Tank News and Blog

Over the last few years, we’ve seen many local commercial radio stations across the UK succumb to the cost saving measure of networking. At a time when advertising revenue has been low, it’s become something of a necessity. However, it now seems that it’s something the BBC is looking into in greater detail.

Last week, staff at 40 of the BBC’s local radio stations were briefed on a proposal that would see each station producing only a breakfast and drivetime show, with the rest of the programming coming from 5 Live. Although it’s only currently an idea, I was impressed by the reaction of the team at BBC Radio Nottingham.

As a Nottingham PR agency, we’ve got some close links with the station and it was interesting to see that, rather than keeping things quiet, staff were actively encouraged to speak openly about the proposals via social media, as a way of drawing attention to the plans and provoking a reaction from listeners. Several tweets, blog posts and an interview with a national newspaper later, it seems to have done the trick and many are quite rightly up in arms about it.

The BBC is really the true bastion of local radio and it is great to see that people are prepared to speak out in order to protect it. Okay, staff have their jobs to protect, but in many of the tweets and blogs that I’ve read, there is a true passion about what they do and a real desire to protect the localness of the output for the sake of the listeners.

This has the makings of a real campaign and it’s one that I wish the guys at BBC Radio Nottingham, as well the other stations across the UK, luck with. Sometimes it’s not about towing the corporate line, but more about speaking out and helping to protect a service that millions of people across the country tune into, enjoy and, to a great extent, rely upon on a daily basis.

This particular blog post from one of the journalists at BBC Radio Nottingham points out what people can do if they want to show their support. It’s worth a read.

Martin