Popular radio announcers/DJs

[Uzoma]

Who in the UK are considered the most popular radio personalities right now? Considering from a music point of view, there isn't a huge amount to choose between them, so what exactly makes the difference between them? Is it fair to say that the more popular they are, the more they are paid?

Sorry for the number of questions, just trying to get some clarity.

Thanks in advance for your answers.

[Count-A-Strong]

http://www.rajar.co.uk/

[Buenchico]

The 'most popular' and the 'most listened to' DJs aren't necessarily the same. DJs who broadcast in the 'breakfast slot' usually get higher audience figures than those who broadcast later in the day, simply because that's when most people are listening to the radio. So Chris Moyles, Chris Evans, Shaun Keaveny, Christian O'Connell, Johnny Vaughan and Lisa Snowdon are almost guaranteed the best listening figures, even though a poll of listeners to find the most popular DJs might find, for example, that Nick Grimshaw, Steve Wright, Steve Lamacq and others are actually better liked by listeners.

Most DJs are self-employed. They (or their agents) negotiate individual terms with broadcasters. It's likely that broadcasters will recognise that they have to pay more for the top breakfast DJs (both as a consequence of the higher listening figures and as compensation for the DJ having to get up at around 3am on every weekday morning!).

Chris

[andy-hughes]

It is a nebulous concept - as has been explained very well by Buenchico.

The diffference is clearly in the presenting style, which evolves as the broadcaster ages - bearing in mind some of these people have thirty-plus years in radio.

Thus - Johnny Walker who used to be a cutting-edge musical opinion driver is now a staid stodgy nostalgia stooge batting out until he gets too old and frail to hack it.

Steve Wright who used to be one of the most inovative and informed broadcasters in radio has also become a soft-pedaling cliche of his former self - does everyone who contacts him really say they 'love the 'great' show' so he can read it out as an add-on to their message?

A shining light in the ocean of mediocrity is Chris Evans who has singularly re-shaped the slot left by his highness Terry Wogan and taken it forwards - with an appropriate gain in listening figures to prove how good he is.

The next graduate to Radio Quiet is Jo Wiley, who has given up trying to talk like a student when she is in her forties with children, and is moving the peerless Radcliffe and Maconie out to Six Music to allow the BBC to fulfil its gender quota.

In the 'good old days' or Radio One, a contract was a licence to print money because of the lucrative spin-offs like personal appearences in night-clubs, which don't happen any more.Now a jock will be expected to present a DJ set for their money, rather than stand and gurn and throw copies of singles which were left outside their producer's office door.

Radio is constantly evolving, and amen to that - but the BBC remains full of its own self-rightiousness and self-importance, and until that changes, we will never have the radio we realy deserve - because we pay for it.

[Uzoma]

Absolutely AMAZING answers from Chris & Andy...very enlightening!

[scotman]

Most radio stations try very hard in the mornings when most people are listening as they rely a lot on listener inertia to keep audience figures up through the day.