Hey, Ofcom, leave Radio 2 alone!

The broadcast regulator Ofcom has ordered Radio 2 to carry at least three hours of news every day at peak time. The heart sinks. What the hell has Britain’s most popular radio station done to warrant this meddling? The last thing anyone needs right now is more ‘news’. It’s not as if there’s any shortage of news and opinion on offer. The BBC has a rolling 24-hour television news channel, copious bulletins on terrestrial TV and what’s left of Newsnight.

Not to mention a wide-ranging, well-funded online operation, covering everything from global politics to garden fence gossip.

Radio 4 has the Today programme, the World At One, PM, The Six O’Clock News, The World Tonight, assorted documentaries and Any Questions? Radio 5 Live provides non-stop news, comment and sport. Then there is the BBC News ‘where you are’.

Consequently, more than half the country already gets most of its news from the BBC.

News junkies can also turn to Sky and an array of other satellite channels. There’s Channel 4 News — the Guardian of the airwaves — and ITV’s evening News and News At Ten, even if that’s been shunted backwards recently to make way for a crass late-night ‘comedy’ show. ITV regions all have their own news and current affairs output.

Thanks to the digital revolution, London’s original newstalk radio station LBC is now available everywhere. Meanwhile, most younger people get their news from the internet.

SO WHERE is the sudden pressing need to inflict even more news on the 15 million listeners who tune in to Radio 2 every week?

There’s a reason it is Britain’s most popular station. It’s a sanctuary from the rock-around-theclock sanctimony and political posturing that provides the bulk of what passes for ‘news’ these days.

In my line of work, I consume more media than most. My working day begins with the Today programme on Radio 4 and graduates to the excellent Nick Ferrari at Breakfast on LBC. By 10am, though, I’m all ‘newsed’ out. Switching to Ken Bruce on Radio 2 is a blessed relief. Suddenly, I’m back in the real world, far away from Brexit and the latest edition of Talking Ballots.

This is where Britain goes to escape the diet of squabbling politicians and self-styled ‘experts’ universally available elsewhere.

Radio 2 talks to the nation outside the bubble. It brings together folk from Land’s end to John O’Groats.

You meet a nicer class of person on Radio 2. For instance, one of the contestants on Ken Bruce’s Popmaster quiz yesterday was a former postal worker who now volunteers as an NHS helper.

he told Ken he’d seen Bruce Springsteen in concert 65 times. I warmed to him instantly.

Ken punctuated Popmaster by playing Warren Zevon’s Werewolves Of London, which always brings a smile to my face. I knew I was among friends.

That’s how millions of people feel about Radio 2. The presenters know their audience. It’s where Chris evans does his best work, cheering up a loyal fanbase first thing in the morning. Steve Wright’s infectious giggle in the afternoon is always a joy. The music is grown up. Most of it, anyway.

Like the best broadcasting, Radio 2 is a party to which everyone is invited. Bombarding listeners with three hours of news a day would be a monumental turn-off.

The station already carries hourly news and weather bulletins, which is all most people need.

And Jeremy Vine hosts an admirably even-handed, two-hour current affairs programme at midday, Monday to Friday.

Under Ofcom rules, however, Vine wouldn’t count towards the three-hours-a-day target because his show falls outside the definition of prime time.

So those three hours would have to be shoehorned into evans, Bruce, Wright and Simon Mayo, who presents Drivetime.

Surely anyone who wants more news at that time of day would turn to Radio 4 or Radio 5 Live? More to the point, when did it become any of Ofcom’s business to dictate to programme controllers what they broadcast?

It’s supposed to be a watchdog, adjudicating on complaints and monitoring output to ensure it isn’t obscene, unduly offensive or politically biased.

Ofcom would be better employed looking at the way much of the BBC’s coverage of Brexit has reverted to type since its commendably impartial behaviour during the referendum campaign.

The same goes for reports on ‘climate change’, Israel, ‘diversity’ and the root causes of Islamist terrorism, all of which conform to the usual metropolitan prejudices.

Ofcom itself, though, is a New Labour cabal. Presumably that’s why it wants to meddle with Radio 2, Middle Britain’s favourite station. The self-styled ‘elite’ don’t really like the people of Middle Britain, who resolutely refuse to do as they are told and insist on supporting a Tory Government and voting to leave the EU.

PERHAPS Ofcom believes that by forcing Radio 2’s 15 million-strong weekly audience to consume more ‘news’ they will become better educated and embrace ‘progressive’ political views.

The truth is there’s not enough real news to go round, which is why the rolling news channels and current affairs programmes are forced to rely on the same old political gobs-on-sticks, peddling their patronising, self- aggrandising sermons and prophecies of doom.

If I see another politician pontificating about Brexit on College Green, I shall be sorely tempted to put my right boot through the flatscreen. I don’t want to be forced to listen to it, either.

People tune in to Radio 2 to hear Annie Lennox, not Anna Soubry; the Ramones, not Remoaners; Ken Bruce, not Ken Clarke.

So why try to fix something which ain’t broken?

hands off Radio 2.