Andy Parfitt

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Andy Parfitt
Born	1958 (age 49–50) Bristol
Occupation	British radio administrator

Andrew Parfitt (born October 1958, Bristol), or Parf Daddy to the DJs on Radio 1, is the current Controller of BBC Radio 1 in the United Kingdom. He has been in that role since 1998, taking over from Matthew Bannister. He is also the controller of BBC Radio 1Xtra, BBC Asian Network and the BBC's new offering for Teenagers, BBC Switch.

1 Early life
2 Early career
3 BBC Management
4 Censorship
5 External links
6 References

[edit] Early life

He went to Ashton Park Comprehensive School on Blackmoor's Lane in Bower Ashton, Bristol. He then went to the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School (now an associate college of UWE). From 1978-9, he was the assistant stage manager at the Bristol Arts Centre.

[edit] Early career

Andy joined the BBC in 1980 working as a Studio Manager. He spent some time with BFBS in the Falkland Islands, before returning to the UK in 1984. He became a producer in BBC Education in 1985, then joined Radio 4 in 1987 and produced Pick of the Week and Bookshelf. He helped set up Radio 5, and became the network's Assistant Editor in 1989. He joined Radio 1 as Chief Assistant to the Controller in 1993. A year later he was promoted first to Editor, Commissioning and Planning and soon after to Managing Editor. In 1997, he became the network's Deputy Controller when Matthew Bannister was appointed Director of BBC Radio.

[edit] BBC Management

In March 1998, Parfitt was appointed Controller of Radio 1. During his time as Controller he has refocused the station on a core target audience of 16 to 24 year old listeners. In 2002, Andy oversaw the conception and launch of BBC 1Xtra, a new digital radio service for fans of new black music.

More recently, Parfitt has been instrumental in changes to the Radio 1 daytime output including the successful appointment of Chris Moyles as the Radio 1 Breakfast Show host in January 2004, as well as the 2006 re-shuffle which saw Colin Murray move to 10pm. This has been coupled with a sustained upsurge in RAJAR ratings with the station topping the all important ten million mark in listership. Although much of this is down to Moyles (who often refers to Parfitt as 'Parf Daddy'), many other shows particularly Scott Mills have seen increases.

Although some people feel Parfitt has overseen a dumbing down of Radio 1, where witty intelligent broadcasters like Simon Mayo and Mark and Lard have been replaced by local commercial style presenters such as JK and Joel, the station has grown its audience both on-air and on the web.

In July, 2006 Andy was appointed the BBC's Teen Czar. This makes him the head of all Teenage Entertainment- with a view of making sure the BBC offers a wider choice of the 11-25 age group, which recent whitepapers have told the BBC it's lacking in.

Despite this, he continues his role of Controller of BBC Radio 1.

In July 2007 Andy Parfitt presented a two part series for BBC Radio 4 entitled California Dreaming

In December 2007, Bob Shennan, the Controller of Five Live defected to Channel 4 to manage their new three radio stations, leaving Andy Parfitt temporarily in charge of Five Live and Five Live Extra and the Asian Network.

[edit] Censorship

Parfitt was recently heavily criticised for only authorising a cut version of The Pogues 'Fairytale of New York', censoring the words 'slut' and 'faggot'. This decision was later reversed after widespread media coverage, and a decision by sister station Radio 2 to play the track uncensored.^[1]