It’s probably too late to save BBC Local Radio.
The BBC is abandoning millions of loyal listeners, cutting unique local radio stations without consulting audiences. Managers have created an incredibly dangerous situation for an organisation that relies on public goodwill.
Rarely the first to spot a crisis, MPs today debate the BBC’s plans to dismantle large parts of its local radio network in England.
There’ll be much tutting and complaining from people who quite like hearing their own voice on the radio — but it’s almost certainly come too late.
We’re now nearly nine months into an astonishingly mis-managed fiasco. Hundreds of staff have been treated with casual contempt — their fates left dangling for so long, it’s a miracle any of them still want to work for a BBC that would treat them so shoddily.
Even a former Director-General has come out against the cuts — Tony Hall telling former Radio 4 Feedback presenter Roger Bolton it’s not something he would have agreed to.
Audiences have been largely excluded from the painful, drawn-out process of converting a network of local stations into regional ones, with part-time, localised opt-outs on weekdays. There was no consultation, no impact assessment. You may pay for the BBC, but that doesn’t mean you get a say.
You can’t connect communities on a spreadsheet
The idea is that, by cutting local radio, money is freed up to improve online services. And BBC managers defend this as if it were a like-for-like swap — “yes, we’re halving your station’s output, but look, there’s a local news page for Wolverhampton now.”
In London, Birmingham, and Salford, local radio is apparently perceived as little more than a news operation. But it is much more.
News is important, but it’s not everything. Local stations bind communities together, they’re a platform for the stories that make a town, city or county what it is. They entertain as well as inform, they combat loneliness and they provide comfort.
But, say BBC managers, audiences are turning away from linear radio. Are they? The proportion of people listening to radio in the UK has been astonishingly stable for many years — 92% of the over-50s listen every week, just as they did 5 years ago. Compared to television, radio has been remarkably resilient.
If BBC local radio is failing, reaching 12% of people in England, then presumably it’s curtains for Radio 5 live (9%), 6 Music (5%) and Radio 3 (3%)? Of course not — no single radio station could ever be expected to appeal to vast numbers without being desperately bland.
It is true that some BBC local stations have lost many of their listeners in recent years, but it’s quite a stretch to blame market conditions — attention should instead focus on many of the managers pushing through these latest changes.
Stations have had their schedules torn up, temporary pandemic-era changes became permanent cost-cutting measures. Stations that are meant to be unique community voices are increasingly uniform, with programmes and playlists which at times seemed calculated to prompt existing listeners to switch off.
In any commercial business, managers who presided over such rapid decline would themselves be unemployed. In the BBC, they get to fire other people instead.
The Corporation spends close to £120-million a year on its local services in England, yet apparently can’t afford a network of local stations and a half-decent online service. It’s one or the other.
Perhaps some of that money should be offered to others, community broadcasters for example, to see if they can run local stations more efficiently. Perhaps they should have access to the BBC’s newsgathering resources as well.
This is a dangerous moment for the BBC
Let’s imagine, for a moment, the campaigning succeeds, and the cuts are abandoned. How would that work? Stations have already lost many of their most experienced and popular presenters — do you imagine they would all happily return to an organisation that has treated them with indifferent cruelty?
It’s more likely that the spirited and passionate campaign will fail, and the BBC will get away with dismantling a vital public service without proper consultation.
But it would be unwise for managers to celebrate as they run what’s left of their local stations into the ground. Many of their 5-million weekly listeners never hear any other BBC station.
They are among the most loyal supporters of the BBC, but if it abandons them now, how many will step up to defend it in future?
The day is coming when a government, either Conservative or Labour, decides to scrap the licence fee. When that day arrives, the future of the entire BBC will be on the line. It will need the friends it is losing through this inexplicable course of action.
It’s a pity, perhaps, that MPs didn’t seem to notice until it was too late.
