From today's Daily Telegraph.

By Ben Lawrence
5 June 2025

At the end of last year, the death of DJ Johnnie Walker reminded us of
something lost. I don’t mean simply that we had lost a terrific
broadcaster, but that his death marked the end of an era.

Walker, a trooper, had presented his show until nearly the end of his
life, despite being desperately ill.

You could argue that working was, for him, a necessary distraction, but
you also got the sense that he was doing it for the listeners.

Among Walker’s gifts as a presenter was his ability to share his musical
passions: he was not some gushy and unrigorous fanboy, but a discerning
expert who knew exactly how to distil his knowledge.

Knowledge, though, is now a dirty word. The musical nous of DJs, not to
mention the broadcasting skills of those who have trained on degree
courses or learnt their craft on the job (often in now-denuded local
radio), seems to matter less than marketability and the building of the
brand. All hail, then, the rise of the social influencer DJ.

Except this, to me, goes against the spirit of radio – and it seems that
a lot of people agree. At the end of last week, there was a certain
amount of outrage when it was announced that former Made in Chelsea cast
member Sophie Habboo would join her husband and fellow Made in Chelsea
alumnus Jamie Laing on Radio 1’s Going Home show. According to The Sun,
social media was ablaze.

One post proclaimed: “There is something really gross, about two such
privileged and independently wealthy (the Laings) given access to prime
time national radio shows over people who have trained and studied for
years in media.” Another pleaded: “Please get some good DJs back in the
drive time slot. It’s getting embarrassing.”

The BBC’s decision to recruit Habboo is obvious enough, and the same is
true of 25-year-old influencer GK Barry, who was recruited by Radio 1
recently. Their impact is extraordinary: their tentacles are able to
reach the young and impressionable, and they offer cross-platform
marketing (for example promoting their wares to their millions of
followers).

It also makes sense that radio bosses would be looking to the podcasting
space for lucrative new hires: both Habboo and Laing co-host one of the
UK’s most popular podcasts, NewlyWeds, while GK Barry hosts the
top-charting podcast Saving Grace. These stars have proven to be
charismatic on a mic and have a highly transferable audience at their
fingertips.

What’s more, I imagine that they offer a boon to commercial stations’
advertising departments whose clients want to be associated with the
lifestyle cult these influencers develop around them.

In a way, this is nothing new. DJs were the original influencers,
prescribing their tastes to audiences and thus shaping the buying habits
of the public and making or breaking emerging artists. This is linked to
the idea of the DJ as a personality, something that developed in Britain
from the late 1960s, first with the introduction of Radio 1 and then the
growth of commercial radio.

This was the era when Noel Edmonds, Tony Blackburn and, alas, Jimmy
Savile were treated like gods, and their fame was sometimes greater than
the pop stars whose discs they spun.

This era is now irrevocably tainted for obvious reasons, but you cannot
deny that it also gave us some of the most extraordinarily talented DJs
of all time: Annie Nightingale, John Peel, Terry Wogan and Kenny
Everett. The last two of these prove that being a good radio broadcaster
is not always down to musical knowledge or taste.

Here were personalities, and in the case of Everett, a personality who
took the seemingly sober task of being a disc jockey and turned it into
something that would not look out of place among the surrealists. In an
era where radio conversation is often dominated by cliché, a unique and
strange voice such as Everett’s is sorely needed.

But we also need the musos. When I was growing up, my taste was moulded
by DJs such as Peel, Dave Fanning on Virgin and, especially Steve Lamacq
and Jo Whiley on Radio 1’s Evening Session – a pair without ego who,
thanks to their carefully controlled enthusiasm, provided the best music
education I could have wished for. Hüsker Dü, the Sugarcubes, Belly, the
Auteurs…bands who aren’t much discussed today, but whose music has aged
incredibly well.

Lamacq is now on BBC 6 Music, a station that is treated, quite rightly,
like a national treasure (remember the public outcry following former
director-general Mark Thompson’s strategy review in 2010 which deemed
its independent thought and extensive and unusual playlist surplus to
requirements?).

But DJs like Lamacq are an increasing rarity – a former NME journalist
who got his break on pirate radio, a voice who you knew had done his
time scouring the pubs and clubs of the nation in search of musical
excellence. It’s hard to imagine Jamie Laing and Sophie Habboo doing the
same.

I don’t necessarily mind the use of celebrities when it comes to
presenting, and sometimes the results are surprising. I remember a few
raised eyebrows when Alan Titchmarsh was appointed to Radio 2, but he
was revelatory, a soothing son of the soil who not only offered
authority, but also knew when to listen.

The death of radio has been greatly exaggerated. The latest Rajar
figures shows that Britain’s biggest station – Radio 2 – still attracts
audiences of 13.1 million, while 13.4 million people listen to the
network of Heart commercial stations. Meanwhile, it was reported that a
record number of people – 50 million – listened to radio last year,
apparently the biggest increase in 75 years.

This is a cause for celebration, but it should also offer the
opportunity to take stock, and think about what makes the medium great –
and that’s not the witterings of an influencer who is a brand ambassador
for fake cheese.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/radio/radio-presenters/social-media-stars-are-killing-the-radio-dj/