Essential Mix
The Essential Mix is a weekly radio show on BBC Radio 1 currently broadcast between 0:00 and 2:00 a.m. UK time on Saturday morning. Originally broadcast on 30 October 1993, the Essential Mix features contemporary DJs and music producers of electronic dance music. The show has been presented since its inception by Pete Tong and features an uninterrupted two-hour mix from a different artist each week, overlaid with occasional continuity announcements delivered by Tong.[1] With a broadcast run of over 30 years, the Essential Mix is one of the longest-running programmes in the current BBC Radio 1 schedule. It is one of very few Radio 1 shows which is not broadcast live.
For the 1995 album, see Essential Mix (album).Running time
120 minutes (00.00–02.00 local time)
United Kingdom
English
Eddie Gordon
Wise Buddah
Somethin' Else
30 October 1993 –
present
New technologies[edit]
The advent of the internet brought the programme to an international audience for the first time (the Radio 1 website launched in 1996). In 2002 the BBC launched their 'listen again' online radio service and the Essential Mix (along with the Essential Selection) became consistently the most popular specialist music show of the whole BBC Radio network among internet users. According to BBC server logs, the show receives around 50,000 online requests per week (though this can be significantly higher, with the 2003 Ibiza show attracting more than 96,000 requests), which compares to the show's "live" audience of 80,000. Whilst demand for a podcast of the show is high, the BBC has resisted making the show available in this way due to copyright issues, but the development of peer-to-peer internet technologies has spawned a new trend in which fans of the show make recordings of mixes available to users of services such as BitTorrent and eMule. Although illegal, the BBC has taken little action against such activity.
Many torrent sites and internet forums still continue to provide mp3 download links to past shows, which can be found easily through internet search engines.
At the end of each year, a shortlist of the most popular Essential Mixes from that year is drawn up by the BBC. Listeners are invited to vote for their favourite shortlisted mix in a poll on the Essential Mix website around two weeks before the final show of the year. The mix with the majority of the votes is given the title of "Essential Mix of the Year" and is replayed in the final show of the year. The exception for the proper nomination of the Essential Mix of the Year award was in 2007, when voting and competitions were suspended on Radio 1 until further notice, due to failures in various BBC competition voting systems. So for that year, the Essential Mix of the Year (High Contrast) was chosen by Pete Tong and the Radio 1 Essential Mix team.[6]
To mark the 500th DJ/artist to appear in the series, in April 2010 BBC Radio 1 selected ten classic Essential Mixes to reflect the show's history:[9]