Moyles bows out on ‘awesome’ high note

So it was perhaps no surprise that Chris Moyles was on the front foot yesterday as he said goodbye to the Radio 1 breakfast show.

The Leeds-born DJ bowed out after a record-breaking eight-and-a-half years at the helm of the station’s flagship programme.

And he proved spikily confrontational to the end, saying the final show felt like “some weird victory” after “all the flak we’ve taken”.

But Moyles demonstrated his softer side too, telling his listeners they were “awesome”.

He said: “Thank you for listening, thanks for supporting us and with a risk of sounding ridiculously cheesy, thanks for making all our dreams come true.”

Moyles had a separate message for successor Nick Grimshaw, saying: “I’ve had a few lows but mainly a gazillion highs doing the show. It was my dream to do it and it’s been so much better than you can ever imagine it to be.”

Farewell messages were played from the likes of football legend Gary Lineker and Olympic diver Tom Daley.

The programme received more than 120,000 text messages from listeners during the morning while #ByeChrisMoylesShow was one of yesterday’s most popular terms on Twitter.

Filmmaker and Comic Relief supremo Richard Curtis came into the studio to pay tribute to the fund-raising efforts of Moyles and his team.

He revealed they had raised more than £10m for Comic Relief with various stunts over the years.

A hefty chunk of the cash was generated when Moyles and his main sidekick, Dave ‘Comedy Dave’ Vitty, spent 52 continuous hours on air in March 2011.

Moyles is appearing in a touring version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar musical later this year.

The former Mount St Mary’s RC High School pupil began his broadcasting career aged 14 as a Saturday afternoon DJ at Top Shop in Leeds.