The formal announcement of the new season on Radio 2 arrives. The highlight, for Controller Bob Shennan, is the arrival of Sara Cox with The Sound of The Eighties. Here are some extracts from the full press release.
Russell Davies’ show (Sun 9-10pm) will move to Monday nights (11pm-12midnight) for 26 weeks a year, with Jools Holland returning for the remainder. (This replaces "Mark Radcliffe's Music Club - Top music for now people")
Radio 2 is making a further commitment to Big Band music......
Clare Teal’s Sunday night show (10-11pm) will be extended as the network’s two big band music shows (Sun 10-11pm and Mon 9.30-10pm) are combined into a single live two-hour programme every Sunday from 9-11pm
Lewis Carnie, Radio 2 Head of Programmes, says: "I wanted to expand our Big Band programming but, with reduced funds across the BBC, we could no longer afford to commit to regular Big Band recordings. However, we are aware that our listeners love this kind of music, so we are giving our Sunday night audience an extended two-hour session of the tunes they love from the broadest range of Big Band music.”
In other strategic moves, people with a taste for Steve Lamacq's style of rock late on Thursday evenings can in future drift off to The Organist Entertains and Listen To The Band. In the world that is the modern BBC, the commitment to a range of big band music actually means a real threat to one of the country's greatest musical assets, the BBC Big Band. Bob Shennan says “Although we have had to make difficult decisions in order to make savings in line with the rest of the BBC, I’ve taken this opportunity to create some new programmes and make changes to reinvigorate the Radio 2 schedule”. And, in effect, reduced and marginalised pre-Beatles music-making to the edges of the schedule.
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So, despite big-band and organ music being VERY niche interest areas these days - I'm fifty, and have little interest in either - it was seen fit to cancel the popular (I know at least 60 people in my area who loved the show) 'Mark Radcliffe's Music Club'. Why? Radio 2's audience at night is people of my age, a generation that grew up listening to Punk, Reggae, and New Wave, and, of course, John Peel on Radio 1. Mark Radcliffe is the ONLY dj. that comes close to the mighty Peel. I can only surmise that the old farts in charge of scheduling were frightened by some of the music played on his show, by people, possibly with long hair, that they'd never heard of. In my opinion, MRRC. was the best show in the evening schedules, presented by someone who actually knew what he was talking about, and not just 'phoning it in' like some of the other presenters. I want to hear more shows like his at night, which is when I work.
ReplyDeleteGet this show back on the air.