Dance classics

[Viv]

Ben Cooper has been speaking exclusively to the Guardian.

Ben Cooper knows Chris Moyles better than most. He is a former producer of the maverick DJ and, as BBC Radio 1 head of programmes, was responsible for the day-to-day running of Moyles's breakfast show. Now, as the controller of Radio 1, he is Moyles's boss.

"Chris is a phenomenal broadcaster," he says of the presenter whose capacity to court controversy at the BBC is second only to Jeremy Clarkson's (it would have been third but Jonathan Ross left). Cooper is under pressure to win a younger audience to Radio 1 and 37-year-old Moyles, the station's longest-serving breakfast DJ, has been seized on by critics as the most obvious candidate for the chop.

"He is fine where he is at the moment, he is doing great stuff," says Cooper. "He has got a contract until 2014." But the newly installed controller is equivocal as to whether he will still be presenting the breakfast show by then. "That is a private and confidential issue but he has got a contract with Radio 1. Whether it's breakfast or [elsewhere on] Radio 1 that is for me to know. Chris and I have talked about it and that's something that will stay between me and him."

For a long time, there appeared to be no obvious successor to the motormouth Moyles – drivetime DJ Scott Mills, a year older than him, was unlikely to introduce Radio 1 to a new generation – but now there are at least two waiting in the wings. The morning presenter Fearne Cotton and the afternoon jock Greg James, first spotted in student radio, are the likeliest candidates, both hired by Cooper.

"There is a second XI that is coming up and that gives you options," says Cooper. "I want to keep people guessing because it's an interesting story, it's like a soap opera."

Source: media guardian on Twitter

[Rob]

If Cotton gets the gig, I'm giving up hope on life. Whoever takes it will receive a heavy slating from the Moyles fanclub I'm sure!

[MrDoovdeHaxorz]

Who says Cotton is a candidate, oh someone from the Guardian... meh. They've made calls before that Mills would surely step in like years ago and look what we've got instead. At least no chance for a return to breakfast for Coxy after the mess of her original run...

[rosie_posii]

I don't think I could cope with Fearne that early in the morning... At least I don't actually have to listen to her at the moment, cause I'm out the house by then...

[R94N]

Well, once Chris leaves, hopefully he'll go somewhere else and I'll keep listening to him there. Can there ever be an article or news piece somewhere on Chris without there being the word 'motormouth' in there somewhere?

[DC]

if fearne cotton takes the flagship show after moyles then radio 1 really has lost it's creativity, coolness and character. new talent needs to be bought in. love or hate moyles he's been a magnificent servant for radio 1, but he will go someday. so someone different from everyone else to replace moyles has to be bought in. radio 1 need to also sort out this age range thing, radio 2 is for people over 40 really so there is a 17 year gap for people like me who feel too old for radio 1 yet too young for radio 2.

they also need to stop aiming for fucking toddlers. most people under 15 aren't intersted in listening to radio 1, they are more interested in the music channels on tv and drakes album on repeat on their ipod. the bottom end of their age range should be people who are just starting work and driving. even when i was 12 and 13, most people in my year didn't know who simon mayo, mark & lard and even chris moyles was. they might of heard him in the car for 10 mins on the way home from school, they wern't intersted in being dedicated listeners.

[Viv]

radio 2 is for people over 40 really .

Really? ! I only like one Show on it.

I do agree with the rest of what you have to say. That's why I wrote to the BBC Trust some time back. Fat lot of good that did. Got back the rudest letter of my life.

The "toddler" and general childishness were what drove Chappers away. He just couldn't deal with it anymore.

I also wish people like Dappy could cease being promoted. Fair enough, promote someone like Adele with great things to offer, but Dappy??? Er......

[MrDoovdeHaxorz]

Ooh I'm dying to see what you consider rude here...

That does show your massive lack of awareness of R2 Target Audience (and R1's really) though...

[Viv]

I am aware of whom R2 target. However... thing is.. I have all my own ideas, and don't fit myself into boxes on account of target range. I like new music, and R1 is the place for that (clearly).

They just (on account of the BBC Trust) have to attract younger and younger listeners. And, I've said this TO the BBC Trust in an email. It's a mistake.

Now... trot on back to Florence (sausage legs) Belch for the day!! :-)

[MrDoovdeHaxorz]

Radio 1 a place for NEW MUSIC? I laugh in the general direction of that very idea. It's the place for whatever Cowellcorp supports most of the time, for new music I'll go to local gigs (and by that I mean often unpromoted/impromptu ones) or things like Spotify, less bias towards what the poor suffering record industry tries to brainwash people into liking there.

[Viv]

One could almost question why you're on a "really overall quite young" fansite, but then.... I'm really not that interested.

[DC]

Really? ! I only like one Show on it.

I do agree with the rest of what you have to say. That's why I wrote to the BBC Trust some time back. Fat lot of good that did. Got back the rudest letter of my life.

The "toddler" and general childishness were what drove Chappers away. He just couldn't deal with it anymore.

I also wish people like Dappy could cease being promoted. Fair enough, promote someone like Adele with great things to offer, but Dappy??? Er......

i find radio 2 a bit strange really, they do have a really wide target audience. i've found them playing m&s's salsoul nugget once, a popular track from 2001 which is in an age range for people under 40. but i mostly hear them playing some cheesy 70's disco like 'i lost my heart to a starship trooper' or some 60's ballad like 'smoke gets in your eyes'.

tracks that people under 40 are far too young for. radio 2 ideally needs to be split in two stations, they are starting to bring in people like simon mayo, chris evans, jo whiley, mark radcliffe who are from the late 90's early 2000's era. but there's two sides to the coin where they are still playing music for people in their 60's as well, it's like an identity crisis.

i'm still well in radio 1's target audience. but i did start listening to radio 1 early whilst a lot of people my age as i mentioned in my other post wern't interested. so i remember radio 1 in the late 90's and early 2000's where as a lot of people my age won't. i do think chappers probably got bored of the childish element the station puts across, he had been there since the late 90's i think and it wasn't like that back then.

[Viv]

Yep. Radio two is mixed up. You've got jeremy vine with his debates (almost trying to be like radio four), simon mayo bringing kids on air, sixties mornings on saturdays (many i have never heard of), 80s with steve wright pretty much, jazz, then jo whiley thrown out of radio one, and having to salvage her career really. chappers sounded like he was going off his head at the end. Really wound up and pissed off. the problem is the major talents have gone : peel, whiley, spoony and moyles and mills are in their dying days.

[DC]

it's all a corperate sound now, even moyles compared to afternoons has had to dull down on breakfast probably through no choice of his own. it's losing it's sense of fresh talent who turn into radio 1 stars on air. i'm sure the ones at the top are already looking for the next kelly osbourne or fearne cotton to come into the station.

[SMKRED]

Really?

[Viv]

Yep. I know this may sound a bit mad, but i am wondering if this is why mills looks as though he is going to see a professional psychic (spotted on his twitter other week).

[rosie_posii]

You're right, it does sound mad.

[Viv]

Tough.

[Eternal Helix]

The natural progression from Radio 1 once you "outgrow" it is surely 6Music, not Radio 2. 6Music also promotes new music, but not necessarily chart. Much more eclectic, interesting music on the station than Radio 2, it's a miles better listen IMO, and I can imagine that's what I'll be listening to in 10 years time. If the BBC doesn't try to close it again...

[MrDoovdeHaxorz]

It depends. I went to 5Live, but I guess you could say that's like R2 but without the music (which I get other ways). I do dip back into Radio1, usually for Moyles, Mills or some guests on other shows though.