The Chris Moyles Show
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The Chris Moyles Show is the name of the British BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show since Chris Moyles took over on the 5th January 2004. It begins at 6.55am and ends at 10am. Moyles' short lived 1999 TV series on UK Play was also of the same name.
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[edit] Show Format
Chris' show lasts just over three hours, with news and sport read half hourly between 07:00 and 08:30, and again at 09:30. A typical half hour segment will contain between ten to fifteen minutes of chat, discussing the team members' lives, Radio 1's features, music or popular culture. There are regular celebrity guests or interviews, with the occasional live music performance and more than often first exclusive plays of new single releases.
[edit] Car Park Catchphrase
Possibly the best known competition on the show has been Car Park Catchphrase where two listeners, inside their car had to beep their horn to guess a catchphrase, which was hosted using voice samples from the Northern Irish comedian and original Catchphrase presenter, Roy Walker. Even though simple catchphrases were used and carefully chosen obvious clues provided by Moyles, many callers failed to spot the correct phrase. In 2006 a new game called Beep Beep Busters, an allusion to Bob Holness's Blockbusters, where callers are still in a car, but answer questions instead of guessing catchphrases. This competition has also been off air since Easter 2006.
[edit] Features
Popular recurring features that have appeared on the morning version of the Chris Moyles show include:
- BB Aled - When a series of Big Brother or Celebrity Big Brother UK is ongoing, Aled reviews everything that has been happening in the Big Brother house along with his pre-recorded interviews with the most recently evicted housemate.
- Buzz Off - Chris would bring a song from his home to play out on air while listeners texted in to decide if they wanted the song to stop early.
- Car Park Catch-Phrase - see above
- Celebrity Two Word Tango ("borrowed" from Dick and Dom in da Bungalow)
- Chicks Win Ticks competition for women to win tickets to various things
- Guess Who - Ad hoc game in which team members attempt to guess the name of a celebrity that one member has recently seen, using yes or no questions
- One Road Travel (became known as New and Improved One Road Travel from January 2006) - Dominic originally read out travel news from one random road each day but since January 2006 the roads have been chosen by listeners.
- Reverse-A-Word - Later made into a one-off special by Challenge TV
- Rob DJ's Monday Night Pub Quiz - One of Chris's friends Rob DJ presents a quiz he writes in a pub in their native Leeds every Monday evening, with the team reconstructing the quiz the next morning along with listener participation.
- Sting Ring (became Bing Ring for Christmas 2005) - Moyles would wake up a listener by playing Sting songs down the phone, in Christmas 2005, Bing Crosby songs would be used instead.
- Tedious Link - by Comedy Dave - A leftover from Moyles' old afternoon show, Comedy Dave would link one record played in the previous programme to another record using cleverly written facts to connect the names of the titles or artists. The record is played at precisely 9:00am, and afterwards the link between the records is reviewed for mistakes - which is usually found to be the case.
- Half-Time in the Show - following the tedious link, the team has a 'halftime'. Although nearly two thirds through the show, the title reflects the fact that the peak audience has now turned off and the team uses the opportunity to chat more informally to the remaining listners. Comedy Dave begins the link shouting "Let's get ready to Ramble!", in the style of boxing announcer shouting "Let's get ready to Rumble!". In the UK, the word ramble can be used to describe a long discussion with no real point or coherence.
- Whattity What A short-lived spoof of Blankety Blank
- Yesterday's Weather - Dominic would review where the warmest, wettest and as such happened in the UK the previous day.
- Beep Beep Busters (Replacement of Car Park Catch-Phrase) - see above
- Celebrity Tarzan - A celebrity would do an impression of Tarzan and the listeners would phone in to guess who it is, the winners receive CDs of the number 1 record of the day or number 2 also and so on if it lasts as many days.
- Rate the Guest - A guest would be rated out of 10 by Chris, Dave, Rachel and Aled. The individual scores would then be added up to make a grand total out of 40.
[edit] Current Team Members
Moyles' show is distinct in that it relies on a number of on air contributions from background staff in a variation of the "zoo" format. Of these, Comedy Dave has worked with Chris the longest; though since 2004 he has also presented his own show along side Mark "Chappers" Chapman.
- Chris Moyles - Host of the show
- Comedy Dave - 'Director Of Comedy'; general assistant to Chris
- Rachel Jones - Producer since 2003
- Aled Haydn-Jones (BB Aled) - Day Producer and Big Brother Reporter. He had previously worked as the BA
- Dominic Byrne - Newsreader since the move to mornings. He also does regular celebrity interviews and has a 'One Road Travel' feature, in which the travel news of one randomly selected road is read, parodying the travel news of local radio shows
- Carrie Davies - Sportsreader since 2004
- Rob DJ - Chris' friend from Leeds who is the author and presenter of Rob DJ's Monday Night Pub Quiz in Chris's Local Pub in Leeds.
- Longman - Chris' best friend and sandwich shop owner
- Jocelin Stainer - Current BA and formerly assistant to Aled
[edit] Supported Football Teams
| Team Member | Supported Club |
|---|---|
| Chris Moyles | Leeds United |
| Comedy Dave | Everton |
| Rachel Jones | Kidderminster Harriers |
| Dominic Byrne | Liverpool |
| Carrie Davis | Chelsea |
[edit] Guests
Moyles has had a wide array of celebrity guests on his show. Notable appearances include the British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Will Smith, Halle Berry and more recently, footballer David Beckham.
A long running gag throughout certain interviews is for Chris to demonstrate the hydraulic desk in the studio. This is usually done to lighten the mood if the visiting guest is proving especially difficult to interview.
[edit] Complaints
- See also: Chris Moyles#Controversies
There have been a number of complaints in the last two years about the Chris Moyles Show. These have included complaints of bad language, racism, homophobia, transphobia and sexism. Some of which have been upheld by Ofcom. Many of these complaints and controversies have resulted from the relatively adult content of Moyles' prime-time show.
[edit] Listener Figures
Since taking over from Sara Cox in January 2004 the show's audience has increased by over 1 million listeners, to over 7 million weekly listeners in October 2005, according to RAJAR figures[1]. Since the show began it has risen to become the most popular radio show for young people in London, overtaking Johnny Vaughan's Capital Radio show, beating it by 3,000 listeners in October 2005.
It remains the second most popular show on The BBC's Listen Again Service, behind The Archers.
In June 2005 Radio 1 signed an agreement with Sirius Satellite Radio to broadcast much of their content in America, with the Chris Moyles show as one of the main selling points (with a suitable time delay ensuring it remains a 'breakfast' show).
In 2005, as part of the BBC's podcasting trial, a weekly podcast entitled 'The Best of Moyles' is released. Originally updated every Thursday and now Friday as from January 2006, the podcast features highlights from the 5 previous broadcasts. It featured as the most downloaded podcast in the UK iTunes Music Store for much of 2005; however in December 2005 it was overtaken by the Ricky Gervais Podcast.
In 2006, the show won a gold Sony Radio Award for the best entertainment show. Upon accepting the award, in typical Moyles fashion, Chris started his acceptance speech with "About fucking time!"
The release of the latest RAJAR listening figures on 3rd August 2006 cemented Moyles' popularity in the slot - he had added a further 470,000 listeners to the Breakfast Show, taking the average listenership up to 6.79 million.
