Not caught in the act

Enterprising former BBC and ITN reporter Eddie Botsio is trying to raise money for the Raleigh Trust with an exhibition of his photographs of broadcasting personalities. It's called "In and Out of the Public Eye", and will open at The Reading Room Gallery, Frith Street, Soho on September 5.

Subjects include Justin Webb, Nick Hewer, Louise Minchin, and Wesley Kerr. According to BBC house magazine Ariel "Mark Byford, one of the people Botsio set out to capture from the start, escaped the lens. He wanted to be photographed at a rock concert, and it proved impossible to arrange". Is that the same Mark Byford who left the BBC in March this year ? Has the BBC's former rock-meister lost his mojo ?

Commercial terms

News today that ITV under Adam Crozier is contemplating two major investments - Endemol, creators of Big Brother; and Cheryl Cole, creation of Simon Cowell.  I wonder which will prove a long-term success.

Meanwhile, Sally Bercow, Westminster's answer to Florence and The Machine, and fresh from her exertions on the current Channel Five version of Celebrity Big Brother, has taken another Richard Desmond shilling, by signing as a columnist for the Daily Star Sunday.

Wrong direction

The Telegraph seems to have picked up some loose talk, saying that some in the BBC are advocating spinning BBC Vision Productions off, a la BBC Worldwide, to give the programme-making side a little more "freedom" in salaries, bonuses, terms and conditions of service etc.  This has presumably come from the Edinburgh TV Festival, where Pat Younge, Chief Creative Officer for the group, has been on a panel.

BBC Worldwide has an entertaining bonus structure - allowing boss John Smith a total remuneration package of £898k this year.  Pat has had to survive on a total package of £317,800.

Any spinning off of Vision Productions would be a bizarre final triumph for Birtism, leaving the BBC proper just a bunch of commissioners.  A very big bunch, it has to be said, but a peculiarly heartless organisation.  A bit like Channel 4.

Production staff would get none of the nurture, training, development and other opportunities that marks out the current organisation - Pat and Lucy Adams would finally live in their dream land of a BBC of short term contracts, with no long-term prospects for any but managers.

News thresholds

It seems old habits die hard at BBC local radio.  When Thommo said their websites would confine themselves to news, sport and weather, I can't believe he thought that would include competitions and giveaways.

Earlier this month, "How to win a BBC Essex clock" appeared as "news". Today, under that same banner, but from Sussex, we get details of how you can win tickets to the Radio 2 "Festival", Live in Hyde Park.  And a pretty charmless lottery it is, too.

Put on a happy face

All fun and banter for the BBC at the Edinbugh TV Festival yesterday. Nobody laid a finger on the three controllers in the spotlight - "you can't expect to make 20% cuts without some impact" was the collective line,  "nothing has been approved".  Richard Klein at 4, Zai Bennett at 3 and Janice Hadlow at 2 kept the young crowd happy with titbits about "new" commissions and showreels; Danny Cohen's team beat Channel 4 at Family Fortunes, though Danny may have some difficult tactical explaining to do offering "The Antiques Roadshow" as an arts programme.

The cuts, of course, will kick in as next year's commissioning round starts. Richard will still have some funds for drama and documentary, but the buzz-phrase remains "arts and archive", and the buzz-word in his blog is "curation" - a word from the world of museums.  Zai fessed up to a future with more repeats before the watershed.

Over the next few weeks the focus in the BBC will turn to a different and perhaps more powerful trio. Pat Younge, creative leader of DQF, Charlie Villar from finance and Lucy Adams from all the rest, have been charged with selling the proposition to the staff, along, yes, with inspirational videos. It could go either way...

Archangels

Friday music + news

Truncated

Better news for Edinburgh taxi drivers. Last night saw another shortening of the troubled tram line from the airport. Passengers with heavy luggage will now be turfed off at Haymarket.  A handy 850m hop to the Conference Centre, 2.5km to the Royal Mile, and 3.3km to the Scottish Parliament.  Bags with wheels are little help up and down the hills of the Scottish capital.

Taxis are £1.60 to hire before 6pm, £2.70 after 6pm - you get the first 450 metres thrown in, and then its 25p for 210 metres or 45 seconds of waiting time - currently a big earner because of tram construction works !

Just a thought

Do you think Newsnight should stage this "sharp debate" ?

BBC News chief Helen Boaden on the left; John Naughton of The Observer on the right.

Domestic oops

BBC head of foreign news Jon Williams is a hard worker, but might want to think again about this tweet commenting on R4's The World At One today.  The BBC has staff in Manchester - and is sending more there every month.

Mail shot

The latest web stats for UK newspapers show the Mail Online still well ahead of the field with 73 million unique users around the world in July - though slightly down from the May high of 77.3m.

Again, thanks to recent FOI stuff, we can probably confirm that it's ahead of the BBC.  Figures for the month of April this year put BBC Online at 31.7m unique users; BBC Sport at 8.9m; and BBC News at 12.8m - a grand total of 53.4m.

Now all we need is a comparison of staff numbers.

Lowdown

Sometimes the BBC just gives. So when asked how many people it employs in the USA, it reminds an FOI inquirer that it's not obliged to reveal the numbers, because it is information held "for the purposes of journalism, art or literature...... However, on this occasion, we are happy to volunteer that as at 31st July 2011, the BBC employs 26 members of staff on permanent or fixed term contracts who are based in the USA".

Looks a little low to me - by about 100%.  The BBC has staff in New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Miami and Boston.  I'd say Washington boasts at least 26.  Unless DQF has hit earlier than Hurricane Irene....

Are The Archers heading canal-side ?

Broadcast says that the BBC's Delivering Quality First Proposals are recommending "consolidation of the English Regions". This could be taken in a number of ways.

For management purposes, there are 12 English Regions, each boasting a Head of Regional and Local Programmes - which mean they look after the regional tv news and current affairs teams, and a cluster of local radio stations. And with each head comes a coterie of staff.  So making fewer managers cover a wider patch is a possibility that will have some people twitching this morning.

The other form of consolidation is around buildings - and last week Broadcast reported that staff in Birmingham are expecting an announcement in September that network production will be moved from the Mailbox. This, if true, is a huge story with great hoo-ha potential. Whilst it may be o.k. to move Holby City from Bristol to Cardiff, and Waterloo Road from Rochdale to Scotland, and few people would care where Doctors and Land Girls are made, how on earth can you move the Archers from Borsetshire ?

They have a purpose-built radio drama studio in the Mailbox; there isn't one in MediaCityUK, but there's space...  Could Bridge Farm relocate to Cheshire to give Tony and Pat a fresh, e-coli-free start ?   Can someone cook up a storyline that takes Jolene Perks to the Prestbury pubs beloved of Manchester United players ?  Surely a creative team could play around with the opportunities of moving from the Felpersham Canal to the Manchester Ship Canal - anything's possible under ruthless Thommo.

Two queens

Whilst she may not earn as much as Mark Byford, BBC Director of News Helen Boaden (current custodian of the Candle of Journalism) has achieved something the Gold Commander could never have done.  She's gone straight into Forbes' 2011 list of the World's Most Powerful Women, at number 51.

One always feels Forbes don't quite get the UK or its constitution. Helen is described as the British Broadcasting queen; the Queen herself is in the list, down 8 at number 49.   The only other proper Brit in the 100 is J K Rowling, though Tina Brown and Anna Wintour are semi-permanent fixtures.

Competitive

This week's Media Show on Radio 4 was not entirely enlightening. Presenter Steve Hewlett, guilty this time of unfriendly fire, set the tone by saying the BBC had been, essentially, well beaten in its coverage of Tripoli's stuttering fall by Sky News. BBC News was defended by Jon Williams; Sarah Whitehead spoke for Sky.

For background, Steve Hewlett, now a media Professor, was in "tv current affairs" when he was at the BBC, mentally very separate from BBC News. Until October 2010, Sarah Whitehead worked for Jon Williams as part of BBC foreign newsgathering management. 

Jon's defence was generally sound and solid, but faltered when he revealed that the timing of events meant some correspondent effort was tied up editing pieces for network bulletins, rather than live reporting, in order to give the famous "context"; I'm sure the editors of both the 6 and 10 would have given their eye teeth for live pieces. And the argument that the BBC had "won" because it had achieved a bigger audience was not really germane to the discussion. 

However, we should all be put in our place by this well-argued blog post by the BBC's Stuart Hughes, "War reporting is not a spectator sport".

• And the competition goes on - this from BBC Technology Correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones at around 3pm.... 

Coulson's car

Andy Coulson announced his resignation as Editor of the News of the World on 26th January 2007 - though later revealed he had formally resigned two weeks earlier, but had delayed his departure.

I have no idea whether the current Coulson motor - a Lexus RX400h - is the company car he left with from News International - but it has a January 2007 numberplate.

On the road price in 2007 estimated at £40k; Jeremy Clarkson's review ? "Mad as a bag of sandals".

Disposable gloves

A nursery is on its way to MediaCityUK.  The Bertram Nursery Group, which operates over 30 nurseries under several brand names from its headquarters in Edinburgh, will be opening a 100-place "Holyrood" operation at Salford Quays.

Bertram have already done a deal with the Peel Group to open at the Princes Dock development in Liverpool. The MediaCityUK nursery will open in October, providing care 7am-7pm Monday to Friday, for children from 3 months to school age. The children are promised a "sensory area", an IT suite and a large outdoor play space, to have "forest school sessions". Lucky parents can take advantage of a delivery acceptance service, where nursery staff will sign for online and mail order purchases, which parents can collect when they pick up their children; dry-cleaning drop off and collection; and a parent ‘book bar’, where they can borrow, swap and share books.

More importantly, Item No 1 in the Bertram Package: Disposable gloves used for each nappy change.  

Found via Nursery World.

Jerry Leiber, RIP

Jerry Leiber, who's died aged 78, was the words side of Leiber and Stoller. There will be many erudite tributes, but here's a couple of odds and ends.

Leiber provide the English words for Carlo Donida's Italian hit, Uno Dei Tanti, originally recorded by Joe Sentieri in 1961. It became "I (Who Have Nothing)".

Leiber wrote Spanish Harlem (first a 1960 hit for Ben E King) with Phil Spector; Spector was "apprenticed" to Leiber and Stoller in the Brill Building (s). They share the writing credits - but Mike Stoller added the piano/vibe figure that was the real hook.

"Stand by Me" was a collaboration with Ben E King - but Leiber and Stoller used the pseudonym Elmo Glick on the credits.

Leiber and Stoller acted as "song doctors" on the Cynthia Weil/Barry Mann number "On Broadway".  Before Jerry and Mike got to it, it sounded like this with The Crystals.  It turned into this, with The Drifters.  Phil Spector guitar licks can be heard from 1.59.

All songs evolve, but it's probably true to say that the song Kansas City has moved a long way from Jerry's orginal, short, lyrics, first recorded by Little Willie Littlefield in 1952, and put out under the title "KC Lovin".

I'm goin' to Kansas City, Kansas City here I come (2x)
They got a crazy way of lovin' there, and I'm gonna get me some
I'm gonna be standing on the corner, of Twelfth Street and Vine (2x)
With my Kansas City baby, and a bottle of Kansas City wine...

Nickolas Ashford

Nick Ashford, husband and song-writing partner of Valerie Simpson, has died, aged 70.  An Ashford/Simpson credit on a single or LP track has been a mark of quality in my record collection for years. There remain undiscovered gems in their catalogue of albums for Warner Brothers - now hard to get hold of, except in dodgy compilations.  If you see any of these on the right in a car boot sale, get them, play them and let them grow on you.

More people have an Ashford/Simpson track in their favourites than might imagine - here's some famous and less famous.

• "Let's Go Get Stoned" Ray Charles 1966
• "California Soul" The Fifth Dimension 1968
• "Ain't No Mountain High Enough"  - Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell, 1967, Diana Ross 1970, and Amy Winehouse shared the credit with Ashford & Simpson in her 2006 re-write of a new tune to the same chord sequence, "Tears Dry On Their Own"
• "Your Precious Love" Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell, 1967
• 10 of the 11 tracks on Diana Ross' first solo album, including "Reach Out and Touch Somebody's Hand", "You're All I Need to Get By" and "Remember Me"; Ashford & Simpson produced the whole thing, and sang background vocals
• "The Boss" and "No-one gets the prize" on the Diana Ross 1979 album, The Boss
• "Is It Still Good To Ya?" Teddy Pendergrass, 1970
• "I'm Every Woman" Chaka Khan 1978, Whitney Houston 1993
• "Is this what feeling gets ?" Diana Ross, 1978, in the film version of The Wiz, written with Quincy Jones
• "Still Such A Thing" Gladys Knight 

As we were

And a late August return for the chart that tracks whether or not Piers Morgan can upset the current order of things in 9pm talk shows on news channels in the States (25 to 54 year-olds).  On last week's figures, he can't.

Careful out there

I'm a minnow at this Twitter stuff, and easily attracted to gossip.  In building up a portfolio of people to follow, I soon came across @Lord_Credo.  He had around 4,400 followers, was a fairly relentess tweeter, seemed well connected in politics and newspapers - and had an odd sense of humour. All well - up until this weekend - when "The Blog That Peter Wrote" did a comprehensive demolition job on the cons of Mike Paterson/Mike Daley/Michael Gordon Bracci.

I never engaged with him, but there are a few journalists and politicians who will be embarrassed by the revelations - and memories of Twitter dialogues. Harder still for those who made friends with him - and parted with cash.   Twitter seems this morning to have swept the stable clean of Lord Credo.

Ouch

So - the BBC has cut the commissioning budgets for BBC3 and BBC4 by 23% and 29% respectively, leaving BBC1 and BBC2 roughly unchanged.

That's the bald conclusion from answers by Controllers Richard Klein and Zai Bennett to the Media Guardian this morning. Last year the content spend on BBC4 was £50.8m (out of a total operating budget of £67m, which includes distribution costs, infrastructure and support).  Today, Mr Klein says his commissioning budget is £36m.  Zai Bennett, new at BBC3 after the elevation of Danny Cohen, says he has £65m to spend, compared with his predecessor's £84.7m.

Danny Cohen says he has £1.1bn to spend - that's the same as last year (unless, of course, the various controllers are taking a different line to what they say about cuts and when).  Janice Hadlow also declares the same as last year - £421m.   If that's right, then George Entwistle's four key channels have only taken a total cut of 2% in their spending power.

The Longest Hour

The UK tv calendar is a pain in the neck this year for the Controllers in BBC Vision. At the end of this coming week, they face a grilling at the Edinburgh TV Festival - and that means back to work first thing Monday, for schooling by Jessica Cecil and John Tate, about what they can, and cannot say about DQF.

The most uncomfortable hour will be that faced by BBC4 Controller Richard Klein - first up in the programme on Friday - in the 300-seat Sidlaw Auditorium.  He faces a sharp cookie in interviewer Penny Smith.  Will he be allowed to explain that drama and comedy (unless from the archives/repeats) have gone from his schedules for the remainder of the licence fee settlement ? How will he answer the budget question - what WILL his commissioning budget of £55m really be in the years ahead ?  Are there any other questions worth putting to him ?

The problem is that the suits know what's in the plans - but staff are not supposed to, until September. And spare a thought for whichever producer has copped for the DQF video.  All summer cutting bits of "workshop" footage, management interviews that talk about "the opportunities", arty shots of mobile phones and their "challenges", lingering furniture porn and "new ways of working" babble from MediaCityUK, plus cheerful animations of iPlayer stats, probably to a Fleet Foxes soundtrack. 20% cuts will seem the obvious choice, after just one viewing.

Couldn't organise a ......

I'm still slightly bothered by the statement from the BBC that it does not have an organisation chart. The shock news was released at the end of the week, in a response to a perfectly reasonable FOI inquiry in May this year.

The BBC argued that it did not hold such a chart, and that it would be too expensive (under FOI terms - not absolute cost) to create one...

As we do not hold an organisational chart for the BBC we would have to ask each division to create an organisational chart for their areas. As the BBC currently employs over 20,000 staff across 15 divisions made up of a number of sub-divisional levels, this would involve managers of each department creating charts which feed into a larger divisional chart which would then become part of the overall BBC organisational chart. For this reason is not practical to represent the organisation in a standard chart as you request.


As extracting the information relevant to your request requires a high level of skill and judgement, this would amount to creating new information not already held and I can therefore confirm that this information is not held for the purposes of section 1(1) of the Act.


I can't determine what level of "skill and judgement" remains in the BBC's HR division. HR staff are now subsumed in the wider Operations Group. But there are still seven HR senior managers with salaries publicly disclosed, producing a total remuneration package of £1,250,000.  Do you think they have the skill and judgement to create an organisation chart ?  Or the judgement to think that such a chart might be useful ?

Perhaps the reality is that HR O&D advice has been ignored by the Thom(p)son Twins (Mark and Caroline) in their rush to reduce the Executive Board in size. Many middle managers now seem to have multiple reporting lines; simple new projects now require sign-off from multiple divisions; and, in all the current "simplification", the mind-numbing number of meetings and the number of attendees apparently required to keep the organisation ticking over remains unhealthily high.  

Scales of Justice

World view

I'd like to point readers with an interest in the BBC World Service to an excellent essay in the London Review of Books by Jo Glanville.  She's talked to Mark Thompson, Peter Horrocks and John Tusa, and produced a very rounded piece - no quotes from me, read the whole thing !

Stat fest (addendum)

The oldest male member of BBC staff currently employed on a fixed term or continuing contract is 84 and the oldest female is 79.  This information is correct at 28th February 2011

Stat fest

A Thursday in late August is a good day to dump 90-odd Freedom of Information replies into the ether, at least as far as the BBC is concerned.

Here's a few highlights...

Number of Staff in receipt of Flexibility / Unpredictability Allowance  8,323
Total Cost to BBC  £32,485,225
Minimum Annual Amount  £1,385
Maximum Annual Amount  £9,516

Spending on hotels went up by 10.2% in the last year, rising from £17.8m to £19.6m

The BBC has witheld all information (under the rules) in reponse to more than 50% of FOI requests in the past three years.

The BBC spent £36,991.83 on electricity to power Broadcasting House in the month of December 2010.

The BBC spent £2,794k on tea, coffee, soft drinks etc for staff and visitors in the last financial year, plus £334k maintaining and supply staff tea points, and £383k on water dispensers.

The average age of the 19 staff hired on Continuing or Fixed Term contracts to work in BBC Radio in 2010 is 31.

Here's a belter: The BBC, in May this year, wrote to an inquirer thus "I can confirm that we do not hold an organisational chart for the BBC". And Lucy Adams is on how much ?

Not lingering on

Fearless Radio 2 Controller Bob Shennan has dealt a body blow to two big brands.  Melodies for You will be no more from the end of this month.  The show started in 1967, hosted by Eric Robinson - a soft-spoken Yorkshireman who'd worked his way up from violinist to be conductor of the BBC TV Orchestra (brother Stanford was also a conductor). Its mixture of light classics and show tunes was eventually moved to Sunday night, and put in the care of David Jacobs and Richard Baker.  In 2007, then controller Lesley Douglas "merged" the show with Your 100 Best Tunes (which had an even more extensive heritage, and had travelled around the networks) and brought in soft-spoken Yorkshireman Alan Titchmarsh; Alan will host his last edition on August 28th (he may have already recorded it).  

The ending of Melodies for You seems a little sudden - a series of repeats and specials will fill the slot for the time being, with no announcement of a permanent schedule change.  Our Bob says Alan will continue to present on the network - perhaps a series on operetta, maybe some editions of Friday Night Is Music Night.  Can it all be as relaxed as this, when Alan now has a successful daytime ITV chat show - and his new gardening show for the network is beating Monty Don in the ratings ?  Was this a decision made in Western House or Television Centre ?

James Desborough

38-year-old James Desborough's twitter monica is Jamesisinla; however yesterday he was very much in a south London police station, arrested and helping with inquiries into phone-hacking at the News of The World.  He was hired by the paper in 2005, when Andy Coulson was editor.

In April 2009, under Colin Myler's editorship, he was declared "Showbiz writer of the year" at the British Press Awards, "for stories about Fern Britten's gastric band, Peaches Geldof's divorce and Heather McCartney which were all published in the face of strong official denials".  He told Press Gazette at the time: "A lot of deals are done these days between PRs and papers - but these stories were all old-fashioned journalism where we said: 'We know this to be true, would you like to comment?"  He added: "It's a very difficult time for the whole tabloid market - but we are a big team at the News of the World, we really get on like a house on fire and I hope that comes across in the paper."

In June 2009, James was on his way to LA as "The News of The World's U.S Editor".  There don't seem to be any other staff from the paper based in America. Since that time, he's brought us important stories such as "Tiger had me in the rough", and "Jacko had cocaine in his pants".  He's appeared on the E Entertainment Network as a royal expert for the wedding of William and Kate.

His journalism career prior to joining News International in 2005 is sketchy.  He was, for a time, a news editor with a London-based agency called World Entertainment News Network.  He seems to have resigned after doubts about his role in "quotes" from Sir George Martin about George Harrison's death.

More recently James' byline was on a January 2010 story "Pitts all over", which said that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were consulting lawyers about a divorce settlement.  Their lawyer Keith Schilling brought an action claiming misuse of private information and breach of the 1998 Data Protection Act. The News of the World initially argued that it had acted in good faith, but in the end agreed their story was "false and intrusive" in July 2010, apologised, and paid undisclosed damages.

Police records

David Cameron (Brasenose, Oxford) and Boris Johnson (Balliol, Oxford) will want assurances that the next man at the head of the Metropolitan Police is "one of us".

Will it be Stephen House (University of Aberdeen and Strathclyde Police),Tim Godwin (Warsash College of Nautical Studies, University of Portsmouth and Acting Met Commissioner), Sir Hugh Orde (University of Kent and ACPO) or Bernard Hogan-Howe (Merton, Oxford and temporary Deputy Met Commissioner) ?

Meat alternatives

Know your private equity investors by the companies they keep.  Exponent, the purchasers of BBC magazines including the Radio Times, are keen to highlight their media fit.  They used to own the Times Literary Supplement, and they currently own Magicalia, which runs both magazines and websites.  Magicalia sites include "Visordown" - "65% of Visordown's audience are aged between 35 and 54 and have been riding 5 or more years. The majority of Visordown readers own a 600cc Sportsbike or Naked and ride over 6000 miles a year and over 1 in 7 regularly use their bike for trackdays. If it can be done on a bike, it'll be talked about on Visordown".

They also own Quorn. And Dreams - the UK's leading bed retailer. It all fits.

Fee structure failure

If the Daily Telegraph's figures are right, solicitors Harbottle and Lewis may be pleased to have parted company with former partner Lawrence Abramson.  In May 2007, he reviewed 2,500 emails at the request of News International, taking hard copies of 300 of them. He then signed a note which said he "did not find anything … which appeared to us to be reasonable evidence that Clive Goodman’s illegal actions were known about and supported by both or either of Andy Coulson, the editor, and Neil Wallis, the deputy editor, and/or that Ian Edmondson, the news editor, and others were carrying out similar procedures".

It was a narrow tranche of emails (only those mentioning Goodman over a specific period of time, in specific email folders). The Telegraph says the fee was "around" £10,000. So that's either £100 for a clean bill of health per printed email. Or £2.50 per email read. Hardly top dollar fee charging, Mr Abramson.

Tennessee time

It looks like a marriage made in cable channel heaven. Scripps Networks Interactive, US owners of HGTV (Home and Garden), Food Network, Travel Channel, DIY Network, Cooking Channel and country music network Great American Country, are to be the BBC's new partners in UKTV, who offer Home, Good Food, Dave, Watch, GOLD, Alibi, Eden, Blighty, Yesterday and Really.

Scripps NI have bought out Virgin Media's 50% share in UKTV, in a deal costing them some £339m. Scripps CEO is 61-year-old Ken Lowe, HGTV pioneer back in the 1990s, who has moved most of his company's 1,500 staff to Knoxville, Tennessee, and has this year taken the company private in the States.

Will BBC Worldwide's urbane and expensive executives enjoy Knoxville, once known as "Underwear Capital of the World", launch-pad for "Mountain Dew", and home to "Petro's Chilli and Chips" ? One expects John and Jana will give it a try....

Culinary art

August is turning out to be a difficult month for this blogger. There are two obstacles - getting online at all (I won't say where your correspondent is, but Sarkozy's daft rules for WiFi access are a right pain) - and finding anything to write about.

I have discovered that Peru's exports of paprika have risen by 50% in the last quarter, with prices up by 13% over the same period. There is a clear reason. It is now the garnish of choice in the sort of aspirational-but-not-quite-getting-there restaurants I'm currently using, sprinkled over the rim of plates in the manner of primary school powder paint, whether the dish is fish, fowl or tete de veau. Grim.

Dog days

It's six weeks since the deadline for "expressions of interest" in buying Television Centre from the BBC - one of Auntie's last major freeholds at 14 acres. Things are quiet - does that mean that there's too much interest to process, not enough interest to make a sale worthwhile, or just that everyone's on holiday ?

• One businessman still very much at work is John Whittaker, of the Peel Group, who acquired £1m of additional shares in Capital Shopping Centres, taking his stake to 20%.  Capital now owns the Peel-built Trafford Centre.  Perhaps John is hoping for a sales boost, as Five Live arrives in MediaCityUK in numbers next month. 

Posh Scouse

Robert Robinson, critic, writer, broadcaster and quiz master, was about the poshest Scouser I've ever met. But then, he didn't stay there long after his birth in 1927.  The family moved to the London suburbs - Robert would refer to West Barnes, Merton, Malden and Wimbledon; he'd choose a name that suited his love of euphony, bathos, alliteration etc depending on the circumstances.  Thence to Raynes Park Grammar School and Exeter College, Oxford.

He played a part in the UK's first-remembered deliberately-uttered broadcast utterance of "fuck", chairing an edition of "satire" show 'BBC 3' (then definitely just a programme, not a network) in 1965.  Panellist Kenneth Tynan said "I don't think anyone would mind if they heard the word 'fuck' spoken in the theatre".

From 1970 to 1974 he co-hosted Today on Radio 4, filling the shoes of Jack De Manio, alongside John Timpson.  They became known to the production team as the Brothers Grimm.  When Robert decided he'd had enough of the early mornings, "Stop The Week" was created as his principal radio vehicle - recorded early on Friday evening, and broadcast on Saturdays after the evening news.  Michael Ember was its creator. I "minded" one edition in late 1974 as a trainee.  Department head Alan Rogers had cast the show - I think we had Ann Leslie, Laurie Taylor, Milton Shulman and Benny Green, with a "musical interlude" pre-recorded by Instant Sunshine (I think we even recorded them in "panned" mono for a bit of fun).  I poured the BBC Club champagne deemed necessary to get the panel on their mettle before the recording; Alan came in for the recording, and left me to cut a tricky 10 minutes out after everyone else had gone home.  I'd have made them finish on the clock.

Learning

The latest expenses details for BBC executives show occasional wearing of the hair shirt - but some staff lower down the ranks will still be surprised at what's claimed.

Let's start with the good girls and boys. Tim Davie is staying in much cheaper hotels - his five nights in London this last quarter include the Holiday Inn, Regent's Park; the Strand Palace, beloved of coach parties - and three nights in the Langham Court, once a hospital specialising in gynaecological procedures. But his workers will be surprised at London-based staff needing to stop over - they'd be expected to get a taxi home (and then only if working later than 10.30pm).

New boy George Entwistle looks exemplary - but, wait, here's a £30.94 claim for business entertainment internal to discuss Royal Wedding co-ordination.  Isn't that a meeting ?  Let's hope it wasn't with former Gold Commander Mark Byford.

Helen Boaden is pretty sharp - no e-expenses, and no hotel over £89.  Ralph Rivera's return flight to San Francisco looks a little high at £4,533.

One's never sure who signs off Mark Thompson's exes - there are two odd claims. One says "Hotel"; reason "Mark", which I'd have thought looks a bit weak to auditors. The other says "Room"; reason "s38".  If this is an exemption under the Freedom of Information Act, it applies when disclosure might threaten someone's physical or mental health.

Now to the two who ought to be doing better. COO Caroline Thomson can't wean herself off taxis. For her, (and Alan Yentob) it seems like an expectation of travel to, from and around work.  It's not good.

CFO Zarin Patel is in no way profligate, but there are some lovely round numbers in her claims - perhaps they help reduce the keystrokes on processing. £50 hospitality to Mark Thomas, £100 to Tim Senior, £100 for dinner with KPMG (one might have thought they'd have paid, given the amount they get from the licence-fee). And then, a rather specific £57.81, to brief an incoming non-executive director on BBC finances.  Money well spent, I'm sure.

One off

Subscribers to US satellite radio service Sirius XM have lost BBC Radio 1.  The low-powered network of satellites, great for long car journeys, offers 140 channels, mostly of ad-free music mixes, but some live sport and news services.  It charges $16.99 a month for the full set (£10.50 at this morning's rates) plus a rather cheeky $2.99 a month if you want to listen online.

The Radio 1 deal started in June 2005 - announced by Andy Parfitt of blessed memory.  Radio 1 was time-shifted for the States, so that Moyles could be heard over breakfast biscuits and gravy.  It nestled alongside BBC World Service, Howard Stern, Playboy Radio and much more.

Syndication of BBC Radio used to be organised through the "Radio International" arm of BBC Worldwide - and Sirius plays hardball when it comes to paying broadcasters.   It's possible that the impending arrival of a BBC iPlayer on subscription in the States has precipitated the ending/non-renewal of the satellite deal; maybe BBC Worldwide has recognised that radio can add value.

Balance sheet updated

Holiday reading

The BBC Trust publishes a brief summary of agenda items taken at its monthly meetings, and this list, from July, will causing twitching on the sun loungers of some mid-price holiday villas in Italy, Spain and France.  There are, I believe, no current vacancies for senior BBC executives....

There must be more....

And so Parliament is recalled.  Either David Cameron hasn't revealed his whole hand (I hope that's true) or there's more to his plan than boosting the number of police on duty tonight to 16,000 (from last night's 6,000).

Last night the London Fire Brigade dealt with 2,169 fire calls.  If it happens again, and you send more than one policeman alongside each call, that's a few used up.  The core 6,000 have been on duty for three long shifts - including those specially trained for street disorder - and remember, they couldn't cope. The extras will include special constables and rural bobbies.

We're told all cells in London are full, and some of those detained have been shipped to Brighton.  If the number of arrests just doubled tonight, you'd need to open up an army prison camp or two, and staff it.

• Mark Duggan was the third most popular search term in "news and media" on Sunday, after Sky News and BBC News. 
• This is what happened in Paris in 2005. 

Difficult call

The most difficult meeting of David Cameron's career takes place this morning. He will have to emerge from No 10 with a serious and credible plan to deal with what has become "recreational rioting".  It's not often one picks up on a Daily Express headline, but "Flaming Morons" gets close to expressing what most of the country thinks.

There will, too, be guilty parents, noticing new trainers, phones, etc.  However, many will be as intimidated by their offspring as the rest of us.  

Most of the offenders look under 18; the majority last night under 16.  "Cracking down" on them - which most people would interpret as "taking them off the streets" is not possible under law.  Fining them is generally ineffective.  Curfews are for the rest of the world, surely  - and the last thing you want when investor confidence in UK plc is on a terrifying slide ?  But there's a long way to before the end of the school holidays, and the sense of impunity that these kids have has to be ended.

The options are limited; there is no guaranteed strategy in the handbooks. This is a big test.  

Going Dutch

The wick is back on under the 648 medium wave transmitter at Orford Ness. The Dutch news and information network, Radio 1, has got permission from the BBC and Ofcom to use the former World Service frequency for Europe - at least temporarily, after fires damaged two of Radio 1's FM transmitters. It could be on medium wave for some months, which won't be cheap.  The Dutch can expect an electricity bill of around £50k a month.

Dated

When does a show become antique ?  Last night's "second helping" of the Antiques Roadshow visit to Hertford College, Oxford, with Fiona Bruce returning to her alma mater, was at least the fifth outing for this fine piece of 21st Century chintz.

You  might have missed on 11 October 2009, BBC1, or 22 October 2009 BBC1, or 6 June 2010, BBC HD, or 3 September 2010 BBC HD.

Still, it gave another chance to reflect on changing times.  Hertford, which in the past brought us John Donne, Jonathan Swift and Evelyn Waugh, has more recently produced Fiona, Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Natasha Kaplinsky, and Home-Secretary-turned-media-porn expert Jacqui Smith.

Riot

Police last night were apparently warning journalists off using the word riot to describe the events in Tottenham. This is the opening definition from the 1986 Public Order Act.

Part I

New Offences
1 Riot.

1. Where 12 or more persons who are present together use or threaten unlawful violence for a common purpose and the conduct of them (taken together) is such as would cause a person of reasonable firmness present at the scene to fear for his personal safety, each of the persons using unlawful violence for the common purpose is guilty of riot.
2. It is immaterial whether or not the 12 or more use or threaten unlawful violence simultaneously.
3. The common purpose may be inferred from conduct.
4. No person of reasonable firmness need actually be, or be likely to be, present at the scene.
5. Riot may be committed in private as well as in public places.
6. A person guilty of riot is liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years or a fine or both.

You probably went to bed seeing two police cars and a bus on fire, plus some smaller shops - and with a memorable image of one lad pushing a loaded shopping trolley away from the High Street. Sky News this morning made it clear that two major buildings were gutted - Aldi and Carpetright - because police couldn't protect fire crews. There were some 26 flats above Carpetright (a former large Co-op store) - and residents were only evacuated after midnight. Meanwhile we've seen no pictures yet of the looting at the Tottenham Hale retail park. 

Probably safe to talk about rioting now.   If you've watched Sky News.  I know BBC News reporters and crews got roughed up, and had equipment damaged last night, but this morning's 0600-0730 offering on BBC1 was a very uncomfortable watch for people wanting to find out what happened....  

Trading marks

The BBC came late to "ownership" of the Promenade Concerts. In a lower case way, they'd existed outdoors in London's pleasure gardens since the mid-18th century.  In 1895, impresario Robert Newman took the concept of standing and listening indoors, hiring the Queen's Hall, Langham Place W1.  Eating, smoking and drinking would also be allowed - and the ticket prices would be low, to encourage a new audience.  Newman hired Henry Joseph Wood as his conductor for the planned series of concerts - and he, in turn, assembled the Queen's Hall Orchestra.

The BBC took over the running of this annual event in 1927; the BBC Symphony Orchestra took over the performing duties when it was formed in 1930, and apart from blips in move to the Albert Hall during the Second World War, the BBC worked alongside Henry Wood until his death in 1944.

The BBC tries to assert ownership - ticket stubs are clearly marked "BBC Proms" and "BBC Music presents the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts".   But Auntie is unlikely to win any copyright rows over titles.  The BBC itself has diluted the "brand" substantially over the last ten years, with the dying Electric Proms, and "Proms in the Park" all over the place.

Nonetheless it must be a bit galling when you see free cds given away in the Telegraph this weekend, thus...

There is a disclaimer attached: "These CDs are not endorsed by the BBC Proms or The Royal Albert Hall".  I bet they're not.

• For nicer stuff from The Telegraph, try this article about the Proms from campaigning pianist James Rhodes and perhaps get outraged about his comparisons of Ronaldo and Argerich, Villazon and Gary Barlow. 

Nine steps to heaven

The BBC has released slides from a powerpoint presentation that its contracted TV Licensing team regularly makes to magistrates around the country - after a Freedom of Information request. There are a number of "redactions" - bits blacked "out on the grounds that disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the prevention or detection of crime, the apprehension or prosecution of offenders, the collection of the licence fee and the BBC’s ability to discharge its public functions in respect of such matters."

Here's one slide. There will be a number of serial evaders amongst the 5% or so a year non-payers who would like to know what the last four steps are....

Be suceedy

Inspirational motivational trainer and "gangsta" business guru L. Vaughan Spencer has always had a way with words. Now they've been put to music in a sharp new video.

Let it flow

Very little is new under the sun....

August 2011

March 2003

June 2000

January 1999

Unsolved

A criminal act is a criminal act - and lawyers, politicians, the police and the public get into trouble when they try to grade such acts in terms of "seriousness".   But it is worth remembering that the current momentum behind uncovering phone-hacking and e-mail rustling lies not with outraged celebrities and smug former Fleet Street editors, but in a horrible, unsolved murder, back in 1987.

Daniel Morgan, aged 37, father of two, was murdered in the car park of the Golden Lion in Sydenham. He'd left the pub around 9pm, after having a drink with his business partner, Jonathan Rees.  For three years they had been running Southern Investigations, from offices in Thornton Heath.  Daniel was hit more than once with an axe, which was left embedded in his head. The murderer/s took his £900 watch, but left £1,100 cash in his pocket. There have been five police investigations - ending, as of now, with a £50m trial which collapsed in March this year.  Jonathan Rees and four others walked free.  Mr Morgan's family were told by the police that Met corruption during the 1987 investigation was a "debilitating factor".

Now, according to the latest edition of Private Eye, the trial judge has pointed to police misconduct as one of the reasons for failure. Investigating officer DCS Dave Cook's case was supported by the evidence of three supergrasses, whose testimony was all discredited as the trial stuttered, and, in one case, the judge found that Cook had "improperly prompted" one of the supergrasses.

In this tangled web of crime, police and press, only since the trial halted has the background evidence come out - in two directions.  One, the amounts of money that was changing hands between the News of The World, the Mirror Group and Southern Investigations.  And two, that Dave Cook, whilst investigating the Morgan murder in 2002, had been put under surveillance, apparently at the behest of Jonathan Rees amongst others - and News of the World assistant editor, Alex Marunchak, had provided NOTW photographers and vans to do the watching.   Cook found out, and alongside Dick Fedorcio, Met media man, raised Marunchak's involvement directly with Rebecca Brooks/Wade in November 2002.

Daniel's brother, Alistair, has been campaigning tirelessly for answers about his brother's death for nearly 25 years - and has now written to the Home Secretary to ask for a judicial inquiry.

If you're interested further, try this piece from Channel 4 on July 18.

Clocked

I have no personal wish to win a BBC Essex clock, but I'm sure if you entered the competition to win one, by listening to The Essex Years on Steve Scruton's Sunday morning show, you'd want to be assured about the terms and conditions of entry.  However, are they really "news" ?   Is the global economic meltdown not reaching Chelmsford ?

 

Figuring out radio

James Cridland's MediaUK site is the best way to read how your favourite radio station is doing in the ratings, and offers a series of very clear league tables.  This shows how the big brands are doing, as Ofcom allows more commercial stations a national profile.

1. BBC Radio 2 (13.9m)
2. BBC Radio 1 (11.6m)
3. BBC Radio 4 (10.8m)
4. Heart (7.6m)
5. Capital (6.8m)
6. BBC Radio 5 live (6.6m)
7. Classic FM (5.7m)
8. Kiss (4.2m)
9. Magic (4.0m)
10. talkSPORT (3.2m)

Probably equal 10th now should be Smooth Radio, also rounded at 3.2m.  It'll be interesting to track this table over the licence fee period - and 20% cuts at the BBC.

With record numbers listening for record hours, there's good news for most stations. Some of the big winners are 1Xtra, Absolute 80s, the growing stable of Jack FM stations and BBC Wiltshire/Swindon.

Amongst the biggest losers - BBC Radio Manchester, down 33% in reach year on year; 107 The Bee (broadcasting from a business park just off the M65 between Blackburn and Burnley) and 107.6 Banbury Sound, each down 27%, and 107.5 Sovereign ("Eastbourne's Feel Good Station"), down 25%.

Best piece of writing about RAJARs this time ?  Alex Duffy's guide to PR spin on the figures - and this spin-spotting from James Cridland...

Printing error

You trail a story to death, to get the whole of Fleet Street watching - and then this happens...

RAJAR bits

Too late to do detail, but, as predicted, excellent figures for Radio 4 Extra (nee Radio 7) - at 1.6m, it's up 70% year on year. Pleased for The Asian Network, a solid 471,000, up 34,000 year on year.

BBC World Service listening in the UK is up 33% year on year, to 1.7m - no consolation to those who lost their jobs in the last 12 months.

Radio 3 can been very satisfied with 2.2m listeners, up 17% year-on-year - though I'm not sure the Proms has caught fire this year, and the tv ad, driving through road tunnels, is a turkey.

Back to the trenches

Meanwhile at Radio 4, Gwyneth Williams' mixture of smiles and sincerity hasn't washed with the writers of short stories.  Despite explanatory blogs and appearances on Feedback and Trevor Dann's Radio Academy podcast, the Society of Authors, alongside the Writer's Guild and Equity, have reported her to the DG and The Trust.  This one will run for a while....

Robin

It's rather too warm in London for philosophy, etc. However, my favourite cheeky monkeys at TalkSport have been at it again.  Their ambition is plain - to use the current BBC Trust review of Five Live to make the future remit for the station as dull as possible, so that a so-far-intractable chunk of its 6.5million listeners retune to boost TalkSport's current 3.2m.  In particular, TalkSport would like Richard Bacon taken off the airwaves between 2pm and 4pm, replaced by continuous live coverage of parliamentary select committees, thus forcing all proper men and taxi drivers to retune to Hawksbee and Jacobs - "The UK's hilarious longest-running afternoon sports show" (longest-running in a field of one, afternoon - incontestable, the rest...).

So the ineffable Moz Dee and his "Robin", Jimmy Buckland, asked another Robin, Robin Britten, one of my former colleagues at Five Live, to do some "counting" of a week's output.  Did it match the BBC target of 75% "news" and 25% "sport" ?

Robin went back to basics; what is news ?  His paper offers two definitions. First...

I regard news as this: information about something that has happened, is happening, or is about to happen. I counted output as news if it was also discussion, analysis, debate, and audience interactivity about news.

And second...


News is: fresh information on something that has happened, is happening (breaking news), or is about to happen that is of concern, relevance or interest to the 5 Live audience. News can be reporter-mediated information, informed discussion and debate, or mediated audience interaction about this. But for content on 5 Live to be defined as news, whether it comes from the lighter entertainment end of the spectrum or the more serious realm of public or international affairs, it should be presented with the overriding intention of bringing forward fresh information and understanding; it should aim to analyse, simplify, and engage the listener with the complicated, make the obscure clearer and disentangle hype and spin from core fact. To be classed as news, discussion and audience interactivity should have a current news impetus, a clear intent to add information and a declared aim and purpose; it should not be aimless, repetitious and unrelated to the current news agenda. Mere conversation about the topical - offering no fresh fact, analysis or interpretation - is not news. To be classed as a 5 Live news programme, around three quarters of an individual programme’s output should be dedicated to news content (unless the programme has a separate stated aim and a corresponding percentage of news content). 


Robin's best shot was that in the week he listened to, either 50.1% or 58.9% was "news" (though there was some talk of "sampling" and "extrapolation" in the methodology. One hopes TalkSport got the service they paid for.)

Figures out of the way, Robin goes on to a much more engaging discussion about what the station's ambition should be, and evidences his dislike of "chat".   There's the heated debate, which is probably better saved for winter months in the snugs of old men's pubs a stride or two from Salford Quays.  Back when the station started, there were often arguments about "non-content driven broadcasting" (c Bill Rogers).  Too much - bad; some of it, when presenters are on song, the best radio you've ever heard.  And if the argument is about engaging with listeners, about the world they live in, and the wider world they want to know about, then I refer to this earlier post, entitled Killjoys.

Trends

All round the UK, radio execs, their analysts (of audience figures) and PR people are poring over the latest RAJAR figures, set for public consumption overnight.

The new kid on the block is BBC Radio 4 Extra, morphed from Radio 7 on April 2; the three month research period for this quarter's figures runs from 28th March to 26th June.  I'm guessing the fanfares and extra trails HAVE worked, and the upward trend of this graph will continue for a while...

from MediaUK

Also looking for improving trends will be the new national and quasi-national commercial stations, most now in the second quarter of their favoured strategy of reducing costs by centralisation, against declining national radio advertising income. Smooth, for example...

from MediaUK

And what inheritance will Andy Parfitt leave the new bosses of Radio 1, 1Xtra and The Asian Network ?

Stuart Kuttner

Stuart Kuttner has been around the block in Fleet Street.  During his time as a reporter and news editor with both the Evening Standard and Evening News in London, he developed his investigative approach. In 1975, for the Standard, he secured a big interview with Prince Charles, then just 27.  He was on the Evening News in 1977 when Andrew "Gino" Newton came out of prison (for offences associated with shooting Norman Scott's dog, Rinka) and had the inside track when Jeremy Thorpe went on trial for conspiracy and incitement to murder Scott the following year. Thorpe was cleared.

Private Eye took against Kuttner in 1980, describing him as "sinister and serpentine".  They said he had "an obsession with the exposure of sexual deviants". And, when he left the Evening News for the News of The World that year, they talked about his "Pandora's box of bugging devices".   Mobile phones as we know them didn't hit the UK until 1985.

Kuttner has always been fiercely loyal. This a quote from a feature in Press Gazette, in 2005, when the News of the World had won Newspaper of The Year, under Andy Coulson. "Popular journalism is at the very heart of our society. Snooty, sneering editors with circulations they should be ashamed of could learn a great deal from the News of the World. I have spent much of my life in Fleet Street. Of course we are not perfect, but the team which comprises this newspaper is in my view the most skilled, tenacious and professional band in the whole of the industry."

Another arrest

Time to update our balance sheet of resignations, sackings and arrests.  Stuart Kuttner, managing editor of The News of The World until July 2009, has been arrested by officers from Operations Weeting and Elveden. Stuart is 71.

Canjo

From the Seattle Times: Making three- and four-string "Canjos" from tins that used to contain cheese.  Piano tuner, luthier and honorary mayor of Elberton, (pop 10), John Elwood, assisted by his dog, Barkis.

Pricey pies

A BBC Sport survey exposes Arsenal as the most expensive ground in the country for a pie. £4.

The favoured option at the Emirates is the Chicken Balti Pie, with carefully counted pieces of chicken in a molten lava sauce. Shire Foods of Leamington Spa claim to be inventors of the concept, first supplying Walsall and Aston Villa in 1997. I don't know who supplies Arsenal's version, but the catering contract is held by Delaware North, who have a 20 year deal, and contributed £15m to build the catering facilities.

Delaware are also responsible for the catering at Derby County, where top price pie is £2.90. I don't have the purchasing power of a 60,000 seater stadium, but reckon I could get 12 chicken balti pies at a cash and carry for around £15.

So not everyone is happy with the catering ambitions or delivery at the Emirates - try the views of Arsenal Insider co-founder Tony Hall-Jones. Or the Arsenal Independent Supporters' Association who believe they've been promised changes for 2011/2.

Short week

A largely as-you-were week in the world of US cable news chat shows - amongst 25 to 54 year-old viewers. I've left out Monday, when schedules were atypical because of President Obama's broadcast on debt ceilings.

Jazz hands

Your strike, my opportunity.  In Scotland, Stephen Duffy, who's main employment is in the marketing department of the Scottish Symphony Orchestra, stepped up to present the nation's truncated news offerings on BBC1.  Normally his broadcasting is confined to a Wednesday evening jazz programme on Radio Scotland.

And Radio Scotland listeners were treated to bulletins in the Welsh lilt of news editor Hugh Owens.  More detail in The Scotsman. 

In summary

The second NUJ 24-hour-strike, over compulsory redundancies at BBC World Service and Monitoring, produced some interesting logic. Nicky Campbell decided that the issue wasn't worth pursuing, and appeared at the mike for 5Live Breakfast, having withdrawn his labour last time. John Humphrys appeared alongside Sarah Montague on Today on Radio 4. 

For television bulletins, Chris Rogers fronted remarkably similar 6pm and 10pm bulletins on BBC1.  There was a slight over-abundance of business news, featuring Julia Caesar and Nigel Cassidy, and a management sequence with Jon Williams packaging grieving Norway, with voiceovers by Jonathan Baker, and Jim Buchanan on the strike itself. 

On Five Live John Inverdale appeared at drive time. On BBC1, The One Show team seemed to agree to an extended live strike-busting edition, replacing missing regional shows from 6.35pm. All very uncomfortable. 

Asteroid cluster

Earth's first Trojan asteroid has been spotted twice on BBC News Online - once by Today science correspondent, Tom Fielden, and then again by BBC News science correspondent Jonathan Amos.  Both sightings were written up on 28th July - Tom crediting NASA, (which in turn was crediting Nature) and Jonathan crediting Nature direct.

What we need is a Science editor to sort this out....

Brand awareness

BBC Director of Worldwide, John Smith, I think it is fair to say, likes a bit of style.  His annual write-up in the Sunday Telegraph pictures him in a sharp suit in front of the Tardis.   And he is, after all, a non-executive director of Burberry.

So perhaps it's not a surprise that he's snapped up the services of one Deborah Rowland from Gucci, where she was Executive Vice President, Global Human Resources.  Her title in W12 will be more prosaic - a mere People Director.  Her career as a director at Gucci lasted 65 days - but she's no shrinking violet on the old skill set; her profile on Linkedin carries the banner "Pioneer in leadership thinking and practice, and co-author of 'Sustaining Change: Leadership That Works'".  It's available at £7.50 off from Amazon. 

Deborah boasts a double first in Arch and Anth from New Hall, Cambridge University, where she also found time to be Social Secretary and chair the Rag Committee.

Round Two

There were some little "wins" for BBC management on the second of the one-day NUJ strikes over 100 compulsory redundancies at the World Service and BBC Monitoring.  On BBC1, Breakfast was presented by Charlie Stayt.  Any suggestion that he looked less poised on his own than the usual strike-buster, freelance Gavin Grey, would be resented.

At Radio Five Live, their Breakfast show was started by Ian Payne - then, at 0700 Nicky Campbell took over, which I think is a first strike appearance for him.  (The resourceful Payne then moved downstairs to provide his first sport bullletin for Today for over ten years.)   He was followed at the microphone by Victoria Derbyshire and Richard Bacon; Shelagh Fogarty did not appear. 

Round 2 was similar to Round 1 on Radio 4 - a shortened Today programme, 0700-0900 with Sarah Montague and, yes, occasional Mail columnist, John Humphrys.  No current affairs later in the day, and the schedulers have been a bit more louche than usual with their replacement offerings. Soul Music, on Mozart's Clarinet Quintet, runs instead of The World At One; Portillo on The Berlin Olympics and Lenny Henry on Jackson Pollock fill the PM slot, and Portillo reappears instead of The World Tonight, in the retro feature Meeting Myself Coming Back.

Both Today and Five Live Breakfast had their August moments, despite a stonking news agenda. Humphrys got tangled up in some guff about gooseberries, and Campbell seemed to nod off in a phone discussion of Yorkshire Day with Geoffrey Boycott and Brian Turner. 

• According to an update in the BBC staff organ, Ariel, there are 98 compulsory redundancies on the cards in World Service (down from 102 last week) with 43 of them out this week - but there are now two more at risk of an unwilling departure at BBC Monitoring.