BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music, current chart hits and future hits. It also plays a wide range of genres, including pop, hip-hop, R&B, dance, electronica, rock, indie and alternative music every day. Radio 1's sister stations are Radio 1 Anthems, dedicated to throwback music, Radio 1 Dance, dedicated to dance and electronic music, and Radio 1Xtra, which plays a variety of Black music.
Radio 1 broadcasts throughout the UK on FM between and, digital radio, digital TV and BBC Sounds. It was launched in 1967 to meet the demand for music generated by pirate radio stations, when the average age of the UK population was 27. The BBC claims that it targets the 15–29 age group, and the average age of its UK audience since 2009 is 30. BBC Radio 1 started 24-hour broadcasting on 1 May 1991.
According to RAJAR, the station broadcasts to a weekly audience of 7.39 million with a listening share of 4.8% as of May 2025.
History
First broadcast
Radio 1 was established in 1967 as a successor to the BBC Light Programme, which had broadcast popular music and other entertainment since 1945. Radio 1 was conceived as a direct response to the popularity of offshore pirate radio stations such as Radio Caroline and Radio London, which had been declared illegal by Act of Parliament. Radio 1's initial format was influenced in particular by Radio London's American-style Top 40 format, in which music was divided into categories played in strict rotation. The new service was initially promoted in the summer of 1967 by trails which referred to it as "Radio 247", the station's temporary working title.Radio 1 was launched at 7:00am on Saturday 30 September 1967.
Broadcasts were on AM, using a network of transmitters which had carried the Light Programme. Most were of comparatively low power, at less than 50 kilowatts, and this resulted in the station only having patchy coverage.
The first disc jockey to broadcast on the new station was Tony Blackburn, who had previously been on Radio Caroline and Radio London, and presented what became known as the Radio 1 Breakfast Show. The first words on Radio 1 – after a countdown by the Controller of Radios 1 and 2, Robin Scott, and a jingle, recorded at PAMS in Dallas, Texas, beginning "The voice of Radio 1" – were:
This was the first use of US-style jingles on BBC radio, but the style was familiar to listeners who were acquainted with Blackburn and other DJs from their days on pirate radio. The reason jingles from PAMS were used was that the Musicians' Union would not agree to a single fee for the singers and musicians if the jingles were made "in-house" by the BBC; they wanted repeat fees each time one was played.
The first music to be heard on the station was an extract from "Beefeaters" by Johnny Dankworth. "Theme One", specially composed for the launch by George Martin was played for the first time before Radio 1 officially launched at 7 am. The first complete record played on Radio 1 was "Flowers in the Rain" by The Move, the number 2 record in that week's Top 20. The second single was "Massachusetts" by the Bee Gees. The breakfast show remains the most prized slot in the Radio 1 schedule, with every change of breakfast show presenter generating considerable media interest.
The initial rota of staff included John Peel, Pete Myers, and a gaggle of others, some transferred from pirate stations, such as Keith Skues, Ed Stewart, Mike Raven, David Ryder, Jim Fisher, Jimmy Young, Dave Cash, Kenny Everett, Simon Dee, Terry Wogan, Duncan Johnson, Doug Crawford, Tommy Vance, Chris Denning, and Emperor Rosko. Many of the most popular pirate radio voices, such as Simon Dee, had only a one-hour slot per week.
1970s
Initially, the station was unpopular with some of its target audience who, it is claimed, disliked that much of its airtime was shared with Radio 2 and that it was less unequivocally aimed at a young audience than the offshore stations, with DJs such as Jimmy Young being in their 40s. The fact that it was part of an "establishment" institution such as the BBC turned off some, and needle time restrictions let it play fewer records than the offshore stations. It had limited finances and often, as in January 1975, suffered disproportionately when the BBC made financial cutbacks, strengthening an impression that it was a lower priority for BBC executives.Despite this, it gained massive audiences, becoming the most listened-to station in the world, with audiences of more than 10 million claimed for some shows. In the early-to-mid-1970s, Radio 1 presenters were rarely out of the British tabloids, thanks to the publicity department. The touring summer live Radio 1 Roadshow – usually BBC Radio Weeks promotions that took Radio 1, 2 and 4 shows on the road – drew some of the largest crowds of the decade. The station played a role in maintaining the high sales of 45rpm single records, although it benefited from a lack of competition, apart from Radio Luxembourg, and from Manx Radio in the Isle of Man.. Alan Freeman's Saturday Rock Show was voted Best Radio Show five years running by readers of a national music publication, and was then axed by controller Derek Chinnery.
News coverage was boosted in 1973 when Newsbeat bulletins aired for the first time, and Richard Skinner joined as one of the new programme's presenters.
On air, 1978 was the busiest year of the decade. David Jensen replaced Dave Lee Travis on the weekday drivetime programme so that DLT could replace Noel Edmonds on the Radio 1 Breakfast show. Later in the year the Sunday teatime chart show extended from a Top 20 to a Top 40 countdown, and Tommy Vance, one of the original presenters, rejoined the station to present a new programme, The Friday Rock Show. On 23 November, Radio 1 moved from 247m to 275 and 285m to improve national AM reception, and to conform with the Geneva Frequency Plan of 1975.
Annie Nightingale, whose first Radio 1 programme aired on 5 October 1969, was Britain's first national female DJ and became its longest-serving presenter, evolving her musical tastes with the times.
In 1978, Al Matthews became the first black disc jockey on Radio 1. His Saturday night show Discovatin was broadcast for over two years. During the summer a Wednesday show was also broadcast featuring live acts.
1980s
At the start of 1981, Mike Read took over The Radio 1 Breakfast Show from Dave Lee Travis. Towards the end of the year, Steve Wright started the long-running Steve Wright in the Afternoon show. 1982 saw the end of Junior Choice and it was replaced by Radio 1's Weekend Breakfast Show, although the format based on children's requests continued for another two years. Adrian John and Pat Sharp also joined for the early weekend shows. Gary Davies and Janice Long also joined, hosting Saturday night late and evening shows respectively.In 1984, Robbie Vincent joined to host a Sunday evening soul show. Mike Smith left for a while to present BBC1's Breakfast Time; Gary Davies took over the weekday lunchtime slot. Bruno Brookes joined and replaced Peter Powell as presenter of the teatime show, with Powell replacing Tony Blackburn on a new weekend breakfast show, which no longer contained children's requests. Blackburn left Radio 1 at this point.
In 1985, Radio 1 relocated its studios in Broadcasting House to Egton House. In March 1985, Ranking Miss P became the first black female DJ on the station, hosting a reggae programme. In July, Andy Kershaw joined the station.
Simon Mayo joined in 1986, while Smith re-joined to replace Read on the breakfast show.
In response to the growth in dance and rap music, Jeff Young joined in October 1987 with the Big Beat show. At the end of the year Nicky Campbell, Mark Goodier and Liz Kershaw all joined, and Janice Long left.
Mayo replaced Smith on the breakfast show in May 1988. In September, Goodier and Kershaw took over weekend breakfasts with Powell departing. Campbell took over weekday evenings as part of a move into night-time broadcasting as 1 October 1988 saw Radio 1 extend broadcast hours until 02:00; previously the station had closed for the night at midnight.
From September 1988, Radio 1 began its FM switch-on, with further major transmitter switch-ons in 1989 and 1990 but it was not until the mid-1990s that all existing BBC radio transmitters had Radio 1 added. Previously, Radio 1 had "borrowed" Radio 2's VHF/FM frequencies for around 25 hours each week.
1990s
On 1 May 1991, Radio 1 began 24-hour broadcasting, although only on FM, as the station's MW transmitters were switched off between midnight and 06:00.In 1992, Radio 1, for the first and only time, covered a general election. Their coverage was presented by Nicky Campbell.
In his last few months as controller, Johnny Beerling commissioned a handful of new shows that in some ways set the tone for what was to come under Matthew Bannister. One of these, loud&proud, was the UK's first national radio series aimed at a gay audience, which was produced in Manchester and aired from August 1993. Far from being a "parting quirk", the show was a surprise hit and led to the network's first coverage of the large outdoor Gay Pride event in 1994.
The Man Ezeke became Radio 1's first black regular daytime presenter when he began hosting on Sunday lunchtimes in January 1993.
Bannister took the reins fully in October 1993. His aim was to rid the station of its "Smashie and Nicey" image in order to appeal to the under-25s. Although originally launched as a youth station, by the early 1990s, its loyal listeners and DJs had aged with the station over its 25-year history. Many long-standing DJs, such as Simon Bates, Dave Lee Travis, Alan Freeman, Bob Harris, Paul Gambaccini, Gary Davies, and later Steve Wright, Bruno Brookes and Johnnie Walker left the station or were dismissed, and in January 1995, older music was dropped from the daytime playlist.
Many listeners rebelled as the first new DJs to be introduced represented a crossover from other parts of the BBC with Emma Freud and Danny Baker. Another problem was that, at the time, Radio 2 was sticking resolutely to a format which appealed mainly to those who had been listening since the days of the Light Programme, and commercial radio, which was targeting the "Radio 1 and a half" audience, consequently enjoyed a massive increase in its audience share at Radio 1's expense.
After the departure of Steve Wright, who had been unsuccessfully moved from his long-running afternoon show to the breakfast show in January 1994, Bannister hired Chris Evans to present the breakfast show in April 1995. Evans was a popular presenter but was dismissed in 1997 after he demanded to present the breakfast show for only four days per week. Evans was replaced from 17 February 1997 by Mark and Lard – Mark Radcliffe and his sidekick Marc Riley – who found the slick, mass-audience style required for a breakfast show did not come naturally to them. They were replaced by Zoe Ball and Kevin Greening eight months later in October 1997; Greening soon moved on, leaving Ball as sole presenter. The reinvention of the station happened at a fortuitous time, with the rise of Britpop in the mid-1990s – bands like Oasis, Blur and Pulp were popular and credible at the time, and the station's popularity rose with them. Documentaries like John Peel's Lost in Music, which looked at the influence that the use of drugs have had over popular musicians, received critical acclaim but were slated inside Broadcasting House.
At just before 09:00 on 1 July 1994, Radio 1 broadcast on medium wave for the final time.
In March 1995, Radio 1 hosted an "Interactive Radio Night" with Jo Whiley and Steve Lamacq broadcasting from Cyberia, an internet café and featuring live performances by Orbital via ISDN.
Later in the 1990s the Britpop boom declined, and manufactured chart pop came to dominate the charts. New-genre music occupied the evenings, with a mix of specialist shows and playlist fillers through late nights. The rise of rave culture through the late 1980s and early 1990s gave the station the opportunity to move into a controversial and youth-orientated movement by bringing in club DJ Pete Tong amongst others. There had been a dance music programme on Radio 1 since 1987 and Pete Tong was the second DJ to present an all dance music show. This quickly gave birth to the Essential Mix where underground DJs mix electronic and club based music in a two-hour slot. Dance and urban music has been a permanent feature on Radio 1 since with club DJs such as Judge Jules, Danny Rampling, Trevor Nelson, and the Dreem Teem all moving from London's Kiss 100 to the station.