Radio 4 shamelessly biased and unfunny say listeners
MILLIONS tune into its programmes every day – but BBC Radio 4 has become unfunny, confrontational and shamelessly biased, listeners say.
An audience at the Hay Festival of Literature and the Arts explained problems they had with the station to a panel of senior staff including Broadcasting House presenter Paddy O’Connell and World at One journalist Chris Wimpress.
One woman said: ‘The BBC is biased. It is biased in one direction.
‘I don’t think that’s fair, and I don’t think it’s doing justice to democracy.’
Her remarks received a round of applause at the event on Saturday.
A further audience member told the panel: ‘I’ve been listening to Radio 4 for 50 years, and unfortunately, recently I just cannot – I’ve moved over to Radio 2. The main reason is the confrontational style in the Today programme, PM and the Six O’Clock News.’
One woman added: ‘What I seriously dislike is unfunny comedy every day.’
Another said they were ‘infuriated by music programmes on Radio 4’ because they had ‘three other music stations to listen to’.
But audiences expressed appreciation for old favourites Desert Island Discs, The Archers and the Shipping Forecast – and for the new phenomenon of ‘slow radio’.
Slow radio involves the broadcast of ambient sounds such as the noise of wildlife or gently running streams, designed to ‘create inner thought’ with listeners. Radio 3 will broadcast today a full four-hour walk through the Welsh countryside, complete with birdsong, insect noises, and the trudge of heavy boots.
Mr Wimpress said: ‘Slow radio has proved enormously popular in the last few months … we get so many emails of appreciation about it. It has its origins in Scandinavian TV ... where, rather than having a programme on the television, they put scenes on the screen – for example, fire burning or animals moving around.’
Despite listeners’ criticisms, figures released this month show Radio 4 is attracting audiences of more than 11 million each week – with an extra 400,000 tuning in compared to this time last year.
By contrast, only 9.1 million listeners every week tune in to Radio 1, compared to 11.8 million in 2011. Meanwhile, 500,000 switched off Radio 2 in the last year.
Stephen Fry has warned we should prepare for an internet-dominated future to avoid a ‘nightmare’ existence.
The actor and comedian criticised ‘technophobes’ who have been too slow to adapt to what he called the greatest change in the history of mankind. Speaking at the festival on Saturday, he said: ‘It is entirely in our hands so long as we prepare ... We already know the dire consequences and frightening scenarios that threaten to engulf us.’
He also accused social media giants of ‘evading responsibility’ for tackling sickening content posted online, and said it was ‘an absurd anomaly’ that Facebook and Twitter are not forced to face the same consequences as media outlets.