It's been a hectic year for BBC Radio 1 and viewership numbers are down as a result of a shift in demographic dynamics and a shuffle of DJs, notably the leaving of Zane Lowe and the exit of Fearne Cotton this week. The British radio channel has lost more than 800,000 viewers from the same period during 2014, dropping from 10.5 million tuning in last year to 9.7 million this year. It's the lowest listening totals since 2003.
The station has played off the low numbers, suggesting that the drop is expected as a result of the station's transition to a younger audience. The morning DJ, Nick Grimshaw, has only been averaging 5.5 million listeners...thus far his lowest numbers in three years on the job. More than 90 percent of the lost audience comes from the over-30 audience.
"Since Radio 1 has been completely focused on younger audiences-and the most common age of a Radio 1 listener is 21-it was highly likely some older listeners would move on, like the half a million over-30s that left us this quarter," said Ben Cooper, station controller. "I'm pleased that Grimmy is doing what I've asked of him by keeping his young audience happy and scaring off the over-30s."
One can reasonably raise an eyebrow at this logic.
One element that wasn't addressed was the loss of several key figures during the first half of 2015. Zane Lowe, a DJ noted for his evening broadcast on the channel for nearly 13 years, announced during February that he was leaving the network for Apple, where he'll work on its digital radio project. This week also marked the last appearance of Fearne Cotton on her self-titled show. Although there are obviously replacements in the mix, it will take some time for the new hosts to build an audience, at least in theory. BBC Radio 1 isn't done yet.
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