Here’s a taste of it:

“ Today, under BBC management preoccupied with handing out fortunes in “back pay” to women it undervalued, its [radio’s] existence is in danger. Even its most secure public faces protest: this week the Today presenter Justin Webb decried the new mantra that “traditional linear broadcasting” must be replaced by a digital buffet of any old tosh that might attract 16 to 24-year-olds. Hence podcasts, many of which are vapid waffle, puddle-deep pop-culture fandom, or lip-smacking “true crime”.

“The BBC Sounds app has money poured into it rather than into programmes; “youth-friendly” presenters are overpaid and underdirected. Yet as Webb suggests, “The young will get old. It has happened before.” Meanwhile the idiosyncratic identity of news programmes — argumentative Today, measured World at One, cheerful drivetime PM — is assaulted by the ruling that all reports must come from a “story-led” central hub. As if all newspapers were ordered to use a single pool of reporters, their editors obedient receptors.

“Radio, linear as well as digital-buffet, retains a strong listenership. It can still surprise, when scheduling offers something (as Reith wished) “better than you thought you wanted”. It is actually the BBC’s only USP: others do TV news, drama and documentaries just as well. But radio is scorned by ambitious tin-eared management theorists. When “young” ears grow up, there may not be much left for them.”