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Commercial Radio says Radio 2 too obsessed with youth
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 24 August 2009
Commercial radio trade body RadioCentre has accused Radio 2 of failing to provide a public service, saying the station has gone for a more youthful audience in order to boost ratings, and in doing so has failed to serve older listeners, or provide programmes different from those available in the commercial domain.
The Centre’s submission to the BBC Trust’s review of Radio 2 and 6Music is titled ‘Reach not Reith: How Radio 2 is prioritising popularity not public purposes’ and, commenting on it, the Centre’s CEO Andrew Harrison told reporters: “Over the last decade, Radio 2 has shifted its programming policies – nobody has intervened and this has been disastrous for commercial radio’s heartland audience and for the plurality and diversity of the UK’s fragile radio ecology. Had this kind of format change occurred in the commercial sector, Ofcom would have taken action, so it is welcome that the BBC Trust is reviewing the output of Radio 2”.
Expanding his criticisms, Harrison continued: “We think the BBC urgently needs to rebalance its portfolio of popular music radio. You’ve now got Radio 1 targeting 15-29 year olds, 1Xtra targeting 15-24 year olds, 6Music with more than 80 per cent of its listening hours coming from 15-44s and Radio 2 becoming increasingly younger. That could be construed as an obsession with youth”.
