salford blues for 5 live?

mediacityuk, salford

a funky meeting pod in mediacityuk, i kid you not.

Its been a few months since the BBC radio moved its news and sports station, 5 live, to Media City UK in Salford.  The BBC case for doing this has always been rather flimsy.  It claimed that the BBC is too metropolitan, too London centric and too southern based. It then proceeded to move the one service that has none of these perceived problems to the North.  A more sensible move would have been to move Radios One and Two, making them even more distinctive, and protecting them from future political and commercial sniping.  The bravest move of all would have been to move the more metropolitan Radio 4, naturally they didn't dare.

So what are some of the problems with 5 live North?

Richard Bacon.  I am not one of the Bacon haters, he has an engaging style and though he is somewhat big headed, his show is normally entertaining and some of the features (the moan in, help, TV reviews) are great.  Listening to his pod cast, we know that he arrives in Salford at about midday, does his show from two til four, and then gets the first train back to London.  Furthermore, he interviews guests that have either got the train from London or more often are "down the line" in London.  Making the show in Salford adds absolutely nothing. why not just do the show in London?

Down the line.   They wont often tell you that the person isn't actually there, but click on the 5 live web cam and you will more often than not see the presenter sitting in an empty studio, talking to someone down the line.  The exception is Victoria Derbyshire, who seems to do her show from London much of the time.  Something is definitely lost when interviews are done down the line, the conversations seem less courteous and the presenter less engaged with the individual.

Out of site, out of mind.  Can it be only coincidence that two of the departments that have moved to the north, Sport and 5 live, have been subjected to the deepest cuts in the "Delivering Quality First" program,  whilst London based Radio 4 is left totally unscathed.

5 live London.  Perhaps the most damning evidence that this move northwards was a total waste of money, is that the best shows on the network don't come from the shiny new studios in Salford.  The Danny Baker Show and Kermode & Mayo's Film Review are still made in an apparently decrepit studio in West London, and are both awesome.  The third best show is Up all Night with Rhod Sharp, which is broadcast from America. 

Radio Salford.  5 live has always made its late night weekend show outside London.  Initially it came from Birmingham with Edwina Currie, then from Manchester with Stephen Nolan. Latterly, the weekday show with Tony Livesy also moved to Manchester.  When the station was London based, this may have been admirable attempt to have a change of emphasis, and an opportunity to speak to guests you may not get in the south.  Since the whole station has moved north, no effort has been made to make these shows sound any less Manchester based - indeed on some nights it sounds like a local radio show from the north.  As far as sport is concerned, there is definitely more of a northern focus - though some of that can be mitigated by the success of the Manchester football clubs in the premier league this season.  More baffling is why the London derby, West Ham/Crystal Palace match wasn't broadcast last weekend, despite there being no other live matches taking place at the time.  The best show to come out of Salford, is the sublime Drive.

Technical problems.  We are two months into the year, and the station has been knocked off air at least four times by fire alarms.  On Thursday the building lost its internet connection for two hours.  Add to this, there are numerous problems with the BBC sport website (also housed in Salford), most notably breaking down on a Saturday afternoon.

Colin Murray.  Was annoying, still annoying.