“When they want to hear Lady Gaga and you’re talking about a new band called Anal Beard, no-one cares.”
BBC Radio 1 is the holy grail of new music broadcasting. If you’ve got a daytime programme on here, you’ve made it. Platform’s Editor-in-Chief Glen Davies went to the famous studios in London to find out how this young presenter rocketed to his dream job.
It is pure, undeniable fact that getting your ideal job immediately after graduating is as feasible as flying to the moon on a potato. But the man sat opposite me in the darkened studio, deep in the bowels of the BBC, managed just that.
Greg James, the 23-year-old presenter rising rapidly through the ranks of the station, has just finished the day’s Afternoon Show. Two years ago, he left his graduation party early to fill in for Sara Cox, and he hasn’t looked back.
Although his move from early mornings to afternoons and other changes to the station’s schedule were described as the biggest shake-up in its history, in a bid to make younger presenters draw in younger listeners, Greg begs to differ.
“It was just time for a change at Radio 1. Daytime hadn’t changed for five years and it was just time to do a freshen-up. I don’t think there was any particular age reason for it to be changed,” he says.
“Yeah I’m 23 and the youngest person on daytime, but it doesn’t mean a 45-year-old won’t like it. It all depends what you talk about really.”
However, how he came to the station in the first place is a strange sequence of events.
His first show was the day after his final exam. “On the day of my graduation ball I went straight back to London to cover for Sarah Cox – I had to leave my graduation ceremony a bit early.
“Everyone was saying ‘where are you going?’ and I said ‘ermm, I’ve got to go and cover Sarah Cox’s show, strangely, tomorrow,” he says, still with a hint of amazement at his own luck.
“It was a brilliant problem to have, and looking back it was probably the most important show I did.”
Now that he’s a seasoned pro, he reckons it can be a surprisingly stressful job, as constantly dreaming up content can be tough.
“You’re under a lot of pressure every day to perform, and I really enjoy that and thrive on it. But I do get pressurised and stressed because you just never stop thinking about it.
“It can take over your life, but in a good way as well. It’s always been my dream job, and I love it, but you get stress with any job.”
Surely, nobody could really complain about being in Greg’s position. Especially as his dream of working in radio is a deep-rooted one.
“It started off as wanting to be on Noel’s House Party – I can pinpoint it as specifically as that. I thought that if I could do that as a job it would be amazing. Then I just… found… radio.”
He reckons that his fondness of the industry came from the knowledge that so many broadcasting legends have made their names in it.
It started from the age of about 10 or 11, so he got started on hospital radio, then went to university and did it for students. He claims that ”it was always a fascination and a sort of geeky, anoraky obsession with it all”.
It’s the student radio years which shaped Greg’s own musical taste. However, the alternative bands which came through the university music scene at the time might be what are on his iPod, but because “Radio 1 is so much bigger than the presenters on it”, they need to be genuinely interested in a huge range of mainstream music.
“People will listen to Radio 1 no matter who is presenting on it, because it covers so much of the country and the music is specifically tailored for such a wide, mainstream audience. It’s in the daytime presenters’ best interest to like the music and be knowledgeable and passionate about it, and it’s lucky that I am.
“You can’t force things down people’s throats that they might not like. When they want to hear Lady Gaga and you’re talking about a new band called Anal Beard, who have just come out of Bradford, have five fans and get driven around by their mum, no-one cares. Not for Radio 1.”
For all his obvious talents, though, it still seems that Greg has had an overwhelming dose of good luck in getting to his position. But then again, here is proof that sticking at something religiously really can get you to a top job in not much time at all.
The Afternoon Show With Greg James is on BBC Radio 1, 1pm until 4pm on weekdays.
Glen Davies
Editor-In-Chief
Tags: Greg James, Radio 1
