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Old 2nd Jul 2022, 11:06 pm   #27
Junk Box Nick
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Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: West Midlands, UK.
Posts: 1,571
Default Re: Scott Mills to replace Steve Wright on radio 2

For me Steve Wright was the thin end the now very thick wedge that Radio 2 has become. When I had the misfortune to be exposed to it, usually in some workplace, I found his Radio One show irritating and somewhat puerile. That Mr Angry sketch was funny a couple of times – but every darned day... Latterly I had to suffer his R2 show at workplaces. In one place, thankfully, a PRS call put a stop to playing the radio.

To be fair, I was an early leaver of the daytime Radio One output and had abandoned the station completely by the time I was thirty. I had previously done my time with the offshore pirates and Radio Luxembourg so perhaps I was tired of pop radio.

Wright is credited with introducing the ‘zoo’ format to the UK featuring a main personality surrounded by a load of sidekicks. Instead of the presenter talking to you the listener – which to me is what good ‘disc jockey’ radio is about by providing company to the listener – you are then invited to listen in to a load of clever Dick banter designed mainly to augment the personality of the ‘star’ of the show.

After four decades and a bit, though more recently only listing to the specialist output that has been steadily removed, Radio 2 is off my presets and has been sometime. Radio 2 is just another version of Radio One to go with the other three flavours plus the various Radio One online spin-offs. The same is going on with the locals BBC LR is now Radio 2 lite.

The pushing of Radio 2 down to meet Radio One has been going on a while. The older set have been abandoning it in droves for years – hence Classic FM’s 5m listeners. Not because they all dig Rachmaninov and Beethoven but that the find they presentation and general ambiance far more pleasant.

The irony of the situation with Steve Wright is that at 67 he is knocking on a bit for Radio 2’s current target audience. Ken Bruce gets lauded and is the remaining favourite of the older set. What many don’t know realise is that there was a plan to remove him fourteen years ago. It was the Ross/Brand Sachsgate that put paid to that when the Controller was changed. Simon Mayo had been slated for the morning show.

I’ve long concluded that when it comes to popular output (as opposed to R3 and R4), the BBC is not interested in providing anything for me at all – and I don’t think my tastes are that esoteric.
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