Still listening

BBC Chief Operating Officer Caroline Thomson at the Voice of the Listener and View Conference in London today (as reported by John Plunkett in The Guardian).

"We always thought that the proposal to make cuts in local radio would be particularly sensitive. We have been surprised and impressed by the response. The point of a consultation is to hear from people and understand what is going on on the ground and what people are worried about. We are listening and we will carry on listening. Clearly local radio and local broadcasting as a whole does matter, and is an area of worse and worse market failure. If we go back on some of these cuts we will have to find the money from elsewhere."

Surprised ?

• There are said to be some BBC managers who were surprised to find that it takes 2 hours 56 minutes on a train from Newcastle to London - and 2hrs 54 minutes on a train from Newcastle to Salford