on media
Raymond Snoddy on the threat to the BBC’s local radio coverage
No need to kill the radio star
O
ver the next few months watch for an increasingly bizarre stream of wheezes designed to save money coming out of the BBC. The Corporation has to save 20 per cent over the next five years – 16-17 per cent just to stand still and the rest to give some headroom for new investment, particularly in technology. In its usual bureaucratic way the committees have been set up under the DQF – the rather risible Delivering Quality First banner. These committees will inevitably end up finding clever ways of reducing the service viewers and listeners are accustomed to, because you can’t save 20 per cent by strimming and trimming. Some of the possibilities under consideration, either leaked or put out for consideration, include dropping or sharing Wimbledon coverage, running the BBC News across BBC 2 during the day, and reducing BBC local radio to a breakfast and drive-time service. The rest of the time would be filled in with Radio 5 Live. Dropping Wimbledon is unthinkable. Try Formula 1 instead. Many of the races happen in the middle of the night UK time anyway. There seems little point in duplicating the BBC News on another channel when the digital version will be available to everyone in the UK by next year at the latest. The plan to cull most of the local output from the BBC’s 40 local stations and with it perhaps the loss of 700 jobs has the mark of a serious runner. But it is a genuinely bad idea. Commercial local radio is moving more and more towards computerised music play lists and national groupings and agendas.
Increasingly, the mainly speechbased BBC local radio stands out as something distinctive and…er…an obvious example of public service broadcasting. The biggest radio audiences are at breakfast and drive time but the stations would be eviscerated if that’s all there was and would slowly lose influence.
P
“
The BBC has to be far more aggressive on its use of repeats or ‘another opportunity to see’
”
erhaps the local stations are regarded as weak and divided with relatively lowly paid and low profile staff: an easy target. But that would be a big mistake. Loyal listeners will make themselves heard, and the unions will play a role in providing a unified voice for the individually powerless stations. There is another class of influential listeners to local radio – local MPs. BBC local radio gives backbench MPs, who would only feature on national broadcasts if there was trouble with their expenses, a way to speak directly to their constituents. It’s local democracy in action. Members of the BBC Trust would have to give their approval to any such cuts. The Trust turned down management plans to close 6 Music and might also move to save local radio. The final irony would be if £40 million of licence fee money helped fund Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s rare enthusiasm for local TV while more cost-effective local radio is cut to ribbons. But if not that – what? The BBC has to be far more aggressive on its use of repeats, or ‘another opportunity to see’. No-one can even begin to see more than a fraction of the quality output on offer and not everyone has a personal video recorder. The BBC has to listen more and be more open with staff and viewers and listeners on how money can be saved and what sort of service can realistically be provided after the 20 per cent axe has fallen.
For the latest updates from Raymond Snoddy on Twitter go to @raymondsnoddy
30 | theJournalist
648_JOURNALIST_MARCH_P30.indd 30
6/4/11 16:03:43