Tim time

Diligent readers will know this blog has been pushing the idea of a single BBC output supremo working across tv, radio and online to act as the ultimate silo-buster and head-cracker.  We've also ruminated on the chances of Tim Davie being the first in post.

Our Tim has been on a platform at Radio Days Europe in Copenhagen, and been loose with the aphorisms again, according to Twitter. "Easy for public broadcasters to experiment with content & platforms. Challenge for commercial operators is monetising it"; "I like to focus on creative opportunities. If you see digital as a problem, you are toast"; "Remember not everyone wants interactivity. I'm in the shower listening to the radio, just leave me alone!"; "In 5 years you'll get content on your own terms with the interactivity you want. But good old linear radio will still be huge".

If we're going to let Tim run everything, we have to examine the radio record - after all, it's his first go at output. Skip Ross/Brand - he'd only just arrived. Then we have "Close 6Music", "Close Asian Network", both now reversed.  We don't have money for a Friday afternoon play on Radio 4, but we apparently do have enough money for an Archers' spin-off on Radio 4 Extra - a move pioneered by the great dramatists who bring you Hollyoaks, and clearly favoured by the youthful strategists at Broadcasting House.  We let Radio 2 fiddle with the red button and webcams, producing student-quality coverage of the Oliviers; and allow the whole of Yalding to believe it has MTV in its sights, whilst Switch, the multimedia experiment led by Andy Parfitt, has patently failed to make an impact.   And perhaps, most importantly, Tim failed to stand up to the Trust on 50% speech in daytime on Radio 2 - making the station sound more and more like the ideal local radio support network.

So, if this new big job is a runner, Tim needs a manifesto.  And easy, contradictory, quips at conferences aren't enough. Stay home and think, Tim.