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Radio One controller George Ergatoudis has responded to a recent article by The Observer, which revealed that Radio One playlist meetings were seemingly reliant on streaming figures and mainstream popularity over direct input and opinion of the radio station's staff.
A writer from the newspaper was given access to a weekly playlist meeting, and gave a fascinating insight to the decision making process which goes into choosing what is played on one of the UK's most influential stations. Emphasis appeared to be placed on the importance of YouTube views and streaming data, which Ergatoudis has now hit back at, in a statement - which you can read here in full.
"Of course we look at data, but it’s only a small part of our decision making process and we have downgraded the value of YouTube, Twitter and Facebook considerably over the last two years," he says. "We’re back to a position where gut instinct and passion dominate our decision making. Stats can be used to compare one act to another, but I have to make it absolutely clear that the playlist team’s belief in an artist or song trumps everything.
"We are fully aware that social networking stats and YouTube views can be bought or manipulated, but frankly acts that resort to manipulating or buying stats are on very loose footings."
He also maintained that the station's playlist only applied during certain hours of the day, adding: "Radio 1’s playlist is only in operation between 4am and 7pm and I’d be concerned that someone who read the article might not understand that. After 7pm our DJs and producers are entirely in charge of the music they play. John Peel was never subject to the Radio 1 playlist and neither is Zane Lowe, or any of our evening and overnight shows. Radio 1 gives a platform to some of the best specialist music presenters in the world and they play a vital role in breaking new music."
He also stated that there was no disappointed with the article or response, saying: "We expect a journalist to have an opinion and to present their personal take. They’re not writing a Radio 1 press release after all, but there were a few elements of the piece that possibly could have made our work clearer. "
