Radio daze

John Myers' report on "synergies" within Radio 1, 1Xtra, 2 and 6Music was compiled on his own over eight weeks of interviews and observations, and whilst it might read like a searing insight to outsiders, it also feels in part as if compiled after a series of whingefests in local hostelries and wine bars.

There are two recommendations that won't have come from the bosses and staff.  Unhappiest with the report's outcome will be the Studio Managers of Radio 2's Western House. Nobody can have been clearer than Myers that most music presenters should operate their own studios, rather than have somebody adoring them through the glass.  The idea that these music networks should share studios and premises is also blindingly obvious, but will read as daring counter-culture to the radio nephews and nieces of Jenny Abramsky.

The bits that read as if dictated over Sam Smith's or Sergio's Valpolicella are about reducing charges from news, property, regions etc and putting Friday Night Is Music Night out to tender.

The big recommendation that Tim Davie has chosen to ignore is that that a single controller could sit astride these four stations, with perhaps a lower-graded manager dedicated to each channel. This is a big missed opportunity when there is a clear requirement to reduce both the numbers and salaries of BBC executives.

Meanwhile, Jimmy Buckland, the attack dachshund of Talksport, is complaining that Tim Davie has ignored the exhortations of the NAO to conduct this review across all BBC network radio, including 5Live, and wishes that the detailed version of the Myers report were published.  I suspect that 14 pages, including coversheet, is all there is for eight weeks work.