Does anyone listen to local BBC radio in the evening now?

mgbstag · 12/04/14 - 22:09

I used to listen to BBC London in the evening, then all the changes happened and I now listen to LBC and dinner Jazz on Jazzfm. It doesn't cross my mind to try BBC Local.

howard h · 12/04/14 - 22:30

If there's a local football commentary then probably, otherwise I think you would need specialist shows to keep anyone listening?

Peace100 · 12/04/14 - 22:40

Used to listen to BBC London in the evening for the excellent daily sports show, since the changes I don't tune in now hardly ever..the Mark Forrest show is poor and certainly not suitable for London. BBC London have now relegated football coverage in the week to DAB only so they don't opt out of Mark Forrest. Crazy when there used to be huge amounts of cabbies/drivers etc listen in on FM. Not suprising though the station management haven't a clue, BBC London is only a pale imitation of the station even just 18 months ago. LBC for me evenings and nights now.

fast left · 13/04/14 - 12:28

just about listen to robert elms these days on the useless bbc london .what a mess it now is compared to the great glr days .

CyrilTheWasp · 13/04/14 - 13:01

Radio WM was superb at reporting on local sports features between 7pm and 10pm until it got ditched in favour ( and to save the BBC money ) of that appalling Mark Forest show which I can't be bothered with

I pray that there is either a local football commentary or speedway on in the evenings now to listen too.Local radio is one of the better things the BBC do but replacing it in the evening with total sh*te is terrible,

davelovesleeds · 13/04/14 - 13:21

I will listen to Radio Leeds in the evening now only if they have the Leeds Utd commentary on, otherwise I find my listening pleasure elsewhere dependant on whether I'm in the car or at home.

Don't like the Mark Forrester show at all.

[Deleted User] · 13/04/14 - 13:46

I have never listened to Mark Forrest in the evenings, non of the Duncan followers listen to Mark. I turn off my radio at 7pm then its not on until 10pm if Vic Morgan is on.

Hybrid tellies · 13/04/14 - 14:20

Before 10 pm I only listen to R Bristol if there is a Bristol City commentary. But after 10pm I do frequently listen to Trevor Fry.

AL89 · 13/04/14 - 14:29

I really think its very poor that BBC London cannot support its own programming in the evening. I know its all down to economics but surely we could go back to minority programming/sport/ethnic programming this is London for goodness sake.
also fill the gap from 01.00-03.00 maybe the cheapest way is to extend both programmes either side.

Inkblot · 13/04/14 - 14:57

Used to listen when they had music programming in the evenings but they dropped that a long time ago.

FM Lover · 13/04/14 - 15:14

The BBC are missing a huge trick here as far as I can see.
Dean Martin's show on Gold was very popular, during his final four hour show the studio logged just over 16,000 calls

Dean should get this slot on BBC local radio, I'm sure it would be a sure fire hit.

Galaxy266 · 13/04/14 - 15:20

No, because it isn't local radio anymore.

You can keep Mark Forrest, thank you.

Seagull259 · 13/04/14 - 15:58

Not regularly since Roger Day was dropped in the south. Did try Mark Forrest a couple of times but as Galaxy266 said, not for me. Only now put it on for the occasional football match commentary.

Amara · 13/04/14 - 21:05

Used to listen to Roger Day but never took to the Mark Forrest show so basically NO.

Sam Walker · 14/04/14 - 00:39

Most of the time I listen to the radio in bed, and usually flick between Radio Norfolk, Radio Norwich, 5 Live, talkSPORT and Smooth and that's after 10pm. Never listened to the Mark Forrest show so can't comment on that. The £100m the BBC put into the failed digitalisation project could have been invested into the local radio instead, which in my opinion would have been more beneficial to the licence fee payer.

Bill Clinton · 14/04/14 - 02:02

I don't think anybody likes the Mark Forrest show particularly as it is what has taken away local output in the evenings, and is crap anyway if you judge it on its own sake. If they are hellbent on not providing BBC Local radio in the evenings to the extent of networking total shite like the Mark Forrest show then it would be better if they could give the airtime to students and other local community radio stations between 7 and 10pm instead, that would certainly provide some fresh listings and those groups would benefit from the much higher transmitter power and coverage on DAB for the evenings.

LindaMcDermott is a nice show in the evening on R Merseyside, if you find Pete Price on City a bit too pumped up then it's a good alternative, I'd hate for them to also take this away and replace it with more crap that would go on after Forrest. I listened to Forrest for about 5 minutes once and it was enough for me!

I know a local musician in my area who got to do a half hour of his songs on a 9pm show on Merseyside before the BBC made that awful change, so it's taking away opportunities for things like this that really benefit local people who were actually benefiting from local broadcasting in the evening.

Anthony_Ryan · 14/04/14 - 11:54

If BBC Local Radio has to have a networked programme between 7.pm to 10.pm then they should replace Mark Forrest with Danny Baker and Martin Kelner.

[Deleted User] · 14/04/14 - 13:00

RAJAR figures for the programme are broadly what they were before the change (around 1.4 million listeners per week). Some areas are up, some down but no consistent picture.

Must admit it's not really my cup of tea and its tone and presentation style is better suited to the shire BBC local stations. But it should also be remembered that the alternative was to regionalise daytime output, so in that context, this was deemed to be a less worse option.

Harris Tweed · 14/04/14 - 14:16

I take the point that it's not local, and some people object to that on principle. I also take the point that if you loved what was there before, you're unlikely to welcome change.

But...

RAJAR says BBC London's reach in the 7-10pm slot M-F was as follows:

2012 (before the change)
Q1 86k
Q2 64k
Q3 63k
Q4 93k

2013 (after the change)
Q1 80k
Q2 102k
Q3 110k
Q4 100k

Or - to summarise - in three out of four quarters last year, Mark scored more listeners than the corresponding quarter the previous year - two of them to the tune of ~60% more.

I'd say there's a hint there that the MF show hasn't been a disaster for BBC London.

Harris Tweed · 14/04/14 - 14:21

Paul_Johnston1 wrote: »

Must admit it's not really my cup of tea and its tone and presentation style is better suited to the shire BBC local stations.

Given the apparent RAJAR success - see my post above - there's an argument that the "tone and presentation (of the) shire BBC stations" might be a profitable gap in the market for BBC London to pursue.

CyrilTheWasp · 14/04/14 - 16:04

Rajar figures just leave me cold .

What possible interest are Rajar figures to the general listening public who have seen their local radio chopped down by 3 hours and which should be a prime time alternative to national radio or even tv ?

When the BBC licence fee is up for review/renewal then they must stipulate that these hours of local radio are restored immediately in favour of the utter garbage we have now and offer a genuine and proper good local and valued service to listeners.

To my mind the BBC are just playing silly beggars with these hours that have been lost in a licence fee payers budget of £3.6 billion.

[Deleted User] · 14/04/14 - 17:03

CyrilTheWasp wrote: »

Rajar figures just leave me cold .

What possible interest are Rajar figures to the general listening public who have seen their local radio chopped down by 3 hours and which should be a prime time alternative to national radio or even tv ?

When the BBC licence fee is up for review/renewal then they must stipulate that these hours of local radio are restored immediately in favour of the utter garbage we have now and offer a genuine and proper good local and valued service to listeners.

To my mind the BBC are just playing silly beggars with these hours that have been lost in a licence fee payers budget of £3.6 billion.

Well, it shows that the programme isn't as unpopular as some people suggested it would be.

I agree it's not ideal - but it was better than the other options considered. And I quite like the idea of showcasing BBC local output on other stations.

And this is not the first time stations have not had local output. Some BBC locals regularly took Radio One of a daytime in the 1970s; the BBC locals in the north west had a regional afternoon programme in the 1990s and the late show in the north west was regional in the early 2000s.

Peace100 · 14/04/14 - 18:06

Harris Tweed wrote: »

I take the point that it's not local, and some people object to that on principle. I also take the point that if you loved what was there before, you're unlikely to welcome change.

But...

RAJAR says BBC London's reach in the 7-10pm slot M-F was as follows:

2012 (before the change)
Q1 86k
Q2 64k
Q3 63k
Q4 93k

2013 (after the change)
Q1 80k
Q2 102k
Q3 110k
Q4 100k

Or - to summarise - in three out of four quarters last year, Mark scored more listeners than the corresponding quarter the previous year - two of them to the tune of ~60% more.

I'd say there's a hint there that the MF show hasn't been a disaster for BBC London.

To be honest you can make figures prove whatever you want; until Jan 2014 BBC London only carried the MF show 2 or 3 times a week as it had football on FM. From January it now carries MF five days a week with no exceptions; all football is on DAB which has upset a lot of people, cabbies, workers etc who don't have access to DAB. Poor decision all round by very weak mgt at the station.

CyrilTheWasp · 14/04/14 - 19:31

The radio industry might be blinded by there undying trust in blinkin' Rajar figures but I have as much faith in the way they are compiled or what highly questionable audience figures they come out with, as I have now in the BBC's ability to deliver a good and proper local radio service which should be among their first radio priorities.

dans_t16s · 14/04/14 - 20:17

Listen to BBC Radio Solent in the mornings because it's proper local radio.
Don't listen in the evenings because it isn't!
Afternoons and evenings I transfer to Wave 105.

[Deleted User] · 14/04/14 - 21:44

I used to listen to BBC Radio Sheffield in the evenings because it was the only station in my area which was local. There was also a variety of music programs on. I don't listen now as this show with Mark Forest does nothing for me. Not enough music
One question I must ask, is when I do tune in, why is the stand in presenters are better than Mark?

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Does anyone listen to local BBC radio in the evening now?

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