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Iain Lee BBC 3CR. Time for him to go?
sweaty71
Posts: 295 Forum Member
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Just looking at all the message boards it seems he's deeply unpopular in 3CR land. Why is he still there? Listening figures down are down because of him.
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From what I saw they where up ?? can you put a link up to you're source.
I doubt the original poster knows what Iain Lee's listening figures are, only the Rajar figures for the whole station.
They show the station is down from 201,000 listeners a year ago to 151,000, so it's lost a quarter of its listeners. The amount of time listeners tune in each week is also down 13%.
In the last quarter, the station lost 22,000 listeners, with those listening tuned in for a quarter less time than three months before.
Taking Justin Deeley's Saturday morning 'classic hits' show off for the utterly boring Treasure Quest thing (shared with BBC Northampton) was a big mistake - Justin's show was at least one reason for listening to BBC 3CR.
I've never liked Ian Lee either, even when he did that Channel 4 programme in the late 1990s with Daisy Donovan
Like many BBC local radio stations BBC 3CR uses six month survey periods so the effect of that won't have been surveyed yet, the figures are based on six months to June 22.
The Q2/2013 figures were their best for many years, figures from Q2/08 onwards are near the bottom of this page.
http://radiotoday.co.uk/rajar/frame-bbc.html
I found it funny
In any case, I should imagine 3CR won't judge him too harshly for another 6-12 months. They probably didn't hire him primarily to keep the current audience happy (but to grow a new one), so it's going to take a while for the message to get through. The bigger threat to him before he's done at least two years will be, erm, causing one headline too many.
In a market where 3CR has always been trashed by Heart, R2 and R4, they've clearly decided to "break a few eggs" to make themselves heard. It's a tricky problem for middling stations in competitive areas.. whether to trog along in your rut or bet the farm on something new.
Gold: Iain Lee - BBC Three Counties Radio
http://www.radioacademyawards.org/news/
I don't think message boards are all that representative of overall audience opinion. They can only be reflective of the opinion on the message boards, for a start, and then only of those who feel particularly moved to comment.
I find his weekly highlights to be one of my favourite podcast subscriptions.
A competitive area?!? 3CR's heartland is the UK's biggest wasteland for competition!
There is nothing on FM apart from Heart & the national BBC networks and a handful of community stations. They really must be doing something wrong to be struggling against so few stations.
One problem they do have is the area is too big and has no natural centre to focus on. People round here are no more interested in say High Wycombe or Aylesbury features than national ones and I'm sure those towns aren't bothered about the roads in Stevenage and Hertford.
If they ever merge 3CR with Northampton, then that will spell the end!!
I presume Harris Tweed was referring to areas like Luton, Aylesbury, High Wycombe, St. Albans and Watford which fall within the London wide stations' TSAs so compete with them - even though in some of those areas I know the FM reception isn't that robust and is probably only included because they are the London commuter belt.
Back to Iain – I have to admit to being an Iain fan so enjoy the podcast and the bits I manage to catch live. However I have to admit it’s not the traditional BBC local breakfast show but 3CR has never been the traditional BBC local station.
In the late 90s I used to listen to 3CR on 630 AM in the East Midlands – the days of Gaunt, Rhodes and Barbour and it was a lot different compared to the locals here – in fact more akin to bigger speech stations I presume to match that London competition. Personally it was more to my tastes but I know such a format wouldn’t have been a hit on my BBC local station at the time and probably now.
There probably is an argument to split 3CR but unlikely in these days of the BBC watching its costs.
Yes you're probably right about the inclusion of towns on the edge of this mammoth region. Certainly Watford & St Albans can listen to London FM without any difficulty but High Wycombe is in a massive valley and Luton is in a dip as well so depending on where you are there's often not a lot else out there. Aylesbury gets Oxford radio slightly better than anything from London. On a pocket radio even BBC radio can be tricky in parts round here.
The core 3CR area to me is Luton, Bedford, Milton Keynes, Stevenage and the immediate surrounding towns and villages. I think the fact that 3CR's area is covered by 3 different BBC regions on the telly says a lot!
This is an area needs a decent 'gold' station more than heavy (opinionated) speech and interviews with councils 50 miles away. The addition of the recorded Tony Blackburn soul show at least adds something to their strange schedule.
Rather than Ian Lee, Paul Stainton on neighbouring Radio Cambridgeshire is a much better listen. Warmer, friendlier, less smug and self-opinionated.
Perhaps Ian Lee would be better suited in a large urban area then, like Birmingham or Manchester, with a more 'youthful' audience?
The 3CR area has no really large town or city (Milton Keynes, Luton and Watford aside) and in spite of its closeness to London, is surprisingly rural with quite an ageing population
I find his style of presentation is ego-based and totally unfunny - unless you are an 8-year old school boy possibly.
With Ms Boyle and Kelly in tow, it really is pathetic all round.
What a joy on the occasional days when Justin presents the Breakfast Show.
I only ever tune in for a quick local news road and weather update.
I used to listen to him when he did drivetime for LBC - I really enjoyed him for the most part and I think he did well listener wise.. but he didn't fit with the direction they wanted to go in..
Justin Deeley is much under-used by 3CR.
There are far too many egos actually on what is just a provincial local radio station... I find the likes of Perroni and Vernon-Smith just as bad
As 8 year old schoolboys are not surveyed by RAJAR your assumption is obvious nonsense.:D
Most are probably mature enough to recognise that people have different tastes in humour, radio presenters etc and don't go on messageboards hiding behind nicknames and throw insults at those that have different tastes than they do and think that this is taken seriously by anyone.
Because it's hot.
That. (And the fact that - albeit the only "local" ILR - Heart Four Counties is a formiddable opponent which still does quite well).
But you're also right about the lack of a clear geographical focus. To my mind, there's less local loyalty in the home counties anyway (I don't think Surrey folk care about Surrey as much as, say, Wolverhampton folk about their area)... and to have to spread that across 3 populous counties is a big ask.
For me, it's one of the major things affecting the perception of BBC Local Radio. It's massively successful in some far flung corners of England with a clear focus and bags of local loyalty (Humberside, Cumbria, Cornwall, Shropshire). But a lot of what are nowadays called Opinion Formers around London just see semi-regional stations like 3CR, Surrey/Sussex, Berks/Oxford which just don't get the same traction.