Tony Blackburn covering for Steve Wright
Sid Law
Posts: 4,690 Forum Member
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Bank Holiday stand-ins on Radio 2 are generally average or poor and are best avoided, however Tony Blackburn this afternoon was brilliant.
No BS, no fawning over boring guests, just well presented grown up music radio.
Note to Bob Shennan: Radio professionals who know about the music they are playing and can present a good tight radio show = good.
TV personalities/comedians who the public may have heard of = (in most cases) bad.
No BS, no fawning over boring guests, just well presented grown up music radio.
Note to Bob Shennan: Radio professionals who know about the music they are playing and can present a good tight radio show = good.
TV personalities/comedians who the public may have heard of = (in most cases) bad.
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Comments
You've answered your own question.
The "boring guests" are a BBC Trust service licence requirement for Radio 2 to have speech content during the daytime.
Three hours of continuous music radio is a bank holiday treat but it wouldn't be acceptable on a normal weekday afternoon.
Agree!
TB should be the regular stand in for Wrighty not the ego's of Tarrant or Kielty.
A great show, took me right back to the late 70's with Tony in the same slot on Radio 1.
Yes, but WHY do Steve Wright and Chris Evans "get away with it" (for want of a better expression) and the others don't? Is it just that Ken Bruce etc. just isn't bothered about having to work Bank Holidays yet Wright and Evans demanded it in their contract negotiations?
Couldn't agree more I actually listened to Radio2 today normally the words "Bank Holiday" and "Radio2" means an empty studio running on autoplay (pretty much) with a string of nasty pre recorded shows given to overpaid TV presenters and/or radio friendly comedians etc etc
A good idea to get Tony on I think!
It was simply Steve Wright In The Afternoon with Tony Blackburn. No special format, just the usual show with more added music and the non stop oldies of course.
I'd far prefer Tony than Tarrant or Keilty next time Steve is away which probably be in June.
The BBC trust service licence requirement should urgently reviewed on boring guests for the sake of speech radio on Radio 2 , continuous music radio should be acceptable 7 days a week .
They / their agent are better at negotiating to put it simply. At contract renewal time they will place down their demands and R2 and the BBC will either say Yep thats fine, not a chance or Heres what we want and then both parties discuss until in agreement. They would also discuss payment, holidays and any other clauses at contract renewal.
Then it would be the same as commercial radio so the BBC need to provide something different. The BBC is built to provide an alternative, in Radio 2's case a more diverse mix of music and more speech based output than commercial radio.
Tune into Heart or Absolute if you want more music.
Radio 2's day time musical output is a very good alternative to most commercial radio stations , who seem to play the same records to death.
If you want more speech radio , then you've got Radio 4 , 5 Live and BBC local radio - how much more speech radio do you want ?
70 years old and still at the top of his game.
Sensational:D
That would be a good idea !
How do you know that the others "get away with it" as you put it. For all you know they could have taken the day off but chose not to. Perhaps they are contracted to provide a certain number of shows and when or when they take days off within reason is up to them.
I doubt they're all BBC employees anyway so they can probably decide when they work knowing that a day off is a days less money. Perhaps they get double for doing the bh, who knows.
I wouldn't be surprised if its to do with production staff/news team having the day off. For something like Chris Evans or Steve Wright that has a big back team it's better to have cover than a show that would have a different feel to it.
On Radio 1 pre Grimmy instead of a Chris Moyles team it would literally be Dev and an AP on bank holidays
Yes, and it's hardly a hard and fast rule because Vine was on this Bank Holiday but wasn't at Easter, and I seem to recall that Steve Wright was on at Easter but wasn't this Bank Holiday. Ken Bruce normally takes off Christmas week and comes back for the New Year and Mayo often does the other way round. It all works out the same at the end. Some probably prefer to work the Bank Holidays and take time off elsewhere.
I also remember when he was on Radio 1, Chris Evans doing his show on 2nd January and reading out the rest of the day's schedule and finding out he was the only regular daytime presenter who was actually on air.
And lots of adverts and station ID's :mad: