BBC News: Presenters, correspondent & rotas

Based on his university graduation date, he's around 35 years old. I'm not sure how that's possible given his appearance, but good for him.

He is a promising young talent; I think better than some of the others presenting that are his age peers (Aaron Safir...). He does need more time at the desk though; some of his body language is a little too stiff and scripted. With more experience and the right guidance, that can corrected. He's much more relaxed when he's working as the "studio reporter", being interviewed by the presenter.

Simon Pusey, who is slightly younger than Rich, is also very good and could have a long and promising career.

Lewis Vaughn Jones, who seems to be on nearly every day these days, both on Outside Source, and at the news desk (covering for Pusey the last two weeks), is also excellent. He has a tremendous powerful presence when on camera, and that can be useful in the right time slot.

Tina Daheley who I caught on the Ten a few weeks ago for the first time was not that great. Kind of cold, not much presence at the desk, no personality.

Both Samantha Simmonds and Maryam Moshiri are forgettable.

Blimey! What have I woken up to? A debate about the ages of people who have jobs?

The most shocking thing I find here is that many of you are shocked by the fact that people in their 50’s work as newscasters!

And a few personal attacks thrown-in here and there for good measure.

That’s not entirely fair, folks.

JamesWorldNews - age 49. (50 in August).

Age is entirely irrelevant and, if this was a workplace discussion, would be speedily dismissed. It’s illegal to employ, promote or dismiss someone on grounds of their age so I don’t see why it’s up for debate. Describing presenters as forgettable may be your opinion but it is hardly in the spirit of public debate. Many presenters and professionals in this industry do read this forum and that’s worth bearing in mind when such personal opinions are aired.

Where were you in 1993 when BBC Radio 1 dismissed a lot of DJs due to their age? It was just as illegal back then, but nothing ever happened as a result of it.

Did Radio 1 dismiss them for being old or for being out of touch with the audience? I personally think it's the latter. That's why Chris Moyles disappeared from the Breakfast show while Scott Mills who is the same age as Moyles is still on Radio 1. Mills has adapted his act to stay relevant while Moyles is till doing the same show on Radio X he did nearly 20 years on Radio 1, except it's just not as good.

Funny how Annie Nightingale and John Peel survived. Maybe it wasn’t about age at all.

Annie (80) is still on Radio 1 and so is Pete Tong (59). There have always been cycles of ageism thrown at the BBC and they did at one time publicly do something about it, or certainly hired Fiona Armstrong, Julia Sommerville and Zeinab Badawi (athough she only appeared once on the News Channel IIRC).

They weren't out of touch with the audience they had. At the time, they were the most popular UK radio station. You can hardly say they were out of touch with their audience, when they had more listeners than any other station. Matthew Bannister just didn't care for the audience profile, which he felt in his 'infinite wisdom' was too old for a station like Radio 1. So they fired most of the older, popular DJs, keeping those like Nightingale and Peel who Bannister felt had credibility with the "yoof". It was all about age. Age of the audience, age of the DJs, and they felt bringing in younger DJs would bring in a youger audience, and it didn't quite work as well as they hoped,.



If it ever was good, to which I would say, no, it was never good. Different, yes, but different isn't necessarily better or worse, but his schtick was never great to begin with

I was a listener to Radio 1 in 1993 (I was 19 so should have been their core demographic). Many of the new presenters Matthew Bannister brought in didn’t immediately fit and some were a disaster. But he did what he had to do. Radio 1 was desperately out of touch with its remit and many of the presenters that were on the station at the time had been there for decades. They were hugely popular but they were popular with the wrong audience.

There was at the time a lot of criticism of the BBC (much like there has been recently) for being too populist and out of touch and arguably what Matthew Bannister was doing was absolutely the right thing to do. He brought in changes that were massively controversial and unpopular but heralded the modern Radio 1 - and, in my opinion, saved it from being sold off (which was a very real Possibility).

Matthew Bannister didn’t fire the presenters because of their age. He fired the presenters who weren’t right for the station and it’s audience. He didn’t care that they took the audience away with them. That was incredibly brave. John Peel and Mary Nightingale stayed because they remained relevant to the station and it’s remit.

The station was popular for the wrong reason. It became hugely popular again when it found its feet.

Mary Nightingale was awesome. And still is.

Hi!

Do you really think it was just his decision or as you put it 'infinite wisdom'? He was hired by John Birt to shake things up because the station wasn't targeting the youth audience that it was always supposed to do. It had been allowed to drift older and older over the years and that's why it had so many listeners. And once again, it was because the BBC was under pressure coming up to a charter renewal.

There were two problems. One was that they hadn't done earlier and slower so it wasn't as dramatic. Secondly they didn't change Radio 2 at the same time to take on some of the presenters being moved from Radio 1 and was another 5 or so years before the likes of Steve Wright and Bob Harris made the move.

Did it all wok straightaway? No of course not. But it was the right decision. Radio 1 & Radio 2 of today wouldn't be as they are if it hadn't happened. And let's be honest, Simon Bates was sounding old a decade before he finally moved off Radio 1.

I suggest you have a read of Simon Garfield's brilliant book The Nation's Favourite.