At last, two months after Mark Goodier hung up his chart overcoat, the Radio 1Top 40 has a new presenter. 23 year-old unknown Wes Butters has been plucked from obscurity (well, Birmingham) to front pop radio's most enduring landmark show. Bruno Brookes and Mark Goodier may have run things capably for the last 17 years but, let's be honest, both of them had the perfect face for radio. Station bosses have now decided that what the target audience really needs is someone they can relate to, and indeed pin up on their bedroom walls, and they've promised a major revamp of the show too. Wes's overnight success just goes to show that not every media studies degree is a passport to the dole queue. Let's see how he does...
4:00 A confident natural start - the boy's gonna do fine.
4:10 We've just survived a ten minute recap of last week's chart, but any chance of some of this week's singles action?
4:11 No. Instead we face twenty minutes of the new Top 40 album rundown. I may learn to live with this, just maybe.
4:31 Liberty X have a chat with Wes, and then perform Just a Little live. Why?? It's not been in the charts for six months.
4:38 At last, the new singles chart. Ah, hang on, numbers 21-40 are relgated to 'The Continuous Countdown'. It's now highlights only, with just new entries and target-audience-favourites in full. Robin Gibb 20 seconds, Avril Lavigne 3 minutes. It's been 15 years since this show dared not to play all 40 tracks in full, and this is the beginning of a slippery chart slope.
5:18 We've reached number twenty in record time, but first there's a competition and Liberty X sing again. I had hoped that only the Network Chart Travesty did competitions.
5:26 The 'complete' Top 20. Normal service is resumed. Thank god for that.
6:06 A long pause before the Top 10 during which Liberty X sing their forthcoming cover version and get asked some Smash-Hits-level questions. Next please.
6:40 Justin Timberlake can only manage new in at number two, and Oasis were only in at three, so...
6:50 ... so TATU are still number one with All The Things She Said. Which means the number one act is still younger than the chart show DJ, and all is normal with the world again.
6:55 A quick preview of next week's hits, and then Wes heads off for a well-deserved celebratory Ribena.
