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  • french frank
    Administrator/Moderator
    • Feb 2007
    • 30456

    #16
    Originally posted by amateur51 View Post
    Sracking letter to The Observer, french frank, not the least bit fuddy-duddy at all. Why, it almost made me feel proud of R3! Whereas I'm just deeply saddened at the thought of the Halloween In Tune and the losses that the once-excellent station has suffered

    All power to your Peter Preston-poking elbow, french frank!


    Preston's main point was about the cuts to local radio news. Yesterday I tuned in to 12 local radio stations. Eleven were offering some sort of easy listening/pop music (including Bollywood on one); the twelfth had some kind of speech programme which I had difficulty in identifying. This morning I only had the heart to listen to two, which had a cheery mix of easy listening and a quiz/phone-in. The news snippets were read in a stumbling, amateurish way which gave the impression the newsreaders hadn't a clue what they were reading about.

    It makes one weep (almost) that an intelligent commentator like Preston thinks this is in any way more valuable (just checked: there are 40 separate BBC local radio stations listed on the RAJAR site - cost last year £115m, excluding the national services for Scotland, Wales and N Ireland) than a single station covering the arts.

    (As to the letter, I feel slightly sheepish at perhaps implying that jazz, world, arts and drama are adequately covered by R3, but they are covered.)
    It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

    Comment

    • John Skelton

      #17
      Paying for something necessary is one thing. Paying from habit, oblivious of change, is absolutely another.

      Has that strayed from one of Preston's columns on the future of print media / newspapers?

      Comment

      • teamsaint
        Full Member
        • Nov 2010
        • 25225

        #18
        Originally posted by french frank View Post


        Preston's main point was about the cuts to local radio news. Yesterday I tuned in to 12 local radio stations. Eleven were offering some sort of easy listening/pop music (including Bollywood on one); the twelfth had some kind of speech programme which I had difficulty in identifying. This morning I only had the heart to listen to two, which had a cheery mix of easy listening and a quiz/phone-in. The news snippets were read in a stumbling, amateurish way which gave the impression the newsreaders hadn't a clue what they were reading about.

        It makes one weep (almost) that an intelligent commentator like Preston thinks this is in any way more valuable (just checked: there are 40 separate BBC local radio stations listed on the RAJAR site - cost last year £115m, excluding the national services for Scotland, Wales and N Ireland) than a single station covering the arts.

        (As to the letter, I feel slightly sheepish at perhaps implying that jazz, world, arts and drama are adequately covered by R3, but they are covered.)
        just one thing in defence of local radio. The coverage of local sport is second to none. It frequently provides the only reliable free coverage of something that is very important to a lot of people. (what else can you put on in Southampton that attracts 20k people once a fortnight ?)
        for those that cannot get to their local team, local radio provides a vital link and I know for certain that a lot of people would feel like their right arm had been cut off if that kind of coverage goes.
        Its fair to say that there its lots of cheap to produce easy listening on local radio,...but it has its place, and it wouldn't be adequately replaced in the private sector. Commercial local radio makes Local BBC look like Shakespeare and Beethoven rolled into one.
        I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.

        I am not a number, I am a free man.

        Comment

        • Serial_Apologist
          Full Member
          • Dec 2010
          • 37814

          #19
          Originally posted by teamsaint View Post
          (what else can you put on in Southampton that attracts 20k people once a fortnight ?)
          Stocks, and/or a pillory?

          Comment

          • french frank
            Administrator/Moderator
            • Feb 2007
            • 30456

            #20
            Originally posted by teamsaint View Post
            Its fair to say that there its lots of cheap to produce easy listening on local radio,...but it has its place, and it wouldn't be adequately replaced in the private sector.
            But I'm not arguing in favour of cuts to local radio. Preston wanted Radio 3 reduced to 6 hours a day, apparently so that BBC local news wouldn't have to be cut.
            It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

            Comment

            • antongould
              Full Member
              • Nov 2010
              • 8832

              #21
              Originally posted by teamsaint View Post
              just one thing in defence of local radio. The coverage of local sport is second to none. It frequently provides the only reliable free coverage of something that is very important to a lot of people. (what else can you put on in Southampton that attracts 20k people once a fortnight ?)
              for those that cannot get to their local team, local radio provides a vital link and I know for certain that a lot of people would feel like their right arm had been cut off if that kind of coverage goes.
              Its fair to say that there its lots of cheap to produce easy listening on local radio,...but it has its place, and it wouldn't be adequately replaced in the private sector. Commercial local radio makes Local BBC look like Shakespeare and Beethoven rolled into one.
              Never was a truer word spoken, in my experience, it is commercial local radio that is 24/7 easy listening and adverts and as you say BBC local football/sport service is superb.

              Comment

              • teamsaint
                Full Member
                • Nov 2010
                • 25225

                #22
                Originally posted by Serial_Apologist View Post
                Stocks, and/or a pillory?
                you are thinking of Portsmouth.
                We stopped that kind of thing in Southampton decades ago.
                I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.

                I am not a number, I am a free man.

                Comment

                • aka Calum Da Jazbo
                  Late member
                  • Nov 2010
                  • 9173

                  #23
                  does Preston gets gigs on talk radio? he is a pretty phillistine old lefty hack in his views...

                  would not find it far fetched to question the Guardian Group's interest in media ... eg bet they are playing around with ideas of subscription streams .. any chance will do to knock ...bad as the Rothermere lot in their own sweet way ...
                  According to the best estimates of astronomers there are at least one hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe.

                  Comment

                  • MrGongGong
                    Full Member
                    • Nov 2010
                    • 18357

                    #24
                    Originally posted by french frank View Post
                    But I'm not arguing in favour of cuts to local radio. Preston wanted Radio 3 reduced to 6 hours a day, apparently so that BBC local news wouldn't have to be cut.
                    I am
                    "local" TV is the worst
                    Last night I watched the 10 o'clock news ...... fine (well apart from the cowardly stance of the UK in "joining" the USA in the UNESCO vote ) then along comes the "local" news. It so happened that the main story on the "local" (we don't even live in Yorkshire but thats the "local" news we get !) news was also one of the main items on the "main" news. So what you get is the same thing , sometimes the same script twice in succession !!!! not even in more depth ..........

                    "Local" radio isn't much better, OK if sport is your thing then its probably a good source of local sport but there could be a weekend station to cover that .......many years ago I was working on a local music development project and tried , unsuccessfully, to get the local BBC radio station to pay a nominal royalty to local bands thad their tracks played on the radio. The argument being that they would happily pay for Michael Jackson's music but a group of teenagers starting off had to be grateful for what they got , this was even after the music had gone through a rigorous editorial process etc ....... so much for "supporting the local community"

                    Comment

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