BBC 6 To Face The Music?
BBC 6 Music and Asian Network could be set to close
Today The Times reported that the BBC are due to close two of its national radio stations.
The newspaper says that in a report due to be made public next month, Beeb Director General Mark Thompson will outline cuts to their radio and online output.
The stations apparently set to go are BBC 6 Music and BBC Asian Network.
Of 6 Music, Patrick Foster of The Times said: "Music industry tastemakers revere it as a credible outlet for “real music” but a review last month showed that only 20 per cent of adults knew that the station existed."
The alleged changes will form part of move to downsize the corporation allowing space for commercial rivals. There will also be reductions in American television programme imports and sports events broadcast rights.
The BBC received £3.6 billion pounds in TV license fees every year.
Campaigns are already well established on Twitter and Facebook to save the two stations. There are rumours that a bid by Absolute Radio for 6 Music could come to the rescue.
The BBC are yet to make official comment on The Times' report.
Vernon Kay Makes On-Air Apology
Presenter of All Star Family Fortunes today used his Radio 1 show to say sorry to his family.
Vernon Kay (courtesy of TheBoltonNews)
It follows the discovery that he'd been sending lewd text messages to five different women.
Kay halted his show shortly after it began at 10am. He told his 2 million listeners: "You may or may not be aware that, because of some foolish decisions I've made, I've disappointed and let down a lot of people. To my family and everybody else I am very sorry."
The apology was perhaps chiefly directed at his wife, and fellow TV personality, Tess Daly.
He denies sleeping with any of the women he'd been texting, but described his behaviour as "foolish" and "stupid".
Producers of the show cancelled all phone-ins for fear of callers launching verbal attacks on the presenter.
Instead they played a series of back-to-back songs, giving Kay little actual air-time.
And Now, Here’s Chavez
The Venezuelan President deploys shock tactics to turn around dwindling listenership to his broadcasts.
Hugo Chávez (courtesy of Fox News)
Hugo Chávez hopes to sneak up on listeners with unscheduled presidential programming.
His 8-hour-long radio shows every Sunday have somehow struggled to maintain audience figures. The all new Suddenly Chávez hopes to avoid this problem by not giving people chance to make other plans.
The shows could be broadcast at any time, day or night. Each starts with a characteristic musical interlude.
"When you hear the pluck of a harp on the radio, maybe Chávez is coming," He said in his inaugural broadcast yesterday. "It's suddenly, at any time, maybe midnight, maybe early morning."
Desperate to hear what this harp sounds like? MSNBC's Rachel Maddow has some fun with it in her report:
Chávez's plan seems to be to pinch audiences from more popular programming - such as sporting event broadcasts.
His interruptions aren't likely to stun Venezuelans too much, however. Law already dictates that all other radio content can be put on hold at any time, to allow speeches deemed important by the president to be aired.
RAJAR: Figures Released for 2009 Fourth Quarter
The latest figures from RAJAR show digital and mobile listenership continue to grow.
Digital radio listener hours are up by 11% since the same period last year.
However, a 14% increase between the third quarters of 2008 and 2009 shows that the rate of increase in listenership is actually slowing.
Mobile phone listenership also continues to rise, though at a slower rate than in the last quarter. Listener hours went from 6.2 million to 6.7 million between the fourth quarters of 08 /09 - but have overall fallen from the 6.9 million recorded in quarter 3 of 2009.
Mobile listenership amongst 15-24 year olds fell by 2.1% but over the year, however the 25+ age group are listening much more often (an increase of 13%).
German Boss Radio Ad Banned
A radio advert's been ruled 'offensive' following complaints that it suggests all Germans are Hitler-style megalomaniacs.
Hitler's Radio (apparently). Picture by Glen Aylett
The advert for recruitment agency Reed Online features a man yelling at one of his employees in German - then asks: 'Boss a bit of a tyrant?'
The Advertising Standards Authority banned the ad after it received 13 complaints; some claiming it reinforced an out-of-date stereotype.
Give it a listen and tell us what you think:
Who Runs Radio?
Want to know who owns what station in the radio industry? Well this little gadget might just help. Radio Items
What about the Beeb? For local BBC stations, check out our Radio Map.
Radio Offers Lifeline to Anxious Haitians
Following the powerful earthquake which hit Haiti on Tuesday, worried relatives are looking to a New York station for news.
Brooklyn's Radio Soleil d'Haiti has been taking calls from local Haitians desperate to hear the latest on the state of the country.
Picture by Yana Paskova, New York Times
One caller shared a rumour with DJ Ricot Dupuy that Haiti's presidential palace had collapsed (it has been damaged, but still stands). Others looked for news of relatives.
Dupuy says it's been impossible to answer many of the callers' queries due to communication channels with Haiti being knocked out.
He told ABC News, "I did get through for two-and-a-half minutes before getting cut off."
There are also concerns that the owner of Radio Melodie, a popular station in Haiti, and his wife were killed in the quake. The rumour's yet to be confirmed or quashed.
Due to the communication problems, Dupuy's had little choice but to continue playing the same feed over and over on air.
Nervous family members still linger around the Radio Soleil d'Haiti studios, as they await more news from the presenter's contacts. So far, relief has come to few.
Terry WoGONE!
Terry Wogan today said 'cheerio' to his Radio 2 breakfast time slot.
Check out our report:
Wogan Picture courtesy of the Radio Times.
Digital Radio Hits 10m Sets Sold
As 2009 draws to a close, the number of DAB digital radios to be sold in the UK reaches the ten million mark.
It's taken less than three years for the milestone to be reached after just five million sets were sold before 2007.
As you might expect, the Digital Radio Development Bureau are delighted. Tony Moretta's their Chief Exec:
PURE is the UKs biggest producer of digital radios.
"Ten million sales is an incredible achievement for any technology, and it proves that digital radio is here to stay.
"With even greater promotion by radio stations, wider support from the car industry and the further development of the technology through colour screens, Wi-Fi etc, we expect the growth of digital radio to continue strongly over the next few years to the point where a nationwide digital upgrade can become a reality."
Manufacturers aren't quite ready to crack open the Christmas bubbly yet though - the rate of sales is actually in decline.
This year has seen just 1.3 million radios sold, compared with 2.2 million in 2008.
The overall sales figure is also still dwarfed by the estimated 120 million anologue sets in homes across the country. At the current growth rate it'd take 60 years for digital to match that.
Ofcom Propose Scrapping Local Radio Ownership Rules
A report published today by the broadcasting regulator suggests removing the rules which limit the ownership of multiple stations in the same local area.
The report outlines a number of recommendations for the Sectretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport - Ben Bradshaw.
Currently local station ownership is limited by what's sometimes known as the '2+1' rule - the 2 representing commercial owners, and the 1 representing the BBC. What this means is that where there are at least two commercial stations, as well as a Beeb station, there must be at least two different commercial owners. (Click below if you don't get it).
Ofcom suggest that the '2+1' rule should be ditched so that anyone can own as many stations as they like, saying: "It'd reduce regulation on an industry facing difficult market conditions.
"Research shows a majority of consumers are not concerned about single ownership within local commercial radio."
Amongst the organisations supporting the proposal are RadioCentre and the Guardian Media Group.
The Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph and Theatre Union (BECTU) are against the idea, saying it would provide an insufficient guarantee of plurality.