Grouch

I hate sounding grumpy on Friday, but it's about priorities.

No-one likes cuts, and some of the recent announcements about radio look like quite creative ways of saving money at the margins. But they damage that which is distinctive about the BBC for not much cash, and miss opportunities to improve diversity.

Two controllers have decided overnight radio is ripe for a trim. Radio 2 stops being a 24-hour live network between 3am and 5am weeknights - weekends have been home to taped shows for some time. Radio 5Live staggers on round the clock, but with more repeats in Up All Night, and a loss of Morning Reports. All this stuff is enormously valued by shift workers, who are clearly asleep when they should be complaining to the Daily Mail, the only organ read by BBC management.

And at Radio 1, Nihal leaves after 12 years with 1 and 1Xtra. He seems happy enough - upcoming work on 5Live for the Commonwealth Games, and a trip to the Edinburgh Festival for the Asian Network. He's also making a series for London Live - a missed opportunity for improving on-screen diversity at the BBC, which nurtured him. Meanwhile a wide range of new presenters arrive at Radio 1 - diverse in their musical tastes, but not one obvious "BAME". You should not leave that just to 1Xtra, Ben.  Radio 1 has no presenters from an ethnic minority between 0630 and 2100 weekdays. Compare that to the balance in the Top 40 Charts.

Cuts to Radio 3 and 4 can't be far behind. Let's hope they don't pick on little 'uns to defend spending on the big shows.