Confessions of a broadcast journalist, number 257 - "I don't listen to enough Radio 4."
Catching a slice of Today and later dosing off to the brilliantly simple, but (by 11.30pm) sadly soporific Today in Parliament, leaves a lot of undiscovered gems in between. Scanning the Radio Times and making a mental note to i-Player that strangely enticing documentary which aired on Tuesday morning usually remains nothing more than an aspiration.
That all says more about my own chaotic media consumption habits than it does about the appeal of Radio 4. However, demographics dictate that, for many, speech radio is a format they will never explore. Some of that untapped audience might simply find the concept itself unappealing, but others are undoubtedly put off by perhaps misguided notions about the character of the few outlets which provide the service. For instance, when my A-Level English Language teacher declared, "Radio 4 makes me weep" [in its quality, I hasten to add], he was met with the bemused faces of a room full of 18-year-olds, not one of whom had ever dabbled in that part of the dial.
So it is both understandable and laudable that one of the stated aims of a new venture called British Public Radio is to bring quality speech radio to a new, younger audience. By drawing fresh listeners into the concept as a whole, all providers should, in theory, benefit. Naturally, for a service proposing to attract a younger audience, the founders of BPL are promising to utilise social networks to target listeners' specific interests. Reassuringly, for the linear luddites amongst us, there is also going to be a traditional slate of scheduled programming.
Whilst clearly not targeting the core Radio 4 audience, the new service would necessarily provide some direct competition for the BBC network. BPL is not proposing to aim exclusively for the younger demographic and, if the content is good enough, the station would no doubt hope to attract speech radio aficionados from across the spectrum. The undoubted benefits of plurality in television news would be brought to full-service speech radio for the first time.
The upbeat nature of the planned service is matched by the positive pitch being made by its founders. However, the group will have to overcome the problems faced by failed speech radio services at a national and local level. Channel 4's foray into DAB speech radio was aborted back in 2008 before its official launch and local stations in Liverpool and Edinburgh have either closed or become skeletons of their original grand ambitions.
As with all launches, there is much optimism about British Public Radio and the initial proposals suggest there is much to be optimistic about. The group's plan is clearly an ambitious one and that can only be a good thing - because recent radio history demonstrates that delivering talk requires plenty of action.
