Some will be planting on strawberries, others in the car, when the voice of honey-soaked with Dave Callaghan marks the beginning of the cricket season - warm, familiar and happy to be there.
Callaghan who is 31 reports of a day during the season for the five stations interested on local BBC, is an obsessive cricket, a geek from Yorkshire and a broadcasting pro. But he and hundreds of others like him, with a byzantine sports knowledge built on thousands of bullets and hundreds of polystyrene cups of strong tea, may disappear if the BBC to go ahead with their plan to switch the axe to local radio.
Issued by the BBC last week, in an attempt to find some of the £ 400 million of reductions needed, is that local radio stations in the future should keep only their own breakfast and drive time shows. The rest of the production will come from Radio 5 Live.
Now, the 5 Live team are very good at what they do - the Premier league, international football and cricket, major golf tournaments, international athletics, other major sporting events and the new rolling - and they, does, may not cover many other.
But there are of us 51 million in England, with many strange and special sports allegiances, some of them inherited from our grandparents, others just picked up as a whim. This is where the local radio.
Take the Radio Leeds. It covers local football - not only Leeds United but Huddersfield Town, Bradford City and non-League clubs. On Friday evening and Sunday afternoon, it is rugby XIII - not only the Super League teams such as Leeds Rhinos and Bradford Bulls, but also the partial of Keighley and Featherstone.
There is also space for the Leeds rugby union team, sus cricket Yorkshire Dave Callaghan and other bits and bobs. And there is a further 39 BBC local radio stations of Jersey of Cumbria.
Should the cuts go ahead, a whole part of sport - rugby XIII in the North, surf and sailing reports in Cornwall, bas and non-League football, lower-League rugby and cricket for the County countrywide - suddenly barely exist, with respect to the radio.
Now, there is some chat on local radio, stuff that insult people's intelligence, phone ins endless numbing to the spirit which exist purely for people angry or is bored of piercing or anger other people (in fact, the fact 5 Live a little of that too).
The BBC could do something useful to raise the bar. But to destroy the sport of local radio - something that listeners tune actually local radio for and which brings together a community - seems daft and self-destructive.
This is the essence of what is the BBC for and what it is good to-to provide a public service and cover things that are not commercially viable.
Independent radio could cover Manchester United, they will not bother too much with Rochdale. Even less now, as many radio news is provided centrally by Sky.
Licence fees is not only paid by persons of less than 35 years that support as tweeting to their subject matter and the Premier League clubs. It is paid for by the listeners of Canary call on Radio Norfolk and by those who know how to tune the praise and grumble on Radio Stoke when they so desire a moan on Port Vale, Stoke City and Crewe Alexandra.
Local radio is purely a breeding ground for budding Alan Partridge.
It is a cheap bed of talent for the BBC. In the 1990s, a fast bowler ex-Leicestershire called Jonathan Agnew went to a little radio production for BBC Radio Leicester in winter to be junior to Test Match special and then support of Christopher Martin-Jenkins as correspondent for the BBC cricket in 1991.
Now on 29 April, it will be buttoned in its best frock and high hat of shape and bedding to Whitehall to commentate on the Royal marriage.
The BBC faced uproar when he tried to get rid of the Asian network and music 6 (who was later pardoned).
It is in the midst of a bitter battle with listeners of the BBC Radio Derby bring Folkwaves - another specialist show with dedicated fans.
If it takes away local radio sport, he could find something even worse, that disappear from a piece of dissatisfied with 7.4 million listeners which will install just at the moment.
No comments:
Post a Comment