Bull

Plain-speaking John Myers is off and running with his one-man-local-radio review, making friends with staff at BBC Cumbria.  I suspect they might be more cautious in conversation with him that those at Yalding and Western House, where John's wander round turned into a template for some serious job cuts.

And he's previously been very frank about the views he brings to the current task. This from last month: "Let’s be honest. There are one or two spare tyres knocking about. It is the elephant in the room so it is about time someone had a good look at it. The budget for BBC Local Radio is vastly superior to that of commercial operators. Figures I have seen suggest £27 per hour verses £434 per hour. Does this increase listenership? Not a jot. In fact, 300 or so commercial stations deliver about a 30% share (depending on which book you look at) while BBC Local delivers just 9%. Now, figures are not everything and it is equally fair to say that the output of BBC Local is very different and more costly to produce. They are focussing on journalism rather than music but the point I am making is that few can argue there is not enough money. It has been well funded over the years and then some...... 


"The absolute truth is that the budget has been there for years. It has been squandered for years and the output has been less than convincing. What is wrong is not the people but the vision. What is wrong is the manner in which that vision is delivered. What is wrong is that it is controlled by the centre when you need to devolve the trust to the stations themselves. We consistently have no consistency. It can be so, so great".

John's progress around the BBC's china shops will end before Christmas, with a report due in February. He's been told not to smash any of the wares marked "content" - but can he lay off the "vision" ? The Trust are already hacked off with the Executive's proposals for local and regional output, and are in the middle of a DQF consultation (get your views in before December 21) AND a review of local radio (also closing on December 21). The sufferers in all this process are BBC local radio staff, who are likely to have a year of anxiety before the axe hanging over 1 in 4 jobs either falls or is put away. If you were a bright young radio professional, would you hang around ?

• I am reminded that John Myers started his broadcasting career as a station assistant at Radio Cumbria in 1980, and hosted the station's first country music show, as well as working on the famous "Lamb Bank".  Later he moved to continuity work for Border TV, where, at a very young age, he became known as Uncle John, host of Border's Birthdays, and side-kick to Eric The Monkey.