Because we want to.

I’ve pondered a few times about the recent BBC proposal for additional DAB+ services. Many have commented and blogged on the subject, not least of which are my friends, David Lloyd and Matt Deegan.

They are expert and articulate posts which give a good level of analysis and critique on the proposals.

Recently I read the full proposal myself- which you can find HERE.

It’s quite the read! If I were a cynical person I might say that making the process of responding to the consultation slightly daunting, hard to find or confusing is helpful in limiting any response. I’m not that cynical though and I’m certain that is not the case here. That said, and not wishing to blow my own trumpet but I’ve been around a few consultations in my time, finding exactly HOW to respond took a bit of digging. In case you are wondering, its contained within the last page of the 35 page pdf on the link above. Quite why its not also on the website that houses the pdf here, with a simple “HOW TO RESPOND” button or instruction, I don’t know. I can understand the desire for anyone respondng to have read the proposals in full of course and perhaps that’s the reason?

There are four questions that the consultation suggests answering, on page 35. These are as follows:

Submissions are via email, rather than a web-based form and are open until 27th March 2024.

When it comes to responses, I’m with the likes of David and Matt and the RadioCentre. I kind of sum up the BBC’s reasoning as ‘because we want to’, rather than actually placating a genuine public desire for these new services in a hardly under-served segment of the audience. In terms of the Radio 2 spin off, it’s almost as if having moved Radio 2 younger, lost legendary and well-loved broadcasters on route and lost audience in the process, they now want to have their cake and eat it after all. It’s like them saying, “We would like a younger main channel but want to now start another older channel to house all of those listeners we disenfranchised in the process, since it would appear that you can make a go of it”, evidence Boom Radio, Greatest Hits, Gold, Smooth. It’s the actions of a 600lb gorilla deciding to sit where it likes, when it likes.

Personally I quite like Radio 1 Dance on BBC Sounds, but with Capital Dance, Heart Dance, Kiss, Kish Fresh, Kisstory its hardly a wide open space needing a new entrant and wider platform than it currently has. Having previously been programming (and launching) Union Jack Dance I know the field quite well. The current iteration of Radio 1 Dance, with it’s recycled and replayed content from the main channel has already had challenges from the commercial sector, which were not upheld at the time.

All of this with the backdrop of the BBC Local Radio changes over the last year it seems somewhat odd or tone deaf. It makes me wonder if in a couple of years when the BBC realises it’s error with the Local Radio changes, audiences diminished still further, and perhaps commercial operators and community stations having stepped in to fill the gap, they suddenly decide to launch a re-invented BBC Local Radio service again, and just “because they want to”.