The dire state of Radio 2

[LindorDoubleChoc]

I want to cry about how awful Radio 2 is!

Just listening to Paddy McGuinness (who is not my favourite, I'll admit) and he is doing "embarrassing things you didn't know" - for the eleventy millionth time on that station. People phoning in and saying about the petrol cap sign on the dashboard, the tin foil roll - we have heard this all before. It is so SO SO VERY DULL. Please - what can be done to improve it? It's like baby food for the brain.

As I have a well-documented phobia about Gary Davies I am barely listening to R2 these days and I'm wondering if now is the time to call it a day forever?

Well obviously, if you're not enjoying it!

I think Paddy McGuinness is the absolute worst. The endless drivel is unbearable. Just play some decent music and be quiet!

I enjoy listening to Sara Cox at teatime so I'm disappointed that she's got the breakfast show. Scared that OJ will get that slot because he's as bad as Paddy McGuinness for the drivel!

I dislike Paddy on R2, not keen on Trevor in the afternoons, but otherwise listen to it a lot.

I'm usually a Today listener in the mornings, but may have to change in order to hear Sara. I'll miss her when I'm driving home from work. OJ is vastly preferable to Paddy and I'd like him to get the tea time show.

I agree. Why do the BBC think 'celebs' make good radio DJ's? Stick with the people who know their trade, don't put Freddie Flintoff on a motoring show, don't put Paddy McGuinness on a radio show - it dumbs it all down! Stick with the professionals please.

Ha ha, I just switched it off for the same reason. Also, he's been using the same suncream since Lloret de Mar in 1982 🤔. A bit of artistic license is fine here and there but the stuff he says is obviously a load of bollocks.

Radio two has been shit for a long time. I much prefer radio 6 or radio 4.

Switch radio stations! Haven't listened to R2 for years. Try Absolute radio 80's/90's/Rock or Virgin Radio/Virgin Chilled. So much better!

Radio 2 has been dreadful for decades! I can't stand it. The DJs make me cringe.

I listen to Radio 4 or Radio 1, which are marginally better imho, but I do sometimes get annoyed with them too, (Women's Hour went hugely downhill after the late Jenni Murray left), and I have to switch off.

And Paddy's drivel is interspersed with adverts reminding us that the license fee pays for the radio show we're currently "enjoying".

And yes, we know other stations are avaliable. I swap between radio 2, 4 and 6. However we can say that we don't like a presenter.

I agree about Sara Cox @Lottapianos. I am more or less guaranteed to be listening to the radio at 5 to 7pm (being a kitchen slave) and I will miss her. I don't listen much in the mornings I am rushing to get ready and walking to work.

I would put up with the adverts on commercial radio but the reception on my kitchen radio digital radio only seems to work for the Beeb! All commercial stations sound like they're broadcasting underwater.

OJ is a massive improvement on Sara Cox who talks babyish nonsense for 3 hours a day and is very well paid for it. OJ is a proper DJ, knows about music, is not childish and interacts well with guests and listeners.

Nowt wrong with Gary Davies either. I do think he could tone down the 80s stuff a bit, as he already has a platform for that every Saturday night, but he again is a proper DJ. Sara Cox and Paddy McGuinness aren't. They're more of the type of wanting to be an entertainer rather than a DJ.

I will not continue with R2 in the mornings when she takes over.

OJ loves himself so much he'd eat himself if he could! imvo. He is even worse (if that's possible) than Scott Mills at circling any given conversation round to himself and adding a massive name drop at the same time.

I agree @LindorDoubleChoc but what is the time foil roll thing he was talking about? I feel its something I should know!

They've forgotten who their target audience is. We don't want to listen to smartypants chit-chat from some jack-the-lad / ladette.

Just have some entertaining DJs who play decent bloody music that people want to listen to. It's not difficult.

El Tel must be turning in his grave.

Dumbing down has encroached almost completely, hasn’t it. I was thinking recently that I should create my own archive because, given time, there will be nothing of quality, to my taste, left to listen to / watch.

Yes it’s this. Dumbing down is everywhere now and it’s patronising! Also self obsession, presenters constantly talking about themselves as though we are all desperate to hear every trivial piece of crap about their lives. Radio 2 does seem to encourage this.

I just don’t listen at all any more. I have R4 on in the mornings now and Greatest Hits Radio on at all the other times. R2 went downhill when they got rid of the late great Steve Wright for the insipid Scott Mills (look where that got them). Steve Wright and Ken Bruce were R2. Now it’s just a mish mash of A.N. Other presenters with no direction or their own style.
I liked Simon Mayo too but he got stamped all over.

Radio 2 is dreadful at weekends. I listen to Tony Blackburn if I'm up early enough then switch to bbc6 music and Virgin.

Last week I barely listened to Vernon as it was back to the stupid giggling, endless inane chat with the team, those bloody voice notes and Vernon saying "know what I mean" all the time.

Thank god for Trevor Nelson weekdays.

I cannot bear whoever took over from Liza Tarbuck on a Saturday eve. I was genuinely disappointed when she went.. Radio 2 is proper rubbish now although I would give Sara Cox a whirl in the morning slot as I do like her.

Long time radio 6 fan. Going off it fast lately though. They've got some new voice over guy that sounds like he's been plucked from a Liverpool young offenders institution. The scummy voice winds me up every time.

Far worse they've recently replaced the chill vibes of Huey on a Saturday morning with some awful high pitched over cooked 'southern' American dj. Her voice is truly terrible! Fingers on a chalkboard terrible. I understand she's some obscure punk singer from the US so guess they think that's cool?

As I have a well-documented phobia about Gary Davies I am barely listening to R2 these days

Could you kindly elaborate? I checked Google scholar, Jstor, Gemini and The Oxford Dictionary of Phobias and could find no such documentation.

(Maybe it's the 'ooo' giving you the fear. Apologies if that's triggering).

Radio 2 is not something I listen to, though as I have a tv licence, I want it to be the quality music station it once was. So I share the concerns of those who have posted so far.

It's not just Radio 2 where the BBC have dumbed down, just look at the format of BBC news programmes. Even before you get to the BBC flogging programmes to death (The Apprentice is an example).

Exactly. It’s incredibly patronising. The idea seems to be that essentially we all are quite inane trivial people who can’t get enough chit chat. It’s nauseating.

I wanna know the tin foil thing too!