What Everyone's Missed About Chris Moyles

Some great analysis the last few days of his new show on Radio X and of course it's great to have him back on air every day. 

He loves radio and is in the Champions League of performers.

Much of the discussion so far has been around his 'rule breaking'; mentioning all those things radio presenters aren't supposed to, and 'invading' studios representing other brands under Global Radio's roof.

All of this is true and of course there are many many facets to Chris Moyles success and his talents. I just want to focus on one aspect which I feel has been missing from much of the analysis so far.

Here's the thing. For all the apparent spontaneity, and the 'renegade' nature of the programme, what we have here is a talented professional working closely with excellent management to create a winning product.

The 'invasion' of the other studios, for example, was meticulously planned.

How do we know this? Because they'd built a branded up spinning wheel to help them decide which studio to gatecrash. They had the whole thing filmed. Someone's had an idea, which became a plan, which probably got refined, then approved and then finally executed.

And if there's one thing I've learned from my time in radio, and then my time out of it, it's that you cannot come close to achieving your potential and delivering truly great radio if you work in isolation.

One difference between an average radio presenter and a brilliant presenter will be what they do off-air. The - sometimes tricky - conversations they have. It's about convincing management that the normal rules shouldn't apply, and then working with them to do something different instead.

Think about Moyles on Day 1 when he used the imaging to make Dominic Byrne do things at his command. Those 'More Weather', 'Even More Sport' and 'Say Something In French' stings would have been produced far in advance of the programme.

They were planned, and approved, and then delivered.

Because of his success, Moyles has earned the licence to be listened to - not just on-air - but off it too. He has been able to convince management to work with him on ideas that break the format, and this approach has been so successful the management have been able to build a brand around him.

This means he is able to go on air with complete and utter confidence in himself. He knows he has the full backing of his team and his bosses, and - this is his great art - concentrates on delivering it with a verve and spontaneity that listeners love.

Radio like this has similarities with the way live television is produced. You cannot take it upon yourself to 'go off on one' on live television because there'd be no camera there to see it. It has to be planned and practiced, so that everyone is standing in the right place and the product looks good on screen.

It's a true team effort.

Much of commercial radio isn't. It's one or two people sitting in a room, doing their best for 4 hours at a time.

And that's only going to get you so far, as Chris Moyles is demonstrating.

What's interesting is that in the 3 years he's been away, no-one has been able to take his place. It's easy to blame big brands and management for that. But part of the responsibility has to lie with the presenters themselves.

What I'm saying is; if you want to stand out on radio, don't get frustrated and quit, don't go off on one and get fired, take 5 minutes and have an honest chat with your boss about the kind of broadcaster you want to be.