Is Eurovision really a Radio 1 topic?

I think they may be overdoing it: how relevant is it really to 16–24 year olds?

Scott Mills has been talking a lot about Eurovision this year, even more than usual on his show, and it raised some important questions for me. Does the radio one audience really care about Eurovision any more? My anecdotal evidence (and it is just that, this isn't what I'm drawing my conclusions from in this article) is possibly not; I'm a young person, obviously all my friends are young people, and I only know a single person who has expressed any interest in it, and it's someone with a very specific passion for the contest, much like we all have a specific passion about radio and are probably not representative of the public in that way. I don't see much of buzz about the contest - it's a fun thing to watch, it gets decent ratings, but I can't shake the feeling that this is much more radio two than radio one!

Scott has a particular affinity with the contest, and the coverage on his show has essentially been tongue in cheek and a bit of fun, but my eyes do glaze over a bit when it's being constantly mentioned or hyped up like it's something most people are excited for. Radio one is at its best when it acts as a zeitgeist for young people, what they talk about, what they're excited about, and whatever is happening at the pinnacle of youth culture at any given time. Festivals are a great example of this, major seminal moments in pop culture like something happening at an awards ceremony and everyone talking about it the next day, new music from a huge artist, or the release of a massive film and hearing from the stars who brought it to the silver screen. These are all the things the radio one does well, and the overwhelming majority of the time they are pretty much on the button in terms of what they should be talking about, how they should be talking about it, and with what frequency they should be talking about it.

That being said, it doesn't feel like this with Eurovision. Thankfully the other shows haven't been discussing it much, and my advice would be to keep this as something for radio two, those that care deeply about it will seek out the coverage deliberately, and you won't be pushing something that the majority of the radio one audience potentially aren't too bothered about, and doesn't really speak to them in the same way most of the staff radio one talks about does. You can hardly claim Eurovision is it the pinnacle of youth culture these days. At least not in Britain, I can't speak for the cultural experiences in other European countries, I'm nearly going off what I see here, and what I see is a fundamental overestimation of the appeal of this thing to a mass audience of young people - hence wide radio two does the pop up stations and the major coverage of it.

Also this week, a pretty difficult question for you: in the lead up to the local elections, and in future electoral cycles in Britain, should radio one (and Newsbeat especially) do more politics? I don't mean more speech output or moving away music output and replacing it with additional politics content, this would be suicidal and turn off the audience for radio one which are by and large listening for music and personality; I'm suggesting that Newsbeat maybe dedicate more output during election periods to British politics. I think the strongest argument that this would be that you could help reach and inform a demographic of people that don't enjoy engaging with traditional media outlets as much, speak to them in their language, disseminate and communicate key information clearly and simply, platform various political voices; including those critically of young people, and actively encourage young people who listen to radio one to vote, to make up their mind using the impartial information they are given, and encourage them to put their values into practice and vote.

This would definitely get a few raised eyebrows, particularly in the conservative party, as most things to do with politics do when they involve the BBC, but I think this could be a really valuable thing, help young people who feel disenfranchised with the political process feel more informed without being patronised, and help expand the voting franchise so more young people take part in our elections, which surely can only be a good thing for democracy and the integrity of our political system. Maybe it's a little risky, and a bold thing for radio one to do, but we need bold, there's no one else that could do it with a large audience of 16 to 24 year olds on this scale, and there's nothing party political or genuinely controversial about the idea. The time of the next general election would be a good opportunity for Newsbeat to spread its wings further in terms of politics coverage, so you want to start thinking about that kind of thing now in preparation.

Tomorrow: the confirmed Sunday line-up for big weekend, and whether James Cusack has a future on the station.