WE NEED YOUR HELP to save Folkscene, and protect Radio Merseyside

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At the beginning of October Mark Thompson, the Director-General of the BBC, published a document called Delivering Quality First (DQF) in which he sets out his plans to save money following the decision by the Government to freeze the license fee until 2017.

These plans would mean a cut in real terms of 20% in BBC Radio Merseyside’s annual budget, leading to job losses of up to 30% – that’s 15 out of the current staff of 46. 

All BBC local radio stations would keep their weekday peak time programmes (breakfast, mid-morning, and evening drive-time) but most would share programmes regionally in the afternoon and after 10pm, and every station would share an all-England local radio show (how’s that for a contradiction in terms?) between 7pm and 10pm except when providing local sports commentaries. Billy Butler’s weekday afternoon show would probably survive. Regional sharing would take place on Sunday afternoons and evenings, and at other off-peak times on Saturday.

The upshot of all this is that BBC Radio Merseyside would lose Folkscene, UK radio’s longest running folk show.

Geoff Speed
Stan Ambrose

Started 44 years ago by Geoff Speed and Stan Ambrose, Folkscene is also the most listened to folk programme on local radio, and the only place where the local folk and acoustic scene is championed on a weekly basis.

But it doesn’t end there. Also set for the axe are:-

  • On The Beat, with Spencer Leigh
  • PMS, with Roger Hill
  • Sounds Country, with Kenny Johnson
  • Orient Express, with June Yee (Chinese community programme)
  • Open House, with Umi Prasad (Asian community programme)
  • Frankie Connor (Sunday afternoon oldies show)
  • Billy Maher (weekend late show)

Only three specialist programmes will be given protected status and are set to be spared:-

  • Up Front, with Phina Oruche (Black community programme)
  • Daybreak, with Wayne Clarke (Sunday morning faith programme)
  • The Pool, with Dave Monks (BBC Introducing), which apparently gets special treatment after Mark Thompson was asked to protect it by none other than former Undertones frontman Feargall Sharkey (we kid you not!)
We all understand that the BBC has to save millions of pounds across the corporation over the next five years, but in our view the savage cuts to local radio are blatantly unfair, and disproportionately affect older people (42% of BBC Radio Merseyside’s audience is over 65), and those on a low income (27% of the audience is from the DE demographic group).

The cuts are a slap in the face to loyal listeners. BBC Radio Merseyside is the most listened to local radio station outside of London, and has a 16.7% share of all listeners in its broadcast area, reaching one in five local adults every week. 55% of listeners listen to no other BBC radio service, and nearly 30% of listeners listen to no other radio station at all.
 
The local radio cuts are in stark contrast to other funding proposals that protect ‘core services’ which are mainly accessed by the ABC1 demographic group.
BBC One = 3% cut
BBC Radio 4 = no cuts
BBC Radio 1 = 2.5% cut
BBC Radio 3 = 4% cut
BBC Online = 0.1% cut
 
We can see how unfair and unbalanced the proposals are when we look at You and Yours, Radio 4’s consumer rights programme, which employs 25 production staff for its daily, hour-long programme. That’s over half the current staffing level of BBC Radio Merseyside for just one programme!

In addition, BBC Proms gets an extra £1M next year on top of the current £6M BBC subsidy, and we (that’s we, the license fee payers) are still funding five (yes, FIVE!) BBC Orchestras and a choir, referred to by the controller of BBC Radio 3 as ‘the BBC’s crown jewels’.

Renowned broadcaster Joan Bakewell summed up this state of affairs brilliantly when she wrote:-

“That’s the point of local radio: it is essentially local, making its own talent and creating its own style. Sadly, it lacks the big guns to press for a reprieve: no friends in high places, like Radio 3 and 4, or trendy London fans like 6 Music.”

Liverpool Acoustic’s Graham Holland added:-

“The BBC is supposed to be a public service broadcaster. If these swingeing cuts are imposed on BBC Radio Merseyside then we can kiss the ‘public’ and ‘service’ elements goodbye. And the same goes for the ‘local’ in BBC Local Radio.”

WHAT CAN WE DO? 

There are a number of practical steps that can be taken try to get these cuts reversed, or at least considerably reduced. These are listed here.

  1. The decision whether or not to accept the Delivering Quality First proposals lies in the hands of the BBC Trust. You can take part in their consultation online here consultations.external.bbc.co.uk/bbc/dqf or email your comments to dqf.consultation@bbc.co.uk – You have until 21st December to respond.
  2. The BBC Trust is running a separate service review of BBC Local Radio. This is an great opportunity to say what a valuable service Radio Merseyside is currently providing, and how that would be severely compromised by any proposed cuts. bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/consult/local_radio.shtml
  3. Email Mark Thompson, the Director-General of the BBC, and tell him how you, the license fee payer, are being let down by these proposed cuts to your local BBC radio service. Feel free to mention how valuable Folkscene is, and how the needs of local fans of non-Indie music would no longer be met by the BBC if the programme is axed. Email mark.thompson@bbc.co.uk 
  4. Sign the online petition petitionbuzz.com/petitions/theindependentbbc
  5. Let your Member of Parliament know how strongly you feel about this issue. You can find out who your local MP is at parliament.uk/about/contacting/mp
  6. Send a letter to any newspapers you read.
  7. Call any radio phone-in programmes you listen to.
  8. ‘Like’ the Save BBC Local Radio facebook page here and invite your friends to join.
  9. ‘Like’ the Save BBC Radio Merseyside Folkscene facebook page here and invite your friends to join.
  10. Forward this email on to all of your contacts and ask them to help out too.
 
 
 
 
 

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