The Training Zone
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David Takes On Goliath
After last week’s collective sigh of relief over the BBC Trust’s decision to significantly scale back on cuts to Local Radio, plenty of dust has settled. One Managing Editor recently told me “we’ll look back on DQF in a few years and wonder what all the fuss was about.” But there’s little sense of…
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Chris’ll Fix It
After months of uncertainty, the BBC Trust has finally published its conclusions on proposed cuts to Local Radio. And – on the surface of it, it’s good news for hundreds of staff who were wondering if they were going to lose their jobs. It’s also broadly good news for the audience, with plans to share…
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Lost For Words?
It’s good to talk, as BT spent several years telling us. Yet when it comes to radio in the UK, the commercial radio sector really seems to struggle to survive. So perhaps it’s time to turn the conversation towards whether there really is a market for speech radio beyond the BBC. For the past couple…
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What’s It Worth?
Last week, radio consultant John Myers rattled a few cages at the BBC by suggesting that Local Radio has too many managers. Even attempts to challenge his perhaps predictable conclusion were handled by the straightforwardness for which John is now becoming famous. On BBC Radio Nottingham’s breakfast show, the presenter asked why the BBC had…
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Closing Ranks
It’s not difficult to get annoyed by Kelvin MacKenzie. He’s never been one to shy away from an attention grabbing headline. Although at least when he was at The Sun, most of his headlines had a shred of truth. Now, however, it seems that he’s gone into the fortune-telling business. Which is unfortunate if you…
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2012 – The Year Of Freedom?
Who says the commercial radio industry’s lost its buzz? After years of consolidation and claims of local communities losing their localness, I reckon there is much to celebrate. Or at least keep a keen eye on. And who’d have predicted that the big showdown of 2012 wouldn’t be in London, but the West Midlands? The…
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Failure IS An Option
Failure is an interesting word. Especially when it’s used as a justification for protecting something. Yet Lord Patten, the BBC Trust Chairman, says that “Market Failure” is one of they key reasons why drastic cuts to BBC Local Radio and Regional current affairs should be scaled back. After hundreds of days of uncertainty, and thousands…
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Yours… Mark Thompson
I frequently get emails in my work Inbox from senior executives in the BBC. These al the “all staff” messages – sometimes congratulating teams for their recent work, or more often explaining major changes and cuts at the organisation. So when I clicked on one from the DG Mark Thompson last week, I wasn’t expecting…
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Christmas Capers
A couple of my friends took a pre-Christmas break in the sun. They went to Cape Verde, and by all accounts it was very nice indeed. I can’t help thinking that it must have been also quite nice for Radio 4’s Evan Davies who was there courtesy of the station’s now-traditional policy of bringing in…
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The Things We Do For Love
I’m a little bit sad today. Part of the BBC’s cuts have hit one of the Corporation’s most useful – and sometimes controversial – products. The chances are that unless you work for the BBC you won’t have seen it. But if you love broadcasting you’ll have almost certainly have heard of it. Ariel, the BBC’s…
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