UKH

On the whole I am an enthusiastic supporter of the BBC but what cloth eared bureaucrat thinks that Steve Wright is either 'talent' or worth - anything really, let alone £450K?

FFS when I accidentally catch him on the radio he is recycling the same 'jokes' (I use the word advisedly) as he was 10 years ago, and they weren't funny then. And his interest and knowledge in music  seems to be pretty much... zip. 

Totally agree, I can't abide him. I can only assume that he either has a massive fan base or photos of someone high up in the Beeb with their pants down.

Well, he's talented enough to negotiate a £450k pay packet. That takes some doing.

Yes, I'm amazed he's been able to hold down such a prominent spot for such a long time. But then again, he's not the only DJ whose ongoing career is a bit of a puzzle. Steve Lamacq is the one who really bugs me - he's had a career with the BBC for decades and is still peddling the same boring repartee, music and features as he was when I was a teenager in the 90s. Surely there's someone out there with more to offer?

A good agent more like.

2nd that on Steve Lamacq!!

And Shaun Keaveny was never as good in the afternoon

Reverse that for me, I couldn't cope with him in the morning but liked him in the afternoon.

He's no where near as annoying as Ball on double that salary, she can't even speak in whole sentences. 

R2 lost Simon mayo, got Cox, the two don't even compare.

Then there's Jo 'I'm so cool' whiley. Or now, Claudi whoever, who just seems to gibber on about nothing at all. 

R2 is over run with old men who think it's 1990 still and illiterate middle aged housewives who think they are still teenagers. 

Rant over.

Ken Bruce is one of the few talents there now. 

I actively disliked Cox 18-20 years ago but now I think she is excellent - comes across as genuine and very sharp. I mostly listen to 6Music but if I am driving at that time of day I choose Cox instead of Lamacq. As alluded to by someone upthread, when he talks I don’t really hear anything, just some noise. He is basically the worst of Radio 2, but on 6Music 

With some professions, I'm happy to concede that lifetime earnings are more reflective of top talent. So, someone who scrapes by for 10 years, makes it big, then disappears.

But Steve Wright and the rest of them, as entertaining as they are, do not offer something unique. His show is so formulaic anyone could stand in. In fact I used to prefer it when they had a stand in.

But, who knows, if the SW show costs £45M / year to produce and broadcast maybe 1% on him isn't bad. If on the other hand it's only £4.5M/year then it starts to look crazy.

Either way, as odd as these salaries are - it's not where the problems are in the salary structure / tax situation of the UK.

Cox, it doesn't matter where you live, what a person is doing, eating etc.. it's always amazing, fantastic, gorgeous and so on. It's just so sickly false and is not doubt lapped up by the insecure and shallow who constantly need smoke blowing up there a....  I just turn off.

R4 has my attention until Ken Bruce starts. I'd rather have white noise than zoe ball. 

Nine posts about Radio 2 DJs, and no-one has slagged off Jeremy Vine? I have to change channel for 2 hours every day to avoid him. 

I totally agree, but swinging the thread around from the worst to the best, I'm pretty certain that Marc Riley is the best music DJ on the radio these days.

Yeah. Wright, it's a show in a box or a file, you just drag out the previous schedule and change the date at the top. 

I find standing in for Ken Bruce is the tester, I bet there's many presenters they won't ask, as they know they'd blow popmaster.

I totally concur in every detail (except to me he IS as annoying, and so is Jeremy Whine). And I'm not the only one. As the morning guy on Radio Lancashire said to a "caller" (by the way who ARE these people?) when she said "what a good show and I'm only here as I can't stand Zoe Ball": "Yes I've gained a great many listeners since her £1,000,000 pa appointment". 

I have! Just got in ahead of you.

Zoe Ball made a right arse of Popmaster when she stood in for Ken.

Outside of Ken Bruce I find much of Radio 2 unlistenable. My old boss used to have it on all day in the office sometimes and it was torture….

Particularly Steve Wright who played the same music, and made the same cliched links every f*cking day. He also seemed to have zero music taste or diversity, and I’ve literally never heard him make it through a show without playing that godawful “Cake By The Ocean” novelty dance hit from 6 f*cking years ago…

But then, what would I know? He must have a lot of fans, as people who like the predictability of his show so maybe his huge salary is justified… After all I can’t see why anyone would like Mrs Browns Boys but clearly it has his fans…

Special shout out for Ore Oduba’s show on Sunday night. It’s literally the worst radio show I’ve heard in my life, and I include my time at a student radio station in that

I'm pretty certain that Marc Riley is the best music DJ.

Honorable mention also to Iggy Pop, filling in some of the eclectic gaps for ageing Peel fans. Late night R3 can be good for a lucky dip.

Off topic but as it was mentioned as a tax/license fees service - how does the radio format get away with the fact that they are always advertising something? What I mean is this, author, musician, actor, director and so on. When they are on for an interview it is when promoting a new product (film, album, book etc) or by the very nature of the medium - 'here's the new single by .... from their new album .... '. How is this any different from standard commercial radio (ads which have bought airtime to promote a product/service) - Always seems odd that a BBC presenter can't say 'ASDA' without needing to also say 'other supermarkets are available' but can say 'here's Kylie's new single from her new album and here are her live dates coming up later in the year' 

I'm probably the only one who struggles with this....

Agreed, Riley has a real passion for new and old slightly alternative (as in most of it hasn't troubled the top ten) but still listenable music. And has brought so much good music to my attention over the last 10 or more years. Gideon Coe runs him pretty close I think,

Also Craig Charles if you like some funk and soul. I realise i might get some dislikes for that, but I think he's great on Saturday night on 6 Music.

I'd agree, R2 record or album of the week, is always somebody very well known and certainly don't need extra air time to promote themselves. 

I didn’t realise he was still around. He was funny/entertaining on R1 when I was at school but that’s a serious amount of wedge! Does he have a massive audience then?
Is it simply a case of R2 “demographic catching” as the R1 listeners tire of R1 and seek/follow familiarity?

Ken Bruce to me has always been poor man's Wogan. Back in my uni days I'd listen to Wogan's wonderful show, then promptly switch off at 9:30 when it was time for Ken Bruce to try and do the same thing but fail miserably.

My mother is a big fan though, always has her notepad ready for popmasters. 

Yes to all of that. I'd never have identified as a funk and soul fan but I love CC and his show is great weekend listening while making a nice dinner and having a drink.

As I'm a big fan of 6Music, I want to put in a mention for Cerys: a marvellously eclectic and literate show every Sunday, based on a genuine passion for all sorts of music and poetry. (I can take or leave the passion for cooking though.) Since I'm also a big blues fan, she's also the best thing about Radio 2.

Perhaps. Their Eurovision commentary has much in common. 

From wogan to ball, that's some decline. 

I sat next to Ken Bruce at a dinner party for him and Terry Wogan a few years back. Ken was completely charming, particularly considering I had never listened to his show, or indeed anything on Radio 2 (a position I still find myself in actually) and didn't really know who he was. Wogan was very funny and charming too, but Bruce came over as just a very genuine and nice person. I've waited for some 70s DJ scandal to break ever since involving him, but it hasn't - so perhaps he is exactly what he seems, a nice bloke!

I've always hated Steve Wright. Not just his show, but the whole concept he basically started of DJs dicking about trying to be entertaining instead of just shutting up and playing interesting records.

I didn't realise he was still employed, that is depressing on it's own, regardless of how much he gets paid.

Pretty sure it’s because if they didn’t get the big plug in, then they would struggle to get any guests on at all.

Let’s face it Kylie’s earned a lot more from record sales than she’s ever going to achieve in chat show appearance fees!

That's my point - record sales enabled by their appearance and promotion whether it be an interview or highlighting the artists new album/tour or whatever - can the BBC claim to be non commercial when in fact they promote products (albums, books, films etc) that's the point i'm trying to make   

taking your point to its logical conclusion, they should only play music you cannot ever buy

You’re definitely not 

Yeah I see your point, but I guess this kind of thing doesn’t count as an advert or promotion, as if the chat show host holds up a copy of Kylies new album and says “this is your new album, and it comes out on Friday and I’ve heard it and it’s fantastic” that’s not an advert per se, it’s a fact followed by a personal opinion… 

After all if they had Kylie on the show and didn’t mention the fact that she’s got a new album out that week that would be a bit weird? 

I do take your point though it is kind of skirting the rules and it pushes the boundaries on what counts as promotion I guess?

Something I guess the pragmatically turn a blind eye to in order to secure good guests…

I listen to both Craig Charles' shows on the BBC sounds app on the cycle into work every morning and they are really good, despite being, like you say, not much of a funk fan.

The other gem on radio 6 is the Huey Morgan show. Shame he lost his radio 2 slot as those shows were on my weekly playlist too.

Never a truer word said! Listening to Steve lamacq is like listening to my uncle giving me driving directions through Stoke by basically describing a series of round abouts. 

Then you come to round about 6, you know the one by DFS, you want the middle lane.

I've got Google maps. 

The next roundabout is fantastic, my favourite. You want the left lane. You know the one. 

I've got Google maps. 

Yes but... The next roundabout...

I used to work at Radio 2 many years ago, Steve Wright was legendary (amongst staff) even then though not neccessarily in a good way.  He's still got a massive audience which is why he can command such big fees, though why anyone would want to listen to his drivel I don't understand.

I've not listened to his show in years but I assume that it's not changed a bit, all the people who write in always "Love the show" etc, lots of fake banter and good cheer.

​​​​​Radcliffe and Maconie went through a phase of ripping the piss out of that and my impression was they got their knuckles rapped for it. I was also under the impression that they didn't give a shit.

I fondly remember when Mark (Radcliffe) and Lard were on in the afternoons on Radio 1 during my a-level/university years.....nothing like that allowed anymore!

I'm a teacher and whenever I need to stop a class working briefly to tell them something I say 'stop...carry on' in a Lard styleee.

Fell out with R2 because of things like this. Replace Steve Wright in the afternoon with Rad Mac is what I say

Do you deliver PHSE in the style of Fat Harry White?

"indie bands flim flam flim flam record label Wif waf Wif waf their new record blah blah student disco night..." *disconcertingly noisy, salivery inhale through clenched teeth* etc.

*Once you notice it you'll never be able to unhear it. 

"Zoo radio". Wright imported it from the USA and so has my everlasting hatred. This is completely irrational as someone else would have done the same since it appears a sizeable number of listeners like it. Still, it's always good to be able to despise someone don't you think?

Radcliffe and Maconie are the new Steve Wright. It's the same sort of thing and I can't stand them either.

Each to their own but you are wrong about them being the same sort of thing as Wright, they know about music for a start.

They know about music and they play good stuff when they're on their own. But when they're together it's just endless "banter" and a few predictable records. The station is called 6 Music, if I wanted to listen to blokes talking shite I'd tune in to 5 live.

Steve Wright, rhymes with shite 

When mark and lard used to do the r1 afternoon slot they'd call it "the biggest show" to take the piss out of Steves "The big show", oh how I used to chuckle at those two.

Biggedy Biggedy bong, so it is. 

My favourite presenters tend to be the ones who are also musicians in their own right, with all the knowledge, insight and passion that guarantees: Cerys, Lauren, Marc, Iggy, Cillian etc. You won't be getting any Smashey or Nicey from that lot. Plus, you're getting more fantastic cheekbones than any other station can muster.

youtube.com/watch?v=rkpMpOaVUXk& 

Still one of my favourite pieces of radio

Their time has been and gone!

Giles Peterson still one of the best around. In fact, the Saturday programming on 6 Music from 10am to 9pm is currently spot on!!

FTFY 😉

It's the opposite for me. I've pretty much given up on 6 Music on Saturdays. It's OK after the annoying blokes finish up until 3pm, then it's off for the rest of the day. I did try and listen to Giles Peterson a few times. The furthest I ever got was into the third record, before literally screaming out loud and running over to hit the off button.

Iggy surprised me with how bad his show was, and Cillian is just awful.

I think the problem is we are all getting older.

At some point most of us transitioned from R1 to R2 because we became too old for R1, the music changed, the presenters changed ect.

It happened for me somewhere between 25 and 30 I think.

Now moving towards 50 R2 is as crap as R1 got (I revisited R1 and was totally lost in how it can be called entertainment) and its time to move again.

I have not found an alternative yet though. 

Surely it must be R3 next?

More likely Heart FM.

I still listen to Radio 1, but at 39 I realise I’m well past it!  

Also listen to a bit of 6 Music and quite a bit of Kisstory and as we’re into Hip Hop / RnB etc

In fact one of the other half’s criteria for our next car is that it must have a a DAB radio so she can listen to Kisstory!

As long as you have 3.5mm jack input for audio or Bluetooth input, you can get an in-car DAB without having to have it integrated into the car (just to give you some wider choice of car and price!). 

I got one last year based on suggestions from here. It's not optimal as it doesn't display the station and song etc but it's fine; £60 instead of around £200 to get the cheapest aftermarket one fitted.

(or depending on your data useage, stream it from your phone into the car's Bluetooth; or if no Bluetooth but a 3.5mm jack input, a £15 Bluetooth receiver will do you. Getting a bit Heath-Robinson I know!)

Yes I thought about going down this road, if it was up to me I’d just do this but I think my other half might not be keen if it’s in the slightest bit technical to use…

Can you send me a link to the device you got so I can float the idea?!

Out of interest, what aerial do you use? I fitted a DAB stereo to my van so that I could get 6 Music. After reading around I got the impression that anything other than a roof mount would be rubbish, so that's what I went for. But can you actually get good reception with something that plugs in and sits on the dash?

I have one I'm waiting to retrofit... I need to put the end at the top of the window and run it to the dash by hiding it under the A pillar trim

https://www.radio-uk.co.uk/radio/oldies-classic-hits-155

Fill your boots!😉

My Mum (in her eighties) just bought a cheap DAB/FM radio. Not a single instruction in or on the box of course. I was trying to tune it in to the Andy Williams/Val Doonican/Irish dance band channel but all I could find on DAB was a classic heavy metal programme. After AC/DC 'Thunderstruck' and Black Sabbath 'Paranoid' we gave up.

I hired a Zipvan a while back and the only station it could find on DAB was Heart Dunno what that was about but it connected to my phone OK. It's a bit creepy now as the next time I hired it it remembered me and started playing my Spotify playlist as soon as I started it.

I got a refurbished Pure Highway 600 for £60.

To be honest I was a little disappointed about a few aspects e.g. its display on the little tuner/display unit is horrible, and the fact that some of its fancy features (beyond my requirements and a bit beyond my understanding in some cases) e.g. some stuff around streaming to it from Spotify on your phone which I no longer use anyway, required you to be using data even if you had music downloaded. 

However it serves its one purpose which is that I can listen to 6Music live in the car (I go to analogue for R2 and R3 because it feels easier)

The aerial sticks to the side of the windscreen, as high as possible. It seems to receive quite well although weirdly seems to take a few minutes to "wake up"!

What I realised after a few months was that if I am ONLY listening to one station, I don't have to have the little tuner/display unit. It does mean that my only info is on the car stereo display just saying "AUX IN" but that's OK. I probably could bought a much cheaper unit given that I am not using a lot of the fancy features. 

I would class it as a bit fiddly, this is why I didn't bother tuning any more than 6Music, but then I was frankly being lazy and unmotivated (analogue Radio 3 sounds fine to me so I didn't feel a need to learn how to program it in to the DAB unit)

I bought a cheap one in a charity shop, no manual (and failed to find one online because the manufacturer probably went bust years ago) and it is the most non-intuitive thing I've encountered since it took me 15 years to work out how to set the clock on my microwave. 
If I lose its tuning or accidentally switch to analogue by pressing the wrong button, it takes about 20 minutes of mental and physical wrestling to get it back to 6Music. 

Yes! It's the completely non- intuitive way everything seems to be now. Is this just old age? We have a gee-wizz new app to 'bid' for overtime and book holiday hours at work. Yesterday, I tried cancelling some days and moving them (to no avail). Earlier this year I would simply fill in a form and get the slip back a few days later. It's complete and utter sh1te of the first order.

Agree on Lamacq, it feels like I've tuned in to a rerun of his 90s output with afew oldies thrown in but most annoying of all is his continual desire to 'explain' the music industry to us and reveal how expert he is on things like marketing etc. Tedious beyond reason.

Literally every time his show comes on and I don't have the energy to turn it off I hear him mention his time at the NME. He's like the worst sort of pub bore, stuck in his glory years of 30 years ago.

Why does R2 think that someone who once made music, or still does, will make a good presenter. The trailers alone for Holly Johnson and Will Young must have caused queues to start forming on tall buildings and beachy head. 

I’m 46 and can’t ever see a day where I would choose to tune in to Radio 2.

Summo: I see you have covered the women and gays you don’t like. Looking forward to your next proclamation.

Steve Wright is dire(as I've already said), Vine barely tolerable on a good day.

If you wish to accuse me of some ism or ist, go for it, I'm just pointing out their inability as a dj(imho). 

You can liven it up with a game of Lammo Bingo...

You get a point any time he says any of the following:

NME

Gig

Bristol

Brighton

Glastonbury

Record Label

Blur

Pulp

Some shite anecdote about how he met a minor celebrity at Glastonbury/Brighton/a gig/Bristol blah blah blah

First person to three points gets to run their head over with a truck. 

That covers the first fifteen minutes. Can we turn him off after that and tune back in when Riley is on three hours later? 

There are probably quite a few people who many would consider are not worth their salaries.

For instance, Gary Lineker. Last year he agreed to a pay cut of £400,000. Was he even really worth a salary of £400,000, let alone to have a salary large enough to have a cut of £400,000

If I have read this article -

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-54119758 -

correctly he will now earn(or perhaps, will be paid, is more accurate) £1.35m.

Dave

No commentator is worth that much. The problem with hiring ex footballers is they expect ridiculous footballers wages even when they haven't kicked a ball for decades. 

Totally agree about Lamacq. The world has moved on, so should he! When I accidently catch him on the radio I presume its re-run from 20 years ago.. but it isn't!

Wright is such an unbearably irritating buffoon. Many years ago, Viz did a feature called 'Steve Wright and his Sycophantic Shite', which pretty much sums it up 

If I'm ever unfortunate enough to turn on R2 during his show, I come dangerously close to throwing myself out of the car at speed. Something about his total inanity makes me feel like I've briefly entered some parallel dystopia where entertainment is generated by machine, perfectly pitched to induce suicidal thoughts. I cannot comprehend how it is possible to derive any pleasure from listening to him.

And then there's Michael Ball, but let's not go there

Wright is still around? An utter PITA who ruined every day at work in the 1990s as some choob in the office insisted on having the Afternoon Show on.  Shudder

Lineker isn't a commentator, in fact I can't think of any ex player that is a commentator. Plenty of them act as summarisers, but Lineker isn't that either.

Lineker is a presenter and leads the BBC's football coverage. The Euro 2020 final is perhaps a good measure of his value. It was the most watch TV in decades with an audience peaking at 31m, it was also live on both BBC and ITV. The ITV coverage was led by their Chief Sports Presenter, Mark Pougatch, a perfectly able presenter. The BBC share of the audience was 25m.

Lineker comes from a time footballers, even those of his profile, earned good, but nothing like the kind of wages that they do today. His footballing wages peaked at around £200k a year, except perhaps during his brief time being injured in Japan. The simple fact is Lineker has a market value that is probably quite a bit higher than he actually gets paid, but wants to work for the BBC.

Others might argue that the radio presenters also have a market value that justifies their salaries, I'm less clear in the figures and the industry, largely because I find commercial radio unlistenable.

And not one of them tuned in to watch Lineker. It's wasted money. 

Interesting analysis, or more bluntly, bollocks.The presentation team is clearly part of the differential between two channels essentially selling the same product. The difference being 5:1 in favour of the BBC. 

But that doesn't mean the BBC could only maintain those viewers with Lineker. 

If you look back to a similar event pre-Lineker, the Euro 96 semi final. The ratio was 3:1.

I like Sara Cox when I catch her... Zoe Ball I struggle with and Jeremy 'Daily Mail of the Radio' Vine... well the less said!

Jo Whiley is the other one I enjoy listening to on R2 (now she is back in her proper time slot).

Correlation isn't causation. 

Do you really believe he's worth those wages, relative to other presenters and the wider world? 

I presume if he's so great and worth every penny now he's taken a pay cut the commercial stations will be in quick to snap up such a bargain? 

True, I’m happy for you to explore other factors that might be at play. Your position so far, doesn’t really seem to based on anything other than the fact that he is paid a lot of money.

I suspect he wants to stay with the BBC, he has been working with BT alongside his BBC work, but I believe he has stopped that.

I’m sure other channels have tried to tempt him away.

God he is awful. How could you move Radcliffe and Maconie to Weekend breakfast but still keep on Steve 'I don't blow my nose' Lamacq. Such an infuriating person on the radio.

Bring back Mark and Lard I say. Best radio shows ever.

Indeed, a bloke who's paid way too much, talks about other people who are also paid way too much. 

How about Tony Blackburn then? Jokes are over 50 years old and his presenting of Sounds of the Sixties show every Saturday morning is as cheesy as it was in... the sixties. Still love it!

And the sun is always shining!

And Flowers in the Rain.

...would this be before or after England beat the Germans in the Euros and she became massively interested in football, so much so that she raved about the performance of 'Jordan' Sancho?

10 years ago? I don't listen much but it seems to me that his show is pretty much exactly what it was on Radio 1 in 1984. 
Mind you...if it ain't broke.

Now, if they'd got Peter Serafinowiz to do the show no-one would have noticed the difference at all. The definitive Ken Bruce impersonator (good as Brydon is).  Even Ken Bruce would have been confused had he been listening, wondering how he could be in two places at once.

Hear Blimmin' hear...

Oh god, Sara Cox and Zoe Ball talk to their listener(s) like they're kids. No time for either of them.

Jo Whiley on the other hand is very listenable in her evening slot, but my god she was awful on the drive time show, but maybe that was down to the lack of chemistry between herself and Simon Mayo 

You mean the very tricky quizzes... my first letter is in crap and also in dire.... 

Or ball's total inability to communicate with any of the thought for the day presenters, usually thanks darling is as good as it gets, even if a person has zero interest in religion they are her programmes guests. 

He's a remarkable bloke, Lineker. To have had the playing career he had - high achieving, completely unblemished by any suggestion of cheating, gamesmanship or even ever receiving a red or yellow card - then become a respected, informed and amusing commentator on the game, as well as sustaining and propagating political views that are coherent, humanistic and inclusive, totally facing down his many enemies, from rival commentators to (inevitably) the DM, Express and Telegraph with affability, insight and wit...

The guy is a national treasure, we're lucky to have such talent remain in the UK. Why are folks so negative about people like that who are just so genuinely gifted?

Broadly agree, however his renumeration from a licence payer funded service is just obscene and clearly unnecessary. About 350k would be reasonable.

Doing what he's been paid to do doesn't really make someone a national treasure*.

* an over used and devalued term. 

All this is a great advert for compact discs or cassettes.