Monoculture

Here's one written with a heavy heart.  The latest BBC proposal to help deliver the 20% cuts required by the ludicrously named "Delivering Quality First" exercise has a 5Live victim in sight.   The suggestion is that one speech network should be enough to sustain the listeners of Radio 4, Radio 5Live, BBC local radio, Radio Wales, Cymru and Scotland overnight - and it should be the BBC World Service.

This would mean the end of one of the real unsung gems produced by the arrival of 5Live, Up All Night. With us since the start in 1994, and produced on an ever-slenderer shoestring, it has a truly authentic voice - largely thanks to the relaxed and engaging style of lead presenter Rhod Sharp, who conceived the basic style book; but also down to the ingenuity of a range of producers, who have found ways of making interesting radio without spending money.

The show's been there for all the big stories on its watch - Princess Diana's death, the 2004 tsunami, US elections and more. It's innovated with "Pods and Blogs" and now Outriders, the World Football phone-in, Dr Karl on science, and regular mental health phone-ins.  Its staff have taken expertise and cunning acquired on lonely night shifts, and now work all round the BBC, as well as in new media for many other organisations.

Some oaf has apparently said it has no editorial justification. Nice. Try that as an honest test for some other shows on radio and tv, please, before you close this one.   What happens the next time the UK suffers floods, earth tremors or white hell overnight, and the World Service sticks with an agenda aimed at the Indian sub-continent ? If Radio 5Live in Salford is only on the air 0500 through to 0100, then that's both a risk to the station's overall quality, and a real kick in the teeth for the network as a whole.