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BBC decides Radio 2 doesn’t need a Controller

By | Published on Monday 28 November 2016

BBC

If, when the BBC recently announced it was seeking a new Controller for Radio 2 and 6 Music, you thought to you yourself, “that’s me, I could do that job, I’d be an ace Controller for Radio 2 and 6 Music”, well, you’re wrong. You’d be a fucking awful Controller for Radio 2 and 6 Music, we all know that. So awful, in fact, that the Beeb has decided to axe the role entirely, just in case it accidentally hired you to do it. So that’s you told.

Former Radio 2/6 boss Bob Shennan was recently promoted to the job of Director Of Radio at the Beeb, and said at the time that the two stations’ existing heads of programming – Lewis Carnie and Paul Rodgers – would run their respective stations on an interim basis while a new Controller for the two channels could be found. But now Shennan’s changed his mind, made Carnie and Rodgers permanent Head Of Radio 2 and Head Of 6 Music respectively, and called off the hunt for a new Controller.

He explained in a memo that: “I decided not to create a Controller position because my role is slightly different from previous directors of Radio; I won’t be on the BBC’s Executive Board and as a result I expect to be able to remain more closely involved in the direction and development of both Radio and BBC Music, to be more ‘hands-on'”.

Shennan also announced that the Commissioning Editor for BBC Music, Jan Younghusband, will move into his Radio And Music division, putting all music commissioning, including TV, into one unit.

Says Shennan: “I’m delighted that Jan will officially join the BBC Music family. She is a great creative talent and will help me define a compelling, joined up music strategy for TV that dovetails with everything we do in radio and online”.



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