Radio 1 Breakfast

History

The first breakfast show presenter was Tony Blackburn, who spoke the first words on Radio 1 and remained in the slot for nearly six years. Other DJs who have hosted the breakfast show for more than five years are current host Greg James and former hosts Nick Grimshaw, Mike Read, Simon Mayo, and Chris Moyles. Moyles was the longest-serving Radio 1 breakfast show presenter, having hosted Radio 1's The Chris Moyles Show for eight years from 2004 to 2012.

• Data supplied by the BBC Genome Project Archived 3 December 2020, at web.archive.org.

Nick Grimshaw (2012–2018)

Nick Grimshaw replaced Moyles as host of the breakfast show on 24 September 2012. Features included Call or Delete, a game carried on from his previous show on Radio 1, where celebrity guests chose to either prank call a contact on their phone or delete their number altogether. Other segments included The Nixtape, which saw Grimshaw select 30 minutes of party-oriented music before a DJ came in to mix listener requests to close the week on Friday mornings, Happy Monday, a half-hour of uplifting songs on Monday mornings, Showquizness, an irreverent daily quiz based around pop culture, Happy Hardcore FM, which saw listeners phone into the show to scream over happy hardcore beats, and the daily Waking Up Song, which featured celebrities encouraging listeners to get out of bed to the sound of Pharoahe Monch. Grimshaw's incarnation of the breakfast show received strong critical reviews, but polarised public opinion, which was reflected in the show's often fluctuating listening figures – in February 2015, the show had 5.9 million listeners, with a small increase in listenership of 100,000. On 26 October 2017, it was reported that the show recorded 4.93 million weekly listeners between July and September – down from 5.5 million last quarter, a record low. The Newsbeat news and sport bulletins were presented by Tina Daheley at 6:30, 7:00, 7:30, 8:00, 8:30 and 9:30; there was also entertainment news from Sinead Garven at approximately 7:45 each morning.

Greg James (2018–present)

Greg James replaced Grimshaw as host of the breakfast show on 20 August 2018. Roisin Hastie read the bulletins for Newsbeat every half-hour except at 09:00 until her departure from the show in 2022 for maternity leave, when she was replaced by Calum Leslie. Features include Yesterday's Quiz and the Ten Minute Takeover, alongside Is It Just Us and Unpopular Opinions.

In March 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Radio 1 Breakfast was moved to 7am until 11am. Adele Roberts' Early Breakfast Show was extended by thirty minutes until 7am. Scott Mills, Chris Stark and Clara Amfo rotated their shows every week between 11am and 3pm and Nick Grimshaw started his show at the earlier time of 3pm. The measures took place in order to help BBC Radio 1 promote social distancing and to limit the number of staff allowed in the studio. The show was then reduced to 3 hours (i.e. 7am until 10am) since 29 June 2020, in which 10am until 11am was allocated for Radio 1 Anthems, also with Greg James. The changes took place until 31 August 2020.

Starting 1 September 2020, the schedule reverted to its 3 hours 30 minutes length, but running from 7am until 10:30am, instead of 6:30am until 10am as previously. In November 2020, Radio 1 announced that James's Breakfast show be broadcast five days a week from the start of January 2021. Starting July 2023 the show aired between 7:30-11:00 except for Friday when it was 7:00-10:30. This returned to 7:00-10:30 Monday-Friday in September 2023. Starting 1st July 2024, the breakfast show returned to the 7:00-11:00 time for the summer except on Fridays when it remains at 7:00-10:30.

Stand-ins

Holiday cover is usually provided by another prominent member of the Radio 1 presenting team – the job rarely goes to an outsider or to a former presenter, although in 1985, Noel Edmonds covered the programme for two weeks when Mike Read was on holiday. Additionally, transitions between regular hosts have often been bridged by stand-ins. These have been:

• Adrian John covered the period between Mike Read's departure and Mike Smith's arrival in April 1986.
• Mark Goodier covered the period between Mike Smith's departure and Simon Mayo's arrival in May 1988.
• Bruno Brookes covered the period between Mark Goodier's departure and Steve Wright's arrival in December 1993.
• Simon Mayo covered the period between Chris Evans's departure and the arrival of Mark Radcliffe and Marc Riley in February 1997.
• Scott Mills covered the period between Zoe Ball's departure and Sara Cox's arrival in March 2000, again in December 2003 (sharing with Emma B) preceding Sara Cox's departure and Chris Moyles' arrival, and again in September 2012 after Chris Moyles's departure and before Nick Grimshaw's arrival. He most recently covered in August 2018 in the transition period between the tenures of Nick Grimshaw's departure and Greg James's arrival.

Current cover presenters

• Matt Edmondson
• Mollie King (co-hosts with Edmondson)

Occasional cover presenters

• Arielle Free
• Dean McCullough
• Vick Hope
• Katie Thistleton
• Sam MacGregor
• Danni Diston
• Jeremiah Asiamah (co-hosts with Edmondson)

Previous cover presenters

• Vernon Kay
• Dev
• Huw Stephens
• Sara Cox
• Kevin Greening
• Chris Moyles
• Scott Mills and Chris Stark
• Adele Roberts
• Jordan North

See also

• Radio 1's Weekend Breakfast Show
• The Radio 2 Breakfast Show
• Timeline of breakfast radio programmes in the UK

References

• 2020-11-06, Radio 1 announces new presenter line-up, en-GB, BBC News, 2020-11-06
• Mayer, Nissim, Nick Grimshaw's BBC Radio 1 breakfast show start date revealed, Digital Spy, Digital Spy, 6 August 2012, 18 August 2012
• Ellie Goulding pranks Dougie Poynter on Radio 1 with 'Johnny Depp', Lewis, Corner, Digital Spy, 8 October 2014
• Why Nick Grimshaw can afford to lose a million listeners, Sam, Wolfson, The Guardian, 16 May 2013
• Nick Grimshaw, Radio 1 Breakfast Show, review, Michael, Hogan, 24 September 2012, Telegraph.co.uk
• BBC 6 Music reaches two million listeners, 5 February 2015, RadioToday
• Worst ever listener results for Grimmy, BBC News, 26 October 2017
• BBC - BBC Radio 1 implements changes to schedule amid Coronavirus crisis - Media Centre, 2020-08-11, www.bbc.co.uk
• BCC Schedules, 2020-08-11, www.bbc.co.uk
• BBC - BBC Radio 1 to return to regular broadcast schedule with brand new time slot for Radio 1 Breakfast with Greg James - Media Centre, 2020-08-11, www.bbc.co.uk
• BBC Radio 1 announces new presenters and shows for January 2021
• BBC Radio 1 – Dev, The Radio 1 Breakfast Show, BBC, BBC, 14 November 2016
• BBC Radio 1 – Huw Stephens, Huw's here for breakfast..., BBC, BBC, 14 November 2016

External links