Heather Davies

Trevor is joined by Phil Riley (Orion), Stuart Thomas (BBC Regions) and Jonathan Wall (BBC Radio 5 live) to discuss the future of local radio, the Sony Radio Academy nominations and how station rebrands work with RAJAR.

Should local radio be run by 5 live? What other radical suggestions have been discussed? Should all BBC services be put to tender? What other ways are there to save 20%? Is co-locating BBC and commercial local services a potential solution?

This week, Phil has been listening to Peter Allen on 5 live; Jonathan’s been listening to RadMac on 6 Music, 4 Extra, talkSPORT and has been scouting talent on radioplayer.co.uk; and Stuart has been listening to Ambridge Extra, and a series called Sounds of the 20th Century on BBC Radio 2 (…who made that then?).

This edition marks the start of a new era in that this is the first podcast we’ve recorded at The Radio Academy’s new offices in Golden Square.  It’s very shiny, but in terms of sound quality that has it’s downsides.  The room we recorded in was all glass walls and aircon – but our little Edirol recorder is still immeasurably better than the 4 flashmics we used to use!

Available on the Radio Academy site and on iTunes.