Weekends and the line of succession
The top talent from weekends has always filtered through to daytimes.
Radio one has always had an A team and a B team - you've got your big stars, and they hold the weekday daytime slots, and then you have the folks that are either not quite as good, or just newer, and you have them on at the weekends generally, or just in an off peak slot, and they also cover for the weekday slots; the very best of them move up to the A team, and the rest stay where they are and move on eventually. This is a good way of thinking about it, and while we don't know exactly what the management think, or how they view the talent on the radio station, I think it's safe to say on radio one much more than other radio stations, there is a great degree of succession planning; simply because the shows are much more personality based, and as a result you can't do a really quick swap and just been someone without questions being asked, the presenters don't just play music they also entertain.
Matt Edmondson is a good example of this: he was the star of the B team for a long time, and even seemed in pole position for a weekday afternoon slot at one point. But time passed, and at this point he is likely to remain on the B team if you like for the remainder of his time on radio one. The opposite example is Jordan North, working his way up the ranks to the position Matt found himself in a few years ago, as the star member of the B team, and then graduating to the A team, a prime slot on weekday daytimes, and even the prospect of being the next breakfast show host. The question I want to ask today is which member of the radio one B team is most likely to move up the ranks next time it a vacancy is open on weekday daytimes: there's a good pool of talent; plausibly it could be Arielle, Matt and Mollie, Katie, Dean, or a different combination of these names (IE: Dean and Katie).
I think it's pretty safe to assume who moves up the ranks will be moving to an afternoon slot; be that Scott's slot or drive time in the event that Greg throws in the towel on breakfast and Vick and Jordan make the move. That being said, it is by no means certain. I think the prime candidates to move up the ranks is probably Katie: she's been around awhile, and she's clearly being pushed by the bosses into the role that Jordan once fulfilled as "Radio 1 supply teacher" a clear vote of confidence in her, giving her exposure up and down the line up; I don't think Jordan would have got to drive time without the familiarity he built up with weekday audience is considering he covered most of the shows a lot of the time. It's very possible that Katie gets paired with someone, but I think it's safe to say she is the curly favourite for whenever a weekday vacancy opens up; in my view it would be a big mistake not to promote her when an opportunity arises.
Arielle Free is a bit of a wildcard here, because I can't think where to put her - again in a duo it could work, but I do wonder if she's gonna be one of those talents that moves from weekends to earlies and back to weekends, not one of the big hitters. This could change, and a future afternoon or drivetime doubleheader featuring Arielle is within the realm of possibility. The big weakness of both Arielle and Katie is that on their own I don't think they could carry a prime time slot, but paired with a fellow DJ their personality comes out to the max and it sounds great. Some DJs just work better in pairs for big personality slots; Jordan is sounding much better when someone to bounce off, and Katie sounds at her most relaxed when she has someone else to talk to.
We all know Matt and Mollie, we all know why it's somewhat unlikely, but we also know that they would be infinitely capable, so well radio one to need a quick fix an air show that could slot in immediately, signing them up for a couple of years on weekdays would be a pretty shrewd transitional move, but only that; it wouldn't be fresh new talent. With Dean it's the exact opposite: he isn't ready, he still sounds too green, and to me at the moment his show (despite having many redeeming qualities) still really grates. In other words, throwing him on to weekdays might be a mistake. It does seem that the big weakness at the moment is that none of the B team would be capable of anchoring a major personality show without a co host - excluding Matt. Maybe this isn't a weakness; it does seem ego and one voice is being replaced by duo's and trios and a source of new 21st century zoo format on Radio 1, which I think sounds much better and means the DJs don't have to be larger than life, because there's more than one of them carrying the show. Certainly looking at the new talent, this will be the norm for the foreseeable.
Tomorrow I wanna talk to you about two alternative theories for weekday radio one, PLUS how drive time sounded coming live from Newcastle. See you then.
