Radio 1: 'Takeover is a bold statement'

Radio 1's head of music George Ergatoudis has claimed that the station's 'Daytime Takeover' is a bold statement.

As part of the project, the station's night-time DJs including Zane Lowe, Annie Mac, Nick Grimshaw and Huw Stephens will take charge of prime time slots.

Ergatoudis said: "There is a risk. What we normally do in the daytime is a balancing act. We really carefully balance the exciting, the innovative and the new alongside the popular and successful. If you get that balance right, you get 11 million people tuning in every week.

"The big pull for me is that if radio is going to survive long-term, new music is a really important unique selling point. Radio is the single most important place people discover it.

"At Radio 1, we sell, and sell hard, the fact that we're about new music. Radio 1 takes those risks, unlike commercial radio, which wants to be as risk-averse as possible. We hang our hat on that. You've got to stand for something in order to cut through and mean anything these days."

Asked if the project was an indicator of the lack of cutting-edge knowledge of the regular presenters, Ergatoudis replied: "No, not at all. What the mainstream presenters are incredibly skilled at is introducing music in a careful, measured way.

"This is about making a bold statement. This is where we're at: we're about breaking new music [and] for five days our specialist champions are taking over."