Something is bothering me, which tends to be the normal cue to write something on this blog. I’ve noticed before when Steve Yabsley (BBC Bristol / Somerset 12-2 Mon-Fri) is on holiday that I struggle to find anything at all worth listening to on the radio. The dismal Kate Justice who regularly sits in for him seems to be capable of no conversation beyond her own children. Jeremy Vine’s audio slanging match on Radio 2 is hideous, I can’t listen to Fearne Cotton on Radio 1 without wanting to rip my own ears off and none of our local commercial stations can manage anything beyond the usual collection of chart dross, adverts and promo trails for pissweak competitions.
Then I start wondering whether the problem lies in other places. Certainly late night broadcasting is weak, offering nothing with any personality. BBC Radio 1 and 2 use the space for specialist shows aimed mostly at iPlayer listeners and commercial locals will be either on Late Night Love or Party Classics. Either will be dire. I’ve blogged many times about the loss of late night zoo style radio, but now the “twenty shades of beige” seems to be spreading to daytimes. Aside from breakfast, there is precious little I find to be an appointment to listen, whereas I could quite happily listen to one of about six breakfast shows daily without any problem. It feels as if British radio is putting all of its effort and personality in to four hours between 6 and 10 with nothing creatively left for the rest of the day.
I suppose the problem has been slightly alleviated by the recent move of Scott Mills to Radio 1 daytimes. Much as I don’t mind Greg James, I’ve regularly found myself turning over to recordings when his show is on. I’m not sure what it is that doesn’t quite gel about the show, perhaps it is the fake lack of confidence in content or new features (something which Dev milks to eyewateringly awful levels). The afternoon show felt genuinely delightful when Chris Moyles covered for a couple of days two weeks ago. Freed from the cage and crew of the breakfast show, Moyles sounded like a newly invigorated man who was having the most fun he’d had in the past five years. I do hope the BBC bosses were taking note that he isn’t a one trick pony, nor is he creatively spent, nor does he have to rely on having a crowd of people around him.
So what of the "Importance of Yabsley"? Well, Steve is about the only person i can find who is trying to inject some personality into daytime radio at the moment and the fact that he's spent most of the past eighteen months worrying that the BBC Local Radio cuts will cost him his job seem criminally wrong to me when he is doing something genuinely different on local radio.
