The History of Radio 1 Breakast show

The first breakfast show presenter was Tony Blackburn, who spoke the first words on Radio 1 and remained in the slot for nearly six years. Other DJs who have hosted the breakfast show for more than five years are former hosts Nick Grimshaw, Mike Read, Simon Mayo, and Chris Moyles. Moyles was the longest-serving Radio 1 breakfast show presenter, having hosted Radio 1's "The Chris Moyles show" for eight years from 2004 to 2012.

Tony Blackburn was the first voice on BBC Radio 1 and picked the first song to spin – The Move’s Flowers in the Rain. He started on the Pirate Station. Tony had said “There was a lot of stuff that came out of the 60s which actually wasn’t very good." “When I was on the pirate ships, being honest, we had 100 records coming in every week and if you had two really good ones out of that you were lucky. But the thing about the 60s is it was an interesting decade because so much happened within it. It was a revolution in radio certainly and I’m proud to have been a part of that.”

Nick left BBC Radio 1 in 2021, he said that he wanted to do something else as he had been at radio one for 14 years and ad interviewed everyone, twice. Nick joined the BBC in 2007 and co-presented a youth show with Annie Mac. He was made presenter of the Radio 1 Breakfast show in 2012, taking over from Chris Moyles. He stayed there for six years before swapping with Greg James and taking over the drivetime show.

He simple wants to move on.

Nick did have 10 million listeners weekly, doing 4 days a week. In 2020 it was changed to 5 days a week.

Greg James only presented the Breakfast show for 2 years, as he was then replaced by Dev and Alice Levine. Presenting the early breakfast show from October 2007, on 21 September 2009 replacing his Drivetime show. he had 4.72 million weekly listeners.