Producer Amy moving to Radio 1 Breakfast

[Robbie Keane]

Okay...

To the fans, he’s the saviour of morning radio. To the critics, he’s an loud-mouthed, egotistical fat bastard. Chris Moyles is, to those keeping score of cold hard fact, one of the most successful radio presenters of the modern era with his second-most popular breakfast show (behind ol’ Terry Wogan). On most days, the BBC Radio One DJ is considered to be a little arrogant, self-absorbed and heavily reliant on his team to provide the entertaining content. On this day, the 29th day of the fifth month of 2008, Moyles is being taken to task for being a little too mean to his producer and scheduled guest.

Are you fucking kidding me?

Sometimes, I feel as though the people of our great country do not understand the notion of controversy, character and reaction. Did you really think that people watch Big Brother to be enamoured with social experimentation and the psycho-and-sociological conclusions drawn? Of course not. People simply want to see chaos. No one cares about how nice someone is unless there’s something - or someone - to balance that with vindictive evilness. Shilpa Shetty didn’t win Celebrity BB because of her personality. I still couldn’t tell you a single thing about her as a person. All that anyone knows about her for sure is that she was a victim of racism, and any other victor would have plunged Britain into a national crisis. What about the first ever Big Brother? Remember the contestants? I do. Well, two of them. I know of Craig, the eventual winner. And then there’s Nasty Nick, the original bad guy of the series. What good was that show without these contrasting elements? Nothing, is the correct answer, which makes today all the more baffling.

For those who didn’t listen to the show this morning, host Chris put aside a supposed code of professionalism to vent his unhappiness at X-Factor judge Louis Walsh pulling out of appearing on the show. The gag, if you can call it that, was to have Walsh answer a series of questions that would allow one minute of interview time - for every correct response - to his current musical project, the revived Boyzone. This didn’t happen; Walsh called Chris the night before to say he wouldn’t be in due to being so tired. Angered, Moyles took his frustrations to the microphone and proceeded to lash out at day producer Aled Haydn Jones, followed by a telephone whipping of Walsh himself. Everybody involved seemed uncomfortable with the situation. Several attempts to diffuse the situation were shot down, and Louis himself even asked Chris if he could get it over with, like a small child who knew he had done wrong and wanted to repent as soon as possible. It was great radio.

Not so for the whiney “life must always be happy” jerkbags of the internet, it seems. Countless message boards are playing host to the usual wimpy moaning of sissy-girl bloggers who can’t believe that Chris could be so cruel. Digital Spy, a cesspool of ignorant anoraks stuck in the summer of 1985 where Bruno Brookes could do no wrong, jumped straight into the shark pool to discuss the events. It didn’t take long for Unofficial Mills, the fansite for fellow Radio One presenter Scott Mills, to join in with the incessant ramblings. Clearly, Mills has groomed his audience to only accept smiling faces and tongue-in-cheek humour that pokes fun at those deserving of ridicule, only to pull out at the last minute with the “we‘re only joking” escape clause to save themselves from potentially annoying some old cranky trying to carrying the flag of Mary Whitehouse proudly for the new millennium. How dare anyone vent their angst, pre-planned or not (and let’s not open that can of worms just yet), on their national platform during a show that, in the early days at least, was built on a naïve bridge of young anger drenched in biting sarcasm. How dare the world not be a happy place for one day of the year. How dare he, the flabby cunt.

What people don’t understand is that this style of radio WORKS. You only have to take a look at the people who inspire Mr. Moyles to notice that, if anything, he’s been holding back for the last five years. Recently sacked from TalkSport, James Whale was once the staple of hard-hitting ‘speak-before-you-think’ broadcasting until the dreaded Ofcom guidelines slapped the taste out of the old brute’s mouth. Across the ocean, Howard Stern is arguably the most famous and influential radio DJ in the history of the medium. Did he earn a $500 million contract to do four shows a week for five years on the back of laughing at clips of Edith Bowman saying “I‘ve got a lovely pair” on Innuendo Bingo? Christ, no. He produced the most daring, explosive and downright car-crash radio you could imagine, mixed with a genuine talent for interviewing (who amongst you truly doesn’t want to know about celebrity bowel movements?). None of his listeners call in to complain about the treatment that producer Gary Dell’abate receives. They encourage it. He’s “Baba Booey”, an idiot who needs to be put back in his place by the almighty Stern. Similarly, when Stern messes up, his dysfunctional crew of misfits all lay into him with a heavy hand. It’s enthralling radio. More importantly, they don’t kiss anyone’s ass. The world kisses theirs. For three to four hours every morning, the host is, at least on-air, undoubtedly the boss; not the team members, not Boyzone, and certainly not Louis Walsh.

Now am I talking about Howard, or am I talking about Chris? In a perfect world, both.

Why is everyone so scared of risk taking? The very moment that someone comes across as the tiniest bit self-indulgent, people start to get their knickers twisted like a whore on a hammer wheel. So Chris took no shit from Louis Walsh. Good. He shouldn’t take it from anyone. Jordan wasn’t given this level of sympathy when she was late for the show and subsequently kicked off. Nor should she have been. And please don’t tell me that it should have been settled off the air. Why must radio continue to lie to its listeners? This isn’t 1980 where “that was and this is, here on your favourite rockin‘ and rollin‘ music station” for twenty-four ungodly hours of the day. If anything, the Moyles show is your radio equivalent of Big Brother. Not everybody wants shiny happy people holding hands anymore. Not on a constant, anyway.

Sure, the Shilpa Shetty incident caused a little more harm to the product that I’ve given credit for in this instance, but Chris can hardly be accused of racial intolerance from today’s outburst. Although not to that level, what Moyles did was simply showing a real life situation played out for everyone to hear and respond to. I’m almost positive to the point of perversion that every single person who is reading this particularly line right at this very moment has, at one point in their lives, been annoyed at someone for letting them down. I know I have. I also know that I, at some stage, have publicly expressed my distain before. Right now, for example, I am airing my personal feelings on a widely-viewed forum for everyone to see and respond to. Now that doesn’t mean that I’ll be universally praised for my opinions. If anything, I may end up being chastised, vehemently attacked and ex-communicated from your personal list of viewpoints worth taking note of. But I guarantee you’ll remember this far more than had I spent the last hour bragging about how much I love the smell of roses in the morning, and how happy and sentimental I am.

Cut the safe-line crap already. Take some chances, see the product for what it is and don’t let one little incident stir you up to the point of having to turn it off. You’re missing out on something potentially groundbreaking - a radio show on a mainstream BBC platform, with a giant pair of balls. Now if only they’d have swung those balls into Louis Walsh’s face and sent him storming off in a hissy fit, maybe I could have been a little more smiley today.

[Jono]

But I don't want Moyles to be the next Stern. He has to do some things differently. For me, Moyles is the guy that you'd want to chat to down the pub. Not the one causing the arguments.

[FreakaZoid101]

But I don't want Moyles to be the next Stern. He has to do some things differently. For me, Moyles is the guy that you'd want to chat to down the pub. Not the one causing the arguments.

:yeahthat:

There's already a Stern. How miserable would we all be if every radio personality out there was like Stern. I want to wake up and not start the day off in a mood.

Happiness. You should try it sometime.

[cuddlytoy]

It's easy for you to say that. but you cant just change a character! he hasn't always been like this and even if it was scripted it was very uncomfortable to listen to :|

[Grace]

Okay, here's my two pennies worth, short and sweet: Chris Moyles always has been my favourite DJ, Scott comes an incredibly close second, but I've got Moyles to thank for getting me out of bed for the past two years. I like how he's always pushing at what he can get away with, rarely holds his tongue and his rants are usually amusing.

But what I heard today (I didn't see what was wrong with what he said to Louis Walsh, this is about what he said to Aled) just wasn't funny. Fair enough, have a little moan, but how he carried on after Aled admitted he went wrong and apologised made me cringe. It was almost as if he was trying to impersonate himself - you know how anyone who doesn't like Moyles calls him a "roly-poly loudmouth" (or worse)? It was like he was trying to prove them right, and painful to listen to. That would never, ever be acceptable in real life - it wasn't funny, just rude. If someone apologises (and you could tell from Aled's voice that he was truly gutted for ruining the link) then that's that - it's over and time to move on.

This is the first time I've ever really disagreed with Moyles, I usually find him extremely entertaining, and it's usually the "hello ofcom" stuff that I like the most, I guess today was the exception. Call me a "whiney “life must always be happy” jerkbag of the internet" if you must, but that's my opinion and I'm more than entitled to it.

(Okay, not that short or sweet.)

[Jono]

even if it was scripted it was very uncomfortable to listen to :|

Aled: "It was real this morning. I think I got the brunt of Chris' anger that he was building for Louis!"

http://www.aled.info/forum/showpost.php?p=14653&postcount=4

What I didn't like was how out of character it was. You can't pretend to be Stern one morning and be the nice guy the next. I think that's why it's shocked so many. And you could tell this incident was for real.

[KieronMoyles]

I totally agree with you Claire.

Edit: I wrote the following on Your Views earlier:

I know Moyles is very strict with his guests over issues such as tardiness/non appearance, but I did feel he went a little overboard with Louis Walsh this morning. He sounded like he was getting quite upset.

He could've let things lie a bit earlier, then just continued talking to Boyzone about becoming their new manager to make his point.

Wow.

You people really exist. Scott Mills has fans! The rumours are true.

Moyles is an overpaid moron, who exploits the BBC for all it's worth and in the process fleeces the licence payers.

£630,00 a year plus an extra £15 every time he plays his own jingles? Is that shit still going on? He's taking the piss out of all of us. His show got too bitter and plain nasty a few months ago, in my humble opinion.

The saving grace is that the Beeb has a constitutional obligation to 'refresh' things periodically, irrespective of how many listeners a particular DJ gets, so all being well they'll pull the plug on him while he's still 'ahead', as it were.

Oh, and KingTuttsWWH - I presume you work for Jet2? I'd seriously reconsider urging people to boycott them if I were you, having just been privvy to a draft of their next set of financial results. You'll be doing yourself out of a job altogether, let alone your sales commissions. You're gonna need all the passengers you can get. No amount of flights to New York are gonna save them from going under at the start of next winter - in Meeson's own words, no less!

Have a brain.

[Robbie Keane]

The way things work round here: If something bugs us we point out grammatical errors etc.

As opposed to putting efforts into worthwhile discussion? You'd think that would be logical, and yet...

We don't care much for chatspeak, so you're username already puts you at a disadvantage.

I wouldn't even class it as chatspeak. It's an old name that was sentimental to me at the time of signing up. But seriously, a rose by any other name...

We're not all keen on Moyles too much round here. You'd probably be better off at CM.net.

I tried it. Can't stand it. As hard as you might find this to believe, I prefer here to there, even if I'm more of a Moyles fan than a Mills supporter (not that I don't appreciate the merits of Mr. Mills). I'd rather post somewhere with a friendy atmosphere and intelligent posters. You'd think that would be logical, and yet...

Plus, the conversation was about Moyles, so surely it makes sense for a Moyles fan to get involved. You'd think that would be... you get the message.

As for Jono, I don't want Moyles to be Stern either. Although, that's pretty pointless to say since many of the features Moyles does (song parodies, jingles for team members, etc etc) were taken from Stern anyway. BUT... my point is that you look at the popular DJs of our time, such as Stern and James Whale, and they are popular and practically royalty in radio because they took chances and didn't always cater to this wishy-washy "everything must always be happy" attitude - nor has Moyles even done that (he's been moody and arsey before, worse than today, and I haven't seen this kind of reaction to it). And I personally don't want him ever to do so. I personally, in my humble opinion, want him to chew Louis Walsh out more (not so much Aled - he's a little too beloved, something he has over the Stern team members - it's a plus).

But it's all subjective, and I don't want anyone to think that I instantly assume that everyone shares my viewpoint. You should read that blog (which, by the way, I'm a little dishearted that it looks like I posted it here - Jono added it to this thread, for the record. I'm not that arrogant, contrary to how badly I'm probably coming off) as my humble opinion mixed with bits of fact sprinkled over. None of the "facts" are wrong, if nothing else.

[Bumble_85]

We don't care much for chatspeak, so you're username already puts you at a disadvantage.

Oh, the irony

[FreakaZoid101]

Oh, the irony

Haha! I love you for that.

[simonf]

I just heard it on Listen Again...now I love Chris Moyles but he was HORRIBLE to Aled! He was just trying to do a nice thing by bringing him a curry! Chris was a mardy idiot during the whole show but hopefully he'll realise that he was being a prick and apologise on air to Aled tomorrow! As I said I do really like Chris but his idiotic outburst this morning was completely out of order.

[Jugalug]

Mitchell, I've only read a few of your posts, but you do come across as very arrogant.

[Guest CancerForTheCure]

I only wish he'd have taken it a step further and goaded Louis into getting angry or crying or something.

Why? Some may think you enjoy people being horrible to other people. We don't.

Chris Moyles is a good DJ. Most of the time I do think his honesty is very impressive. However, there is a big fat line between honesty and rudeness. Control yourself Mr Moyles.

[KingTutsWWH]

Wow.

You people really exist. Scott Mills has fans! The rumours are true.

Moyles is an overpaid moron, who exploits the BBC for all it's worth and in the process fleeces the licence payers.

£630,00 a year plus an extra £15 every time he plays his own jingles? Is that shit still going on? He's taking the piss out of all of us. His show got too bitter and plain nasty a few months ago, in my humble opinion.

The saving grace is that the Beeb has a constitutional obligation to 'refresh' things periodically, irrespective of how many listeners a particular DJ gets, so all being well they'll pull the plug on him while he's still 'ahead', as it were.

Oh, and KingTuttsWWH - I presume you work for Jet2? I'd seriously reconsider urging people to boycott them if I were you, having just been privvy to a draft of their next set of financial results. You'll be doing yourself out of a job altogether, let alone your sales commissions. You're gonna need all the passengers you can get. No amount of flights to New York are gonna save them from going under at the start of next winter - in Meeson's own words, no less!

Have a brain.

Are you Chris's big brother, or do you simply share the same name? If you are, your post was somewhat disloyal familywise.

Of course I don't work for Jet2! I'm an English teacher, it says so on my profile. If you'd care to peruse the slightly older blog section, you'll find that they f*cked me over big time and as such I'm not one of their biggest fans. Hence the boycott signature.

I think I've got a brain, just can't always remember where I've put it.

[Jono]

Just a reminder that if you're unhappy with someone's posts there is an ignore feature.

Remind me again 'KieronMoyles' why you actually bothered to join a Radio 1 and Scott Mills fansite. Bit sad wouldn't you say, if you're not actually a fan?

[tamba]

I just want to say I do not like Louis Walsh or Boyzone. So well done Chris

[Jono]

I just want to say I do not like Louis Walsh or Boyzone. So well done Chris

Oh well that's okay then... Just bully the ones you don't like

:confused:

Care to explain why?

[GhostofKieronMoyles]

Yeah.

Tell Officer Jono, for he is the overseer.

Jono - do you get a uniform with this job?

Any plans for the weekend? I'm probably gonna go to the pub and watch the tennis, then split some tinnies with my Mum and the dogs down at the canal.

Sweeeeeeeeeet.

[Andy B]

Yup Jono rides around the plantation and if any of us don't work hard enough he whips and we spend all day singing the blues Camptown Races is my fav!

[Timsk]

Nah, I think it's called 'moderation' in forum-speak - something you could maybe learn from as you and your unghostly self seem only to want to rile people at the moment. Contrasting views, and proper discussion I like. Singling anyone out for abuse, I don't.

On topic, Moyles has been annoying for me for quite some time. I like the format, but I do think it's better suited to afternoons (where it was originally) and not mornings when I struggle to assemble a sensible sentence let alone take in a rant.

[KingTutsWWH]

This thread made me sad today........UM is such a lovely place with great people who love to chat, discuss, agree and disagree. But some of the people who have come on and posted today have brought too much anger to this friendly sight. :cry:

:yeahthat:

Spelling. ahem.

[The Stig]

Yeah.

Tell Officer Jono, for he is the overseer.

Jono - do you get a uniform with this job?

Any plans for the weekend? I'm probably gonna go to the pub and watch the tennis, then split some tinnies with my Mum and the dogs down at the canal.

Sweeeeeeeeeet.

Arse.

[tamba]

Oh well that's okay then... Just bully the ones you don't like

:confused:

Care to explain why?

Yes, Louis Walsh is an arrogant pig.

And Boyzone are doing the same as the Spice Girls, Take That etc: etc: They were crap and and are crap now.

* Tugs forelock and walks backwards *

[unclesirbobbyrobson]

I started a thread about moyles rudeness not so long ago. I don't know what to say really. Sometimes he is comedy genius ... other times just rude. Its not funny. But I suppose you have to take the rough with the smooth.

He does think he can say anything because he is the "saviour". Its a title he deserves. After all Saviours always speak the truth. He is certainly good at that. He doesn't shy away from saying the word 'fat' or 'ugly'.

[rainbow_brite]

The whole "curry-gate" thing was funny but a bit out of order, although (and I've noticed that no-one here has picked up on this) they have subsequently played the rant to Moyles on his show and he was laughing and joking at himself and admitted that maybe he was being unreasonable that morning.

Maybe you won't understand why I found it a bit funny but I like it when radio goes a bit car crash, not everything can be cheery and run smoothly.