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Chris Moyles

Christopher Moyles (born 22 February 1974) is an English broadcaster from Leeds. He currently hosts the BBC Radio 1 breakfast show, entitled The Chris Moyles Show.

Pre-Radio 1

Moyles was educated at the Mount St Mary's Catholic High School on Ellerby Road in Leeds, West Yorkshire and left school at the age of 16.

He then started out at local station Aire FM, making the tea for host Carol Vorderman. After occasionally serving as a stand-in presenter, Moyles got a job working as a presenter at RTL Luxembourg in 1992, until the station closed.

From 1993 he went on to work at various local radio stations in the UK, including The Pulse of West Yorkshire, presenting the evening show from 7-10pm. He remained here until early 1994 when he was dismissed for comments made about the station's previous programme controller. Moyles then turned up at Signal 1 in Stoke-on-Trent - again presenting 'The Evening Bit' from 7-10pm. In 1995 Moyles was heard on the Chiltern Radio Network, presenting the evening show from 7-10pm, before taking on the late show from 10pm-1am. This show was also simulcast on Horizon Radio, Chiltern Radio, Severn Sound and Northants 96.

In 1995 Moyles joined London station Capital FM, hosting his weekend show 'The Late Bit' and covering for various other DJ's. It was at Capital that Chris first had fallings out with fellow DJ 'Doctor' Neil Fox. After declining the offer of presenting the breakfast show on rival station Kiss 100 , Moyles joined Radio 1 in July 1997.

Radio 1

Moyles was voted one of the Faces for 97' by SKY magazine and presented his first show on Radio 1 on 28 July 1997, hosting the 4-7am Early Breakfast show - soon called 'The Early Bit'. Within months, in May 1998, his work was recognised with the award of the Silver Sony Awards DJ of the Year, and he was styling himself as 'The Saviour Of Early Morning Radio'. Within the year Moyles was promoted to a Saturday breakfast, then Saturday mid-morning slot from 10am-1pm.

After standing in regularly for Kevin Greening and Zoe Ball on the Radio 1 Breakfast Show, Moyles's next promotion came in October 1998 when he took control of the drivetime show from 4-5.45pm. The show was extended to 3-5.45pm in February 2001.

Moyles has been joined on the air throughout the years by different producers, broadcast assistants, newsreaders and from 1998, by his sidekick David "Comedy Dave" Vitty. His show also includes regular guests such as impressionist Jon Culshaw.

After five years on afternoons, on 5 January 2004, Moyles started presenting Radio 1's flagship programme The Breakfast Show, switching places with Sara Cox. He had been appointed to increase the ratings for the show and did so, putting on an extra 1,000,000 listeners to the audience in the first quarter of 2004. After a successful first year, Moyles was awarded 'DJ of the Year' by readers of The Sun.

By 2005, Moyles and his team had succeeded in hugely increasing the morning audience, with his programme's audience swelling to 6.5 million. This was coupled with an increase in the overall Radio 1 listenership. With 895,000 listeners in London in the third quarter of 2005, he succeeded in overtaking Johnny Vaughan to take the position of the capital's most listened to youth breakfast show. Moyles's listener count continued to increase each week, which led to him winning a gold Sony Radio Award in 2006 for best entertainment show.

With the release of the RAJAR listening figures on 3 August 2006, it was announced Moyles had added a further 470,000 listeners to the Breakfast Show, taking the average listenership up to 6.79 million. On 10 May 2007, RAJAR figures confirmed that Moyles had increased his listening figures to 7.06 million, breaking the seven million barrier for the first time with the station having 10.55 million listeners overall. Moyles again increased his listenership to 7.72 million as of 1 May 2008 slightly narrowing the gap between him and Terry Wogan, the current highest rated radio show in the UK. The station's overall listener figure is now over 11 million.

On 12th May 2008 The Chris Moyles Breakfast Show won its second Sony radio gold award for 'best breakfast show'.

Show format

Features

Moyles's style of delivery juxtaposes fast speech with long pauses. Moyles's humour relies mainly upon observational material, although commenters have suggested the whole persona he portrays on-air may well be a 'character'.

Moyles uses team members (they are not actually co-hosts) and audience participation in games and quizzes as other sources of comedy. He is renowned for his sharp manner, quick temper and put-downs, which are directed at seemingly everyone in a constant barrage However, he generally accepts counter-attacks in the same manner and routinely derides his being overweight in the lyrics of jingles and directly. Moyles often makes light of complaints made about his actions on the show, even joking about Ofcom - the regulating body for broadcasters, immediately after breaching guidelines in his broadcast on 9 October 2006 by saying "Good Morning Ofcom".

Regular competitions he has hosted include Viaduct (named by Simon Mayo, when he was asked for a suggestion about what to call the quiz when Moyles stood in on the breakfast show), which was based on a Two Ronnies sketch (itself based on Mastermind, with a specialist subject of "answering the question before the last"); and more recently Car Park Catchphrase, featuring voice samples from the Ulster comedian Roy Walker. This was replaced in January 2006 with a spoof on the quiz Blockbusters called Beep Beep Busters, which disappeared from the show during March 2006 without explanation. Car Park Catchphrase however returned in January 2007. His Saturday morning shows often contained slightly bizarre competitions, including one where Chris and Dave made predictions on how long people's marriages would last (entitled May Divorce Be With You).

Numerous other features in Moyles's shows include "Girls Going to Football", in which Comedy Dave predicts the scores of football matches to which female listeners are going; "Rob DJ's Monday Night Pub Quiz", where the team answers a selection of questions from a local pub quiz; "Frog Or Dog", where listeners had to do an impression of either a frog or a dog; "Guess Who", a Twenty Questions-style game, in which the team members try to guess the name of a celebrity spotted by another of the team; and "Celebrity Tarzan", in which listeners have to try and guess which celebrity is hollering like Tarzan, in order to win various prizes. However, this feature has currently taken a break.

The most recent features to be added to the show include "Birthday Corner" where listeners' birthday cards are read out (and often mocked) and "Who Knows Dom?" in which a daily increasing 'chain' of people who know team member Dominic Byrne is developed. "Who Knows Dom?" was discontinued in favour of a feature called "Just Ask Dom", which uses the same jingle but with different lyrics and involves listeners sending in a question on any topic for Dom to answer. This feature too has been discontinued and an on air discussion suggested it may be replaced in 2008 by "One-Word weather, with Nelson Mandela", featuring Dom's impression of the former South African president. Birthday Corner was discontinued on 25 January 2008.

From 17 September 2007 to 28 September 2007 Radio 1's legendary 'The Golden Hour' returned from 9:00am-10:00am as part of the 'Radio 1 Established 1967', the celebration of the station's 40th year on air. It used to take place as part of his show every Friday from 9am-10am. The feature has now returned to the show every Friday 9am-10am.

Easter 2008 saw the return of Carpark Catchphrase which was discontinued sometime in the preceding year.

On the 18th June 2008 the show generated strong feelings amongst listeners due to the obvious shift towards 'more music' and less chat. This was due to a discussion between Chris Moyles and Management regarding not reading the news on time and not playing enough music. The show has now returned to its normal format.

The team

Moyles's show copies from the likes of Steve Wright and Chris Evans in that it relies on a number of on-air contributors. Of these, Comedy Dave (Dave Vitty) has worked with Moyles the longest; and currently is the self appointed "Director of Comedy", news reader Dominic Byrne, sports reader Carrie Davis, producer Rachel Jones and day producer Aled Haydn Jones; though Moyles's friends such as "Longman" , "Rob DJ" , former children's television presenter Andi Peters and impressionist Jon Culshaw also, albeit infrequently, contribute. A recent addition is assistant producer Matt Fincham. Also, Keith Chegwin, former children's TV presenter and known as 'Cheggers', has recorded a couple of spoof adverts for Moyles' show in accordance with Comedy Dave and Chappers' attempt to run 32 miles for sport relief.

Parody songs

Moyles is well known for his parodies of recently released chart songs, which have been a long-running feature on his radio shows. In October 2004, Moyles and the The Chris Moyles Show team replaced U2's "Vertigo" at number one in the UK Official Download Chart with their download-only charity song "Dogz Don't Kill People (Wabbitz Do)", under the name 'Mouldie Lookin' Stain'. The song was a spoof of Goldie Lookin' Chain's "Guns Don't Kill People Rappers Do" (itself a spoof) and proceeds went to Comic Relief. At the time of its release, it was the fastest selling download on UK charts. Chris has parodied several Kaiser Chiefs songs under the name "The Kaiser Chefs". These include, "I Predict A Diet" (Parody of I Predict a Riot), "Donny" (Parody of Ruby) and Chris has considered writing a new parody of Everyday I Love You Less And Less entitled "Everyday My Kitchen Is A Mess". Also "Smile" by Lily Allen was parodied by Moyles's invention "Silly Allen", in a song called "Piles". During the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, Chris organised a parody of England World Cup songs, to ridicule the number of songs there were out at the time. Listener favourite "Jose - The Special One" a parody of "Rosé" by The Feeling, was banned after Chelsea FC complained to the BBC (although subsequently played repeatedly on his show and on Radio 5 Live since José Mourinho's departure from Chelsea). He has also parodied Natasha Bedingfield's "I Wanna Have Your Babies". It was written by Comedy Dave and performed in May 2007 by Moyles. In the same month, he performed a parody of Hellogoodbye's hit "Here (In Your Arms)" called "Beer In My Arms" in which he signifies how much he really dislikes the song, calling it 'daft'. Moyles also covered Puretone "Addicted to Bass" with his parody Addicted to Plaice, which covers the subject of being addicted to fish. He made a parody of "We Have Got to Zero Baby", a take on Enrique Iglesias's "Hero", which describes how his football team, Leeds United, managed to claw back a 15-point deficit in League One in only 5 games. In September 2007, he performed "Suicidal" a parody of the UK number one "Beautiful Girls", in which he talks about how the song makes him feel suicidal and wonders why it reached number one. In November 2007 he did a parody of Hoosiers - "Goodbye Mr A" called "Goodbye Mr. M" where he sings about the Ex-England football manager Steve McClaren being sacked. His latest parodies are of the UK's chart no.1 By Basshunter Called "Chuffhunter" in which he mocks the song and those that would buy it, Kylie Minogue's 'Wow' and a parody of the Estelle song "American Boy" , named "Somerset Boy". Other songs in the past that he has paroded inclued Bille Piper's Honey to the Bee as 'Guinness For Me' , All Seeing Eye's Walk Like a Panther, Will Smith's Gettin Jiggy Wit It. However, Moyles' most famous parody and generally regarded as one of the best, is a cover of Eminem song "Stan", entitled Stanta. Moyles has also done Baked Beans by The View, a parody of Same Jeans, and "Lunch in this pub", originally the Usher single Love in this Club. His latest parody is 'No Hair' -sung by Dominic Byrne - which is a cover of Jordin Sparks' No Air (ft Chris Brown).

Work outside radio

Television presenter

Moyles has also branched out into television. In 2002, his own Five show, Live With Chris Moyles, ran 5 shows a week for 13 weeks. Chris was replaced by Christian O'Connell, before the programme was shelved altogether.

He and sidekick Comedy Dave also had a TV show, also entitled The Chris Moyles Show, which was aired between 1998 and 1999 on the now-defunct UK satellite and cable channel UK Play. Moyles also voiced the fourth and final series of Sky One show The Villa. He has also occasionally presented Top of the Pops and has worked for the Comic Relief and Children in Need charities on their telecasts. Moyles has also presented a number of episodes of Big Brother's Big Mouth. Daily Mirror journalist Rob Leigh said of his Big Brother's Big Mouth presenting that "Chris Moyles may be Marmite for the ears on radio but never quite nails it on TV, even with his relative star power". He had also presented The Big Breakfast on Channel 4 several times between 2000 and 2002.

Other television appearances

Moyles appeared more successfully on the ITV show The X Factor: Battle Of The Stars. He was voted out of the show on 4 June 2006 in the semi-final. Following this appearance, stories in the New Statesman and The Sun both reported that Moyles was looking to relaunch his television career; rumours suggested that he had been offered his own show by ITV. Moyles has spoken of a desire to transfer the format of his radio show to the stage, but otherwise has thus far stayed clear of a conventional TV format.

Moyles has played himself in an episode of the drama Hotel Babylon aired on 15 February 2007, and he also appeared on a celebrity version of Dale's Supermarket Sweep that transmitted on the same day. Moyles has also appeared as a guest on numerous British television shows, including the ninth series of Top Gear, The Charlotte Church Show, The F-Word, The Friday Night Project, Richard & Judy and The New Paul O'Grady Show

Moyles made an appearance on the BBC panel game show Never Mind the Buzzcocks in which he bore the brunt of presenter Mark Lamarr's sharp wit and harsh criticism. He has also appeared on Channel 4's Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack TV programme and also recently appeared as team captain on the Channel 4 show Alan Carr's Celebrity Ding Dong. His most recent appearance, (July 18th 2008), was on Jimmy Carr's show on C4, 8 out of 10 cats.

Moyles appeared on the 2008 Brit Awards to present the award for the best live act. In May 2008 he appeared in the BBC documentary series Comedy Map of Britain.

On June 5th 2008 at 8:30 Chris suggested he could be appearing on the 2008 series of Big Brother after a news reporter announced that a 'radio DJ' would be one of the contestants. It was also announced that Channel 4 have hired Moyles as the host for E4's Big Brother's Big Mouth.

In his most recent Best of Chris Moyles Show Podcast, Moyles hinted that he is currently making a pilot for an unknown television show, which will feature Keith Chegwin and Vernon Kay as team captains.

Autobiography

Moyles's autobiography, The Gospel according to Chris Moyles: The Story of One Man and His Mouth was released by Ebury Press on 5 October 2006. Despite official BBC impartiality guidelines expressly forbidding advertising, the book has received frequent plugs on his radio show since its launch. By January 2007, the book had sold in excess of 2,500,000 copies.

On 4 October 2007 his follow-up Chris Moyles: The Difficult Second Book, published by Ebury Press, was officially released. The Difficult Second Book was released in paperback on 1 May 2008.

Miscellaneous

Moyles has provided his voice to a number of films and games. He featured in 24: The Game, as well as the films Wimbledon, War of the Worlds and Robots. In some of these films, his voice was only used on the UK version.

In 2006, it was announced that rugby league team Featherstone Rovers's ground would be named after him. Traditionally known as Post Office Road, it was renamed for sponsorship a number of seasons ago. From 2007, it has been called "Chris Moyles Stadium

On 7 July 2007 Moyles appeared as a presenter at the UK leg of Live Earth in Wembley Stadium in London.

Controversies

Moyles, following on from Chris Evans and American "shock jocks", sometimes teases listeners who enter the phone-in competitions he hosts. In his earlier days, he would sometimes ask female callers the size of their breasts, and has always made light of young lads with a strong South East England or Cockney accent. He remorselessly mocks people whom he considers to have dull, repetitive jobs with obvious sarcasm. When starting at Radio 1 on the 4-7am shift, he played soundtracks of passionate encounters in pornographic films, over which female newsreaders tried to read the weather forecast.

He has had several dealings with the Broadcasting Standards Commission and Ofcom. These have occurred during his time at both Capital FM (now Capital 95.8) and Radio 1. For example, these regulatory bodies upheld complaints when Moyles threatened Dr Fox in October 2002 with the claim that 'I'm gonna tear his head off and poo down his neck'; also in early 2002 when he said he would take the virginity of Charlotte Church, when she reached sixteen. Many of his fans claim that such jokes were made in obvious jest; indeed, he and Charlotte Church are now good friends and she has been a guest on his show several times. Moyles's Christmas 2005 show was broadcast from her mother's pub.

When he arrived at the station, John Peel took a dislike to Moyles and accused him of being a "DLT-in-waiting". Moyles retorted that Peel was a "Kenny Everett-in-waiting, because Kenny Everett’s dead and it’s only a matter of time before John pops his clogs". Later, Moyles and John Peel became very close friends, with Peel appearing on his show a couple of times, and Moyles being one of the DJs to broadcast an emotional show on 26 October 2004, the day after Peel's death.

In September 2008, Moyles, along with other British radio presenters, was criticised for promoting drinking to excess on air.

Accusations of sexism

In February 2006, Moyles apologised, along with the BBC, after swearing when speaking to a caller live on air. He made the outburst while teasing a mother-of-three from Newcastle during an on-air feature which her children had interrupted. "You've got three kids from some fuckin...." he blurted out, before apologising profusely for his mistake. He apologised, and continued to do so for another minute after the event.

The BBC issued six apologies, adding that such mistakes could occur during live broadcasts such as Moyles' show. The BBC was later cleared by broadcasting regulator Ofcom over the incident.

In July 2006, communications watchdog Ofcom found Moyles in Breach of rule 1.5 of the Ofcom Broadcasting Code Rules for an incident in which he referred to female listeners as "dirty whores". A listener objected to an item in which the presenter discussed people who urinated in the shower. He considered that the presenter’s reference to women who did this as “dirty whores” was unacceptable at this time of the morning.

Pay controversies

Alongside a number of other Radio 1 and Radio 2 DJs, Moyles crossed a strike picketline in 2005. BBC staff were striking over recently announced job cuts. Although Moyles claimed that he would be sympathetic to the strikers on his show, he made no mention of the strike.This was followed a year later by claims in The Sun newspaper, which was given information that Moyles had signed a contract worth £810,000 plus an extra £75,000 for every 150,000 listeners gained. — over twice that of the second highest earner on the station, Jo Whiley. A report by the BBC Trust on 2 June 2008 revealed that Chris Moyles was paid £630,000 in 2007.

Accusations of homophobia

Moyles was accused of homophobia in May 2006, when he rejected a ringtone by saying "I don't want that one, it's gay." live on air. This led to a number of complaints to the BBC. They argued that the use of the word gay in this context was homophobic. The BBC governors said that Moyles was simply keeping up with developments in English usage.

The programme complaints committee said that, “The word ‘gay’, in addition to being used to mean ‘homosexual’ or ‘carefree’, was often now used to mean ‘lame’ or ‘rubbish’. In describing a ringtone as gay, the DJ was conveying that he thought it was “rubbish” rather than “homosexual”. Moyles was not being homophobic". The panel acknowledged, however, that this use of the word “gay” in a derogatory sense could cause offence to some listeners and counselled caution on its use.

Subsequently in June, LGBT charity Stonewall marched with placards demanding the dismissal of Moyles during Europride in London. According to Stonewall, “Chris Moyles is not helping young LGBT people struggling to come out through his comments.”

Those defending Moyles have noted that Aled Haydn Jones, his show's producer who has worked with Moyles since 2001, is openly gay and that Moyles enjoys close friendships with people such as Scott Mills and Will Young. He has also been quoted in The Guardian by Stonewall chief executive Ben Summerskill as saying "Yeah, I'm homophobic, I don't like the gays. Sorry, it just does my head in. We have a token gay on the show! It is worth noting that in Moyles' The Difficult Second Book that he defends himself as being quoted out of context.

Moyles is quoted as defending comments labelled as homophobic by saying "It was just an act, it's what I do, it's entertainment" and that "I have a lot of gay friends; I'm not homophobic".