TR
Where does that report say anything about dropping a regional programme? It doesn't. This appears to be another excuse to suggest the Hull region is a waste of time and should be dropped.
Why is this region considered such a priority to drop? What about South East Today? Geographically that's a small region, it covers a smaller area than Southern Counties Radio. Its big attraction seems to be Brighton which South Today also has a claim on, and the rest of the region is just some commuter towns. Why not merge it with Southampton or London? Then there's the South West. Plymouth is smaller than Hull and then aside from that what have you got? Exeter, Truro, Weymouth? Hardly any bigger than Lincoln, Grimsby, Scunthorpe. I doubt Cornwall generates much more news than Lincolnshire. So you may as well merge the South West with Bristol.
Nobody's suggesting that, and rightly so, so why do we have to get numerous posts demanding the Hull region is abandoned? The other argument is that the various parts have nothing much to do with each other. But does Carlisle have much to do with Newcastle? Does Shrewsbury have much to do with Birmingham? That's the way the regions work. And living in the South Bank I do regularly go to Hull and Lincoln, I went to both last week. And there are no other more natural regions for them to go in. Sending Lincolnshire to East Anglia is a crap idea, they have less to do with Norwich than Hull.
Yorkshire and Lincolnshire is a viable region, not the biggest but there's plenty to talk about. There's some of the most deprived areas of the country plus some of the most affluent. It's also particularly prone to natural disasters such as flooding. Then there's renewable energy which if it comes off, and people in the Humber (on both sides) seem hugely enthusiastic about it, then that's likely to make it a particularly newsworthy region.
Once more this thread seems to revolve around the same people demanding the Hull region is closed down based on some personal dislike of the presenter who I think does a perfectly professional job. On this page there's criticism of his radio show by someone who doesn't listen to it and was just assuming what it might contain. I have yet to hear a constructive reason for the ending of Look North Hull and the removal of Peter Levy other than they think Levy is a tit.
If there is a constructive reason needed to justify the abolition of this non region maybe this would help.
When the so called EY&L region was announced I remember the head of the region Colin Philpott (A very personable nice gentleman sadly a trait sadly missing from so many BBC managers these days) saying
'the only thing this geographic area has in common is a transmitter' and that is the nub of the problem.
The region was invented by senior BBC managers in London to justify 'project Hull' which was a multi million pound experiment which went horribly and expensively mammary glands up. There is nothing left of it other than a VERY expensive lease on an office block in Queenies Gardens and a region which was never going to work until local TV was brought in (and the management admitted this at the time). The East Riding would then have its own news for Yorkshire, and Lincolnshire would have a different service..
Of course local TV never happened and the resulting mess leaves a third of the population cut off from local news from Yorkshire and receiving potatoes and daffodil news from darkest Lincs. Lincolnshire folk (and East Yorkshire folk for that matter) are peeved at having to have doom and gloom from ULL.
Because it wasn't a region creating project but a hidden technical experiment the only way the two regions news service could be funded was by splitting the original BBC North staff so in effect you had double the amount of managers and half the staff. It even started off with a clapped out satellite van in Hull until the thing packed up altogether and London was forced, arm twisted behind back, to buy a new one for them.
The only thing holding what remains together is the blue rinse fan club of Mr Levy and that is even problematical in that the region shares its viewing figure with Leeds.
In short the BBC spent £24 million on new premises for Project Hull and hid them behind a 'new region' which they knew would never work properly. Now that cutbacks are in order I would suggest that this would be a perfect time to put thing out of its misery and spend all the money on a decent programme for the area. There is now only one Head of Local & Regional Programming for both areas. If they keep Levy as a replacement for Harry then that should shut up the Hull rinses and make it easier to spin the region reconnecting.
All the information is in the public domain so I'm not betraying any confidentiality or contracts before anyone starts a witch-hunt
One HLRP for Leeds and the other Faux region (already done) One regional programme should save a bit.
Where does that report say anything about dropping a regional programme? It doesn't. This appears to be another excuse to suggest the Hull region is a waste of time and should be dropped.
Why is this region considered such a priority to drop? What about South East Today? Geographically that's a small region, it covers a smaller area than Southern Counties Radio. Its big attraction seems to be Brighton which South Today also has a claim on, and the rest of the region is just some commuter towns. Why not merge it with Southampton or London? Then there's the South West. Plymouth is smaller than Hull and then aside from that what have you got? Exeter, Truro, Weymouth? Hardly any bigger than Lincoln, Grimsby, Scunthorpe. I doubt Cornwall generates much more news than Lincolnshire. So you may as well merge the South West with Bristol.
Nobody's suggesting that, and rightly so, so why do we have to get numerous posts demanding the Hull region is abandoned? The other argument is that the various parts have nothing much to do with each other. But does Carlisle have much to do with Newcastle? Does Shrewsbury have much to do with Birmingham? That's the way the regions work. And living in the South Bank I do regularly go to Hull and Lincoln, I went to both last week. And there are no other more natural regions for them to go in. Sending Lincolnshire to East Anglia is a crap idea, they have less to do with Norwich than Hull.
Yorkshire and Lincolnshire is a viable region, not the biggest but there's plenty to talk about. There's some of the most deprived areas of the country plus some of the most affluent. It's also particularly prone to natural disasters such as flooding. Then there's renewable energy which if it comes off, and people in the Humber (on both sides) seem hugely enthusiastic about it, then that's likely to make it a particularly newsworthy region.
Once more this thread seems to revolve around the same people demanding the Hull region is closed down based on some personal dislike of the presenter who I think does a perfectly professional job. On this page there's criticism of his radio show by someone who doesn't listen to it and was just assuming what it might contain. I have yet to hear a constructive reason for the ending of Look North Hull and the removal of Peter Levy other than they think Levy is a tit.
If there is a constructive reason needed to justify the abolition of this non region maybe this would help.
When the so called EY&L region was announced I remember the head of the region Colin Philpott (A very personable nice gentleman sadly a trait sadly missing from so many BBC managers these days) saying
'the only thing this geographic area has in common is a transmitter' and that is the nub of the problem.
The region was invented by senior BBC managers in London to justify 'project Hull' which was a multi million pound experiment which went horribly and expensively mammary glands up. There is nothing left of it other than a VERY expensive lease on an office block in Queenies Gardens and a region which was never going to work until local TV was brought in (and the management admitted this at the time). The East Riding would then have its own news for Yorkshire, and Lincolnshire would have a different service..
Of course local TV never happened and the resulting mess leaves a third of the population cut off from local news from Yorkshire and receiving potatoes and daffodil news from darkest Lincs. Lincolnshire folk (and East Yorkshire folk for that matter) are peeved at having to have doom and gloom from ULL.
Because it wasn't a region creating project but a hidden technical experiment the only way the two regions news service could be funded was by splitting the original BBC North staff so in effect you had double the amount of managers and half the staff. It even started off with a clapped out satellite van in Hull until the thing packed up altogether and London was forced, arm twisted behind back, to buy a new one for them.
The only thing holding what remains together is the blue rinse fan club of Mr Levy and that is even problematical in that the region shares its viewing figure with Leeds.
In short the BBC spent £24 million on new premises for Project Hull and hid them behind a 'new region' which they knew would never work properly. Now that cutbacks are in order I would suggest that this would be a perfect time to put thing out of its misery and spend all the money on a decent programme for the area. There is now only one Head of Local & Regional Programming for both areas. If they keep Levy as a replacement for Harry then that should shut up the Hull rinses and make it easier to spin the region reconnecting.
All the information is in the public domain so I'm not betraying any confidentiality or contracts before anyone starts a witch-hunt