The man killing new music on Radio One

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I've always been a vocal fan of BBC Radio One and taken its side when the conservative beancounters of commercial radio have whinged about the licence fee. Because if it weren't for the risk-takers at RadioOne, commercial radio would have us listening to a steady diet of Cliff Richard and James Blunt. Nearly all of the interesting new major acts of the past two decades have been broken by RadioOne - stations such as Capital and Heart only latch onto a song once it's a proven listener favourite, the spineless philistines.

Of course, the BBC is not driven by commercial imperatives, and that offers it the luxury of not pandering to the lowest common denominator (otherwise known as "doing an ITV"). Its remit for public-service broadcasting also ensures that its commitment to new music has, until recently at least, been adhered to.

But there have been some very worrying signs since the appointment 14 months ago of the station's new head of music, George Ergatoudis, not least of which is the station's pretentious, inane slogan, In New Music We Trust. I mean, come on, what does that actually mean? That it's acceptable to leave the new Amy Winehouse album at home to babysit the kids while you go out on the lash?

Even more concerning is the station's playlist policy (by which it is decided which records will be played by DJs). There's been much excitement recently that, of the top 10 selling albums of 2006, seven were of UK provenance. Some have even heralded it as the finest era for UK music since Britpop.

For Radio One, oddly enough, it's as if 1997 never ended. Of its top 10 most-played songs of 2006, six were cheesy dance anthems, none were by the biggest-selling British artists, and only three were by British artists at all, the veteran Isle of Wight DJ, Dave Lee (aka Joey Negro with Make A Move On Me), The Automatic and Meck, whose take on Leo Sayer's Thunder In My Heart was another nail in the coffin of creativity in dance music.

There were four American acts in the top 10 and, astonishingly, almost as many Dutch acts as there were British. Since when has Holland been a pop powerhouse?

Where on earth was the support for new British music? Indeed, where was the support for new music full stop?

Even if daytime Radio One has become disproportionately enamoured with dance music why couldn't it at least ignore the cheese and feature genuinely brilliant dance tracks such as Ame's Rej and Justice vs Simian's We Are Your Friends?

And it's not getting any better. What was at the top of the RadioOne playlist chart last week? Proper Education, Eric Prydz's wretchedly humdrum cover of Pink Floyd's Another Brick In The Wall, followed closely by the gurning atrocity that is Sharam's PATT.

Seriously, Mr Ergatoudis, what are you on? Because, whatever it is, I don't want any.

Do you think RadioOne has lost the plot? Or are you happy with all the cheese? Email me on soundingoff@thelondonlite.co.uk