Is It OK To Talk About Booze On Breakfast Radio?
- Ali Payne
- 6 hours ago
- 2 min read
Morning hangover jokes might seem harmless, but they’re not
It was 9:56am on Wednesday, October 29th when Greg James was chatting about rosé on his Radio 1 Breakfast Show. He’s not the only one – Chris Moyles often talks about drinking on his Radio X breakfast slot too.
These are shows I listen to and genuinely enjoy. With the kids too. But part of me wonders whether there should be a kind of watershed for alcohol chat, the same way there is for adult content on TV.
According to the BBC, “In the UK, the BBC has a well-established policy of making 9pm the pivotal point of the evening’s television, a watershed before which, except in exceptional circumstances, all programmes on our domestic channels should be suitable for a general audience including children.”
It doesn’t define what counts as “adult,” but Wikipedia lists examples like graphic violence, strong language and sexual content – with no mention of drugs. And yet alcohol is a psychoactive drug, even if it’s legally exempt from most drug laws.
This has been bugging me for a while.
It’s 8am. You’re grabbing a cuppa before the school run or work. The radio hums in the background. Suddenly the presenter jokes about being hungover or when they last went out.
Fast forward a few hours and the same station is cheerfully chatting about “warm-up drinks” for the evening ahead.
To many, it’s just light banter. But for anyone trying to cut down, take a break, or quit entirely, it can feel like a punch in the gut. Our media is soaked in alcohol talk – and it’s not as harmless as it seems.
When alcohol comes up before midday – hangover stories, last night’s wine, “hair of the dog” jokes – it normalises a pattern so many people are desperate to break. For someone in early sobriety or just curious about cutting back, it’s a reminder of what they’re working so hard to leave behind.
And let’s not forget who’s listening: parents, commuters, young people. What message does it send when alcohol is part of the conversation before the kettle’s even boiled?
It builds a cycle where booze is the backdrop to life – something to recover from, lean on, and celebrate with. Hear it often enough, and drinking stops being a choice and becomes an expectation.
These aren’t harmless background laughs; they shape our culture. They make it harder to picture a life without alcohol. They keep the cycle turning.
I’m not saying we should never talk about drinking – but what if broadcasters thought more carefully about when and how they do it?
Skip alcohol chat before midday.
Stop treating hangovers as punchlines.
Balance the conversation with mentions of alcohol-free alternatives and wellbeing.
Treat alcohol like what it is: a drug, not a lifestyle prop.
If you’ve ever felt triggered, left out, or quietly sad hearing yet another “boozy weekend” anecdote, you’re not imagining it. Media influences how we think about alcohol and right now, it’s stuck in an outdated story – one that doesn’t reflect the growing number of people choosing to live, and thrive, without it.
And don’t get me started on TV and films. I’ll save that for another time.
