Lend a ear

Who listens to Hull ?  A previous BBC Director General, Tony Hall, did. When it won City of Culture for 2017, Tone promised to make the BBC "unashamedly Hull-centric" for the year - and insisted that BBC weather forecasters literally put Hull on their maps... and, in some forecasts it's still there this week. 

Hull got Radio 1's Big Weekend, a visit from the Today Programme, and a Prom. Kofi Smiles, recruited to be the voice of the Year of Culture, is still in Radio Humberside's schedules. Across local radio in 2017, Tony Hall reversed a planned £10m cut, and cancelled the All England Show simulcast weekday evenings across 40 stations. 

Today 10 MPs covering Humberside's listening area have written to BBC DG Tim Davie, a man committed to spending even more than Tony Hall 'across the UK'. It's a detailed six page letter, noting that David Burns, Andy Comfort, Phil White, Fiona Mills and Sally Fairfax are leaving the station. [Six to go seems a disproportionate implementation of a 10% cut]. The MPs note plans to have one journalist writing and reading 'local bulletins' for two stations, one pre-recorded. 

Meanwhile, in their latest management structure, BBC England is recruiting at least six deputy managing editors.  All a bit cloth-eared, eh ?