No-one is more delighted than I am to see all the new choice for radio listening in the UK with the launch of the new tranche of DAB services this month.
But there's a problem. I'm angry about how difficult it is to listen. I'm furious about the money I've spent on and the commitment I've made to DAB, only now to be unable to enjoy it. This frustration is coming from a dedicated follower of wireless fashion.
18 March 2016
12 March 2016
Too Much Love
Someone in the Number 10 press office is having a bad weekend.
They've been caught out, like the kid at school who buys a multipak of Valentine's cards, professing too much love. Not for The Little Red-Haired Girl (and all her mates), but for the English regions.
In the wake of the devastating floods around Christmas there has been a widespread disaffection out of London with the scale and speed of Whitehall's response. This reflects badly on the PM . So our unfortunate spinner was given the job of sending out a "personal" message from David Cameron to make clear the Prime Minister's grave concern.
A simple task, but they messed up. Why they messed up is the important lesson, and the reason goes far beyond party politics.
They've been caught out, like the kid at school who buys a multipak of Valentine's cards, professing too much love. Not for The Little Red-Haired Girl (and all her mates), but for the English regions.
In the wake of the devastating floods around Christmas there has been a widespread disaffection out of London with the scale and speed of Whitehall's response. This reflects badly on the PM . So our unfortunate spinner was given the job of sending out a "personal" message from David Cameron to make clear the Prime Minister's grave concern.
A simple task, but they messed up. Why they messed up is the important lesson, and the reason goes far beyond party politics.
09 March 2016
Set BBC Local Radio Free
BBC Local Radio has a lot in common with Higher Education.
Both are publicly funded, albeit in different ways. Both are stuffed with passionate, clever, articulate people who put up with a lot because they love the job that they do.
And both are plagued with a bureaucratic culture which forces the very people who should be leading the organisation to spend far too much of their time being conspicuously accountable through either writing or responding to endless reports.
There's another such report on local radio out this week. I've lost count of how many there have been. I'm not going to try summarising it because, frankly, I haven't got the will or the energy to do so and besides David Lloyd has already written a brilliant commentary on it.
I'm going to spend my time in this blog proposing a solution. The bosses aren't going to like it.
Both are publicly funded, albeit in different ways. Both are stuffed with passionate, clever, articulate people who put up with a lot because they love the job that they do.
And both are plagued with a bureaucratic culture which forces the very people who should be leading the organisation to spend far too much of their time being conspicuously accountable through either writing or responding to endless reports.
There's another such report on local radio out this week. I've lost count of how many there have been. I'm not going to try summarising it because, frankly, I haven't got the will or the energy to do so and besides David Lloyd has already written a brilliant commentary on it.
I'm going to spend my time in this blog proposing a solution. The bosses aren't going to like it.
06 March 2016
Bradford's Museum Matters
I was privileged to be in the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television on the day it opened. You could smell the optimism in the air.
Actually, you could smell the EvoStik - very strongly - as the carpets had only been fitted in the last few hours before the doors were due to open. We were setting up for a Pennine Radio outside broadcast. But despite the fumes I'm sure I wasn't hallucinating as speaker after speaker stressed this was the national collection - Britain's heritage - coming to Bradford, and coming to the city forever.
I never imagined, thirty years on, that dream would be comprehensively shattered as the status of Bradford's collection, already diminished by cuts and neglect, would be relegated to that of a retro-themed amusement arcade with the notional remit of helping kids through their science and technology GCSEs.
Actually, you could smell the EvoStik - very strongly - as the carpets had only been fitted in the last few hours before the doors were due to open. We were setting up for a Pennine Radio outside broadcast. But despite the fumes I'm sure I wasn't hallucinating as speaker after speaker stressed this was the national collection - Britain's heritage - coming to Bradford, and coming to the city forever.
I never imagined, thirty years on, that dream would be comprehensively shattered as the status of Bradford's collection, already diminished by cuts and neglect, would be relegated to that of a retro-themed amusement arcade with the notional remit of helping kids through their science and technology GCSEs.
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