Help! Influencers have commandeered the air waves
When I first decided I wanted to go into radio I picked up Chris Moyles’ autobiography (he was my first breakfast show DJ). Speed reading his early career I immediately emailed my nearest hospital radio and local radio station in the hopes of getting close to a broadcasting desk. Turns out this was all for nothing. What I really needed to be doing was increasing my Instagram following, posting regular updates on my dating life and outfit choice, and mastering the art of influencing.
I don’t want to speak ill of the influencer world. Like many of my generation I am happily bombarded by their lives through social media, I’ve even given a few of their podcasts a try! However, my current frustration is sourced from the new ground they’ve decided to take over, the radio.
Radio is one of the most intimate and unique forms of entertainment and education within the UK media industry. Nothing beats the feeling of hearing your name being read out live on air by your favourite presenters. Growing up, while others obsessed over pop stars and actors, my idols were (and still are) Annie Mac, Scot Mills, and Greg James. I was gripped by their capacity to make me feel as if I was the only person they were addressing and fascinated by their technical abilities to operate what I thought were basically the controls to fly a plane.
I was going through my morning routine, BBC Radio 1 in the background as it always is. Greg James (the current breakfast show host) was announcing who the new drive time presenter will be since Vic Hope and Katie Thistleton are now on maternity leave. Pausing my routine for a moment I sat by the radio excited to hear which Radio 1 DJ is being given their big break. The drive time show is one of the most listened to slots on Radio 1, in fact it’s one of the most popular shows in all of British radio. Its unofficially known as the show you do before the BBC breakfast show. Greg James did his time before becoming the breakfast show host in 2018, and Jordan North co-hosted it with Vic Hope before the controversial move to Capital Breakfast in 2024. What I’m trying to say is the drive time show is no casual job for a radio presenter, it’s the dream. So, you can understand my disappointment when Sophie Habboo, previously of Made in Chelsea and now media personality, was given the golden key to the very pinnacle of radio presenting. This came alongside the announcement that GK Barry, social media influencer and podcaster, will be taking over the weekend afternoon show in July.
So, what does this mean for the radio industry? With local radio being consumed by corporations like Bauer and Global the talent pool of presenters is being remodelled. Not only is there less space for radio enthusiasts to learn the skills to become a presenter but also what corporations like the BBC are looking for in a presenter is ultimately changing. It’s no longer about precision, compassion, and respect for the radio industry. It’s about your name and your following. Radio is becoming the next tool in the influencer’s tool kit, all utilized towards the goal of expanding their individual brand. The issue here is that the radio industry is being exploited and taken advantage of. The complexity of radio once kept the industry filled with those who possess a true passion and love for radio itself. Those influencers who have found themselves stumbling into radio lack this passion, and you can hear it. There is a magic to good radio that is not just based off of a talent to chat. It stems from a lifetime of radio experience working from the bottom to the top. Can the transition from an influencer or podcaster to a radio presenter be made in the same way as the career progression from a local presenter to a national one? What does it mean to replace die-hard radio listeners turned presenters with media personalities ready to embrace a new platform and gain a new set of followers? The truth is I don’t know. I don’t doubt that content will keep flowing or that entertainment will continue to be provided at a high standard. What I fear is that the magic will go. The intimacy between the listener and presenter that I have previously discussed is not based on a shared love for the presenter, its deeper than that. Its founded upon a mutual passion for the radio as a means of communication and connection. It’s a theatrical interaction between two performers; one in a box with a microphone and faders and one out in the world experiencing the show in real life, in real time. Pre-recorded shows are becoming more common and so are radio presenters with no capacity to actually operate a broadcasting desk. I reiterate I do not doubt the quality of shows presented in this way; I love a good podcast. Sadly, this particular evolution for radio may be the death of what I, and many others, love most about radio. Nevertheless, as Dawkins discovered, evolution is fuelled by ‘survival of the fittest’. So, goodbye to radio presenters of the past and long live the influencer!
Esme Gordon-Craig