Good article though I don't agree with everything Gillian Reynolds wrote.
However I'm sad to say that during the week I never listen in to 5 Live at all during much of the day. I never had the problems with Victoria Derbyshire that some posters here had but as much as I wasn't her greatest fan she was a hundred times better than Adrian Chiles. He does not have a voice for radio and sounds bored most of the time, even if he really is interested in the subject being discussed. Peter Allen is better but he doesn't suit working on a magazine style programme. The lack of a proper news programme at lunchtime is a serious omission. The problem could easily be solved by moving Peter to a lunchtime slot between 12pm and 2pm but cutbacks in 5 Live's budget mean this isn't going to happen.
The afternoon programme with Dan Walker and Sarah Brett is poor. It doesn't require two presenters and at times is unlistenable so therefore I don't listen to it!
At least Drive is still on fine form and when it is on. I tune back to 5 Live. usually I've tuned away on a morning when Nicky Campbell has started to be insufferable.
Moving on to nights, Phil Williams still sounds too "matey" and lightweight to carry a programme for three hours. That said, Richard Bacon was quite similar in the same slot but managed to do a better job.
And finally Up All Night - I'm ever sadder to say I've finally called time on this programme. I already had long done so at the weekend but I've always liked listening to Rhod's presentation of the programme. But now... half the time he isn't actually doing anything other than introducing repeats of interviews broadcast during daytime hours. And which often feature the one thing I can't stand in the small hours - repeat articles that feature music! Sometimes the music is in the background but nevertheless it is there and so off goes my radio.
On the whole most of the above sounds rather negative but I really do think 5 Live has lost its way in much of its non-sports output.
Former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie is bidding to run a new national sports radio station a decade after he sold TalkSport.
MacKenzie’s new station, called Sports Radio, is one of a proposed lineup of services for the second wave of national commercial digital stations due to be licensed by media regulator Ofcom later this year.
The station, which is part of Listen2Digital’s bid to run the second national commercial multiplex, would put MacKenzie head to head against TalkSport, now owned by UTV Media.
MacKenzie has joined forces with TalkSport’s launch managing director Jason Bryant for the bid, announced on Monday.
Bryant said: “Sports Radio will offer real choice for listeners.
“With BBC Radio 5 Live unable to provide a full sports service because of its news commitments and TalkSport being remarkably similar to the line-up we launched with 15 years ago, we believe there’s now a market for a new generation of listeners, talent and advertisers.”
If Listen2Digital wins the licence, Sports Radio said it would launch in January next year.
There would providing 5 Live loses some. There have been weeks when 55 Live has had rights to more lie sport commentaries than it can broadcast on the radio. Extra channels have been created for tennis covverage that has clashed with cricket. This wouldn't be necessary if the cricket was on Sports Radio.
5 Live can't even afford to have its own team at many of the matches that are on Sports Extra. It may be able to if it lost some Premier League rights.
Well I know the left leaning posters will say something like well it's telegraph readers of course they will say that....but many of those posts echo what many here have said about 5live....
Yes it may be a righty paper but does at least show it's not just a few people on CD saying it....actually even grauniad has heckled 5 a lot over recent times...
Oh and gomezz...once again I concurr... should be another shouty trailer ... 5live the home of football....and sometimes we might chuck a little something from another sport if you listen carefully.....
5 Live has wanted to be the BBC's answer to Talksport, ie a full time football station ever since the awful Bob Shennan became its controller several years back and began to dumb down the content.. That's when these hysterical football trailers started to appear. I believe this will happen in the next few years although they will have to amend their service license but I'm sure the BBC Trust won't stand in the way.
That dim bint who does that top 40 stories countdown is just awful, especially when she wheels out utter retards like Suzie (not a) Bonniface.
Surely the level of our discussion and argument is higher than this.
I assume three tasteless remarks in one sentence would be a record even for the Jeremy Kyle section, which is where I assume this poster learned his considerable writing skills.
5 Live has wanted to be the BBC's answer to Talksport, ie a full time football station ever since the awful Bob Shennan became its controller several years back and began to dumb down the content.. That's when these hysterical football trailers started to appear. I believe this will happen in the next few years although they will have to amend their service license but I'm sure the BBC Trust won't stand in the way.
We get it you dont like football, plenty do. And all this nonsense about 5 live dumbing down is rubbish. There used to be a soap update, yes a soap update! Those programs the lower classes watch! on Eddie Mair. That would have you lot choking on your organic latte.
I have listened to R5/5 Live since the mid nineties throughout its schedule changes. If there is a big news story it will be covered, even if guests have been booked for the magazine type shows. It does a great job as far as I am concerned on news and sport.
You all then moan its all football. There were constant moans on here about the Commonwealth Games coverage, which I enjoyed. 5 Live can not win.
Sorry not to be a heavyweight intellectual everbody likes to come across as on here but they do a good job. It will never be a 24 hour version of the Today program.
In many ways Five Live is more about the service than the salesperson. I primarily tune in for the service. The news, sport, talking points etc. It is clear the budgetary cuts have taken their toll. Particularly hard hit seems to be UAN...I suppose if you are going to cut, you might as well do it in the middle of the night.
Overall, Five Live is still a great service, to me it's still the best. But increasingly it seems a bit threadbare which has not been aided by some of the salespeople.
The Ego is clearly out of place. Incidently he was at his most annoying this morning when he got a fact wrong and seemed intent on having some sort of ad hoc quiz to emphasise his footballing knowledge.
The morning didn't start well when he but into a perfectly interesting piece about sharks to put, what appeared to be his own barely concealed views, to the guest.
The quiz started becuase he got a fact wrong about Tony Currie, but then went on to talk about all manner of bobbins ending in him reciting "Six foot two eyes of blue...big Jim Holton's after you!" To a clearly stunned Rachel Burden he then asked if she knew who he played for?
"I'll give you a clue." He said. "It's very near here" Rachel eventually guessed Manchester United and we moved on. In any other workplace doctors would have led him gently from the room!
He needs shipping out to mid-morning and Tony Livesey shipping in. That way the dark and lightish tones before 7 can continue without The Ego's arrogance dampening the studio. With every other presenter at that time I get a sense of it being today and we need to enjoy it.
In mid morning The Ego would flourish. He can be a great broadcaster and after ten the only studio person left to impress would be himself. I think he would be good.
Peter Allen should return to drive, he sounds out of place in mid-morning and Adrian Chiles may be better in the afternoon or even late night where there could be a genuine competition as to who falls asleep first, him or us.
No matter how critical we were of three three departed, Derbyshire, Bacon and Fogarty, they did have character and that caused us to have strong opinions about them.
I think a rearranging of the table and chairs would freshen up a disappointing line up
who, in many ways for me, fail to sell adequately, what is actually a very good service.
There is a great deal right with Five Live, but a bit of tinkering with the engine would make it run smoother.
In many ways Five Live is more about the service than the salesperson. I primarily tune in for the service. The news, sport, talking points etc. It is clear the budgetary cuts have taken their toll. Particularly hard hit seems to be UAN...I suppose if you are going to cut, you might as well do it in the middle of the night.
Overall, Five Live is still a great service, to me it's still the best. But increasingly it seems a bit threadbare which has not been aided by some of the salespeople.
The Ego is clearly out of place. Incidently he was at his most annoying this morning when he got a fact wrong and seemed intent on having some sort of ad hoc quiz to emphasise his footballing knowledge.
The morning didn't start well when he but into a perfectly interesting piece about sharks to put, what appeared to be his own barely concealed views, to the guest.
The quiz started becuase he got a fact wrong about Tony Currie, but then went on to talk about all manner of bobbins ending in him reciting "Six foot two eyes of blue...big Jim Holton's after you!" To a clearly stunned Rachel Burden he then asked if she knew who he played for?
"I'll give you a clue." He said. "It's very near here" Rachel eventually guessed Manchester United and we moved on. In any other workplace doctors would have led him gently from the room!
He needs shipping out to mid-morning and Tony Livesey shipping in. That way the dark and lightish tones before 7 can continue without The Ego's arrogance dampening the studio. With every other presenter at that time I get a sense of it being today and we need to enjoy it.
In mid morning The Ego would flourish. He can be a great broadcaster and after ten the only studio person left to impress would be himself. I think he would be good.
Peter Allen should return to drive, he sounds out of place in mid-morning and Adrian Chiles may be better in the afternoon or even late night where there could be a genuine competition as to who falls asleep first, him or us.
No matter how critical we were of three three departed, Derbyshire, Bacon and Fogarty, they did have character and that caused us to have strong opinions about them.
I think a rearranging of the table and chairs would freshen up a disappointing line up
who, in many ways for me, fail to sell adequately, what is actually a very good service.
There is a great deal right with Five Live, but a bit of tinkering with the engine would make it run smoother.
I do agree with this post. NC was absolutely dreadful this morning. He was particularly rude to the very enthusiastic lady talking about the sharks, when it wasn't even his time to appear. As usual he butted in before 7 a.m.
I was really glad to see the back of misery Derbyshire and light weight Bacon, but I don't think the mornings have improved with the same agenda being followed it seems. Adrian Chiles is just awful and wouldn't brighten anyone's morning. He sometimes seems as if he can't find his place on the screen and doesn't know what he's doing next. Peter Allen is the only journalist of any substance on 5 Live, but I do wish he was still doing Drive where he was authoritative. Tony Livesey, whom I like, is a bit too jokey for that slot but would be fine in the mornings, as would Phil Williams.
I listen to .more and more now that DAB has finally arrived in my neck of the woods and still listen to Shelagh Fogarty in the afternoons. I never minded her on 5 Live. I listen to Iain Dale on Drive and Duncan Barkes instead of Phil Williams in the evenings. I have tried Nick Ferrari instead of Campbell at breakfast time, but the adverts seem more annoying at that time of day.
I agree about Nicky Campbell. I often wonder if he is aware of what is said in places such as this. I believe he must be. But the fact that this hasn't modified his contributions means that he doesn't give a stuff. The programme is so much better when he isn't there, and I have the feeling that Rachel is increasingly genuinely annoyed by his antics.
I was somewhat sad to see Shelagh Fogarty leave, especially to an opposition station which - despite everything - I still see as inferior, or, at least , less appealing to me as someone who has never lived in or near London. I would bring her back to the Breakfast programme in tandem with another presenter.
Adrian Chiles is desperately under-performing. The programme is so s-l-o-w. He repeats the introduction to so many sentences and questions several times so that it takes ages for any interview to get anywhere. For me, he has to disappear completely from the Five Live schedules.
I can't help but like Peter Allen whatever he does. But he is definitely better doing more high-powered interviews with politicians and highly-placed businessmen than a weak version of a morning show that Five Live management seems to regard as a time slot aimed at female listeners. In fact, if I were female, I would be offended that I was being offered a second-rate, "softened" morning programme. I'd be putting Peter with John Pienaar and having what could be a radio version of Robin Day and Jeremy Paxman.
I no longer listen to Five Live in the mornings.
I agree with the earlier comment that there should be a solid news programme at midday.
I don't listen any more at noon.
Count me in as another one who was glad to see the end of Richard Bacon. But the present arrangement, as has already been said a number of times, just isn't cutting the mustard. We should be getting far better than this.
Afternoons need a new version of Simon Mayo and a decent, wide-ranging magazine programme. What we have now is simply boring.
Five Live is not my choice of station in the afternoon.
TV tends to be my entertainment in the early and mid evening. I have no interest in listening to hour after hour of sport. From 10pm, I have now swapped from Phil Williams to Allan Beswick on BBC Manchester and Lancashire.
Five Live has lost me in the evenings, too.
And finally, Up All Night has become so repetitive and boring that I do now actually go to sleep.
It seems that I have almost totally become an ex-Five Live listener, having been one who listened for most of the hours in the day.
It's quite an achievement to have almost entirely alienated me.
My post should have said that I listened more and more to LBC! I agree droopsnout that Peter Allen is good whatever he does, but I don't think they are making the most of his talents in a morning. I think since he has gone to 3 days, he is running down to retirement. I am a female and was always thoroughly disenchanted by the morning offerings with V Derbyshire. I don't want soft magazine type items and would much prefer hard news and politics. John Pienaar was good on Breakfast and I enjoy his Sunday morning programmes
Peter's programme is turning into VD's,:( long item about transgender people not getting treatment fast enough. This is completely wasting Peter's talents !
I agree droopsnout that Peter Allen is good whatever he does, but I don't think the station is making the most of his talents in a morning
I'm with you Radio_fan and droopsnout, Peter Allen is one of my 5live faves, but I feel the format of the morning show, Wednesday aside when he's in Millbank for the political stuff, doesn't best use his talents. I was hoping his and Adrian Chiles moves to mid-mornings would herald the rebirth of a more newsy format. Chiles doesn't sound overly comfortable either, in fact, on some days he sounds positively pissed off!
That dim bint who does that top 40 stories countdown is just awful, especially when she wheels out utter retards like Suzie (not a) Bonniface.
5 Live's output combined is a million times more intelligent than your contribution. The word retards is really insulting to those with disabilities you misogynist sexist fool.
Comments
Just as well LBC Doesnot have live footie. Footie is Five's saving grace. Politicians in good numbers go to LBC rather than Dead.
However I'm sad to say that during the week I never listen in to 5 Live at all during much of the day. I never had the problems with Victoria Derbyshire that some posters here had but as much as I wasn't her greatest fan she was a hundred times better than Adrian Chiles. He does not have a voice for radio and sounds bored most of the time, even if he really is interested in the subject being discussed. Peter Allen is better but he doesn't suit working on a magazine style programme. The lack of a proper news programme at lunchtime is a serious omission. The problem could easily be solved by moving Peter to a lunchtime slot between 12pm and 2pm but cutbacks in 5 Live's budget mean this isn't going to happen.
The afternoon programme with Dan Walker and Sarah Brett is poor. It doesn't require two presenters and at times is unlistenable so therefore I don't listen to it!
At least Drive is still on fine form and when it is on. I tune back to 5 Live. usually I've tuned away on a morning when Nicky Campbell has started to be insufferable.
Moving on to nights, Phil Williams still sounds too "matey" and lightweight to carry a programme for three hours. That said, Richard Bacon was quite similar in the same slot but managed to do a better job.
And finally Up All Night - I'm ever sadder to say I've finally called time on this programme. I already had long done so at the weekend but I've always liked listening to Rhod's presentation of the programme. But now... half the time he isn't actually doing anything other than introducing repeats of interviews broadcast during daytime hours. And which often feature the one thing I can't stand in the small hours - repeat articles that feature music! Sometimes the music is in the background but nevertheless it is there and so off goes my radio.
On the whole most of the above sounds rather negative but I really do think 5 Live has lost its way in much of its non-sports output.
Former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie is bidding to run a new national sports radio station a decade after he sold TalkSport.
MacKenzie’s new station, called Sports Radio, is one of a proposed lineup of services for the second wave of national commercial digital stations due to be licensed by media regulator Ofcom later this year.
The station, which is part of Listen2Digital’s bid to run the second national commercial multiplex, would put MacKenzie head to head against TalkSport, now owned by UTV Media.
MacKenzie has joined forces with TalkSport’s launch managing director Jason Bryant for the bid, announced on Monday.
Bryant said: “Sports Radio will offer real choice for listeners.
“With BBC Radio 5 Live unable to provide a full sports service because of its news commitments and TalkSport being remarkably similar to the line-up we launched with 15 years ago, we believe there’s now a market for a new generation of listeners, talent and advertisers.”
If Listen2Digital wins the licence, Sports Radio said it would launch in January next year.
If Sports Radio does happen would they really be enough sports rights to support three national stations?
5 Live can't even afford to have its own team at many of the matches that are on Sports Extra. It may be able to if it lost some Premier League rights.
Well I know the left leaning posters will say something like well it's telegraph readers of course they will say that....but many of those posts echo what many here have said about 5live....
Yes it may be a righty paper but does at least show it's not just a few people on CD saying it....actually even grauniad has heckled 5 a lot over recent times...
Oh and gomezz...once again I concurr... should be another shouty trailer ... 5live the home of football....and sometimes we might chuck a little something from another sport if you listen carefully.....
Surely the level of our discussion and argument is higher than this.
I assume three tasteless remarks in one sentence would be a record even for the Jeremy Kyle section, which is where I assume this poster learned his considerable writing skills.
We get it you dont like football, plenty do. And all this nonsense about 5 live dumbing down is rubbish. There used to be a soap update, yes a soap update! Those programs the lower classes watch! on Eddie Mair. That would have you lot choking on your organic latte.
I have listened to R5/5 Live since the mid nineties throughout its schedule changes. If there is a big news story it will be covered, even if guests have been booked for the magazine type shows. It does a great job as far as I am concerned on news and sport.
You all then moan its all football. There were constant moans on here about the Commonwealth Games coverage, which I enjoyed. 5 Live can not win.
Sorry not to be a heavyweight intellectual everbody likes to come across as on here but they do a good job. It will never be a 24 hour version of the Today program.
Overall, Five Live is still a great service, to me it's still the best. But increasingly it seems a bit threadbare which has not been aided by some of the salespeople.
The Ego is clearly out of place. Incidently he was at his most annoying this morning when he got a fact wrong and seemed intent on having some sort of ad hoc quiz to emphasise his footballing knowledge.
The morning didn't start well when he but into a perfectly interesting piece about sharks to put, what appeared to be his own barely concealed views, to the guest.
The quiz started becuase he got a fact wrong about Tony Currie, but then went on to talk about all manner of bobbins ending in him reciting "Six foot two eyes of blue...big Jim Holton's after you!" To a clearly stunned Rachel Burden he then asked if she knew who he played for?
"I'll give you a clue." He said. "It's very near here" Rachel eventually guessed Manchester United and we moved on. In any other workplace doctors would have led him gently from the room!
He needs shipping out to mid-morning and Tony Livesey shipping in. That way the dark and lightish tones before 7 can continue without The Ego's arrogance dampening the studio. With every other presenter at that time I get a sense of it being today and we need to enjoy it.
In mid morning The Ego would flourish. He can be a great broadcaster and after ten the only studio person left to impress would be himself. I think he would be good.
Peter Allen should return to drive, he sounds out of place in mid-morning and Adrian Chiles may be better in the afternoon or even late night where there could be a genuine competition as to who falls asleep first, him or us.
No matter how critical we were of three three departed, Derbyshire, Bacon and Fogarty, they did have character and that caused us to have strong opinions about them.
I think a rearranging of the table and chairs would freshen up a disappointing line up
who, in many ways for me, fail to sell adequately, what is actually a very good service.
There is a great deal right with Five Live, but a bit of tinkering with the engine would make it run smoother.
I do agree with this post. NC was absolutely dreadful this morning. He was particularly rude to the very enthusiastic lady talking about the sharks, when it wasn't even his time to appear. As usual he butted in before 7 a.m.
I was really glad to see the back of misery Derbyshire and light weight Bacon, but I don't think the mornings have improved with the same agenda being followed it seems. Adrian Chiles is just awful and wouldn't brighten anyone's morning. He sometimes seems as if he can't find his place on the screen and doesn't know what he's doing next. Peter Allen is the only journalist of any substance on 5 Live, but I do wish he was still doing Drive where he was authoritative. Tony Livesey, whom I like, is a bit too jokey for that slot but would be fine in the mornings, as would Phil Williams.
I listen to .more and more now that DAB has finally arrived in my neck of the woods and still listen to Shelagh Fogarty in the afternoons. I never minded her on 5 Live. I listen to Iain Dale on Drive and Duncan Barkes instead of Phil Williams in the evenings. I have tried Nick Ferrari instead of Campbell at breakfast time, but the adverts seem more annoying at that time of day.
I was somewhat sad to see Shelagh Fogarty leave, especially to an opposition station which - despite everything - I still see as inferior, or, at least , less appealing to me as someone who has never lived in or near London. I would bring her back to the Breakfast programme in tandem with another presenter.
Adrian Chiles is desperately under-performing. The programme is so s-l-o-w. He repeats the introduction to so many sentences and questions several times so that it takes ages for any interview to get anywhere. For me, he has to disappear completely from the Five Live schedules.
I can't help but like Peter Allen whatever he does. But he is definitely better doing more high-powered interviews with politicians and highly-placed businessmen than a weak version of a morning show that Five Live management seems to regard as a time slot aimed at female listeners. In fact, if I were female, I would be offended that I was being offered a second-rate, "softened" morning programme. I'd be putting Peter with John Pienaar and having what could be a radio version of Robin Day and Jeremy Paxman.
I no longer listen to Five Live in the mornings.
I agree with the earlier comment that there should be a solid news programme at midday.
I don't listen any more at noon.
Count me in as another one who was glad to see the end of Richard Bacon. But the present arrangement, as has already been said a number of times, just isn't cutting the mustard. We should be getting far better than this.
Afternoons need a new version of Simon Mayo and a decent, wide-ranging magazine programme. What we have now is simply boring.
Five Live is not my choice of station in the afternoon.
TV tends to be my entertainment in the early and mid evening. I have no interest in listening to hour after hour of sport. From 10pm, I have now swapped from Phil Williams to Allan Beswick on BBC Manchester and Lancashire.
Five Live has lost me in the evenings, too.
And finally, Up All Night has become so repetitive and boring that I do now actually go to sleep.
It seems that I have almost totally become an ex-Five Live listener, having been one who listened for most of the hours in the day.
It's quite an achievement to have almost entirely alienated me.
I'm with you Radio_fan and droopsnout, Peter Allen is one of my 5live faves, but I feel the format of the morning show, Wednesday aside when he's in Millbank for the political stuff, doesn't best use his talents. I was hoping his and Adrian Chiles moves to mid-mornings would herald the rebirth of a more newsy format. Chiles doesn't sound overly comfortable either, in fact, on some days he sounds positively pissed off!
5 Live's output combined is a million times more intelligent than your contribution. The word retards is really insulting to those with disabilities you misogynist sexist fool.