This is taken from The Guardian:

Radio 4 ditches UK Theme

by Julia Day
Wednesday January 25, 2006

BBC Radio 4 is axing its early morning UK Theme medley of patriotic songs after 33 years to make way for a new 5.30am news bulletin.

Radio 4's UK Theme - which interweaves folk songs from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - has been the first thing played on the station each morning since 1973.

Composed by the late flautist Fritz Spiegl - who also wrote the theme tune to TV classic Z-Cars - the five-minute UK Theme is broadcast each morning at 5.30am, identifying the change over from World Service programmes that play on the station overnight to Radio 4's own broadcasts.

But the Radio 4 controller, Mark Damazer, believes listeners want to be brought up to date with the latest news as soon as they switch on their set, rather than having to wait until the 6am start of the Today programme.

"I know there are some people who will regret the passing of the UK Theme but I believe the bulk of the audience will be better served by a pacy news briefing, read by one of Radio 4's fine team of news readers," said Mr Damazer. From April, Radio 4 will begin broadcasting 10 minutes earlier, at 5.20am, with an extended shipping forecast that will now include the full inshore water forecast.

Then, at 5.30am, there will be a new weekday bulletin bringing early risers up to date on the day's headlines and issues.

It will not be a mini-Today programme with two-way interviews and comment. But rather a straightforward news bulletin read by one of the station's newsreaders, including headlines, a newspaper review, business and sports news and a look ahead to the stories likely to develop during the day. There may be the occasional news package produced specially for the programme.

The new bulletin will not affect Prayer for the Day at 5.43am or Farming Today, two minutes later. And the Today programme will begin at 6am as usual.

Some Radio 4 listeners may be upset by the loss of the UK Theme. The station's listeners are both notoriously wary of changes and vocal about anything they do not agree with.

Mr Damazer's recent decision to axe Home Truths, after failing to find a suitable replacement for the late John Peel as presenter, caused heated debate among the audience.

Spiegl's UK Theme is an ingenious compilation of UK folk tunes including Rule Britannia, Danny Boy, What Shall We Do with the Drunken Sailor?, Greensleeves and Scotland the Brave.

You can listen to it by clicking here.

This is taken from the FT:

Brown backs Radio Four listeners' campaign to save musical opening
By Christopher Adams,Political Correspondent
Published: January 26 2006 02:00

Gordon Brown last night stepped into a dispute between the BBC and Radio Four listeners when he threw his weight behind a campaign to save the station's early morning musical opening.

The chancellor, known to be an early riser, disclosed he is one of a legion of fans who object passionately to the corporation's plans to drop the "UK Theme", a medley of patriotic tunes, from the airwaves.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, he cited the "Britishness" of the medley, which was composed by a refugee from the Nazis, as a reason to keep the 30-year tradition.

He told the newspaper: "It should be for the listeners to decide, and I know they are making their voices heard.

"But personally I've always seen the 'UK Theme' as one of the symbols of Britishness and a celebration of British culture."

His comments appeared to catch Mark Thompson, BBC director-general, unawares. He labelled the theme's supporters "sentimental insomniacs", according to the Mail.

Mr Brown has made what he calls "a modern view of Britishness" a central part of his political thinking. The chancellor, who is widely expected to succeed Tony Blair as prime minister before the next general election, set out a powerful sense of British citizenship in a speech this month that echoed the civic and patriotic sensibility in the US.

His intervention in the BBC row could be seen as a populist gesture designed to increase his appeal. It also risks exposing the corporation to accusations it has antagonised listeners while it is in talks on funding.

There was speculation that the corporation could offer listeners a compromise by making the medley available on its website.

I too remember the Radio4 UK theme with affection................in the 70s I and my studio assistant used to listen to it on prefade at high volume as a 'wake up' or  limbering up activity to get us up to speed before taking to our local airwaves at 0600 on Radio Birmingham later WM.........however I can see that it has outlived it's usefulness on R4 since it is no longer at the start of the days broadcasting...the frequencies having carried World Service during the night. Farewell old tuneful friend!
Pete Simpkin

This is taken from the Times letters page, January 28:

Whose BBC is it anyway?

Sir, While I am moved by the lament of Radio 4 listeners for the loss of their jolly dawn wake-up call, I have to wonder what it is they are lamenting. Do they know what What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor? is all about? It is all about the condition of “bosun’s droop”. Its colloquial equivalent, coined by the working women of Portsmouth, is “a drunken sailor”. This refers not to the tar himself, only to the part of the tar most affected by a night of heavy drinking; with which, as the song says, nothing can be done on the morning after. Unless, that is, a bit of TLC is administered by the woman; whereupon the cure is greeted with the cry: “Hey, ho, and up she rises, hey, ho, and up she rises, hey, ho, and up she rises, early in the morning!” It may be (of course you would have to ask a Pavlovian to be certain) that just hearing the song has a similar effect. If so, it is easier to understand why some Radio 4 listeners are going to miss it so much.

DR ANNE COREN
London EC1

This is taken from The Independent on Sunday:

'Clearly many Radio 4 listeners are bruised. I quite understand'
Middle England has risen up in fury over controller Mark Damazer's plan to axe an early morning medley of patriotic tunes. It has left him shaken. Will he now back down?
By Tim Luckhurst
Published: 29 January 2006

During the confrontation with the Government that culminated in the Hutton Inquiry, Radio 4 controller Mark Damazer fought in the BBC's front line. One colleague described him as "a tower of strength who was in the bunker throughout, handing out calm advice and support and taking an awful lot of the flak himself".

Damazer hoped that nothing in his career would put him under such pressure again. Last week he was disappointed, when his decision to axe the medley of UK folk songs that has for 33 years kicked off Radio 4's daily schedule exploded in his face.

The row has embroiled the Prime Minister, no less, who said menacingly: "I know the BBC will be aware of the very strong feeling that has been expressed in the House and across the country." His Chancellor, Gordon Brown, said he has "always seen the 'UK Theme' as one of the symbols of Britishness and a celebration of British culture". Jeremy Paxman was characteristically clear. "I've no idea what they think they're doing," he said. "They could have done something useful, like murdering You and Yours or VegTalk."

Will the decision be reversed? Damazer is shaken and indecisive. "At the moment we have not done it. It is therefore kind of hypothetical in the sense that it has not even happened yet and therefore I won't speculate in any particular direction about it. But clearly a significant section of the Radio 4 audience are bruised. I absolutely understand that. I am not going around the country pretending that everyone is applauding. But by the same token, I have not made the change yet."

Though adamant that he has not been cowed by the Chancellor's support for Britishness, Damazer is pained to find himself portrayed as unpatriotic: "The notion that the decision is in some way a signal that I do not approve of people feeling patriotic about the UK is plain wrong. Patriotism and pride in the very best of what Britain has to offer are expressed on Radio 4 more than anywhere else in the British media. I am not saying we exclusively define what makes the United Kingdom great, but the debate, challenge, pluralism, comedy, drama and celebration of the language which are ribboned through the Radio 4 schedule are magnificent manifestations of what makes the UK an extraordinary country."

So why provoke such profound and widespread hostility for the sake of a trifling change at a time when the audience is tiny? "It is perfectly clear to me that a lot of people disagree," says Damazer, "but, rightly or wrongly, I felt that between 5.30am and 5.45am we were not providing what the audience is interested in."

That, he claims, is "a concise news bulletin, sport and business, a weather forecast, a review of the papers and a look ahead to the day, all in 13 or 14 minutes".

He regrets having described his objective as a "pacy" news bulletin, denouncing that as "a clumsy word". What he means is that Radio 4 stalwarts regard pace as a vice reserved for lesser channels such as Five Live and commercial radio. That being the case, and given their historic antipathy to change, why incur their wrath? Simply broadcasting Fritz Spiegel's medley of "Rule Britannia", "Danny Boy", "What Shall We Do with the Drunken Sailor?", "Greensleeves" and "Scotland the Brave" five minutes earlier would accommodate his bulletin without any other changes to the schedule. Damazer says he decided against that for "technical reasons" (to do with leaving the World Service in the middle of a programme).

He admits that most of the emails he has received have been hostile. He claims to detect "cross currents" of support but adds: "Decisions of this kind are never going to be made with universal assent or anything of the kind."

BBC insiders say he did not begin to imagine the outcry he would provoke and insist that he barely discussed it with colleagues before proceeding. Damazer refuses to divulge how far up the BBC management chain he did consult, saying only: "I did not just do it, but it was my decision. It is nobody else's responsibility."

Atypically for a talented executive still young enough to aspire to be director-general - he is 50 - Damazer has few enemies in the BBC. He is admired as an intellectual who entertains colleagues with stimulating conversation and humour and eschews bitching. One colleague says: "Mark is instinctively reluctant to assume that people will become hysterical about things that are objectively insignificant.He won't admit it but he took his eye off the ball this time."

Damazer certainly does not admit it. Instead, he parades the controversy as proof of the BBC's editorial vigour: "Today and Newsnight have gone for it as they think it's a jolly good story, and I'm rather proud of them for doing that. The degree of editorial autonomy displayed by Radio 4 on this is one of the things I admire in British culture and Radio 4."

But Damazer faces a dilemma. He arrived at Radio 4 declaring the station to be "in terrific shape" and promising to "cherish it and sustain it". Since then, new competition in the form of digital speech stations has begun to win listeners. Last week, Channel 4's chief executive, Andy Duncan, told the Oxford Media Convention that Channel 4's next diversification venture would be a bid for a digital radio licence. The proposed station, including national news and current affairs, music and comedy, is aimed straight at the Radio 4 audience.

The venerable BBC station will have to adapt and Damazer knows it: "I am not here either to suggest a diagnosis that it is all wrong and bad, because it isn't, or that there is going to be a massive change, because there won't be. The notion that radical revolutionary ferment is why I made the decision [to scrap the medley] is plain wrong." He describes his ambition as "renewing and reinvigorating Radio 4's appeal to people who either don't know about it but are interested in intelligent speech, or who listen to it much less than I would like".

The same challenge has faced every Radio 4 controller for 20 years. Half the station's audience listen to nothing except the Today programme, young listeners are a tiny minority and the established audience is ageing.

Fiddling with the medley has taught Damazer how hard he will have to work to reconcile established listeners with the changes needed to equip the station for new challenges. He pledges a gradual approach but admits: "Every now and then, programmes will leave the schedule. I need to let some fresh air in and try a few other things."

Becoming the story in a way he avoided throughout the Hutton Inquiry has been a bruising experience. Don't expect the 5.30am melody to disappear soon. It may not disappear at all.