George Ergatoudis has been appointed to the vacant role as head of music at BBC Radio 1, the country’s leading top 40 national station. Until recently, Ergatoudis was music manager at 1Xtra, Radio 1’s digital sister station.
Ergatoudis succeeds Alex Jones-Donelly, who stepped away from the radio sector in August to take up a senior A&R role with EMI Music Publishing U.K.
In a statement, Radio 1 Controller Andy Parfitt comments, “I am convinced that (Ergatoudis) will be able to lead Radio 1’s music team and build on the station’s world-class reputation for discovering and supporting new U.K. music.”
The station has achieved steady audience growth in recent years, Radio Joint Audience Research data confirmed in August. Radio 1 achieved a reach of 10.24 million for the March 28- June 26 quarter, its highest for two years. The corresponding audience figure in 2004 was 9.72 million.