Save Local Radio

[sincitylover]

Im not sure how it can be saved or whether plans under discussion will be implemented but just to let you know that the possibilty of just retaining breakfast and drivetime shows on BBC local radio with all other times reverting to five live is currently being discussed.

Reported in the press towards the end of last week.

Living in London I would be devastated if this happened as am a frequent listener to Vanessa Feltz, Robert Elms and Joanne Good.

Im sure there are other cuts that could be made.

FiveLive costs something like 50m a year, local radio over 111m (and I've been feeling there should be more stations than just a single English-language service for each of N.Ireland, Scotland and Wales, as the populations tot up to about 10m of 60m in the UK, but 6 stations (English + Gaelic) vs 40-odd for England seems rather uneven...

With the BBC spending around 3500m a year, I would have hoped some of the TV budget could be pushed over to cover local radio without them scrapping so many jobs serving lots of people and with local content/ knowledge.

Must be many pensioners who enjoy the local shows, and while regional shows in the evenings still have a good bit of local knowledge there will be nothing comparable on FiveLive that would appeal...

www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/mar/11/bbc-local-radio

... has some interesting comments. I am not entirely taken by accusations of staff in local radio being smug or poor quality, and while some programmes (such as folk etc) don't necessarily appeal, so long as others find them of interest (and they do), then I cannot see how FiveLive as a replacement for hours each day, would be of any interest to some current listeners. As for Richard Bacon, and his ego, I don't think he would appeal to many elderly listeners who get on well with local presenters... bit of a community 'club' from what I hear of R Stoke and R Shropshire :)

Seems like a way to push listenership down to zero outside the breakfast and drivetime slots when local content will be put out, although it does mean that there would be something close to a 'national network' on FM for FiveLive, which is, after all, desirable (with grotty DAB coverage in some places and yucky Medium Wave audio, it would certainly boost numbers for FiveLive, if nothing else!)