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Originally Posted by demonrail666
I think he lost some of his importance once Grunge and Britpop hit the mainstream in the mid 90s, being forced to celebrate a kind of obscurity-for-its-own-sake in an effort simply to stay relevant. Kershaw became more interesting for me because he was more willing to look further afield and wasn't so bound to Peel's ultimately quite post-punk-inspired idea of what cutting edge contemporary music 'should' be. But as you say, that's not to undermine his enormous importance overall. Although by the time he started championing The White Stripes I'd pretty much given up on him altogether.
Not in the same league in terms of significance, but I've always thought Janice Long has been quite overlooked; she played a vital role boosting those bands that weren't quite marginal enough for Peel but which (at that time, anyway) weren't mainstream enough for the daytime playlist, groups like The The, etc who might've otherwise found themselves lost in that massive no-mans-land that existed during the 80s, between Peel and Simon Bates. (Although, as KIS mentions, David Kid Jensen was also pretty good in that regard).
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I think Peel's influence in using the live session was pretty important. And, like everyone, Peel was a massive influence on me growing up.
But yeah, I think this idea that he was the only person, even within the BBC, who did good sessions, is a bit narrow. In my time when I tuned into radio 1 (I can't have listened to it more than a handful of times since Peel's passing) there was people like Lamacq and Wiley (later just Lamacq), Annie Nightingale, Kershaw, Mary-Anne Hobbs, Mark and Lard, Westwood, Chris Goldfinger, Fabio & Grooverider... further afield on radio 3 there's shows like Late Junction, Mixing it and World routes, 2 regular jazz shows and live concerts most evenings. I'm pretty sure Bob Harris still has some worthwhile sessions on radio 2 (it's been years since I tuned in) and I know that Radio 6 has a lot (though I never listen to it). Sessions are a pretty critical part of radio culture.
I think the thing that people need to remember about Peel's sessions is that there was one every night - for every great one (Monkey Steals the Drum) there was at least one shoddy one (Isla's Set) and one alright one by a band that were forgotten in 10 minutes (Miss Black America).
I love BBC radio, by the way.