Interesting thread about the state of BBC Radio.

Quite an enlightening post, the first one.

http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk.media....23af9dd4?hl=en#

 

In my original posting about Ross and Brand, I made reference to why I

thought this event was evidence of a far more serious decline in the

BBC. For the benefit of anyone who may be interested, I will just

explain that a little more. First, a bit of the history.

 

A serious problem arose for the radio industry at the time Virgin

radio was launched in the UK. Branson's company persevered but

couldn't attain any significant audience because Radio One and to some

extent Radio Two, enjoyed massive, devoted and extremely loyal

audiences. Virgin (backed by the commercial radio industry) put

pressure on the then Tory government, to redefine the BBC's role as an

'alternative' to the commercial sector, instead leaving the potential

mass audiences for them to pick up. Michael Heseltine was a key

figure in the government at the time and he had a private potential

motive for such a change. He owned a company called Haymarket

Publishing which, entirely by coincidence, had invested in a company

called Southern Radio Holdings. The BBC was told behind the scenes to

"get less popular, and to do it quickly". They didn’t want gradual

change, they wanted action (Source; A BBC governor at the time).

Surprise, surprise, the BBC suddenly announced it was sacking most of

it's big name presenters citing them as being too old fashioned,

(although they never made obscene calls to pensioners, they oddly had

phenomenal audience figures. The Radio One controller, Johnny Beerling

was also sacked and an ex-newsreader called Matthew Bannister (now a

lowly presenter on Radio 4 and 5 Live) was promoted to Controller.

Bannister brought in everything that is currently loathed in BBC

output. Many old local radio acquaintances and street names were

given programmes; consequently the humour became laddish, the new

presenters boasted of drunken nights, and shagging; they promoted

cigarettes, alcohol, drug culture and violent rap lyrics. Radio 1

presenters were now being arrested for the first time, and the Radio

One Roadshow was hit by violent deaths and fights. On-air, with

Bannister's help, presenters trashed the reputations and ridiculed the

people who had worked there, even though there standards were far

higher than his own.

 

Within days millions of people switched away from BBC Radio. When the

appalling listening figures were published, commercial radio shares

soared at this 'surprise' gift from heaven. Southern Radio Holdings,

which had already been on a well anticipated spending spree taking

over other stations was suddenly sold ,making Heseltine an estimated

personal £3 million (a lot of money at the time).

 

From this moment on, the BBC abandoned 'quality' in popular output -

instead mainly restricting the quality effort to more high brow

broadcasting. BBC Producers who had gained years of experience at not

offending the public and who possessed additional qualities as

musicians, arrangers and other worthy talents were just dumped. Music

selection was now passsed over to anyone from promoted secretaries,

even to work experience students. Outside production companies were

brought in to produce programmes at greatly inflated prices, (although

many of these companies today remain operated by people who had been

in commercial radio and instrumental in the smashing up of Radio One -

they had entered by the back door. BBC Radio programmes were

increasingly being planned and broadcast by an elite clique of people

earning vast amounts of money, yet promoting a dead, flat, uninspired

choice of 'in' music and squalid conversation which didn't really

relate to the wider audiences, but more to the disenfranchised or the

‘jet set of music snobbery’.

 

Today BBC Radio and also now BBC TV are still carrying the hangover

from this high risk turn to the 'in-crowd' of broadcasting for

programme making. In hindsight we see how they have lost touch,

mainly due to arrogance and a defensive culture which caused the

public to become frightened to challenge them, in case it made us seem

antiquated. Radio One and Two both now are littered with examples of

dreadful music, which leave most of us in the country feeling that

something must have gone seriously wrong. Most presenters are now, in

the main, far more amateur and bland than Radio One would ever have

employed before the big clear out. Almost any time you switch on you

will hear a person with no obvious broadcasting talent. There are

many pubs in the UK with better DJ's than the ones you hear on Radio

One. The quality all went, both in music choice and speech.

Standards of legal responsibility, social interest or basic care have

all suffered. The word ‘love’is banned.

 

And so my argument is that the BBC has lost the taste to be able to

test for quality in much of the mass audience output. From the

Christmas appearance on Radio One recently where a woman called Tracy

Cox was placed on air to advise young people about a safe Christmas

and then apologised to the audience because she had a bad hangover -

whereupon the presenter replied "you had a hangover on the last two

occasions you were here"; to high profile TV output such as Little

Britain USA, which although well filmed and arranged, scrapes the

barrel for offensive, shock value but is so obviously lacking in

comedy value, that one can only wonder who was overseeing it for the

'funny' factor. And now we the humiliating and spiteful Ross & Brand

factor - bit they are the the tip of this low quality iceberg. We all

knew it was happening - they just confirmed it. They only rose to

this height of contempt because of the giant slick of talentless waste

supporting them.

 

In the last few days a BBC Chief said "these people are not the BBC,

they come and go from time to time, but behind it the BBC is alive and

well" or words to that effect. Wrong. If many policeman was beating

up people on the street, it matters little that the guys in the

offices are well behaved. Our perception of the BBC is what we see

and hear - not what creeps around the corridors of Broadcasting House

or even the quality, though sadly, minority output of Radio 4.

 

The BBC needs to re-align itself with quality, because if they don't,

commercial broadcasting has no reason to either. We have all been

witnessing a great dumbing down of standards - but it all began of

course, with the greed of the commercial sector and the politicians

wading in for personal gain at our expense.

Agree with a lot of that, I stopped listening to Radio 1 and 2 about 15 years ago, as the presenters were just so annoying, and the music was even worse. I only listen to my local station, presenters are good to listen to and they play music I actually recognise :D

Fantastic post, and all pretty much spot on... It's pretty easy to see now how it has actually come to this and how we managed to get absolutely loathsome maggots like Moyles, Brand and Ross polluting our airwaves in the first fukkin' place.....

 

And, as with everything that has happened in this fukked-up, dumbed-down, Chav-culture, anti-intellectual cess-pool of a country that we have become, the rot started with the Tories..... :rolleyes:

, the rot started with the Tories..... :rolleyes:

 

yeah... but it was actually 'alternative' comedy that started the rot! :0

 

because as alternative comedy took off there was always a branch of it that was utter carp! it wasnt all cutting edge satirical repartee. there was the idiots who thought 'alternative' meant they could act like arseholes and it was funny... ive never liked ross, and he was 'of the age', but failed to 'get it' imho. hes just a crass child who i refuse to watch or listen too.

 

but i do like brand... although hes rather squalid, he uses referances that are steeped in some intellect, and are often beyond his age (i remember thinking after he made such a referance on bblb 'how tf did he know about that? he wasnt born!)

yeah... but it was actually 'alternative' comedy that started the rot! :0

 

because as alternative comedy took off there was always a branch of it that was utter carp! it wasnt all cutting edge satirical repartee. there was the idiots who thought 'alternative' meant they could act like arseholes and it was funny... ive never liked ross, and he was 'of the age', but failed to 'get it' imho. hes just a crass child who i refuse to watch or listen too.

 

Ross is/was a Yuppie, spiv arse who used the Alternative Comedy banner to gain some credibility as I see it, in his own mind he thought he was Ben Elton, but had absolutely nothing like the sharpness or savvy of Elton.. I think you're right, he IS worse than Brand in many ways... He's worse in the sense that whereas Brand just IS a foolish young man, Ross is a sad old prick pretending to be a foolish young man... He's pushing 50, he's married, he has a family... Christ, GROW UP Ross and stop trying to ingratiate yourself on the young, it's pathetic, and just a little creepy tbh..... Remember the "Mary Whitehouse Experience" sketches about the Fourth Year geography teacher pretending to be "down with the kids"...? That's Ross that is..... :lol: :lol:

 

Ross is/was a Yuppie, spiv arse who used the Alternative Comedy banner to gain some credibility as I see it, in his own mind he thought he was Ben Elton, but had absolutely nothing like the sharpness or savvy of Elton.. I think you're right, he IS worse than Brand in many ways... He's worse in the sense that whereas Brand just IS a foolish young man, Ross is a sad old prick pretending to be a foolish young man... He's pushing 50, he's married, he has a family... Christ, GROW UP Ross and stop trying to ingratiate yourself on the young, it's pathetic, and just a little creepy tbh..... Remember the "Mary Whitehouse Experience" sketches about the Fourth Year geography teacher pretending to be "down with the kids"...? That's Ross that is..... :lol: :lol:

 

yep, thats exactly how i see woss! :)

jo brand was funny on fridays hignfy..... she claimed to have slept with russel brands grandad! :lol:

jo brand was funny on fridays hignfy..... she claimed to have slept with russel brands grandad! :lol:

 

I believe the word is touche.... :lol: :lol: Actually, considering they both have the same surname, there was probably room for her to go even further.... :lol:

 

I've always loved the way Brand has subverted sexist humour... For ages, male comedians made jokes about imagined violence towards women, Brand responded with the legendary... "They say the best way to a man's heart is through his stomach....Well, I always find that through the hanky pocket with a breadknife is a much better option....." ROFLMAO. Ooooooh, how the likes of Gary Bushell did NOT like that one, or indeed Brand herself (which is reason enough in my book to like Jo Brand if you ask me... :lol: ), they responded by making out she was a "Feminist, dungaree-wearing, lesbian, man-hater"... Er, then she got married. To a MAN..... :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

Where's Gary Bushell now then....?