Matthew Bannister wins BBC Local evenings

17/09/2012 - 15:22 | 26 Replies More

The syndicated BBC Local Radio evening show contract has been awarded to a new company set up by the former BBC executive.

Bannister and his partner former BBC Asian Network Head of Programmes, Husain Husaini have set up Wire Free Productions and this is their first major production.

Plans were announced in May for the new show which will be syndicated across all 39 BBC local radio stations in England and the Channel Islands from Monday 7 January 2013, on weekdays between 7-10 pm.

Speaking today, David Holdsworth, Controller, BBC English Regions, said, “The competition was extremely strong as you’d expect. We were looking for an organisation that understands the local radio audience and can deliver real experience and expertise in what we know is a very demanding slot. We believe we have found that combination in Wire Free Productions.”

Matthew Bannister said, “I can’t think of a better way to launch our new journalistic production company, Wire Free Productions, than being given the opportunity to make this programme for all the BBC’s Local Radio stations. Husain Husaini and I both started our careers in local radio. We know it is a much loved service for millions of listeners – and we’re really looking forward to creating a new and very special show for them. The programme will be an engaging and lively companion to their evening – bringing the very best of each day’s output on BBC local stations to a much wider audience and making connections between communities in different parts of the country.”

Bidders for the contract were asked to submit their ideas for a speech-led programme that would entertain and inform adults aged 50+ with creativity and quality at its core. Central to the brief was how bidders might engage and interact with listeners as well as showcase the very best of BBC Local Radio output.

Andrew Robson, Head of Local Radio Development, managed the bid process and commented, “With the combined local radio and network experience of Husain and Matthew, I’m really looking forward to building a new show in the evening that shares some of the most compelling stories from all 39 of our radio stations. Storytelling is at the heart of BBC Local Radio. Together with a unique mix of music and topicality this new show will be completely in-keeping with the tone and feel of all our radio stations.”

All BBC Local Radio stations will broadcast the new show, except in instances such as major breaking news stories or sport commentaries.


Tags: ,

Category: Industry News

  • Martin Rosen

    Monday 7 January 2012 / 2013 (?!!) will mark the end of BBC Local Radio in the evenings. How depressing. It will be National Local Radio – how will they identify themselves? ‘BBC Local Radio for the UK’ ??

  • http://www.facebook.com/craig.butler.94 Craig Butler

    dont you mean january 2013!!!! any way…… bbc going like ILR… do we got discount on the licence fee then !!!

  • http://twitter.com/BBCRadioForum BBC Radio Forum

    Well the only positive is that I guess the Scary Cornflake won’t be presenting..

  • Ian G

    ….Andrew Robson, Head of Local Radio Development “With the combined local radio and network experience of Husain and Matthew, I’m really looking forward to building a new show in the evening that shares some of the most compelling stories from all 39 of our radio stations. Storytelling is at the heart of BBC Local Radio.
    It was stretching local radio with regional.. but it still worked..just.
    but surely this is taking ‘the heart’ out of local radio :o

  • david gillbee

    what a complete disaster this concept of national evening local radio is going to be for the over 50s……as an over 50 i shall join my peers and head for the hills…..with a portable tv.

  • Anna

    outrageous! the local BBC radio Cambridge show was amazing – haven’t you ever heard of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” ???

    • Kit Carmicheal

      I agree Anna – Sue Marchant’s show was one of the few programmes on BBC Cambridgeshire that was actually listenable – great platform for local bands and musicians and always a varied and interesting rosta of guests. To do this to local radio is a joke – No longer will it be local in any meaningful way – even our Breakfast programme now comes from Peterborough.
      I can see the two Cambridge Community stations Cam FM and particularly Cambridge 105 benefitting greatly from this short sighted move – and they broadcast without any help at all from the licence fee or tax payers!

  • 1TheRestorator1

    In the late 60s, following the enforced closure of the offshore stations, which served large regional areas of the UK, we were told that as part of their ‘replacement’ we would only have local radio operated by the BBC, and later told that licenced commercial radio when it came would only be local and have to be truly local…..remember ?…..(I certainly do). Forty plus years on in the commercial sector we now have semi national/regional stations, over numerous of local transmission areas, playing the ‘greatest hits’ to death and all sounding similar in presentation. And now the BBC is about to follow, turning local into national, in an unconvincing effort to persuade local radio audiences that diverse local communities hundreds of miles apart, will want to hear about each others stories, on their ‘local’ (?!) radio station. No offence intended to the programme makers as it may well be an interesting show, but it belongs on radio 4 or 5, not across stations which should be airing local content for their areas. This is a reduction in service which we are paying for ! As the late Mike Dickin would say “You couldn’t make it up”. What a farce it is and what a mess ‘local’ radio is in,….well,… what’s left of it ! Is it time to scrap it all and start again before radio kills itself ?!. Next time however, let’s make passion for radio and considering audiences desires a dominant prerequisite for owning and running a station. The decline continues – The soul is being ripped out of radio. There are isolated and commendable exceptions by operators trying hard in very difficult times, but generally commercial radio has lost so much spark over the last 10-15 years, whilst BBC local radio loses local content and talent. To those operating community radio and smaller stations, ‘mind the gap’ !……you have an opportunity to fill it I
    The late Kenny Everett on the Capital Radio in the 70s (that’s a very different Capital to the one currently riding on the back of the reputation and using the name built by the former) used to say it was ‘the station that rescued you from the BBC’. Then as commercial radio became corporate, repetetive, bland and unadventurous, it was the BBC that rescued us from commercial radio ! Now we need rescuing from the BBC it seems ! Well there are some good alternatives on the internet, but if you want local radio, it’s clearly a dying breed, originally forced upon us, and now being taken away from us bit by bit ! As I said, what a mess !

    • Greg

      One super commercial station WITH SOME PROGRAMMING DEPTH is all that’s needed. Except the licence system won’t allow it. The bureaucracy wall has never allowed the commercial radio system to succeed in England. Shame. Where is Radio Luxembourg when you need it?

  • http://www.facebook.com/michael.attrill Mike Attrill

    So the Radio 1 axeman gets the job.Yet another misguided decision by the B.B.C.

  • http://www.facebook.com/anita.widdowson Anita Jane Widdowson

    This is just plain stupid! All day I look forward to being able to listen to Ed Stagg at 7pm. He’s an amazing presenter and should be able to carry on with the job he loves! Why are they changing everyhting?! The BBC is really not doing well…

  • http://twitter.com/brianwinteruk Brian Winter

    Whilst I believe that this is not a particularly brilliant idea, I think that we ought to be grateful that some of the other proposed cuts and mergers have for the most part been shelved. It will be interesting to see how this is actually going to work given that a number of stations will still have a heavy sport committment, what with league, possible F A Cup replays and rugby, amongst other sports. Now, forgive me if I am wrong, it said 39 locals, I thought there were 40. Ah yes, I wonder if BBC London has been excempted from this.

  • jopijedd

    So basically it’ll be an extension of Radio 2 daytimes?

  • the morning deejay

    LOCAL RADIO – the clue is in the name! This will alienate thousands of loyal listeners, not just the over 50s, but more to the point, the older listeners who depend on LOCAL radio as their lifeline to the outside world. Savings have to be made at the BBC, but I am sure this could be done by axing superfluous departments. I am sure that in the bowels of the BBC must be snug offices marked ‘Head of Idiotic Ideas’, ‘Assistant Head of Idiotic Ideas’, ‘Deputy Assistant Head of Idiotic Ideas’, ‘Personal Assistant to the Head of Idiotic Ideas’ and so on. This is simply a disaster for sound broadcasting.

  • Marcus Lochton

    BBC Radio Heart by the sounds of things. I enjoy listening to output from people in my area. Luckily the likes of Cambridge 105 Radio do this well with the likes of Kevin Peters, Neal and Lottie, Matt Webb & Mike the Rock Show Man to name just a handful.

  • Radio Geordie

    As I stated back when the story first came about, most BBC Local services are not even local between 7 & 10pm anyway as many broadcast “Regional” programmes and have done since the mid-1980s (with the exception of sports opt-out’s). So why the big hoo-har about the BBC merging them into one BBC England programme?
    It’s going to be something of a waste of time anyway given that it will only broadcast on weekdays and that many of the stations will be opting out on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for football coverage anyway. Some stations also carry commentaries of rugby matches which would also require the odd opt-out on Fridays as well.
    As I said at the time of the original Radio England announcement, its not even a new idea as back in the mid-1980s, Radio’s Newcastle, Cleveland (Now Tees), York, Leeds, Sheffield and Humberside used to team up in the evenings from 6pm until midnight every night and called the programming strand the BBC NIGHT NETWORK. Radio’s Cumbria, Lancashire, Merseyside and GMR later joined the network. It only ended in the early 1990s in favour of more regionalised programming which still exists today.
    Again, as I said at the time of the original announcement, right idea, wrong time of the day. It would’ve been better to provide overnight programming for the network starting at 10pm until 6am every night as all station’s would take the programmes without the need for opting out (except for execptional circumstances).
    As for who won the contract, it’s obviously a case of “THE OLD BOYS NETWORK”.

  • the morning deejay

    Imagine listening to your car radio in the evenings. What a choice, 40% of the FM spectrum filled with BBC National Local radio (what a contradiction) and 40% Heart. If you’re lucky, you might find a truly local, independent station.
    I suggest that on their last show, each of the local BBC presenters plays out with Tom Petty and ‘The Last Deejay’ – if you’ve never heard it, give it a listen, so poignant.
    Finally, my thanks to BBC presenter Duncan Warren, for keeping us company during the evenings down here in the South West – what a loss he will be. Probably one of the best presenters that listeners in other parts of the country will never have heard.

  • JohnnyBeecher

    David Holdsworth, Controller, BBC English Regions, said, “We were looking for an organisation that understands the local radio audience and can deliver real experience and expertise in what we know is a very demanding slot.”

    Err….That kind of organisation would be an already existing BBC local radio station, wouldn’t it? Not a commercial company planning a ‘local’ programme covering the whole UK.

    Regional local radio may work as with programmes in the South-West (like Geoff Barker’s RnR programme), but National local radio? Isn’t that an oxymoron. I give up….

  • Old Pilot

    What a fantastic piece of news. Now there will be ‘Blood on the Carpet’ part 2 as Mathew strips out the dead wood of local radio and prunes it back for new green shoots in the spring.

    The bland playlist,dire presenters and pointless phone calls from a handful of anoraks and oldies who treat the network as something they exploit with their Horlick’s and hot water bottles will soon just be a sketch from Harry Enfield.

  • http://www.facebook.com/terry.crompo Terry Crompo

    If local talent and other music programmes of county-wide or regional interest are scrapped, why bother- ***!!!!
    Instead save even more of our license money by allowing Radio5 to use the FM frequencies, or maybe even better still get WORLD SERVICE going on FM as it recently lost its Medium Wave outlet. There are several national coverage radio channels already, and the bad-joke “independant ‘local’ radio ” has long since ceased to be anything more than the same pop music records networked ,maybe in a different order in different places, but the same computerised playlists!

  • Nick D

    BBC Local Radio – going forward, back to what it was in the 70s and early 80s with most stations taking Radio 2 at 6 or 7, unless you had sport in which case you stayed on air til 10 ish and then tried to opt back in to R2 – rarely cleanly! Why bother with a national feed? Just press R2 on the desk and go home. Oh, and by the way, the Ford Cortina makes a great Radio Car.

  • Elaine Kneller

    That’s the end of our Local Radio Programmes, as we know and love them. It makes you wonder why we pay our Licence fees now. Just think of all the brilliant presenters that will be losing their jobs. Professional people that we have loved having in our homes. :-(

  • http://www.facebook.com/alan.shellard.90 Alan Shellard

    This idea can only come from a mind as sharp as that of Homer Simpson. I am 50plus but have not lost my love of music i wont be tuning into a speech based service with no remit. It’s Local radio, the clue is in the name Homer. Not National dross that will please no one. If the BBC cant afford to run local programs give it up then, get out of the arena and leave truly local programming to those in the local area. Yes I mean community stations. They are not all Gang show amateurs some stations are run by proficient ex professionals with years of experience in radio to fall back on.

  • Pete Smith (Cheadle Hulme)

    This sounds like the old Nationwide TV Programme on Radio!
    and “The best of each day’s output”…They mean REPEATS!
    OOH Dear Missus, more cutbacks, dressed up.
    Good Luck Boys & Girls

  • http://www.facebook.com/jen.holliday.50 Jen Holliday

    Does David Holdsworth, Controller, BBC English Regions, understand what local radio audiences are? He is quoted in this article as saying “We were looking for an organisation that understands the local radio audience…”. Does he not understand that if you broadcast nationally you have a national radio audience and that a local radio audience is one which wishes to listen to local programmes? Out of touch!

  • Glyn

    You are out of touch with what the people of Kent (and many other regions) want. Thousands of listeners are at this moment listening to Roger Day online.

«
»