Letter: Get your hands off our Radio Shropshire
Thursday 24th March 2011, 6:00AM GMT.
Letter: I read with real trepidation the report that was highlighted in both the Daily Telegraph and the Shropshire Star reporting the threat by the BBC to cut most of the output from the very good local radio stations and put it through some “super duper” Radio 5 Live.
In my experience of dealing with these sort of people there is no smoke without fire.
If the BBC are intent on this course of action it would have a huge effect on Shropshire.
Our audience listening figures are very good. Why is that? The reason is that Radio Shropshire offers a huge contribution to our way of life in this county, we are a county of very small communities many of them isolated and relying on our road network to thrive.
Radio Shropshire provides excellent information on road closures, accidents and school closures at times when weather conditions are often awful.
This information is not available on a national radio station in such detail and would lose its meaning for the people of Shropshire. We would venture out onto treacherous roads unsure of any detail.
Those of us who remember the local radio’s contribution in 2001 from Ian Sawers and the NFU during the worst foot-and-mouth epidemic will cherish the support it gave us.
We need to rally the support of all our local MPs and councillors to stop this ridiculous idea in its infancy, otherwise we stand to lose what has become a close and valued friend to most of us Salopians.
Arthur Hill
Much Wenlock
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The BBC has little choice since its harsh license fee settlement – a settlement pandering to whims of Rupert Murdoch.
You should be writing to Jeremy Hunt demanding the BBC license fee is reviewed with a view of proptecting the programming and services we love from OUR BBC.
If services have to be dropped, i’d rather see expensive local services dropped and have the independent, quality national and world news protected.
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The BBC Should be privatised it is a biased organisation from top to bottom.
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The bias shown in it’s mix of ‘golden oldies’ and traffic reports is disgraceful.
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You forgot to mention how the Marxist swine almost always seem to prefer stories about Shropshire to ones about say, Northumberland.
Hanging’s too good for them!!!
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BBC Radio Shropshire could cut back in a number of areas – for example why they need two presenters nearly all the time now defeats me. Another idea surely would be to do during the daytime what is often done in the evenings already – merge the broadcasts of Shropshire, Stoke and Hereford & Worcester. I’m afraid cuts do need to be made and so suggesting better ways of saving money is the way forward, not railing against the inevitable reduction in finances!
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The BBCs news wing is nothing more than a biased leftwing propaganda tool, the populous is blind to the waste, nepotism and sheer arrogance of the corporation, and yes just like the bailed out banks it’s all done with taxpayers money.
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On my twice-yearly visits to Shropshire I occasionally tune in to Radio Shropshire and sometimes even listen to it here in Hull over the internet. It’s one of the better local radio stations and certainly knocks Radio Humberside into a cocked hat. Humberside is truly awful.
@Ken Adams. Perhaps you’d like to share with us where and why you think that the, “BBC is biased from top to bottom”. Garbage. Maybe you’d prefer something like Fox News. Now there’s a biased organisation.
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I don`t know if Fox is biased and I do not care, as I do not have to pay for it. I do have to pay for BBC hence it should be totally unbiased in its reporting and its programming.
It fails miserably, if you doubt that check Biased BBC web site it details the bias on a daily basis. Perhaps the fact you seem to think it is not biased speaks volumes to you own about your political outlook.
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@Ken Adams. I see you again fail to provide any kind of evidence for your claims of bias. Btw, both Conservative and Labour governments have in the past lambasted the BBC and accused it of bias and even borderline treason. So that means that they’re probably getting the balance right. But then I suppose because it doesn’t mirror your gripes or narrow world view it would appear biased.
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I think it it is false logic to assume because both New Labour and Conservative have complained about it the BBC is about right.
I suggested a web site that deals directly with the BBC Bias so I do not think you can claim I offered no evidence.
However even a report commissioned by the BBC, says it is particularly partial in its treatment of single-issue politics such as climate change, poverty, race and religion.
The report concluded that the bias has extended across drama, comedy and entertainment, with the corporation pandering to politically motivated celebrities and trendy causes.
The report points to the danger of BBC programmes being undermined by the liberal culture of its staff, who need to challenge their own assumptions more. “There is a tendency to ‘group think’ with too many staff inhabiting a shared space and comfort zone,”.
It goes on to highlight a “Roneo mentality” where staff ape each other’s common liberal values. It is of course those values and that mentality which sustain the BBC in the myth that it is not biased in the face of the facts.
The EU is not covered openly by the BBC, considering that a majority of us either want to get out or want a different relationship that is hardly ever covered, perhaps because the BBC is in receipt of grants and soft loans from the EU.
You also might like to try BBCWatch
The bbcwatch Reports demonstrate how the BBC consistently fails to adhere to its legal obligations to produce impartial and accurate reporting. Our systematic, objective and rigorous research points to the firm conclusion that the BBC frequently displays marked and consistent pro-Palestinian bias in their coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. Their inability to report on this subject in an impartial way raises questions over their ability to report on all other politically sensitive issues.
Then of course there was the admission by BBC Director General Mark Thompson in The New Statesman that the BBC has a history of a “massive bias to the Left”
I would suggest that because it does mirror your narrow world view you think it is not biased.
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People are able to think for themselves. Even if the BBC was biased then no matter how much propaganda they receive it would not alter what they already think, hence it is harmless. You state this yourself when you infer that no matter how pro-Europe the BBC allegedly is the majority (citation?) have not been swayed and still want out.
Of course, if the opposite is true and people are influenced by what they are told by the media, then all media that editorialises should be banned or at the very least be legally obliged state that they are not presenting a fair & balanced view.
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Well people are able to think for themselves if they have the full facts, that is where continual dissemination of a biased point of view makes propaganda less than acceptable. It is not only what is reported but often in what is not and the bland acceptance of left liberal ethos being presented by the BBC.
To some extent all media is biased, it is the view of the reporter the organisation or its owner, the problem with the BBC is that it is not a private organisation but funded by all the people in this country hence it has a legal obligation to be free from bias, in that it fails on a national level.
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At least Eastenders is a good giggle!
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Whilst I agree with Ken Adams regarding the undoubted bias of the BBC at a national level I have to say that I have always found Radio Shropshire to be impartial, unbiased and fair with the exception of one ‘mid morning presenter’.
Radio Shropshire provides a connection for local people at a level that is impossible with national radio services.
Local news, sport and travel are essential functions that our local station provides and I for one would be very sad to see it go.
If the BBC does need to cut back on it’s expenditure it should begin by looking at the salaries of it’s grossly overpaid national celebrities.
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Yes point taken, I cannot and should not have commented on Shropshire Radio.
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Note to Admin – An internet connection problem meant that I re-sent the same comment twice in a slightly different form, please only use the second of the two comments.
Many thanks
James
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the bbc should be privatised, advertising should be allowed on radio 1,2,5 6 and7. also on bbc tv 1 3 and 4.
200 reporters cameramen and staff in japan was an overkill, the same thing in libya.
only 1 presenter is needed to read the news. the bbc is top heavy over paid and overstaffed. i believe the bbc could manage with half its staff and certainly local radio is the most important of the corporations outlets. the sooner bbc is sold off to the highest bidder the better
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for what i have listened to bbc local i find
mostly wastefull———-2 even3 presenters talking among themselves with the
cursory nod to the listener and the endless
phone-ins asking–eg: your ferret experiences all the stations offer the same format something local commecial radio could do just as well
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I am very sad to say that I have found radio Shropshire’s programmes to have surely but steadily declined in quality over the years. With a couple of notable and worthy exceptions the content of most of the output has been dumbed down and the style of presentation has become really patronising with the awful forced bonhomie. On a practical note – why on earth do we have this trend towards multiple presenters on the same show – surely more costly? Its nauseating ego massaging at its worst and I suspect a cover up for the lack of quality of candidates who don’t have the wit to hold a programme together by themselves.
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The BBC has lost its way big time – if you want excellent reporting then I suggest you try al jazeera ( http://english.aljazeera.net/ ) – streets ahead in quality.
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