It was nice while it lasted

[Frances_iom]

[QUOTE=Bryn;779530]

Come on F_i, you know better than that, how to format quotations.

missed out the final unquote - now corrected.

[Barbirollians]

More cheeringly several Tory MPs on twitter writing that they will oppose this . Cummings May find it not so easy after all.

[LMcD]

Well, I'm a regular listener to BH, but have to say I found today's immensely dispiriting. I fancy that there had already been a right-royal row backstage before the three guests arrived to talk live, esp between Mr Trelawney and Ms Cameron, which did not dim or simmer but rather sparked. And while I can see why Petroc HAD to bring up the BBC news snippet, he must have known with the woman in the room as given there was going to be a clash between ignorant ideology and practicalities.

My other guess is that if the Tories really do get round to scrapping the licence fee and more or less making BBC into a totally subscription service, it will lose them hugely the next and the next election. They will have majorly misunderstood and miscalculated the place the BBC - partic radio - has and will go on having in the lives of millions in UK AND worldwide. Those looking for pop, rock, show-biz will go elsewhere but have done for literally decades, so, yes - but e.g the BBC News and World Service are massively influential and much store is set by their impartiality and news reporting - which is what Cummings et al in Whitehall are most scared of!

I'd cut costs by axing Radio 2 root and branch....fetch me coat, sir..?

Now, NONE or very little of that could possibly be shoehorned into a BH end-of-prog slotette, but...........

Elsewhere in the prog, IMO it has lost a lot of its whimsical humour, sense of fun, slightly bizarre mix that made it compulsive Sunday a.m. listening, and I wonder what has gone on behind the scenes in editing etc to make this happen. VERY, very sad. Today's edtn was NOT typical of so much of what we used to hear.

I hope you're wrong about 'BH's direction of travel; I think the elements (highlighted) which you mention are its great strengths, and am a great admirer of Paddy O'Connell. I've suggested elsewhere that BBC News could save the Corporation a small fortune by cutting back or dropping some of its many extravagant practices.
I wonder how much would be saved if the BBC got out of local radio? I obtain my local news via the website of our local (Ipswich-based) newspaper and BBC Look East bulletins. Local people also post news items online.

[teamsaint]

I hope you're wrong about 'BH's direction of travel; I think the elements (highlighted) which you mention are its great strengths, and am a great admirer of Paddy O'Connell. I've suggested elsewhere that BBC News could save the Corporation a small fortune by cutting back or dropping some of its many extravagant practices.
I wonder how much would be saved if the BBC got out of local radio? I obtain my local news via the website of our local (Ipswich-based) newspaper and BBC Look East bulletins. Local people also post news items online.

Local radio is about £150m out of a total licence fee income of about £3.5 Bn. Peanuts.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/14/how-does-the-bbc-spend-its-5bn-in-licence-fee-money/

IMO it provides a vital service to a great many people. There are many fine presenters, and some quality broadcasting among the playlist style music, and presumably it feeds content into the national news service too.
In these days of aggregated news and social isolation, local radio should be the last to go, not the first. And not because I listen to it much, but because it performs an important part of the BBC's core function.
Not much loved by the chattering classes and in London I suspect( but I'm not sure about London), which may be part of its problem.

Re Radio 2, not my cup of tea,with its rather dull daytime musical content, but I really don't have a problem with its success, which offers an advert free and enormously popular alternative to anodyne independent alternatives. It should be required to return to providing more distinctive and niche programming round its edges though, again IMO, where it can perform an important service.

[LMcD]

Many thanks, signed and shared. There’s plenty wrong with the Beeb, but getting rid of it would obviously be a whole lot wronger. Quite how this once reasonable country has got into this pit of hell doesn’t matter, it’s getting out that’s the important bit.

Quite! I've signed the petition, which appears to be racing towards its (initial?) target of 100,000 signatures.

[ardcarp]

The BBC is more ingrained in British social DNA than some people realise. One could go back to Workers' Playtime and Listen with Mother. Reithian ideals have become diluted but are still there in many aspects of the BBC's output. The trouble is, 'giving the public what they need rather than what they want' has become horrifically non-PC, but the opposite will surely be equally horrific. The subscription model will inevitably drive broadcasting to the LCD (lowest common denominator) and it will be the arts that will suffer most, followed by anything remotely enlightening or educational (science, history, etc). To have all broadcasting channels in the hands of oligarchs is truly frightening.

[Frances_iom]

To have all broadcasting channels in the hands of oligarchs is truly frightening.

I don't know - the Australians seem to developed a highly intellectual mass culture thanks to a benevolent newspaper empire.

[gurnemanz]

I recently entered my eighth decade and it genuinely was nice while it lasted, thanks in no small part to the Beeb with all its shortcomings as a constant companion and to our good relations with our nearest geographical neighbours (which in my own tiny way as a modern language teacher I hope I helped to foster). Sad to see our country and continent going backwards.

[LMcD]

I recently entered my eighth decade and it genuinely was nice while it lasted, thanks in no small part to the Beeb with all its shortcomings as a constant companion and to our good relations with our nearest geographical neighbours (which in my own tiny way as a modern language teacher I hope I helped to foster). Sad to see our country and continent going backwards.

'Il faut reculer pour mieux avancer'
I suppose the cutting of certain services, regrettable though it would be, would still be preferable to allowing the BBC to be dismantled wholesale or reduced to a very limited range of services, as mentioned above, and leaving us at the mercy of those who would be only too eager to profit from its demise.
The petition now has 108,000 signatures and the target has been doubled to 200,000.

[jayne lee wilson]

The governmental deterioration gathers pace....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-51535367

[pastoralguy]

Well, I've signed and have forwarded it to various friends but I have little faith it'll do any good.

[jayne lee wilson]

If you can find the time please try to do something here.....

https://speakout.38degrees.org.uk/campaigns/7140?bucket=email-blast-17_2_2020_saveourbbc_emailaction_petitionsigners_170220&utm_campaign=blast2020-02-18&utm_medium=email&utm_source=email

....best to personalise it, but its numbers that matter....

[bluestateprommer]

So while on an epic drive from Bangor to Aldebugh today I listened to the whole of Broadcasting house
Seems like the BBC is going to lose the funding
So for those who liked the idea of orchestras, ensembles etc it's bye bye to those i'm afraid
Petroc made a bit of an effort to defend but sadly not enough

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-a9337781.html

Obviously I'm ignorant of the details as the resident ignorant Yank here, but FWIW, Petroc took to Twitter as follows:

https://twitter.com/PetrocTrelawny/status/1230150901375082497

"Offering exhaustive local coverage, broadcasting messages from the emergency services, sharing information about closed schools, blocked roads, cancelled events. The floods provide a sobering example of why we need public service, publicly funded local radio across the country."

[Serial_Apologist]

Obviously I'm ignorant of the details as the resident ignorant Yank here, but FWIW, Petroc took to Twitter as follows:

https://twitter.com/PetrocTrelawny/s...50901375082497

He could be out of his depth.