Originally posted by french frank
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In these times I seek figures that support my instinct and my prejudices. The first is that people don't want to be bombarded by news in the way that broadcasters insist. The success of BBC R4 and especially "Today" doesn't on the surface provide that support and nor does an improving BBC 5 Live and LBC. Each of these has a peg - BBC R4 : Broad speech content to counterbalance news and a news service that is trusted in the era of fake news; BBC 5 Live : Sport to counterbalance news; and LBC : Phone-ins on subjects that are discussed over and over and over again with increasingly controversial "shock jock" presenters. That is to counterbalance news as it was once known across the board.
While Nick Ferrari's programme has a good audience in London, I am not sure that the overall figures suggest that the station is a a huge success. Some improvements may be overstated since it went semi-national. And Talk Radio's figures are plummeting. Also, it isn't especially clear how off-putting or not constant news on most non-news channels tends to be - BBC R1, BBC R2, BBC R3, BBC 6 Music, BBC local radio and commercial music radio. What I haven't seen is any figure for BBC 4 Extra which wonderfully is news free.
The second is that people of all ages and not just young people are turning away from mainstream music radio because commercial music is an industry run by people who chuck out records that are not interesting or in anyone's sane judgement very good. That has been going on for years and almost decades. BBC R1 is feeling the full force of it but BBC R2 is not doing well principally because it contains a significant element of this product so that it supposedly appeals to family audiences. That product is increasing there over time.
Elsewhere, the figures for commercial music radio are mainly abysmal and falling. The stations in the music group that are performing reasonably well also have a peg - or a tag line - as a counterbalance - BBC 6 Music : Students and older music enthusiasts; BBC Asian Network : Asian community role and Kiss : Community role for young black people. On R1, a key point in this NME article is that social media interaction and its parallel usurping of radio can be based on the fact that what is found there is often considered, quote, "funny". That isn't really an invitation to BBC R1 and R2 to fill the air with pranks but rather symbolic of the way in which mainstream music has less appeal than it has ever had.
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