BBC . 2 are you sitting comfortably

Well the case for BBC news was fair, but the comments were not. Surely the thousands of hours of radio must make the case for a compulsory subscription service.

RAJAR the radio ratings compilers show the BBC have tens of thousands more listeners than its nearest rivals.

Radio 2 :162,446 Radio 4 : 121,626 Radio 1 :101,625 Radio 5 :47,150 Classic FM :39,295 TalkSport :18,989 Magic : 14,773 Radio 3 : 12,116

Radio 2 has been the most listened to station for years and years. Its soft fluffy BBC to the core.
Terry Wogan , Ken Bruce, Jeremy Vine, Steve Wright, Chris Evans. A mix of music, not too young, not too old, some quizzes, some chat, some phone-ins and some big and small name guests. Personally, despite its lightness and lack of any real depth I believe it beats the pants off any daytime TV channel.
Like all BBC shows its slickly produced, gives the weather and news and is very very comfortable and reliable for its middle England target audience.

Radio 4 you could say the same, except without the music and a lot more culture and some of the best comedy that you will ever hear. Gardening and travel and politics its like the listening equivalent of BBC 2, much as Radio 2 is BBC 1 for the ears.

I listen to radio every day and my only real complaint is that as its BBC it always has to 'balance' every issue, seek an alternative point, have no individual presenters comment or allow a topic to become 'dangerous' in any way. But then again I am its target audience, no wonder I like it!

Radio 5 has less of a share than I would have guessed but why on earth the 'beeb' continues to put radio 3 on fm when radio 5 has 4 times the audience and would only grow without all that AM hiss, is a mystery. [well snobbery probably]

So, the BBC is the absolubte master of the airwaves and it has countless regional stations too. The real regional ones like Ulster are comparable to the commercial 'giants' like LBC 97.3 or Virgin.

And yet this very success begs the question..

'If BBC radio is demonstrably this desirable for the public, surely it would continue to be so under the same or similar format with the same coverage in the private sector?'

I personally would vote to leave BBC Radio almost as it is but must conceed...

If Kiss 100 can succeed with its numbers that are 10% of radio one, then wouldn't a commercial outfit be interested in the 55% of the listeners dominance of the BBC franchise? These are Tesco type market share figures that companies dream of. The figures are even better than they appear as the 55% is All BBC against All Independents. Like for like stations and its more like 80% share. If you could buy Radio One then your only real competitor would be Radio Two. And they aren't even fighting for the same territory!