Tim Davie must stop the rot caused by BBC Sounds
So farewell, James Purnell. The BBC’S director of radio is leaving next month to become president and vice-chancellor of the University of the Arts in London. In the seven years since he joined the corporation, it is hard to trace a positive legacy – and he will, for most people, always be associated with the disastrous introduction of BBC Sounds.
The audio streaming service cost hundreds of millions (£10 million on marketing alone), which seems like an extraordinary extravagance when your company has a huge budget deficit. It also replaced BBC iplayer radio, much-loved and user-friendly: an unnecessary interference which went against the adage of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. And BBC Sounds was certainly broke from the start as listeners found themselves confronted with error messages and a search function that didn’t work properly. Teething problems admittedly, and the service has improved, but there is a far wider problem with Sounds that goes beyond functionality – and endangers the very essence of what radio is for.
A BBC insider has told me that Purnell was obsessed with creating a genre-based vision for radio (which is epitomised by the way in which Sounds works). And that, by pursuing this untested vision, he lost talented controllers such as Ben Cooper (Radio 1) and Lewis Carnie (Radio 2) in the process. Purnell, to my mind, failed to see the point that the beauty of radio lies in channel loyalty and that siloing off programmes into music, documentaries, comedy or drama is ghettoising people’s tastes. Most of us just want to tune into our favourite channel and hear the presenters and DJS who, in isolating times, feel like sympathetic old friends. I love Radio 3 and that is largely due to the fact that if I keep it on, I never know what I am going to get.
This may sound odd in that Radio 3 is essentially a classical music station, but it is commendably unpredictable in its output (mercifully there is no algorithmic playlist) and that is why you always discover new things – making the station a true upholder of those much-talked-about Reithian values. And as well as classical music, you can find erudite authored work in The Essay, for example, or rigorous discussion on Night Waves. In contrast, you go to the Sounds app and you find a glut of stuff based on your listening preferences, thus diminishing the possibilities – your radio world somehow becomes a whole lot smaller.
What the introduction of BBC Sounds represents is the triumph of marketing over programme-making; a fever dream conjured up by somebody trying to justify the existence of their sinecure. Of course, this is not a problem specific to radio, but the high profile of Sounds has highlighted the problem at New Broadcasting House. Tim Davie, the new director-general, will have his work cut out to change a culture that has infected the corporation for well over a decade. Although a marketing man himself,
Davie is shrewd and knows the dangers of having too many cooks spoiling the broth. As reported in The Daily Telegraph last week, Davie dropped Purnell from the executive board, and it is heartening to see that the excellent Bob Shennan has joined, having been appointed as the group managing director. There is a symbolism here: Shennan is a former radio producer and was part of the team that formed Radio 5 Live. He knows what makes a good programme; knows what listeners want. (There is also some sweet justice given the fact that Purnell was brought in over Shennan – then “director, BBC radio and music” – by Lord Hall as the director of radio and education. Incidentally, this was Purnell’s third senior job at the BBC without having to go through a fully open appointment process.) Shennan
could be a valuable bridge between the commissioning editors and the marketeers, as the former needs to have a meaningful conversation with the latter about what should and shouldn’t be promoted.
This is not industry guff; it will affect you, as a listener, too. The times I have missed a brilliant programme as it has languished unloved in some corner of the schedules. Even prime-time content suffers because it hasn’t done enough to catch the eye of someone in marketing who can’t see an effective way of selling it. Particularly bewildering is the failure to sufficiently promote something like Drama on 3, an excellent strand which showcases work by great playwrights old and new (Roy Williams, Lucy Prebble and even Shakespeare), performed by the very best actors (Maxine Peake, Andrew
Scott, Simon Russell Beale). The reverse, of course, is true and recently I have wanted to rip my ears off at the umpteenth time I’ve heard a promotion for new climate change podcast What Planet Are We On? Marketed to death, I fear, not due to genuine ecological concerns but because guests on the show included David Attenborough and human sedative Lily Cole.
I think it is unlikely that Davie will axe BBC Sounds; there has been too much love invested in it both politically and emotionally, but he could stop the rot created by siloing content. By giving listeners on the site more of a steer as to what is actually worth tuning into (free of algorithms), and – heavens – even promoting radio channels, we could be reminded of what makes radio great, a medium like no other.
Purnell failed to see the point that the beauty of radio lies in channel loyalty