Talk Radio, UK

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A letter to Kelvin

Paul Donovan

The Sunday Times, 15 November.

The previous Monday, former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie had headed a buyout of speech broadcaster Talk Radio from Luxemburg-based CLT. These are Good Ideas...

When Kelvin MacKenzie was editing The Sun, he started the now famous Twenty Things You Never Knew About... feature. He obviously knows all about newspapers and topless darts. But how much does he know about broadcasters, whom he once described as "parasitical pansies"? Here, at the end of his first week running our youngest and smallest national station, Talk Radio, are Twenty Things Kelvin May Not Know.
1 Out This Week, Radio 5 Live's gay and lesbian show - much criticised (by me, among others) for making a mockery of the BBC's impartiality rules - is being axed in March. MacKenzie, who has often shown an interest in outing, could snap it up.
2 There are now no national radio series for ethnic minorities, 5 Live's Word Up and Asian Perspective have already been chopped, as has Radio 4's In Living Colour. This abolition of ghetto broadcasting is no bad thing. But if MacKenzie wants to do things differently from Radio 4, this is one obvious possibility.
3 Islam is the fastest growing religion in Britain, but largely sidelined by the media. The BBC talked some years ago of serialising the Koran, as it did the Bible, but has not got round to it. There are obvious prospects here, too.

4: Reports at press time indicate Geezer may be returning - as a host
4 There has never been a series called What I Listened to in Jail, which is a pity. Possible contributors include Nelson Mandela, Terry Waite, Lord Brocket, Chris Denning (ex-Radio 1) and Caesar the Geezer (ex-Talk Radio).
5 There is only one national radio series about fishing (Dirty Tackle on 5 Live) and nothing about hunting or shooting, despite the controversy surrounding them. Another obvious programme possibility.
6 There is still no European newspaper round-up on radio.
7 Talk has broken surprisingly few stories: breaking more would raise its profile and strengthen its journalistic credibility.

8: The new year sees a "Big Boy's Breakfast" - a news-based show, discussing the events of the day with minimal phone input. A success.
8 What radio needs is not more sensational news, but bulletins that are straighter and less speculative. ITN, whose bid to do the breakfast show was rejected by Paul Robinson, Talk's managing director, when he hired Kirsty Young instead, would provide a good service.
9 Radio 4 costs £90m a year and Radio 5 Live £30m. Talk Radio's annual programme budget is a tiny £3m. So there is no point whatever in trying to compete with them on their own ground. MacKenzie will have to be different without spending pots of money. He could do worse than launch a poetry hour with a single voice reciting classic verse.
10 Radio Times and most newspapers do not even carry Talk Radio's listings. Virgin is also cold-shouldered. What will happen next year when seven new digital channels begin? Commercial radio should consider getting together to sell its listings as one valuable commodity.
11 Talk promised comedy and drama when it began in February 1995. It has not happened. Even one comedy show would increase Talk's vivacity: so many television hits began on radio.
12 Neil and Christine Hamilton have never had their own show, would love to do one and would be brilliant, judging by past appearances.

13: The Sunday morning schedule features Philip Hitchens of the Express, a distinct right-wing commentator.
13 Other pungent pundits who should be more widely heard are John Beyer, secretary of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association, and the writers and broadcasters Janet Daley, Trevor Phillips, Paul Foot and Lynette Burrows. Three of these are on the right, but then it is right-wing views that are marginalised in a liberal-dominated broadcast media. As Michael Portillo said last year, taking a swipe at the BBC: "Broadcasting organisations must be certain they recruit every sort of person, from every class and background, and ensure that, in pursuing a common ideal, they do not impose a single dogma."
14 People may think it odd that MacKenzie sneers at people who have "great big houses" and PRs to project an image of themselves and yet himself lives in a great big house (in Knockholt, Sevenoaks) and has a PR firm (Shandwick) to project an image of himself.
15 Even in a future increasingly dominated by digital (the aspect that surely attracts News International, owner of The Sunday Times and one of MacKenzie's backers), Talk's venerable medium wave still has a future. Radio 5 Live is on medium wave and is one of the BBC's biggest success stories.
16 People may be curious as to why MacKenzie's company, TalkCo, which bought Talk Radio in a £24.7m deal, began life as Reidcom in June this year and changed its name 10 days later. Perhaps Kelvin could tell us.

17: Instead, he launches a three-hour drivetime sports phone in.
17 Pure news stations, here and elsewhere, do not do as well as news talk stations. So he needs a mixed menu, keeping the popular football but gradually reducing the excessive phone-ins.
18 There is plenty of great American programming available for sale. Orson Welles's War of the Worlds, broadcast at Hallowe'en by Talk (only seven years after Radio 5 did it), should be just the start.
19 MacKenzie himself has an attractive voice and knuckleduster wit and ought to host one show a week - partly for the listeners and partly to learn what his production teams go through.
20 People will forgive him almost anything as long as he never succumbs to BBC-itis and talks about "refreshing the schedules".

It's fair to say that the changes he instigated - including the firing of Tommy Boyd, one of the two surviving voices from the 1995 launch - have alienated a lot of people. The first set of listening figures showed the station losing 8% of its listeners, and 13% of its listening hours.

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Create: Feb 20 99


		When Kelvin MacKenzie was editing The Sun, he started the now famous Twenty Things You Never Knew About... feature. He obviously knows all about newspapers and topless darts. But how much does he know about broadcasters, whom he once described as "parasitical pansies"? Here, at the end of his first week running our youngest and smallest national station, Talk Radio, are Twenty Things Kelvin May Not Know. 1 Out This Week, Radio 5 Live's gay and lesbian show - much criticised (by me, among others) for making a mockery of the BBC's impartiality rules - is being axed in March. MacKenzie, who has often shown an interest in outing, could snap it up. 2 There are now no national radio series for ethnic minorities, 5 Live's Word Up and Asian Perspective have already been chopped, as has Radio 4's In Living Colour. This abolition of ghetto broadcasting is no bad thing. But if MacKenzie wants to do things differently from Radio 4, this is one obvious possibility. 3 Islam is the fastest growing religion in Britain, but largely sidelined by the media. The BBC talked some years ago of serialising the Koran, as it did the Bible, but has not got round to it. There are obvious prospects here, too.
	4: Reports at press time indicate Geezer may be returning - as a host	4 There has never been a series called What I Listened to in Jail, which is a pity. Possible contributors include Nelson Mandela, Terry Waite, Lord Brocket, Chris Denning (ex-Radio 1) and Caesar the Geezer (ex-Talk Radio). 5 There is only one national radio series about fishing (Dirty Tackle on 5 Live) and nothing about hunting or shooting, despite the controversy surrounding them. Another obvious programme possibility. 6 There is still no European newspaper round-up on radio. 7 Talk has broken surprisingly few stories: breaking more would raise its profile and strengthen its journalistic credibility.
	8: The new year sees a "Big Boy's Breakfast" - a news-based show, discussing the events of the day with minimal phone input. A success.	8 What radio needs is not more sensational news, but bulletins that are straighter and less speculative. ITN, whose bid to do the breakfast show was rejected by Paul Robinson, Talk's managing director, when he hired Kirsty Young instead, would provide a good service. 9 Radio 4 costs £90m a year and Radio 5 Live £30m. Talk Radio's annual programme budget is a tiny £3m. So there is no point whatever in trying to compete with them on their own ground. MacKenzie will have to be different without spending pots of money. He could do worse than launch a poetry hour with a single voice reciting classic verse. 10 Radio Times and most newspapers do not even carry Talk Radio's listings. Virgin is also cold-shouldered. What will happen next year when seven new digital channels begin? Commercial radio should consider getting together to sell its listings as one valuable commodity. 11 Talk promised comedy and drama when it began in February 1995. It has not happened. Even one comedy show would increase Talk's vivacity: so many television hits began on radio. 12 Neil and Christine Hamilton have never had their own show, would love to do one and would be brilliant, judging by past appearances.
	13: The Sunday morning schedule features Philip Hitchens of the Express, a distinct right-wing commentator.	13 Other pungent pundits who should be more widely heard are John Beyer, secretary of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association, and the writers and broadcasters Janet Daley, Trevor Phillips, Paul Foot and Lynette Burrows. Three of these are on the right, but then it is right-wing views that are marginalised in a liberal-dominated broadcast media. As Michael Portillo said last year, taking a swipe at the BBC: "Broadcasting organisations must be certain they recruit every sort of person, from every class and background, and ensure that, in pursuing a common ideal, they do not impose a single dogma." 14 People may think it odd that MacKenzie sneers at people who have "great big houses" and PRs to project an image of themselves and yet himself lives in a great big house (in Knockholt, Sevenoaks) and has a PR firm (Shandwick) to project an image of himself. 15 Even in a future increasingly dominated by digital (the aspect that surely attracts News International, owner of The Sunday Times and one of MacKenzie's backers), Talk's venerable medium wave still has a future. Radio 5 Live is on medium wave and is one of the BBC's biggest success stories. 16 People may be curious as to why MacKenzie's company, TalkCo, which bought Talk Radio in a £24.7m deal, began life as Reidcom in June this year and changed its name 10 days later. Perhaps Kelvin could tell us.
	17: Instead, he launches a three-hour drivetime sports phone in.	17 Pure news stations, here and elsewhere, do not do as well as news talk stations. So he needs a mixed menu, keeping the popular football but gradually reducing the excessive phone-ins. 18 There is plenty of great American programming available for sale. Orson Welles's War of the Worlds, broadcast at Hallowe'en by Talk (only seven years after Radio 5 did it), should be just the start. 19 MacKenzie himself has an attractive voice and knuckleduster wit and ought to host one show a week - partly for the listeners and partly to learn what his production teams go through. 20 People will forgive him almost anything as long as he never succumbs to BBC-itis and talks about "refreshing the schedules".