Global Radio axes all regional/local breakfast shows

The problem is that the content Heart and Capital do is a million miles away from Radio 1 and 2. Mostly short links about showbiz news

Unless they just go for the money, having one foot still in the door at the BBC is probably better than working at one of those stations. You still get involved in station wide features and events, get to do cover shows, mentioned by other DJs etc.

This is why I feel the likes of Edith Bowman and Huw Stephens still stuck around at BBC Radio 1 despite having crap slots, and why Chris Moyles may regret leaving the BBC besides looking at his bank balance

I'd say he is long overdue leaving Radio 1, but with no obvious slot for him on Radio 2 and him not being cool enough for 6Music his prospects lie elsewhere, and agree actually he would be a good fit on Heart.


As for the wider situation of replacing local presenters with big names and all that does IMO is further disconnect the stations from the listeners. Radio is quite different from TV and is much more about having a conversation with the audience and actually being too famous and in that celebrity world can be a bit of a hindrance.

There is something that shouldn't be taken for granted about having presenters talk about local events and places the audiences can connect with. When Emma Bunton talks about going shopping or down the pub it's somehow not as relatable as the audience as somebody who is unknown outside of their own radio show.

Some of the non metropolitan ILR stations had flea powered transmitters that barely covered the town or city the station was based in. The BBC LRs were mostly county wide
( even if they didn’t carry a county name, Bristol, Oxford, Newcastle etc)

That was evened out in the 80s when ILR staions were awared major power boosts and/or additional transmitters.

I agree though, the metropolitan ILRs (BRMB, Piccadilly, Clyde etc) were good well managed and resourced stations with high production values. They sounded as good as ( some would say ( myself included) superior to) BBC R1 and 2. So I agree, stations that served populations of at least 2-3 million.

That said, I don’t think we’d be any different place today, if ILR had been big city/regional from the outset. Look at ITV ?

Mark Kermode is also on Scala, makes me wonder if they might end up moving their film review show over there from Radio 5.

BBC Local Radio in an evening is an oddity. One minute they scrap post-7pm local programming to introduce an England-wide programme then they scrap that an re-introduce local shows; stations in the Midlands joins forces late evening with Graham Torrington. Also, BBC Hereford and Worcester and Shropshire simulcast programmes, sometimes with BBC Radio Stoke. I would rather listen to any station other than the dire BBC WM (short for Whingers and Moaners). It is the worst station on the BBC network, their drivetime is predominantly sports drivel and then a sports phone-in after 6pm.

One other hate of mine is listening to Classic FM - it seems like after every song they have to say "This is Classic FM... from Global" or "This is Classic FM". I know it's [bleeping] Classic FM! And the stupid TOTH jingle!

Radio Nottingham is also dire around 90% of the time I've attempted to listen.

To be fair, I'm not personally a fan of BBC radio much in general anyway, Radio 1 and 2 are far too waffly for my liking for a start.

BBC Radio London is so niche that it even has a weekly dog hour. The nation's capital and this is what we get, it's no wonder LBC trounces this nonsense.

If the choice is between dog hour on Radio London and fag-ash Farage on LBC, I really do pity you lot!

It has got to the odd situation that BBC Radio London is the only local station that London has.

Although they already have a decent and established name for Heart Breakfast in London who will presumably be networked.

You say 'one minute' but it lasted 6 years which is a fairly long time in radio. Also of course both decisions were made by different regimes

That's fairly normal at the weekends on BBC Local stations, and late nights are shared regionally by nearly every station and have been for decades. I remember when GLR as it then was doing shared programmes with Radio Kent and Oxford, wouldn't happen now

On FM..

LBC News 1152 is technically a local station with no networking and some London-centric output (even though the fader carrying the FM simulcast feed is open more than it is closed, and accounts for at least half the output)