A BROADCAST journalist quizzed Warrington students about their radio listening habits in the wake of the falling popularity of Radio 1.
BBC Broadcast journalist Phil Pegum asked students at Priestley College about how they consume music and their answers will not have made easy listening for radio bosses.
They appeared to back up recent findings that showed Radio 1’s flagship programme, helmed by Nick Grimshaw, had slumped to its lowest level on record.
Only one of more than 20 students was a regular listener to Radio 1 and many had never heard of Grimshaw.
Alex Highcock, a former Wade Deacon pupil who studies BTEC Music and the Extended Project said: “We tend to listen to our music through Spotify and YouTube,”
“We like to listen to our own playlists and the problem with Radio 1 is they play the same songs all the time.”
The Priestley students’ comments are due to be used on Radio 4’s Feedback show.
The Breakfast Show with Nick Grimshaw pulled in 4.93 million listeners a week in the third quarter of 2017, down from 5.5 million in the second quarter and 5.25 million in the same period in 2016, according to the latest figures released by audience research body Rajar.
When asked how they discover new music Priestley’s students said they did so through recommendations from the likes of Spotify. The majority also opted out of listening to radio because they had no interest in hearing from a DJ.
Abigail Bamford, a former pupil at St Peter & Paul Catholic College who is studying BTEC Music and A-Level English Language and Literature at Priestley said: “I prefer to listen to songs and not people talking,”
“Radio 1 doesn’t stray from the charts and we all have a wider interest in music than that.”
