Top floor

Now it makes sense.  Racy Radio 1 Controller Andy Parfitt ("Chris Moyles hasn't crossed the line") is channelling 70s libertarian and naughty picture purveyor Bob Guccione, the London-based American who launched Penthouse magazine.  Andy's secured the snazzy top floor offices of the new Broadcasting House development for Radio 1 and 1Xtra, and will say farewell to the cramped loft-style surroundings of Yalding House some time in 2012.

It's something of a turn-round for Andy, who's previously preferred a degree of separation from the mainstream for his teams.    Only in recent years have his djs and jingles carried "BBC" before "Radio 1", through concern that the audience preferred to think of the station as commercial.   And the distance from Broadcasting House allowed a little more louche behaviour in and around the entrance in Clipstone St; police records may or may not confirm that.  

But the move into the mothership is not new news to most staff at Radio 1/1Xtra who've been measuring up their new accommodation for some time. Let's hope that the thorny question of Charter Renewal under the Coalition and Jeremy Hunt doesn't mean their carpets and curtains are wasted from 2013.