Goodier drops out of the charts

Mark Goodier is leaving Radio 1's weekly chart show after 15 years because he is considered too old for the job.

Goodier, aged 41, among the few survivors of the purge that cleared Radio 1 of ageing "smashy and nicey" DJs during the mid-90s, will present his last Top 40 chart rundown at Christmas. The station said he was leaving by "mutual consent" and the programme would now be "refreshed" to ensure its appeal to the youth target audience, which is aged 15 to 24.

Goodier's chart show was once among the most popular radio broadcasts, but he has been losing ground to his commercial competitor, the Pepsi Chart Show presented by Dr Fox. Goodier's audience fell by 300,000 to 2.6 million this year and the commercial show rose by the same amount to 3.5 million. It is the second blow to the DJ this year; his production company Wise Buddha Broadcast went into liquidation in March. A spokesman for Radio 1 said Goodier's departure on his 15th anniversary had been agreed several months ago. "The feeling is that we need to revamp and refresh what we are offering. The Pepsi Chart Show has a lot of competitions and big money prizes in its favour, which has drawn a lot of people in.

"That's not something we would do at the BBC but there are a number of elements that we are looking forward to building in that would mount a serious challenge. We aim to give it a distinctive and more youthful appeal."

Goodier's successor has not been chosen, but suggested names so far include Jamie Theakston and Scott Mills, who has been a regular stand-in for the breakfast show DJ Sara Cox, who has lost 700,000 of her 6.4 million listeners.