British Disc Jockey, 22nd February 1974-
"I want my show to be as real as it can. Talking about other people's lives on air gets me into a lot of trouble - but I don't mean to piss people off. I just want the show to be fun and every so often I say stuff that I shouldn't. I can't help it. People accuse us of being a bit too laddish - but we are lads, so what do you expect? I sit here with my mates just shooting the shit and having a good laugh. I can't help it if those conversations bleed through onto the radio show."
Chris has spent the vast majority of his working life in radio from humble beginnings on a hospital radio station in Leeds, winding a path from the local station Aire FM (at the tender age of just 16) to BBC Radio 1 along the scenic route, via a myriad of other stations including The Pulse, Chiltern Radio, RTL Luxembourg, Signal Radio, GWR and Capital FM.
He joined Radio 1 in 1997 as their second youngest DJ ever (beaten only by Noel 'Tidybeard' Edmonds)* and took up the pre-breakfast show slot between 4am and 7am before being moved to the mid-afternoon shift in October 1998. Since then he has managed to up the Radio 1 listening figures enough to dub himself the 'Saviour of Radio 1', thanks in no small part to being a DJ of the Loaded generation and, to be fair, appealing to the lowest common denominator. Part of his success can be attributed to his time-slot being just as kids arrive home from school, though that might be just coincidence.
As well as gathering a lot of fans, his presence on national airwaves has managed to piss a pretty number of people off. He alledgedly called his fellow DJ Mark Goodier's wife a pig live on air, Jo Whiley commented that he looked like one of The Fat Slags from Viz and his appearance on Never Mind The Buzzcocks prompted the host Mark Lamarr to threaten to kill him. Naturally, given his opinions and the content of his shows, Chris is either destined for further greatness or his audience will grow up before him.
Interestingly, he used to be quite the lover of Usenet, posting various flamebait messages under the names 'MOYLES', 'Lardy' or 'Me' to the UK radio newsgroups. Laughably, his signature message was the tragic "There is no 'off' position on the genious switch". Genious, yes. Sadly for Chris, there didn't appear to be an 'on' position, either.
if you want to check www.deja.com, his address back then was: 101577.275@compuserve.com
* Chris' position of second youngest deejay ever might be in question after December 2002 when Radio 1 acquired 23 year old Wes Butters to host the (affect a cheesy, over-enthusiastic mainstream radio voice) The Only Chart That Counts, The One And Only Radio 1 Top Forty Chart Show(!).
It might also be unfair to have a pop at Chris for his embarrassing Usenet posts since, should anyone ever know my real name or past aliases, they'd find a metric shitload of truly embarrassing Usenet posts from me too.
thanks cannon:
www.bbc.co.uk/radio1
www.chrismoyles.net