Question Time

I didn't like it under Chrysalis. They did some daring radio under David Lloyd by controversially putting on Iain Lee at drivetime, but a lot of it was dumbed down 'pub ammo' material. However, he introduced the current Steve Allen format which has survived until this day.

As a newstalk station, the station has never sounded better which reflects in their Rajar. Personally I prefer the rolling news format of LBC London News, which despite being operated as a cheap as chips operation does what it says on the tin.

I just wish they had a national rolling news service. Yes, there is News Radio UK, but that's just Radio NewsHub bulletins stuck together with ads and jingles.

Chrysalis were going to have the rolling news station rebranded as Sky News Radio in a deal with Sky, but that was axed when Global acquired the company, leaving it in-house.

The station was going to move to Osterley with Sky running the station, with Chrysalis as the licence holder.

For me LBC’s best period was late 70s early 80s, they ran IRN too, and the whole set up had ‘accessible gravitas’. The Falklands war coverage was superb. Hard to believe back then Steve Allen was a network IRN newsreader ( along with being an LBC phone-in host too)

So are there any current plans, or?

Certainly up to the FM/AM split, it really couldn't be beaten for accessible news. I think it had a part to play in the foundation of 5 Live. Certainly from the late 80s, it had a period of management takeovers, losing money by having to split LBC into two stations and no longer providing the IRN contract, which moved to ITN. The station itself went into administration when it lost the licence to Reuters who bought LBC's assets and kept the two stations running until October 1994 when the licence moved to them.

It was the FM/AM split that cost it its license in as much as they shared programmes at weekends, evenings and overnights. After that the new license holders weren't allowed to, until years later when Global took over and were allowed to simulcast again which seemed a little unfair

Talking of Steve Allen, yes he's not always done his current style. His best era on LBC was in the last few years before they lost the license, his afternoon show on MW was a mix of themed hours. The TV review hour on Fridays was a particular highlight. On Saturday nights he presented a programme where they'd have 3 or 4 famous guests in the studio and invite a London restaurant in to cook for them, so a combined chat show, food feature, and restaurant review. Very clever

It's always said that he's the longest serving presenter, but he did leave when the license changed and didn't come back for a year or so.

Later on, but initially the Chrysalis version was excellent, especially Sandi Toksvigs lunchtime show. I think that James o Brien started then and the mystery hour is also a survivor from his tenure (though the rest of the hours have gone)


The Rajar is in part due to the fact it's a no longer a local station and they do market it well. Also just doing one sort of programming means it is in itself more marketable.

I haven't heard the rolling news side for ages but I did like it when it was News Direct, doing a strict clock radio format. The nearest thing we've had to the American 'give us 20 minutes and we'll give you the world' idea.

The problem with the early Chrysalis incarnation was that they tried to emulate Crown FM again. Going high-brow which didn't work that time and certainly didn't again. Going against Radio 4 in 2003 was a mistake. Sandi's show was excellent, but not mass market. Clive Bull had a god-awful Mills & Boon segment in his show, which was soon axed and whoever thought of adding Frank Partridge with the downmarket Caroline Feraday on drive was another mistake when targeting ABC1s.

James O'Brien has been around since ITN ran the station when it was on AM, he did drive until the end of 2002 and moved to weekend breakfast before moving to 10-1 under Chrysalis.

News Direct was based on 1010 WINS in New York without the typewriter bed.

I don't remember it getting that high-brow, but it certainly changed away from the slightly older-skewing cosy AM station it was, to a slicker younger more modern FM station.


Personally I just wish there was a speech station {outside the BBC) that wasn't just newstalk format phone ins. Talk Radio have tried it (twice in fact) as have LBC and it never seems to last. I suppose the problem is now that all that content is aviailable in the world of podcasts.... the station I'd like won't happen now

When Channel 4Radio was in development, the main Channel 4Radio station was essentially going to be like a younger skewing Radio 4

I've noticed in recent weeks a subtle little change to the ending of Question Time, previously they would do a slow sweeping out shot of the panel but now they just show audience shots throughout the credits instead...are the panellists sneaking off early now?