The Nation's Favourite: True Adventures of Radio 1 Book

The clue is in the title. "The Nation's Favourite". Radio 1 has always held a unique place in broadcasting, providing a soundtrack for several generations of children growing up in Britain. For "unique", though, perhaps read complacent, and in the 1990s the competition offered by commercial radio--allied to an unease as to who exactly Radio 1's target audience was--led to a realisation that the station had a fight to retain relevance and listeners. Enter Matthew Bannister. This book is essentially a chronicle of his time as Controller of Radio 1 from 1993 to 1998, taking the form of a series of interviews with the key protagonists, interweaved by Simon Garfield to produce a coherent narrative that shows up the bitchiness and back-stabbing behind the banter and japes. Normal office politics, in truth. We are witness to the axing of the "dinosaur" DJs, the hurricane that was Chris Evans, the mistake that was Mark and Lard on the breakfast show--all discussed with maximum acrimony. Bannister comes across as a likeable man in an impossible job, who by the time he hands over to Andy Parfitt has imposed a distinctive identity on the station, despite the falling figures. The BBC was brave to allow such an account to be written, and the result is a gripping depiction of the self-regarding world that is the media, constantly fighting the urge to eat itself. --David VincentRead More