Radio 1’s Greg James: ‘It was like a balloon popping. I was choked up'

The DJ has just finished his epic – snow postponed – Sport Relief challenge and talks about the anguish of not finishing first time around, why radio is like ‘plumbing’ and the joy of paying tax

By and large, you come across two kinds of radio broadcasters. There are those who see the medium as a means to an end, to discuss what’s important to them: electronic music, world politics, the discs you would take to a desert island. Then there are people such as Greg James, the host of the Radio 1 drivetime show for the past six years, who have a passion for radio itself. Once upon a time they were called anoraks; he prefers the term “radio nerd”. He is highly invested in the production of the show. His heroes are Terry Wogan, Alan Partridge and Ricky Gervais – he can still recite links from the latter’s Xfm show 13 years after it was last broadcast.

Even when he started to do endurance challenges for Sport Relief – in 2013 he was part of the group of celebrities who faced the rapids and crocodiles of the Zambezi river in Uganda; in 2016 he completed five triathlons in five days – what attracted him was not, he says, thrill-seeking but bringing excitement back to his show. “I just want to make great event radio. I hate the idea of getting to the end of a show and there’s nothing to remember.”

Related: Greg James: ‘My parents are both funny – Dad would do silly voices, Mum was the acerbic one’

Continue reading... March 16, 2018 at 11:37PM