Radio Today asked me to write an opinion piece for them about the new Radio 1 Breakfast Show with Nick Grimshaw. Here's what I wrote...
“You only get one
opportunity to make a first impression... so make it count!” someone once said
to me. It’s true, which is probably why getting your first breakfast show ‘half-decent’,
is pretty important. At the same time, everyone in the industry knows that a
first show may be pretty unrepresentative of what is to follow over the next
few months and years.
So how did Grimmy
do then?
I tried to listen
to the first show more like a regular listener might, dipping in and out. I
must have tuned in at precisely the wrong moment though, as the very first
thing I heard on this “Now with Added Music” breakfast show was a link that
quite possibly ‘Moyles-eque’ in its duration. It was 12m 22s long folks.
Now I wasn’t
expecting all 30 second links and 5 in a row, but was this the right approach
for day 1?
And as I carried
on my listening I got the sense that the zoo / team format was still very much
there, but just toned down a bit. Grimmy was understandably using them as a
crutch, and threw to them quite a lot. They, on the other hand, were obviously
under some sort of instruction not to engage too much with him on-air. So the
result was something that, let’s say ‘lacked a little flow’. The chemistry is
not there yet for obvious reasons.
Content wise, it
already felt younger with his obligatory One Direction mate making an
appearance and a Justin Bieber pre-record. This in itself may be enough to
drive the older end away, which is of course part of the desired effect.
There’s no doubt
that Grimmy is a cool, well-connected guy but I worry that too much ‘showbiz’
might become a bit grating after a while. Mentioning his “manager” on-air and
name dropping the people who had got in touch to wish him well is so far
removed from the ‘down to earth, bloke in the pub’ shtick that Moyles did, it’s
going to take some getting used to. I know he’s a good Northern lad, and
getting the balance of ‘enough celebrity’ and ‘too much celebrity’ is tough,
but it’s certainly something for him to watch for.
One other thing;
he needs to actually tell some stories and have some content. At the moment,
it’s all very waffley and lacks any substance or direction. He takes 2 minutes
to say what could be said in 15 seconds. That’s something that needs to be
addressed pretty quickly I feel.
Now of course,
all the above is grossly unfair. Judging a breakfast show based on a couple of
outings is more than a little unreasonable, but it certainly is how listeners
do it. They don’t always allow the time a show needs to get into its rhythm. But
let’s revisit it in 6 weeks and see how he’s doing shall we?
I think Grimmy’s
a safe pair of hands for the show. He won’t be overly successful, and he won’t
be so bad that he’s forced off either. He’ll probably do it for 3 years... max.
But will he provide the injection of energy and creativity that broadcasters
like Moyles and Evans brought to the show? I rather doubt it. But he is mates
with One Direction, in case you didn’t know.
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