BBC Radio Five Live's Up All Night made the trip to The Radio Festival for a special edition of the talk show this morning. The programme, presented by Nick Wallis invited attendees of the industry event to talk about the state of radio today.
Guests included Trevor Dann from The Radio Academy, Matt Deegan, previously of GCap Media, Terry Underhill from GMG Radio and Chris Stevens of radio production company Jones TM. Trevor told listeners to the national network that listeners are becoming bedroom producers and writers in the new age of podcasts and blogging, making the future of traditional radio a little bleak.
Terry Underhill, Head of Music for GMG Radio disagreed with Trevor's thoughts: "Ninety eight per cent of the population listen to the radio so it is very strong right now. Those people who say radio will not survive in it's current form are way off the mark."
Natalie Schwarz from 4 Digital Group also talked about Channel 4 winning the new national DAB Digital Radio licence last week. 4 Digital aim to provide podcasts, or radio on demand via new generation digital radio sets.
Danny Baker attacked commercial radio saying podcasts will kill the industry in the future. Danny is speaking at The Radio Festival later this morning about his daily All Day Breakfast Show which can be downloaded as an MP3. Separately, Andrew Harrison, director of RadioCentre said commercial radio has a great future as long as the current rules are more relaxed.
The programme also highlighted the differences between radio in the United States and the UK, with telephone guests including the vice president of NPR. Up All Night is now available online via the BBC Listen Again service.
More from Cambridge later today.
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