I was very glad to read that the BBC Trust has made the first few steps towards the establishment of a Radio England, a radio station for the English. The Welsh and the Scots have one each (or, actually, more than one, if you include the ones we pay for to pander to the desire to encourage division and separatism by the use of minority languages other than English), but we English have none. We have to put up with sharing the British radio stations.
So, the BBC Trust has kindly said that we can have our own radio service between 7pm and 10pm every day. Hey, don’t knock it, it’s a start!
What they’ve done is told the BBC local radio stations to cease all their stupid pointless minority programmes that nobody listens to, and to come together for an English programme highlighting stories and music from England.
For some reason, the BBC Local Radio stations can then have 10pm to 1am back for whatever it is they do then. Thereafter between 1am and 6am their FM outlet is to be used by Radio 5Live, which is otherwise locked away on AM and digital outlets only.
Personally, I’d have 5Live using BBC Local Radio transmitters from 7pm through to 7am, and only have ‘local’ programming available during the day. Much as I like the idea of the birth of a Radio England, we have to pay for all this, so it would be a lot cheaper to broadcast 5Live outside of the 7am to 7pm period.
I’d add to this concept the need for local stations to be able to opt out of carrying 5Live when sports commentary pertaining to a local team is available. That seems fair to me.
What I’m saying is that the BBC Trust hasn’t gone far enough. They’ve been far too lenient in the culling. So, yes, they’ve made a start, but there’s a lot more to do!
I mentioned earlier that they’ve retained local output between 10pm and 1am. But why? Nobody’s listening! On BBC Radio Merseyside this time is occupied by bunches of very old people rattling on about how they remember catching a local trolleybus in the 1950s or queuing for milk. These are not members of the public, but the ‘zoo’ of presenters. The public don’t really respond, react or get involved. (Nobody’s listening!) If you leave them for a few weeks and tune in again it’s exactly the same conversation as if they’d forgotten they’d already been talking about it.
So, what I’m saying is that 10pm to 1am is a waste of money. At the very least, switch over to 5Live at 10pm, if we must have our token Radio England on from 7pm to 10pm.
England's England 