Radio 1 boss warns Chris Moyles

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/entertainment/7968127.stm

Version 0 of 1.

BBC Radio 1 controller Andy Parfitt has warned Chris Moyles about his on-air behaviour, after the breakfast host mocked singer Will Young's sexuality.

"I made it absolutely perfectly clear to him and everyone at Radio 1 that we don't condone bullying or homophobia or anything else like that," Parfitt said.

Media regulator Ofcom recently censured Moyles for parodying the gay singer.

Parfitt said Moyles made a mistake and added: "As long as people work within the rules, then their future's secure."

Eight people complained to Ofcom after Moyles used a high-pitched, effeminate voice to parody Young in a satirical song.

The regulator said the item, which aired in January, condoned "negative stereotypes based on sexual orientation".

Parfitt, speaking at the Radio Academy's Radio & Music Forum in London, also defended the ages of his presenters.

'Conveyor belt'

Earlier this month, a report in The Sun newspaper claimed unnamed "Radio 1 bosses" thought some of their DJs were "too old".

Moyles is 35, Jo Whiley is 43 and Sara Cox is 34, while the station aims to attract listeners who are 15-24.

But Parfitt said he thought age was "largely irrelevant".

"John Peel had one of the youngest [audience] profiles in Radio 1 and he was in his 60s," he said. "It's about your world, about your connection, about your references."

"There are plenty of new faces," he said, naming recent arrivals such as Greg James, Kissy Sell Out and Kutski.

But the Radio 1 line-up was like a "conveyor belt", he added.

"It goes along and you have to make sure that you leap back to stay where you are. And I'm acutely aware that as the conveyor goes on, you have to go back and renew it the whole time."