Radio 2 why so dumbed down

[Parsley1234]

I cannot stand the relentless drivel that is Zoe Ball oh my god yesterday Stacey Soloman and her diatribe of awfulness and now replacing Graham Norton with Claudia just why ? I am Mrs Brady moany old lady for sure what else can I listen to 🥴

Zoe Ball is sycophantic

Ive resorted to radio 3 🙈

One of the contestants looks concerningly underweight. Syed to win now. Andy is voting out threats

Sorry wrong thread

Oh god, I had to give up on R2 due to the utterly brain dead drivel. I switched to R4 for intelligent listening in the mornings.

Ah yes. Zhoe Ball with the "gawjus girl " crap. Cringe

@Standrewsschool

Rylan is the surprise hit on radio 2. When I heard he was going on Radio 2, I was very sceptical. Then ended up listening to him in the car whilst collecting son from his club,and was genuinely surprised how much I liked his show.

I agree! I was a bit like na, that won't be for me, but admit I quite enjoy it if I catch it when in the car.

a pp said about Popmaster...I love the absolute fear that all the stand ins have when they are faced with doing the quiz....Ken makes it all so natural and easy and not one other person seems able to do it. Esp Trevor Nelson, and surprisingly Gary Davis also invariably makes a complete horlicks of it :o :o

I turn Pop Master off when I'm working as I find I can't concentrate on my work. But I gather Gary Davis had an absolute nightmare with it! it was spoken about for days after. What actually went so wrong can anyone describe it for me?

Zoe is ok. I tend to listen to her at home until 8 then listen to Chris Evans on Virgin from 8:30-10 when I'm at work.
But yes, Claudia is not really my cup of tea. I'm usually driving on a Saturday so have to put up with her as can't get Virgin in the car.

This list of BBC salaries is interesting. Zoe Ball is on £1,300,000-ish, while Sara Cox is on £275,000! 😮 And Ken Bruce is on £385k.

How does that work? Why is Zoe on a MILLION more than the other radio presenters? Does she do regular TV stuff too?

Zoe Ball gets paid £1.3 million a year.

I just need a second to process that.

What does a TV and radio presenter do to warrant that kind of money? Really?

Zoe ball does the strictly spin off I think...but that’s not all year round and only once a week?

Sara Cox was also presenting that shop/house etc through time also on the BBC so she seems underpaid (well, it’s all relative of course!!!)

I’d actually love to see a duo presenting the breakfast show on R2 again. Jason Mohammed and Kate Botley are lovely on Sunday mornings .

Zoe ball does the strictly spin off I think...but that’s not all year round and only once a week?

It used to be every week day for half an hour (which actually seems harder in some ways, lots of prep for not a very long programme!) when Strictly was on, but more recently she's split it with Rylan and done three days I think.

Sara Cox does seem underpaid in comparison! She seems to do quite a lot of voiceovers for programmes too.

That list actually says Zoe's It Takes Two salary isn't included.

I guess the BBC see the breakfast show as the flagship. They were keen to have a woman I know and i guess chris evans had already set the precedent. It is astonishingly high though

Steve Wright earns £450,000 a year ( or thereabouts) I was astonished. I'm sure they could get someone cheaper and better for that slot!

I think they get more pay for the different things they do , Claudia would get paid seperately for her Strictly presenting work. I know Vine works for Channel 5 and Vanessa for Radio London as well.Rylan is popping up all over, saw him doing new Ready, Steady Cook, I like him too. I believe they (all the presenters) are classed as self-employed and their contracts negotiated seperately. I too am astonished at the pay rates for basically talking though I recognise that there is more skill to managing guests and time and remaining cheerful than is apparent to outsiders but is it worth millions?

Someone mentioned the production company announcements on some Radio 2 programmes, I believe they have outside production companies for years - maybe more thab 10?

I've always thought the presenters on radio 2 or any radio station don't really get any say about what songs are played? The mainstream shows anyway, different for the specialist shows and maybe jo whiley.

I can't bear Zoe Ball on the radio and can't bring myself to listen to her in the morning. I prefer Chris Evans. Sara Cox I love - she's underpaid by comparison.

Graham and Maria forgot they were on Virgin yesterday and said it was Radio 2. I'm enjoying being able to listen to Graham on Saturdays and Sundays. Waitrose were giving some competition prizes, but I wasn't paying full attention. I'm not keen on the mix of music on Virgin, but I can live with it and prefer that to Jeremy Vine if I'm in the car around lunchtime on a weekday.

Yes , cheesisthebest, most of the presenters are just that, employed to chichat, no musical knowledge necessary. I believe it is called 'driving or running the desk' when they have old-fashioned DJ skills like Trevor Nelson or Johnny Walker. The producers do a lot of the heavy work especially for someone like J Vine, selecting and researching the topics , finding the guests, maintaining political balance, setting up the interviews, keeping time, and then playing cheekily relevant tracks after the talky bits. Which Vine denies repeatedly, are the producers keeping it frm him or is he playing Mr Disingenous to the utmost?

Well I now like Breakfast on Boom as I used to love Graham Dene in his Capitol Radio days.

And I'm really grateful to whoever suggested Greatest Hits. Just listened to Simon Mayo's Album show then an hour on Level 42 followed by 2 years of charts with Mark Goodier. Excellent Sunday listening

Yep exactly so can't blame the presenters for crap music!!

Must admit i loved Paul O'Grady's theme tunes tonight

Ooh, I enjoyed that too, even the ones “before my time” Sorry, Ken!

I love it when Ken Bruce gets shirty with people saying this. You’re on Pop Master! And no one ever says, “Shakespeare? No, sorry, before my time”.

I like Will Young standing in for Jo. Just felt the need to update you all with that.