BOOK | RADIO'S CULTURAL HISTORY & LEGACY
Published in January 2022 is "Radio's Legacy in Popular Culture: The Sounds of British Broadcasting over the Decades[/url]" by Bloomsbury Academic. https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/radios-legacy-in-popular-culture-9781501360442/

The author, Martin Cooper, has spent 20 years in BBC Local Radio and ILR. He is Assistant Subject Leader Emeritus in Journalism & Media at the University of Huddersfield.

A sample chapter is at: https://bloomsburycp3.codemantra.com/viewer/61c091c75f150300016f10af

It's the only academic monograph to find a link between the BBC's first Director of Drama Val Gielgud... and Bob the Builder.

It features 300 case studies from film, pop music, fiction and art. Writers and creatives include James Joyce, Evelyn Waugh, George Lucas, Martin Scorcese, Agatha Christie, Tom Petty, Queen, The Buggles - and, yes, TV stop-motion characters too. Each offers a critique of BBC, commercial, pirate and online radio listening.

This book explores the enduring fascination with radio; the act of listening as a form of cultural expression – focusing on fiction, films and songs about radio.

Follow Martin's academic blog at https://prefadelisten.com/

MediaGuardian has an obituary to Jana, here.

By Lorraine Heggessey.

Jim Latham, formerly of Radio Humberside, BBC Three Counties, Radio Kent, Broadcast Journalism Training Council (BJTC), passed away some time before Christmas 2021.  Sadly details are very scarce and there are several colleagues, myself included, who'd like more info if it's available. All information gratefully received.  Please post replies here, or PM me.  Thanks.

I wonder if the BBC will ask the trustees to do a state pension on it and not pay the full 7.5%? Voluntarily of course.

Meanwhile 'across the road' in the Times:

Quote:


'Previous' Culture Secretary, wonder why they got rid of him? Was he against this hare-brained scheme?  He would have had access to all the previous reviews!

The Financial Times speaks up for the BBC, in an editorial.
Tuesday January 18, 2022

The future of the BBC needs to be safeguarded.
Broadcaster plays a vital role in U.K. cultural and democratic life

     It is no surprise that a government fighting to save the prime minister’s job has focused its sights on one of its most persistent bugbears. It is a travesty nonetheless that questions over the future funding of the BBC appear to have been wrapped into “Operation Red Meat”, a series of populist announcements aimed at placating restive Tory backbenchers. In a fast-evolving media world, the BBC’s licence fee model should be reviewed in coming years. But this process should be entirely divorced from Boris Johnson’s own political travails.

For all its imperfections, the BBC is an essential pillar of British cultural life, and one of its best-known export brands. The government has itself hailed it as the “most trusted broadcaster worldwide”. It is a mainstay of the UK’s thriving creative arts industry. During school shutdowns in the pandemic, its educational broadcasts have been a lifeline for millions of families.

The rise of “fake news”, moreover, makes the role of quality, impartial public service broadcasting ever more vital. The political polarisation of the US, where commercial owners dominate broadcasting, is a cautionary tale.

     With living costs soaring, the government must protect the less well-off. Yet increasing the £159 licence fee in line with inflation would have added about £10 a year, when energy costs are set to rise by around £700 a year for a typical family — partly due to a series of policy errors. The two-year freeze imposed by culture secretary Nadine Dorries looks at best like window-dressing, and at worst like vindictiveness.

A settlement imposed by chancellor George Osborne in 2015 forced the BBC into a five-year programme aimed at cutting costs by £1bn a year, compared with annual licence fee income of £3.7bn. Most savings until now, the National Audit Office says, came from spending on behind-the-scenes staff and improved productivity, but future savings would need to come from programmes and from a news division that has already faced heavy cuts.

Dorries partially backtracked from a tweet on Sunday suggesting the licence fee would be abolished in 2027, though this may be the government’s real intention. There are, to be sure, mounting reasons to review the system. Parts of what the BBC does can now be done by the commercial sector. Streaming services are proliferating. Young people consume media differently from their parents, and watch the BBC less. After Dorries added a warning that the BBC must address “impartiality problems” it is clear that a fee model originally meant to shield the broadcaster from interference has become a tool of political pressure.

Determining its future, however, should not be the preserve of a government of any one political hue. Proposals should be drawn up by a cross-party commission. It should start from the understanding that the BBC is a public good to be preserved, with some form of universal funding. It could examine the functions the BBC should continue to fulfil, and how best to finance it.

Remaining core functions should be broad enough to justify a compulsory fee and meet the needs of millions of Britons who rely on free-to-air broadcasting — though some add-on services might be sold on subscription. A German-style household levy, perhaps added to council tax, could remove the outdated link with TV ownership, allow an element of means-testing, and be easier to collect. These, though, are details to be thrashed out. The priority — as the Johnson government’s own behaviour has laid bare — is to equip a modernised BBC to continue fulfilling the key role it plays in upholding British democracy.

I wonder what those BBC Pensioners who took the PIE option some years ago are thinking today?

The RPI for December 2021 was 7.5%.

So the Pension increase for April 2022 should be the same, I hope?

That might help with the energy bills!

Yet again funding the BBC with the Licence Fee is under scrutiny. This time, no doubt, to try to deflect from 'partygate'!

There have been many reviews on funding the BBC. And every time no viable alternative is found.

There are many reasons to keep the funding this way and it's effectively been going down for years.  Meanwhile, the commercial TV stations increase their advertising income which also comes out of our pockets.  When you buy something it's usually at least a double hit. The goods and the shop we buy them from both advertise, so we're giving the commercial companies effectively more money than the 43p a day we pay for all that the BBC provides.

And the old 'solution' dragged up yet again by this out of touch minister - subscription. How? To limit access to the BBC for those who haven't paid it you'd need a TV or Set Top Box with a card reader or some form of a dongle. Millions of viewers devices don't have anything.

And this myth being peddled that linear TV has a limited life and we'll all be connected to the internet.  What of those who don't get Broadband or have a too low-speed connection? Or those who don't want the internet or can't afford it?  (Anyone know of a broadband connection costing less than the £13 month cost of the Licence Fee?

Any thoughts on this please, the scrapping of the BBC Licence to Broadcast

https://www.megaphone.org.uk/petitions/protect-the-bbc-morethanalicence?bucket=&...