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Parfitt on the future of TOTP, and an aging Radio 1
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 30 March 2009
Talking of the Radio Academy Forum, among the speakers there was the BBC’s Chief Of Pop Andy Parfitt (that’s his new job title I think) and he was asked, as he must be at every music industry event he attends these days, about whether ‘Top Of The Pops’ will return to our TV screens at any point in the near future. His answer: Well, no. Probably not.
He said that while recent special editions of the show – Christmas, New Year, Comic Relief – had been well received, there were no plans for the legendary pop show to return to a weekly time slot on the BBC TV network because, you see, the kids just don’t want it. Which you can’t blame them for really, given the Beeb’s insistence that ‘Top Of The Pops’ always be fronted by talent vacuum that is Fearne Cotton.
According to Music Week, Parfitt told the Forum: “[Top Of The Pops] has got a mythical status … but I don’t think we should get hung up on that one programme. We are a long way from [BBC1 controller] Jay Hunt recommissioning ‘Top Of The Pops’ in its old-school form on BBC1. Younger music consumers expect more interactivity – the days are gone when we can make a programme and just put it out there”.
Parfitt also took the opportunity to defend accusations that Radio 1 – which is still in his domain at the Beeb – is increasingly failing to reach its target demographic of 15-24 year olds, not least because of its increasingly aging presenter roster, which includes 34 year old Scott Mills, 35 year old Chris Moyles, 43 year olds Jo Whiley and Steve Lamaq, 48 year old Pete Tong and 51 year old Tim Westwood.
Parfitt insisted that Radio 1 remains a “hot young station” and argued that while it is true more 35 plus year olds are tuning in than in the past, that says more about 35 plus year olds than the nation’s favourite’s output. He said older listeners still tuned in because “they want to remain younger longer. You can’t make them go away”.
It is a tricky challenge for Parfitt, because Radio 1 arguably needs a Matthew Bannister style total revamp of its presenter line up (like former R1 controller Bannister controversially instigated in the early nineties) to avoid increasing allegations that the very well licence-fee funded station is crossing too much into the territory of commercial pop stations, and not fulfilling its remit of specifically providing youth with great new music. But to be fair, Radio 1’s ageing presenters are among the station’s best and/or most popular.
