The genial Tory with the caring, cultural side, Lord Vaizey, says the BBC should hand over Radio 1 and Radio 2 to commercial control, whilst still carrying "some of the very good public service content that does indeed appear on these stations."
The former Culture Minister glided around the DCMS for six years; he tells The Times "It seems to me that Radios 3, 4, 5 and 6 are important, as is Asian radio....I am aware I am straying into dangerous territory, as Ken Bruce is the most popular show in the country, but I feel things cannot carry on as business as usual."
The BBC points out that Radio 1 and Radio 2 play a far greater variety of music than commercial stations — broadcasting 11,000 and 15,000 different tracks respectively last year. A website which used to provide data on station's range of music, comparemyradio.com, closed down last year. It was started by Absolute Radio when it was independent, and had a point to prove. Absolute is now owned by Bauer Media. In 2009 Bauer stopped supplying data from KissFM to comparemyradio.
I wonder if Lord Vaizey would prefer Radio 1 and 2 to go to Global Radio, which, as a group, already claims 25m listeners a week, or Bauer, on 20m ? Or News UK, who owns The Times - the vehicle for his interview ?
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