A frustrated Nottinghamshire Live letter writer has written about changes to BBC local radio. Vivian Wigleyvia urged people to write to their local MP over the ongoing cuts which is seeing more shows shared across local stations.
Nottinghamshire Live is now sharing letters from our readers online every week. You can write a letter of your own to us by filling in the simple form below, and it may appear online and/or in print.
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'National radio with a local sticker on it'
I write this as we listeners of local radio endure our last day of replacement broadcasting due to industrial action, which has my support.
The jingles used said “BBC local radio”. It isn’t. The news on the hour wasn’t local. The broadcasters were in Lancashire. Contributors to the shows were from Southampton to Newcastle. This is national radio with a sticker on it.
If BBC boss Tim Davie was in charge of London Zoo, he’d probably stick a label saying “giraffe” on a meerkat and expect us to believe it.
If this is a taster of things to come, I’m not happy, and it will only get worse. As more resources are diverted into digital content, the elderly and less tech savvy people who rely on radio will suffer.
They are listeners equally entitled to a quality local service peopled by local broadcasters, who love their area.
Please contact your local MP or write to the BBC to voice your disapproval.
We deserve better.
Vivian Wigleyvia, via email
BBC: 'We'll have a much better, deeper and stronger digital service'
Your reader Vivian Wigleyvia worries that the programmes broadcast on BBC Local Radio during recent strike action are a “taster of things to come”. I can assure her that they aren’t.
While broadcasting national programmes was unavoidable for some areas during the industrial action, our plans for the future of Local Radio involve breakfast and daytime programmes being live and local from Nottingham, while on weekday afternoons we will share a programme across Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, and Leicestershire – but with local news throughout.
This isn’t new. In fact, older listeners will remember Dennis McCarthy’s “Afternoon Special” which was broadcast across those three stations and BBC Radio Lincolnshire as well.
It was not only the most popular programme on the stations, but it was also the most listened to programme on BBC Local Radio anywhere in England. Right now, some of our most popular programmes at the weekend are already shared across more than one station.
Why the change? Well, our broadcast services on radio and on TV continue to deliver an important audience, but like all “linear” services the total audience is slowly declining as people find other ways to get their news and local information. So, we are reorganising what we do, moving a proportion of our money into our currently under-resourced digital services.
In return for more sharing of radio programmes in afternoons and at weekends we’ll have a much better, deeper, and stronger digital service, with more stories on the BBC News website for Nottingham, more digital audio, more digital video, and more podcasts.
We’re also investing in an investigations team for the East Midlands, with new roles in journalism dedicated to finding stories that otherwise would go untold.
Ofcom recognise that even among 65–74-year-olds, the internet has overtaken radio as the number one source for news. The BBC is unlike any other broadcaster or news organisations in the country – we are paid for by everyone, and we have a responsibility to try and deliver value for all licence fee payers, not just those who find us through local radio or regional television.
Vivian – this isn’t about a national service. Our listeners will get a local service with trusted local voices at the key parts of the day – and they’ll also find much more online than they’ve had until now.
Stuart Thomas, BBC Senior Head of Content Production for the Midlands
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