Flying the flag for hyperlocal at radio's Oscar's

I've just about recovered from an unforgettable night in the West End - and no, not because I've finally succumbed to watch a theatre production.

At the end of March, we at Petersfield's Shine Radio were honoured to be one of six nominees for Community Station of the Year at the ARIAS (Audio & Radio Industry Awards - formerly the Sony's). It was a new category for 2023 to recognise the great work within what I believe is now a more important sector than ever before.

Having already won Gold for Digital Station of the Year at last year's Community Radio Awards, for a station that isn't even three years old serving a market town just shy of 15,000 people, we were blown away to see our name among the greats and the giants of our industry.

The day began with a First Class train journey on the 14:42 service from Petersfield to Waterloo with some wonderful friends and colleagues.

On arrival, I would bunk off from the pre-drinks in Aldwych to pay a special visit to Leicester Square and immerse myself in the goings on at the mothership of Britain's leading commercial radio operator.

Sadly, Global isn't a member of The Radio Academy having withdrawn its patronage in 2016 and has chosen not to enter the awards ever since, but it's ever the fascinating experience to see first-hand how much broadcast tech is progressing. Special shoutout to Jake who was a community radio presenter when we first crossed paths four years ago and is now doing bits as a talented Capital network producer.

Just after 17:30, after a speedy walk to Drury Lane via Covent Garden, I was reunited with the Shine Radio team on the steps of the Theatre Royal ahead of an exciting evening celebrating the best of UK radio.

As an autistic person, being among a crowd so big you're physically unable to move sounds like hell - and it would be if A) I wasn't with others I know and who share my passion and B) I didn't have something more significant playing on my mind.

Steve Martin, co-founder of the Petersfield project, and I were seated in the stalls opposite the stage with our fellow nominees from across the industry.

The ceremony was brilliantly presented by Rylan and Fleur East with a running joke about keeping acceptance speeches brief so Rylan could catch his train back to Liverpool afterwards to continue with his Eurovision work - to which the great Jon Holmes quipped:

"I don't give a shit about your train."

Other memorable highlights included Greg James, the current Radio 1 breakfast presenter, paying tribute to the legendary Tony Blackburn, the first ever Radio 1 breakfast presenter, the recipient of the Pioneer Award.

An interesting mini-doc about Tony's incredible journey was shown followed by a collection of appreciative messages from heavy hitters in radio and music. Unfortunately, due to recovering from illness, Tony was unable to attend but had recorded an acceptance speech while holding the trophy.

During the brilliantly-produced montage of Radio Times Moment of the Year nominees, there was a notable impromptu round of applause for Local BBC Radio as the infamous Liz Truss interviews of last autumn were mentioned. The industry stands with you in condemnation of grave mismanagement. Jon Holmes also highlighted the ongoing situation later to which more cheers ensued.

Rylan also delivered a touching tribute to the late Paul O'Grady, and in accepting Absolute Radio's deserved win for its Mental Health Awareness Week coverage, the station's Content Director Paul Sylvester discussed the importance of checking in with each other and how the fast-paced radio environment can affect its people.

Technologically, the sound and visuals were spot on throughout. Huge props to The Radio Academy and TBI for putting on a solid show, and to the Theatre Royal for their hospitality - even though one glass of champagne came to £16, it was worth paying a premium for!

It was lovely to speak to a wide range of industry folk at the afterparty - in particular, to catch up with the man of the moment, Ken Bruce, who was fresh from presenting the prestigious John Myers Station of the Year award to Clyde 1.

The last time Ken and I met was when filming Inside Our Autistic Minds last summer. Since then, he’s relaunched his iconic mid-morning show on Greatest Hits Radio and is sounding very much at home.

For our team, it was a late-night trek over Waterloo Bridge to catch the last train of the day back to Petersfield.

It sounds cliché, but to us this really wasn’t ever about winning.

Petersfield's Shine Radio is barely three years old, and for us to be named among the top six community radio stations in the country - and the only nominee that doesn’t yet occupy any FM or DAB spectrum - is utterly incredible.

Global bucks the trend in Scotland

Four years after rolling out UK-wide breakfast shows on Capital and Heart, Global has announced the two brands will not only reintroduce their own breakfast shows in Scotland but get a fresh daytime lineup broadcasting live from the company's state-of-the-art Glasgow broadcast centre.

It means Heart and Capital listeners will hear Scottish presenters seven days a week - on Heart weekdays 6:30am-7pm and weekends 12pm-4pm and on Capital weekdays 6am-7pm and weekends 9am-12pm.

Lobbying for deregulation was never about a blanket desire to do the bare minimum which, actually, groups have always exceeded.

For example, regional FM licences don't have to provide any programming from within the approved areas if the brand they carry is also available on national DAB - yet Global's regionals still do, despite not being bound by the same requirements as local licences.

Furthermore, Capital Cymru has some Welsh language requirements but is pretty much a standalone station with mostly local programming, despite only needing a three-hour weekday show of its own.

Deregulation was about the market being free to decide - and it has.

At a time when competitors have, or are at least thinking about, reducing the amount of programming from Scotland - and political tensions over the border increase somewhat - embracing this USP seems a good move for Global.

Musk vs the BBC and “government-funded media”

Twitter has slapped a "government-funded media" label on the @BBC account prompting the corporation to contact the platform asking for the issue to be resolved as soon as possible.

In response, Elon Musk explained:

We are aiming for maximum transparency and accuracy. Linking to ownership and source of funds probably makes sense. I do think media organizations should be self-aware and not falsely claim the complete absence of bias.

All organisations have bias, some obviously much more than others. I should note that I follow BBC News on Twitter, because I think it is among the least biased.

Firstly, let's establish the facts:

• While the level of the licence fee is set by the government, the BBC receives no money from the treasury - except for the more than £90m per annum purely to support the World Service (predominantly serving non-UK audiences).

• Capita TV Licencing is contracted to administer the licence fee and passes all money to the government before the BBC receives it as a grant.

• The licence fee makes up around 70% of the BBC's total income with the remainder being from other sources including its commercial subsidiaries (BBC Studios, BBC Global News and BBC Studioworks), grants, royalties and rental income.

• The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport may retain a proportion of the licence fee revenue for other purposes as referred to in the BBC Charter and Agreement.

• While the BBC Chair is a political appointment (which, in my view, should not be the case), they do not exercise editorial control and its journalism is completely independent from government - including that of the World Service.

So is the BBC "government-funded media"? As stated above, the World Service is to an extent (yet the @BBCWorldService account doesn’t have this label) but what about the rest of it?

Licence fee money isn't collected by HMRC but does get passed to the government before landing in the BBC’s bank account.

Ultimately, all government money is that of the British people and British organisations but decisions about where investment goes lie with ministers. However, the licence fee is in a league of its own as it can only benefit the BBC so the government can't just choose to redistribute that revenue. If it doesn't go into the central government fund with general taxation, how is it government funding?

Anyway, that isn’t even the issue here! Musk doesn't care. He knows exactly what he's doing.

We’re discussing a three-word tag on a Twitter account which has literally been put there to be taken out of context. @NPR, the primary Twitter account of the US public radio syndicator, was initially labelled “state-affiliated media” - wrongly implying the government exercises editorial control - before this changed to the same tag @BBC now has following a huge backlash.

Musk talks about “maximum transparency and accuracy” and he is only transparent in so far as everyone can see right through him.

This is purely someone furthering an agenda and seeking to discredit objective media that reports facts they don’t like. It’s not uncommon in today’s world, of course, but a platform with the scale and influence of Twitter (at least currently) trying to cause trouble - much like many of its users have been doing for years - would be detrimental in the fight against misinformation.

Gary Lineker suspended by the BBC over political tweet

How can anyone argue, with a straight face, that a sports presenter's views on current affairs has affected the journalistic integrity of the BBC in any way? Disappointing that it has caved into pressure from the likes of GB News.

Gary Lineker, a freelancer, is paid as an expert in his (or should I say on the...) field typically presenting one night per week. He is not paid to be political - which is the exact point his critics make, and you could say their logic is an own goal.

Nobody working outside the world of politics is actively paid to be political and nobody working for the BBC in any department other than news is paid to be impartial on social media.

If Gary Lineker had a clause in his contract, where would the BBC draw the line?

Think of all the talented actors and comedians that appear on the BBC - and are a huge part of what makes it such a treasured institution - whose politics are transparent, whether that’s from appearing on a satirical panel show or something they said on Twitter at midnight. Should they all go?

We all fund the BBC and expect its news operation to provide facts and analysis without spin or bias. Does it get that right every time? Of course not - no organisation would - but 99.9% of the time it does. When it comes to impartiality, not knowing the politics of its journalists and the broadcaster not taking sides is all that matters.

Let’s not forget the BBC’s own chairman, Richard Sharp (*a political appointment - and that ought to change), was a Conservative Party donor who failed to disclose facilitating an £800k loan to Boris Johnson just weeks before being recommended for his current role by the then-prime minister.

Long may the BBC continue to inform, educate and entertain - and long may non-news personalities be free to express their personal views off-air without causing a storm in a teacup.

*many BBC journalists are among the world’s best and most trustworthy, and the chairman has no influence on their reporting. With thousands of employees, if there was even the slightest bit of interference from the top, we would know about it. However, it’s really not a good look and most BBC people I know would agree.

Radio 1 and Radio 2 will never be the same

In an interview with Metro, Paul O'Grady hit out at the BBC following his departure from Radio 2:

Radio 2 has changed, it’s not what it was. They’re trying to aim for a much younger audience, which doesn’t make sense because you’ve got Radio 1. Radio 2 was always for an older audience.

I've written countless blogs playing devil's advocate with the reasons for repositioning Radio 2 while discussing the BBC's focus on younger audiences which alienates older licence fee payers.

While Paul is right that Radio 2 is looking to attract younger listeners than the average age of its current lot, the whole point is to create more of a stepping stone up for ageing Radio 1 listeners.

Programmers may question some of R2's music choices, of course, but that's not to say overlap is the intention of senior management. It isn't. R2 is supposed to be a station for gen X and older millenials.

The issue is not Radio 2 specifically abandoning those aged 55+ - it's the wider point about what the BBC is offering that demographic given the traditionally older-focused Local BBC Radio has also been heading in the same direction (arguably even younger than Radio 2 at times).

Doing community radio differently

Today, we launched BASINGSTOKE NOW - an all-speech local radio station and digital media platform for the North Hampshire town and its surrounding villages.

The service is carried on the local small-scale DAB+ multiplex and shares local information and interesting people, places, and organisations 24/7 - with no music and no cheesy jocks.

As a co-founder, I can’t wait to launch our new all-speech DAB+ radio station tomorrow 📻@BasingNow will be unlike any other service - a ”rolling billboard” of useful and interesting local info as well as a platform for community groups/organisations both on-air and online 📱 pic.twitter.com/23FMvD0R6D

— Harrison RB (@HarrisonRBRadio) February 19, 2023

Most radio stations aim to drive listening hours, but we don’t expect our audience to be with us all day long.

BASINGSTOKE NOW is essentially your social media timeline but without any nonsense. It’s fast-paced and content-rich, so even if you tune in for ten minutes each time you’re guaranteed to learn something new about where you live.

The station aims to be helpful and make its listeners' lives a bit easier providing information about ways to get involved in the community, what's happening in and around Basingstoke and celebrating the great work of local businesses.

A core element for the station is enabling local charities, community groups, schools, and other organisations to have a new way to share their news and achievements.

BASINGSTOKE NOW is more than just a radio station too, sharing multi-platform digital content to enhance engagement and all features will be available as podcasts.

For local businesses, the radio station and digital media platform will offer cost-effective content creation, sponsorship, and advertising options.

None of our platforms (radio, website, socials etc) is superior, each being one equal slice of the pie.

In radio, the stations closest to our format are the national LBC News and News Radio UK but unlike these we would describe ourselves as a "rolling billboard" as opposed to rolling news.

Our model of community radio was partly inspired by Keri Jones' Alfred project which, in my view, is the best local station in Britain. It produces a fresh hour-long programme each day as well as broadcasting other speech programmes and timeless content from its podcast archive.

BASINGSTOKE NOW is also supported by old friends at Newsquest via the Basingstoke Gazette who deliver a weekly press review. Over at Petersfield's Shine Radio, we partner with the local newspaper and four local schools.

I've always believed partnerships are the way for newly-established community stations to cut through with limited resources. It allows public service broadcasting to flourish and adds credibility.

Petersfield is a far more traditional market, with an older profile than Basingstoke, but even with a music radio station we view everything as an equal platform. Shine Radio's speech content and programming follows the "on-demand first, linear second" mantra.

I love the way we've always "done" radio but we have to be realistic and adapt to changing consumer habits which is what will keep us relevant. People are less loyal to one station given how much choice exists in media today.

Inside Our Autistic Minds - a new BBC Two series

On Tuesday evening, the nation got to see what was the greatest honour of my life as Episode 1 of Inside Our Autistic Minds aired on BBC Two, in which non-speaking contributor Murray Bruce chose my voice to narrate a short film to share his powerful message with the world.

Like everybody else, it was my first time watching the finished programme. How would I summarise it? Real, heartfelt, emotional, influential.

I’m so proud to have played a part in amplifying the experiences of fellow autistic people navigating a neurotypical world. Our brains may be wired differently but, as well as creating challenges, that is why each of us has so much to give.

If you haven’t yet watched in full, please catch up on BBC iPlayer and Episode 2 will also be worth a watch next Tuesday night at 9 📺

You can also see Murray’s animation which I had the privilege of voicing.

Last night, the nation got to see the greatest honour of my life as part of #InsideOurAutisticMinds when non-speaking contributor Murray chose my voice to narrate his short film. You can catch up on @BBCiPlayer. Real, heartfelt, emotional, influential. https://t.co/5cmT2gwVvC pic.twitter.com/AcFnVXJm6M

— Harrison RB (@HarrisonRBRadio) February 15, 2023

Some news…@ChrisGPackham’s Inside Our Autistic Minds will feature Murray Bruce, a non-speaking autistic man. I am honoured Murray chose me to narrate a short film about his life. It was a delight to meet him & his wonderful family in the programme.

📺 Tuesday, 9pm, @BBCTwo 📺 pic.twitter.com/TnTfVIEJat

— Harrison RB (@HarrisonRBRadio) February 10, 2023

#InsideOurAutisticMinds pulled in an audience of 1.2 million on linear @BBCTwo alone last night. Many more since on @BBCiPlayer.

Thank you 🙏 well deserved 👏

— Harrison RB (@HarrisonRBRadio) February 15, 2023

Things you aren’t used to when swapping radio for TV:

Getting your “RAJAR” the day after. https://t.co/zCFn4jSHQk

— Harrison RB (@HarrisonRBRadio) February 16, 2023

Huge thank you to ⁦@RealKenBruce⁩ for having ⁦@ChrisGPackham⁩ on your show all this week to talk about #InsideOurAutisticMinds and for all the support you’ve given to Murray and the team throughout the project.

This ’behind the scenes’ story from Chris is beautiful… pic.twitter.com/dNkkSmsOp7

— Joe Myerscough (@joemyerscough) February 17, 2023