Ken Bruce has announced on air that he is Radio 2 after 31 years hosting its weekday mid-morning show.
His slot is the most listened-to show on UK radio, and he will now join rival station Greatest Hits Radio.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64305756
Same job, different shirt by the sounds of it.
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Shame.
I have not found any replacements as good as the previous incumbents on R2. Some are fine and I will probably grow to like them. For some, I expect that will never happen.
I may follow Ken.
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>> His slot is the most listened-to show on UK radio, and he will now join
>> rival station Greatest Hits Radio.
And he is taking popmaster with him. My no1 goto show when on a UK holiday journey.
With jeremy vine still there, R2 is now an entertainment desert.
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NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooo.
I can’t stand Greatest Hits Radio, it’s basically non-stop adverts occasionally interrupted by presenters.
Virgin Radio should’ve poached him.
Last edited by: Fursty Ferret on Tue 17 Jan 23 at 17:10
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R2 started to go down the pan when Johnnie Walker quit Drive Time.
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I can see the problem from both sides. Many have listened and enjoyed the likes of Bruce for many tears and hate change. Radio tends to become part of people’s lives.
The BBC has, on the other hand, a need to look to its future and cannot afford Radio 2 to become a station listened to by only a dwindling band of pensioners and needs to attract a younger and more diverse audience to justify its existence.
You cannot please everyone all of the time I guess.
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Wed 18 Jan 23 at 08:59
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Yeah, I can see the logic in that.
Let your biggest radio audience leave so you can attract a demographic that don't listen to radio.
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>> Yeah, I can see the logic in that.
>>
>> Let your biggest radio audience leave so you can attract a demographic that don't listen
>> to radio.
>>
They have to try something. If they don't do anything in 10-20 years their core audience will be dying off and the rest are as likely to listen to radio shows as they are send a telegram.
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>They have to try something.
I would suggest that successfuly attracting new punters to an offering they are willing to pay for before losing your historically loyal customer base would be the way that most private businesses would go.
But the media landscape is changing quickly and the BBC have been left in the dust tinkering around the edges of a dying business model. They are already irrelevant to todays kids who won't be willing to pay a telly-tax for something they see no value in.
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I don't think the bloke got kicked out perhaps he fancied a change.
Perhaps it's difficult for them to do both. Listening to a specific dj isn't really something I'd ever do. I can't really think of any I'd want to Listen to.
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>> The BBC has, on the other hand, a need to look to its future and
>> cannot afford Radio 2 to become a station listened to by only a dwindling band
>> of pensioners and needs to attract a younger and more diverse audience to justify its
>> existence.
The thing is though that I don't know anyone who actually likes the choice of music played on Radio 2 apart from the incredibly tiny demographic of people who are exactly the same age as Sara Cox and like 80's disco. Because that's literally all it is now.
Zoe Ball has a constant stream of kids being forced to call in by their parents. I can't stand the high-pitched stammering of a child that has no idea what's going on but has been promised a Snickers for making mummy look good in front of her friends.
It's pretty telling that on the occasional days that they let listeners choose the music they get a totally - and I mean totally - different playlist.
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>> The thing is though that I don't know anyone who actually likes the choice of
>> music played on Radio 2 apart from the incredibly tiny demographic of people who are
>> exactly the same age as Sara Cox and like 80's disco. Because that's literally all
>> it is now.
The Radio 2 demographic has long been those who've outgrown Radio 1 or were already outside its target in 1967.
Dad, born in 1924, would have Radio 2 on in the car as it played stuff from the forties and fifties.
I started listening in the later eighties when I went off chart music. By then Radio 2 was on to the fifties/sixties.
It will be interesting to see where it goes now the 'post chart' cohort (if a chart cohort still exists) are not habitual listeners to live radio.
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I'll miss Ken Bruce.
I use Alexa to receive UK radio stations in the living room and I'm usually downstairs, making lunch when the pop quiz starts. That's my favourite part but I generally enjoy his banter throughout the show. I'll probably follow him to wherever ends up, I've never heard of that station but if he takes the pop quiz with him, I'll desert R2.
I'm a '67 baby (in my late 40s now of course). I see R2 as a station for older folk (with the exception of Zoe Ball, who I couldn't listen to). It makes me smiles when they play a track on R2 that was banned from R1 decades ago for some kind of scandal - Sex Pistols, Ian Dury and Frankie Goes to Hollywood and such.
Last edited by: BiggerBadderDave on Wed 18 Jan 23 at 11:03
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Can't say I've had Radio two on the wireless in the last 45 years. I'll stick with Radio 3 except when some pretentious know-all starts explaining why some so-called composer wrote the awful 'Spiegel in Spiegel' or some other unlistenable stuff. Then I'm over to Classic FM....in spite of the adverts !
Ted
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I will miss Ken Bruce and will follow him to GHR - I already turn over in the afternoons since Steve Wright got the boot, Scott Mills is just so dull.
I suspect that Ken jumped before he was pushed. It is weird that the nation's station will let the nation's top rated presenter leave like this.
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..given he's of an age profile that would fit in here well (he's older than me!) he may well have been tempted away by the offer of a home studio. No need to travel to work, and the ability to present the programme from the comfort of a commode. ;-)
(FWIW I shall miss him on R2 - though in reality I shall probably miss R2 in its entirety now)
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>> I can’t stand Greatest Hits Radio, it’s basically non-stop adverts occasionally interrupted by presenters.
No different to any other commercial radio station.
I used to listen to JackFM Oxford all the time, but since they've recently revamped the station and employed some wally called Ian Lee to do the breakfast show, and Trevor Marshall has left, so have I and a load of other listeners.
HeartFM Oxfordshire is anything but Oxfordshire, since they moved broadcasting to the Reading area.
Channel hopping one day, I discovered Greatest Hits Radio, and have left the office radio tuned to it ever since. Can't get it in the car as it doesn't have DAB.
Last edited by: VxFan on Wed 18 Jan 23 at 13:05
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I used to listen to HeartFM for the local traffic reports when I was trudging into Reading and back every day.
Their playlists are generated somewhere centrally and the presenters just fill in the gaps. The playlists are also repeated every week or so.
I once got P'd off enough to email them and tell them to stop playing Phil Oakey and Giorgo Moroder at 6.30pm every damn Tuesday.
Never got a reply.
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'stop playing Phil Oakey and Giorgo Moroder at 6.30pm every damn Tuesday'
If you're ever in Poland, stick the radio on. Within 20 minutes you'll have heard Big in Japan (Alphaville) and One Night in Bangkok (Chess musical). They must have some geographical musical fetish.
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Classic FM seem to have similar fetishes. Some months ago it was Handel several times a day every day. Water music, Fireworks and Zadoc. They've moved on a bit now. The only piece that actually makes me switch off is the repetitive Bolero. David Mellor had a good show where he introduced music from his own collection. I bought quite a few CDs on his recommendation. They seem only to have about 30 stock pieces...perhaps I ought to lend them some of mine !
Ted
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>>
>> Classic FM seem to have similar fetishes.
At one time it seemed impossible to listen to Smooth Classics at 7 without hearing Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. That being Vaughan Williams I'm often led off for a minute or so thinking it's something by his contemporary George Butterworth whose work I particularly admire.
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>> I discovered Greatest Hits Radio, and have left the office radio
>> tuned to it ever since. Can't get it in the car as it doesn't have
>> DAB.
>>
Have you tried streaming? Way better reception than DAB and wider choice of stations
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>> No different to any other commercial radio station.
Virgin Radio has adverts but it's nowhere near as intrusive. Likewise LBC. Or Scala. Or *looks shamefaced* BOOM.
Last edited by: Fursty Ferret on Wed 18 Jan 23 at 16:08
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I think the gold medal must go to Dave on tv. They can make a 30 minut3e show spin out to an hour with ads and trailers of pleasures yet to come.
Ted
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'I think the gold medal must go to Dave on tv. They can make a 30 minut3e show spin out to an hour with ads and trailers'
Try watching Auf Wiedersehen on the Yesterday channel. I was watching it a couple of years ago and I was getting confused with the editing. Oz would be chatting to Barry and in the very next cut, he's talking to someone else in another location. The plot just wasn't working and nothing was how I remembered. Then in the end credits there are stills from the episode (one for each character with name's actor) but some of the scenes had not been shown. There was even a character in the still who hadn't appeared at all. When I had a look at IMDb it said the program was 60 minutes long shown on BBC. The Yesterday channel showed it an hour, too - but with 3 ad-breaks during and one at the end, probably a total of twenty minutes or so. That is some seriously nasty edit-hacking of a favourite show. Totally ruined.
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I'd never heard of BOOM but they've just played Radar Love, Mirror in the Bathroom, Breakin Down The Walls and Liquidator.
Duly noted.
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You have to be careful with BOOM radio (or booowm as alexa says) and choose your time carefully. Yeah sure they do have moments of sheer brilliance in playlist (why did you do it - by stretch, Brandi by looking glass, followed by the stones gimme shelter - as a threesome) but then you get the likes of Diddy David Hamilton playing early 60's scheiße.
And its mux coverage on DAB is a bit spotty, so you may need to resort to your mobile app if you are mobile.
Another radio to try is FIX, a builders channel, very blokey.
Last edited by: Zero on Thu 19 Jan 23 at 08:48
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I never realised the sheer number of radio stations there are now in the UK. Must be something for everyone surely.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_radio_stations_in_the_United_Kingdom
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Not as many as it looks. Loads you wont get as coverage is spotty, loads you wont get because it local (very local), loads that become one at a certain time (BBC local radios for one), loads with different names but actually the same channel, and a shed load you wouldn't want to listen to.
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If you really want choice try Radio Garden although unfortunately you need a VPN as they have now blocked non UK stations due to copyright arguments.
Great fun to listen to what’s currently popular in Vladivostok!
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>> Virgin Radio has adverts but it's nowhere near as intrusive.
Tried listening to it once, never again. I found it absolutely dire.
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>> Have you tried streaming? Way better reception than DAB and wider choice of stations
I used to be able to, but my aftermarket head unit died last year and I'm back to now using the original factory fit one which doesn't have any connectivity between it and my iPhone.
Last edited by: VxFan on Thu 19 Jan 23 at 10:43
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>> >> Have you tried streaming? Way better reception than DAB and wider choice of stations
>>
>> I used to be able to, but my aftermarket head unit died last year and
>> I'm back to now using the original factory fit one which doesn't have any connectivity
>> between it and my iPhone.
Buy a new one, one of the Chinese android all singing all dancing head units are dirt cheap
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>> Buy a new one, one of the Chinese android all singing all dancing head units
>> are dirt cheap
They're dirt cheap for a reason.
Besides that, I'm not sure how much longer I will keep the car. Had the Astra 8 years now (yes, really that long). Nothing inspires me though, and it sailed through the 6th MOT last September, and has only ever had advisories in one of those years, which was for a perished / cracked rear tyre, and weeping rear shocks.
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The BBC are desperately trying to attract a younger audience to demonstrate they appeal to a wide demographic. - TV and (probably) radio audiences are dominated by older viewers.
They need to attract the 16-30 age group who routinely take news, entertainment, music, etc from other sources and social media. I think the ship has sailed!
The future of the licence fee is up for grabs in the next two years, upon which survival of the BBC is dependant.
There are a few bits of the BBC (news, quality output) I value - the rest is done equally well by the countless other TV channels and a licence fee is simply an unnecessary tax.
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>> There are a few bits of the BBC (news, quality output) I value - the
>> rest is done equally well by the countless other TV channels and a licence fee
>> is simply an unnecessary tax.
The BBC does some niche stuff unavailable elsewhere (decent talk radio and at least some radio drama, Radio 3, documentaries, news mainly). When the BBC is not funded to do this, it will simply be unavailable or cost a lot more. The BBC IMO should never have been forced to produce mind-rotting tripe like 'reality TV' just to justify its existence anyway. Even the mainstream stuff is likely to cost more when it is commercially produced (cf. Sky subs with the licence fee).
All that is just life I suppose, but the government we have seems to hate the BBC and for that matter Channel 4, hence its obvious efforts to control the tone and scope of the BBC and the government's suppression of scrutiny by our supposedly independent broadcaster (suspension of the ministerial media round for example). I imagine the government is infuriated by QT last night producing a chart to challenge their
The BBC will be reduced to a stub or eliminated I expect, even if the current crooks are chucked out for a while, and we will be the poorer for it.
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All that may be true of course but the problem how do you justify the existance ot a licence fee to the very large and growing section of the population who seldom watch to listen to BBC programs?
I'm very much a supporter of the BBC but my consumption of its products has dropped significantly over the past few years. Seldom listen to BBC radio for music now, mostly streamed music from Amazon or commercial stations and for current affairs and news increasingly listen to Times Radio. For entertainment and documentary type stuff I listen to a lot of podcasts and audio books.
A large portions of young people don't listen to BBC radio or watch TV at all. Sadly I think that the BBC is going to end up much, much smaller than it is now and probably a subscription service.
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I listen to the radio in the car by streaming through the Radio Player app. Much better reception than DAB and a very wide range of stations and no geographical constraints. But now the BBC have stopped letting their stations being streamed through it (and presumably other third party streamers) and you now have to have the BBC Sounds app.
Why? It’s added faff that is surely unnecessary? It’s almost as if they don’t want people to listen to their output!
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Copyright. As you say no geographical restraints.
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I’m sure it is copyright and yet Global, Bauer and the other radio groups are happy to have third parties hosting their output?
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>> I’m sure it is copyright and yet Global, Bauer and the other radio groups are
>> happy to have third parties hosting their output?
Global etc are funded by ads and may 'travel' better than a station funded by what is, to some folks, a domestic tax?
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Sun 5 Feb 23 at 21:19
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BBC sounds also gives you access to lots of good other stuff, they have some very interesting podcasts, and archive stuff. Its not that much agro to have another app.
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>> BBC sounds also gives you access to lots of good other stuff, they have some
>> very interesting podcasts, and archive stuff. Its not that much agro to have another app.
IME the aggro with these apps is unleaning the old one an learning the new.
The way that Sounds presents in the Skoda's Android Auto is also different to how it looks on the phone itself.
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The ITV Hub switch to ITVX is poor on the TiVo. It used to be fairly easy to watch streamed stuff but it seemed to take quite a few clicks to get there last night. I suppose it's just about familiarity.
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>> BBC sounds also gives you access to lots of good other stuff, they have some
>> very interesting podcasts,
He's right, you know.
My personal favourite is 'More or Less' BBC Radio 4 09.30 Wednesdays. It examines the various statistics quoted in the media and judges whether they are accurate or not.
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Yes Duncan, they are a good listen as they are often a bit humorous and also usually fairly short - and never too "technical".
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Until Times Radio came along Radio 4 was my go to station.
In spite of my aversion to anything associated with Murdoch I do find people like John Pienaar and the various folks who have been in the Sunday 10-1 slot since TR started really informative.
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>> BBC sounds also gives you access to lots of good other stuff, they have some
>> very interesting podcasts, and archive stuff. Its not that much agro to have another app.
>>
Yes the BBC Sounds App does give you lots of extra stuff. Until you plug it into Apple Car Play. Then you only get a fraction of the extra stuff (fair enough - I wouldn't expect it all) but more importantly the number of available stations shrinks dramatically. Apart from Radio 1 - I can get 6 'versions ' of that. Great! (not). I can also get Welsh radio, Radio Ulster, Asian Radio etc. None of which I have ever listened to in my life (and am not going to start now). But I can't get Radio London or Radio Surrey, or Radio Berks, or a whole load more.
Like I said - it's like they don't want you to listen to their output!
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>> Like I said - it's like they don't want you to listen to their output!
Nope, its like apple want to control your choices. As they do, often.
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Further investigation reveal that it is not Apple but the BBC.
In their words "Please note, local radio stations aren't currently available on Android Auto or Car Play". I've complained, pointing out that I can no longer listen to local radio in the car, and what am I paying my licence fee for?
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Yeah, BBC radio is free to air, you don't need a license for that.
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Surely access to the BBC via Apple Car Play is a bonus rather than the standard offering. You can still access your local BBC radio by other means so you are hardly losing out.
It a bit like local BBC TV stations You can’t access them on the HD channel at the moment.
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..maybe not on terrestrial, but you can (or shortly will be able to) on Freesat.
It is rolling out across regions as we speak. Our BBC1 regional programs (e.g. local news) became available in the last week or so, accompanied by a channel change from 106 to 101 for BBC1 HD.
TBH, it hasn't benn particularly widely publicised, but I caugh a news story a few days in advance.
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>> Surely access to the BBC via Apple Car Play is a bonus rather than the
>> standard offering. You can still access your local BBC radio by other means so you
>> are hardly losing out.
>>
No, the point is that when you stream radio you can listen to local radio (BBC or commercial) anywhere, and are not geographically limited (as you are with FM or DAB). By only allowing BBC radio to be streamed by BBC Sounds, which will not allow local radio to be streamed when listening via Android Auto or Car Play, listeners are losing out.
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>> Further investigation reveal that it is not Apple but the BBC.
>>
>> In their words "Please note, local radio stations aren't currently available on Android Auto or
>> Car Play". I've complained, pointing out that I can no longer listen to local radio
>> in the car, and what am I paying my licence fee for?
>>
There's an ongoing fight where the BBC is pulling all its content from third-party providers like TuneIn, because they're refusing to hand over detailed listener data (ie, identifiable).
So it works OK on Google and Amazon because they'll give your personal data to the BBC. TuneIn won't, nor will Tesla and Apple, and so the BBC has thrown its toys out of the pram and pulled the stations.
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/help/questions/recent-changes-to-bbc-sounds/shoutcast-closure
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And his replacement is Vernon Kay.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64755872
Ken will be presenting his final show on 3 March.
He said on Friday: "I had intended fulfilling my contract until the end of March but the BBC has decided it wants me to leave earlier. Let's enjoy the week ahead!"
"Woo Gary Davies, woo Gary Davies, woo Gary Davies on your radiooo" will fill the gap between Bruce's departure and Kay's first show.
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I wonder what the rationale for this is?
They will probably need to pay Ken up to the end of his contract.
They will have to pay Gary Davies for his stint as well.
There was no evidence that I heard that Ken was "poaching customers", he has been on form the last few weeks, especially with the piano room sessions!
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Ken Bruce is leaving BBC Radio 2 - zippy
