. "I don't think the choice is, what is easier," Parfitt says. "It is, what's the best way the BBC can continue to ensure it does the job it needs to do."

For Radio 1, in particular, that job is a straightforward one – to appeal to a young audience that is not always well catered for elsewhere in the BBC, and lock in the licence fee payers of tomorrow. Parfitt describes it as his "special mission". The station reaches 42% of all 15- 24-year-olds in the UK, serving a total audience of nearly 13 million people. He does it with a budget of £30m a year, but only £12m of that is spent on programming, he says (still enough to make commercial stations wince). In order in order to continue reaching those sizeable audiences, Radio 1 will have to produce more multimedia content for "screenagers", Parfitt says, preserving its status as the BBC's favourite outlet for the under-25s.

It must also retain its credibility; never easy when the temptation to stoke a spirit of youthful rebellion must be tempered by parental oversight. Moyles and, more recently, Jonathan Ross have both criticised the censorious atmosphere that prevails at the BBC in the aftermath of the "Sachsgate" affair – Ross said he couldn't wait to leave. Parfitt concedes that: "Immediately after that big dramatic event I'm sure there was a more amplified sense of sensitivity," but points out Radio 1 played an entire, profanity-laced Rage Against the Machine album on a Zane Lowe show after Ross and Russell Brand's infamous broadcast, "and I'm glad we did".

The balance between creativity and caution is about right, he insists. "The greater the risk of offence, the greater the care. So by all means take the risk but take the commensurate amount of care. I think that's fair, don't you?" In the interests of fairness, it seems only right to point out that Parfitt's Kilimanjaro trip raised £1.51m from Radio 1 listeners, and the controller handed large parts of his non-clothing kit over to his guide in the Himalayas. With the BBC reinventing itself yet again, Parfitt now has another mountain to climb.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/apr/19/andy-parfitt-controller-radio-1

[E*F*4L]

the fact that 6 Music's "average listener age of 37 means that it competes head-on for a commercially valuable audience"

what national commercial stations are like R6 ?

[MrDoovdeHaxorz]

I can name one that's like 1Xtra... well a national if not a commercial one, it's called Radio 1... seriously when I was listening earlier, over two different shows it felt like every other record was either Dizzee, 50 Cent, Tinchy Stryder, Black Eyed Peas or some other urban artist, which is what I thought 1Xtra itself was created to focus on... I switched off thinking "FFS play something other than urban for once, radio 1 is meant to be about a mix of genres of new/chart music, isn't it?"

If Parf Daddy has 'so much time for Westwood', why didn't he just give him a better slot on radio1 where people listen rather than putting him on a station where he moans that no-one's listening?

[kyle_y]

I can name one that's like 1Xtra... well a national if not a commercial one, it's called Radio 1... seriously when I was listening earlier, over two different shows it felt like every other record was either Dizzee, 50 Cent, Tinchy Stryder, Black Eyed Peas or some other urban artist, which is what I thought 1Xtra itself was created to focus on... I switched off thinking "FFS play something other than urban for once, radio 1 is meant to be about a mix of genres of new/chart music, isn't it?"

Okay, I agree that Radio 1 may play more mainstream hip-hop and R&B than it ought to during the daytime, but that doesn't mean it's like 1Xtra. The 1Xtra daytime playlist includes funky house, soulful house, drum and bass, dubstep, dancehall, fusion, trip hop, bashment as well as the mainstream hiphop and R&B. 1Xtra delves beneath the mainstream/chart surface of 'black music', more so than any other legal commercial station. This is why I think it's important for 1Xtra to remain, same with the Asian Network. <!-- / message -->

If Parf Daddy has 'so much time for Westwood', why didn't he just give him a better slot on radio1 where people listen rather than putting him on a station where he moans that no-one's listening?

Well he does 6 shows a week totalling 17 hours, he's covered for Scott on Radio 1, has adverts for his weekday 1Xtra show and daily podcast played on Radio 1, is involved daily in The Chris Moyles Show and occasionally during Greg, Scott and Zane's shows. He obviously won't get a daytime Radio 1 show but he is getting quite a lot of exposure on both stations, and is moreorless firmly apart of the 'Radio 1 Family'.