Had Dog’s “Desperate and Dim” silly season feature ventured further
from the kennel he would have found a truly inspired source of banality
in the form of Radio Five Live.
Throughout the summer the only
saving grace has been sport that has been interspersed by an
astonishingly inept range of programmes that have increasingly asked
their listeners to contribute to puerile phone-in shows – Ms
Derbyshire’s contribution surpassing even her own low standards – and,
more worryingly, the so-called hard-news programmes relying more and
more on text surveys that must have made the presenters cringe, never
mind the listeners.
Perhaps the low spot is that even the hour-long midday news now invites us to “tell us what you think” about some less-than-burning issue in order to pad out the programme.
Come on BBC, it’s time for a rethink on this increasingly tiredsounding station. New presenters are needed.
Shorter, sharper programmes with more variety would overcome the repetition, and knock the phone-ins and surveys on the head.
Mike Waring Michael Waring Associates Limited
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