Radio Shropshire shows hit by BBC cutbacks
Four Radio Shropshire shows are to be axed next year and specialist music programmes will be shifted from primetime weekday slots under BBC cutbacks.
Ian Perry’s early morning breakfast show, Jim Hawkins’ Saturday night programme and Keith Middleton’s Sunday show will all be going.
Tuesday night sport is also being dropped on weeks when there are no football matches involving Shrewsbury Town or AFC Telford United.
Programmes such as Colin Young’s Trunk of Funk and Jazz with John Hellings are to move timeslots to make way for a new nationwide show for BBC local radio stations presented by former Classic FM DJ Mark Forrest from Leeds, starting from January 7.
Four jobs have also been cut at BBC Radio Shropshire, but all have come through voluntary redundancies. Three redundancies already made and one more will follow later this year.
But Radio Shropshire managing editor Tim Beech said campaigning by listeners during the BBC’s consultation on the cutbacks had helped to minimise the need for changes and saved jobs.
Mr Forrest’s new show will run on weekdays from between 7pm and 10pm.
The changes are part of the BBC’s response to budget cuts due to a freeze in the licence fee until 2017.
Read more in today's Shropshire Star
Comments for: "Radio Shropshire shows hit by BBC cutbacks"
The Original Jake
Hello, and welcome to BBC National Radio 2 (Shropshire edition)
H. St. John Peasbody
The main thing is that the Trunk of Funk is safe.
Martin
Well thank you to the BBC Trust for ruining perfectly good Radio Shropshire schedules, clearly Shropshire listeners don't count in the great scheme of things, we after all only pay the licence fee!!!!
Perhaps time for Patton to go!!
Robin Hood
So Cllr Keith Barrow's attempt to save his beloved "Trunk of Funk" failed. But good for him for using Council time to stand up for what he believes in and for trying to secure the future of this essential service......[tongue heavily in cheek for those of you who have missed the irony]
Robin Hood
slight error there in my interpretation, sentiment of what I'm saying the same though.
Shrewsbury Mum
Robin Hood,
My kids lose their school and are about to lose their hospital ward; Keith Barrow fears he might be about to lose a radio programme he may listen to from time to time, but in the end doesn't. It just shows we really are all in it together.
Who's smug now?
Welcome to the real world! In the grand scheme of things, they aren't really losing a lot. If the BBC continues to pay way over and above for it's 'high profile' staff, what do you expect? They have to save money somewhere.
The BBC has lost all sight of what it's actually there to do. It's quite amazing that the license fee is made into a tax on the public. If you have a TV you have to pay it, regardless of whether you watch any BBC channels, listen to a BBC radio station or visit one of their websites. Truly shocking.
Commercial radio has been having to do this for years, on a larger scale. Dozens of very talented, very experienced staff have been lost due to networking and cuts in advertising revenue.
I'm glad this has happened. This might take the smug grin of some of their presenters faces, especially Jim Hawkins. "Local shows for local people"? Not any more!
H. St. John Peasbody
You must have a very good radio if you can see the smug grins on their faces.
Jayne Oliver
I too will not be sad to have one less Jim Hawkins show. If it were me he would lose his weekday ones too. He brings down what is otherwise a great Radio station.
I hope that Keith Barrow will try and save some jobs. Probably not.
Jane's
I like Jim's weekday show, he challenges perceptions and gets people to think outside of their comfort zones - long may he continue!
Cedric The Flying Penguin
Having been there, done that, got the video , been up & down each way ., all around the Wrekin & back again, got the scars of life obtained , often with a slush-fund, I will forever need to put the past behind me, before I can look to the future.
What is this guy on about..I can hear you thinking now.............. Quite simply I detest a Bureau of Bullying , convened cos it seemed a good idea..... I am A Shropshire Lad, bla , bla , bla... which means , in case you are unsure of my direction..
Is known as All Around The Wrekin....got it... !
Adrian Plimmer
Commercial radio has lost all identity with the area it is supposed to serve.
Shropshire Fights Back
Welcome to the world according to the Tories.
Everything which you hold of value will disappear.
Who's smug now?
This has nothing to do with the Government or politics. It's a mega corporation not being able to budget itself properly. Simple as.
The people in every BBC building in the country gets paid considerably more than the average person doing their job for another company.
Port Hill Boy
Agreed, Cut and Slash seem to be the only responses the ConDems have to any organisations that actually serve the public.
Shrewsbury Mum
Port Hill Boy,
I agree too. What I find difficult to understand, though, is why while you attack the cuts on a national level, you so often defend them when they originate locally. Government cuts or Shropshire Council cuts, they stem from the same party and the same policies. I can't see how either is ok.
Michael Wilkinson
If the BBC,it is after all they that are making the cuts and changes,were to stop paying self inflated celebs huge wages for doing mediocre work then there would be more cash for local services.
I can never understand why a celeb is sent half way round the world to narrate a programme about some new species or a guide to a country,just have a voice-over and save a fortune :-)
Stan Din - Shropshire's First Reserve Bass Player
Taking away the obvious fact that this is just phase 1 of the BBC's efforts to meet the financial restraints being placed upon them by scaling down local radio to a point wherby it becomes untennable. *takes deep breath*. I do not understand why a syndicated show with such impressive viewing figures and a growing listener base - I'm talking Jim Hawkins' Saturday Evening Show here - has to be the main casualty. Bizarre. Someone please show me the door marked "Exit" it's time to leave.
Nigel Byard
So the BBC are following in the footsteps of ILR by introducing national networked shows. Wont be long before we end up with no local stations at all! The biggest shame here is the loss of the Jim Hawkins Saturday night show..the best show on the radio by far..will be sadly missed in our house... thanks for a great show Jim and look forward to the remaining few weeks..:(
Victoria
I personally think it is really sad to be loosing local shows to make way for national ones. Many of the local presenters are great at championing local businesses, charities and other local information and sharing this with listeners (Jim Hawkins being one of these people). For me the local radio shows really add to a sense of community, which is lost with the national shows. If I want national shows I will listen to national radio stations.
J
To people who say the BBC pays top wages..
this may be true at the very top to the likes of Gary Lineker (ridiculous imo) but 99% of BBC staff are paid very modestly.
My boyfriend is a freelance radio DJ who regularly works at BBC Local Radio Stations (not Shropshire however)
I think you would be surprised how little jobs in the media pay, he earns £25,000 a year (before tax) has no guarantee of work, no holiday pay, no sick pay etc etc.
I used to work as a Broadcast Assistant in the BBC up until a couple of years ago and was on 15k, I had to leave the industry because I couldn't survive on the salary any more.
Alison Shepherd
Jim Hawkins Saturday Night - best show on the wireless- stunning combinations of music - what a loss and what a bunch of philistines the BBC are! Dumbed down network shows are usually pretty dire and if I want national radio I listen to national networks. Many thanks Jim - any chance of a back catalogue?
Duncan
Fully agree with the comments regarding the axing of Jim Hawkins on a Saturday night. The show provides musical diversity and knowledge simply not heard elsewhere including classic rock, new wave, soul, progressive rock and the odd new act. It was thanks to Jim that I heard local singer/band Hall of Ghosts. BBC Radio Shropshire is a refreshing change compared to most commercial stations and is certainly one of the better BBC local stations that I have heard. I hope one day in the future the Saturday night show is brought back. It's a rare gem in an increasingly bland radio world. I also hope these changes are not the start of 'death by a 1,000 cuts' of BBC local stations around the country. That would be a travesty.
Elizabeth Wilkinson
i am very disappointed to hear that the Jim Hawkins Saturday night show will be being cut in the new year, this show is of a standard that it should have been going national not being cut, it may be local radio but this show is of first class standard! The show reaches far and wide and with the wonders of twitter and the internet it really isn’t just local people who benefit from this show, although it has huge following of local people who will sadly miss this great music show :-( Saturday nights just will not be the same come 2013! Dreadfully disappointing decision!
Moysten
It's sad that some comments on this story became personalised. If you don't like a particular program, it is not compulsory to listen. Jim Hawkins would, like all of us, want everyone to like everything he does. But he knows that it is the tension & texture created by different views & different tastes that makes better broadcasting. Certainly public service broadcasting (and particularly local broadcasting) has no more passionate advocate than him. Smug he certainly isn’t.
I am sorry that a programme of broad interest from the perspective of a highly entertaining & knowledgeable presenter with a musician's sensibility to the material and a high decree of audience interaction is being lost. Sadly it’s all encompassing nature seems to have counted against it in spite of audience numbers. More specialist genres tend to have noisy and more "head above the parapet" advocates.
But when phrases like "All-Local" meaning "Nationwide" are bandied about by the Broadcasting House it seems clear that "1984" is still required reading at Beeb Central and undermines the sterling efforts of everyone at BBC Shropshire (and other similar stations) to present genuinely local radio.
I, and ten of thousands of others who prefer Jim Hawkins to the rival attractions of Dr Who, X-Factor, BGT, Strictly etc, will be sorry to lose the Sound Track to our Saturday Nights. In my case it will be a listener lost for that time slot