Chris Moyles to step down as presenter of Radio 1’s Breakfast Show
Chris Moyles today announced live on air on BBC Radio 1’s Breakfast Show that he is to step down as the show’s presenter.
Commenting on air he said: “So I have an announcement to make, as I said – I have my announcement to make, and I am now going to make my announcement. Thank you very much. And for most of our audience, it’s probably the last thing they want to hear me say. But you know me, I don’t do things by halves - so cue the sad music.
“I started this radio show in the morning back in January 2004 and it was my dream job, the one I wanted since a child – the coveted Radio 1 breakfast show. I know some kids wanted to be a professional footballer or a fireman but not me, I’m a geek. I wanted to be on the radio. I wanted the biggest radio show you can get and eventually, I got it. And for the last eight and half years, I’ve had the best time of my life. And I’ve got to share it with a small group of friends and 8 million strangers, every morning for three and a half hours a day. When I started, I wanted to do the show for 10 years and everyone thought I was nuts and some mornings it didn’t even feel like I was going to make it o 10 o’clock that day, but we always did.
“The weird thing about doing this job is that almost since day one there has always been speculation about how long it would last, rumours that the boss wanted me out, newspaper stories saying I’m going to be fired by the end of the year, printed whispers of my successor and when they would take over. And throughout all of it, the one thing that has remained constant is me and the team coming into work every day, doing the show, making the audience laugh and the bosses at Radio 1 were happy. So I find myself at a time where nobody is looking my way, it’s all gone quiet. There aren’t any rumours about me being fired. It’s like people got bored with making stuff up and distracted by the rain and the Olympics. So I’m going to say it, not the papers or twitter, me. We’re going to leave the breakfast show. We’re not going to go yet, were going to be here next week and the week after that and we’ve got holidays booked in August and we’ll come back after that. I just want to give you a heads up and tell you that we’re going to wrap it up.
“Radio 1 are going to find someone new to host the show and they’ll put their take on it - Radio 1 can do that when they want to do that but this show is all about me and it’s all about the team and with the hope of sounding over the top and melodramatic I wanted to say thank you to everybody listening to the show for giving the team and me the best time ever.
“Me and Dave and Dom and Aled we’ve been here every day since the beginning and now Freya and Pippa and Tina have joined us and we love it, it has been the most fun, the best time ever and even during tough times this show has honestly been the best 3.5 hours of my day, every day. And I know that’s sad, but I am sad, I’m a geek, I’m a radio geek. I’m living this dream with millions of people every day listening, having a laugh, knocking around and I know it’s just a radio show but we’re all in it together. Me, the team, and every single one of us – 8 million of us, but it’s almost time to go and so we're off, so I just wanted to let you know.
“A couple more months of us and then it’s someone else’s turn to have a go, so thanks for listening and I hope you stay with us until the end because I promise it’s going to be brilliant and for those people who are thinking Jesus it’s just a radio show stop banging on about it, you don’t get it, and for everyone else who does get it - you know it’s all about me. I don’t do things by halves, my tongue is always buried deep in my cheek so thank you for listening, the show may now continue. In fact let’s go back to what this show is all about, let’s play some music.”
Chris will leave breakfast in September and is currently in negotiations with the station about a brand new show.
Ben Cooper, Controller BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 1Xtra, said: “I’d like to thank Chris. Quite simply, he has been the most successful breakfast show host in Radio 1’s history. For the past eight and a half years he has been entertaining millions of listeners every morning, which is testament to his incredible talent as a broadcaster.”
Chris Moyles has presented the breakfast show on Radio 1 since January 2004 and in 2009 he became the station’s longest serving breakfast show host. He started off presenting the early morning breakfast show for the station in 1997, winning a Sony Silver Award for DJ of the Year the following year. He then went on to host the weekday drive time show before taking over the reins on breakfast.
Chris has won two Sony Gold Awards for the breakfast show, in 2006 for Best Entertainment Show and in 2008 for Best Breakfast Show. In March 2011, Chris and sidekick ‘Comedy’ Dave Vitty set a new Guinness World Record for broadcasting the longest music show by a radio team, staying on air for a whopping total of 52 hours and raising almost £3million for Comic Relief.
The new host of Radio 1 Breakfast Show will be announced on during Radio 1’s Newsbeat bulletin at 10.30am this morning.
