Vanessa v David

Vanessa Feltz and Radio London listeners took on The Management this morning for a full hour. I'm not sure whether it was as a result of efficiencies or not, but Controller, English Regions David Holdsworth could not find time in his day to make his way to an ISDN or Skype line, so was on the phone.

Vanessa was pretty plain about the future of a "butchered service", and a cut of £1m (25% of budget); David responded that Radio London costs twice as much as most other local radio stations, thus was facing a bigger cut - others face 20% off their budgets. .

Mr Holdsworth has broad shoulders, but ducked and dived somewhat in his assertions. DQF says BBC London, and all other local radio stations will be restricted to original programming at Breakfast, Morning, and Drive, then Saturday and Sunday morning, plus some live but shared sport commentaries. But Mr Holdsworth then appeared to say that when the BBC Trust has finally ruled on the budget cuts, the local management might re-adjust the schedule, to, for example, "save" Robert Elms (a lunchtime broadcaster). This is very naughty - the audience and the Trust must be talking about the same things for consultation to make any sense.  Mr Holdsworth's torture was close to a full hour; start at 2.03.10 here; try around 2.30.40 for a very eloquent taxi driver.

In fairness, Mr Holdsworth didn't see these custs coming. In 2007, he led a pilot of 65 hyper-local video/websites, eventually dropped by the Trust.  Last year, around the time of the licence fee deal, he thought BBC Local Radio could get through the freeze.