Ken Bruce has a few words to say.. Radio Bosses take note!

bbability

A very interesting article in the Telegraphconsidering the trend happening on Irish radio at present.

Credit:daily telegraph.co.uk

Ken Bruce criticises radio bosses for hiring celebrity presenters
Ken Bruce, the Radio 2 DJ, has criticised station bosses for filling the schedules with television stars and stand-up comedians whilst failing to celebrate its older presenters.

Ken Bruce's mid-morning Radio 2 show has an audience of six million listeners
By Anita Singh, Showbusiness Editor6:22PM BST 04 Sep 2009
Bruce, who has spent the past 25 years with Radio 2 and is one of its most popular DJs, said many of the new hirings had no aptitude for radio.
He declined to name names, but Radio 2's most recent hirings are Paul O'Grady and Alan Carr, television stars who developed their careers on the stand-up comedy circuit.
"I have great admiration for people who do fast-moving live television, but an awful lot of television is just 'stand up, smile' and you really often don't have to think for yourself," he claimed.
"A lot of television personalities have done great radio, such as Jonathan Ross, but too often a famous face is parachuted into a prime radio slot with no experience of, or particular aptitude for, the medium."
He blamed the situation on management, who "have lost their gifts as talent-spotters and are too content to rely on a proven public profile to garner an audience".

Writing in his newly published autobiography, Tracks Of My Years, Bruce, 58, said: "Stand-up comedians are also seen as a ripe recruiting area, and here too there are many who have a real gift for the intimate communication that radio needs, but there are far too many who simply come on and do a version of their act.
"Loud, larger-than-life performances work in clubs and theatres, but not radio."
The current Radio 2 roster also features Dermot O'Leary, host of The X Factor, Claudia Winkleman, the face of Hell's Kitchen and Strictly Come Dancing spin-off It Takes Two, and Alan Titchmarsh, the television gardening expert. Dale Winton, who presents Pick of the Pops, is best known for the television show Supermarket Sweep but did begin his career on the radio.
The policy backfired spectacularly last year with the hiring of Russell Brand, whose prank phone calls to Andrew Sachs cost him his show and forced the resignation of Lesley Douglas, the Radio 2 controller.
Bruce, whose mid-morning show has more than six million listeners, criticised the Radio 2 promotional campaigns which he said consistently featured high-profile recruits. A 2008 advert showcased Brand, Ross, O'Leary, Winkleman and Chris Evans, but none of the long-serving presenters who have helped to turn Radio 2 into Britain's most popular station.
He said: "Good though they undoubtedly are, the fact remains that over 70 per cent of Radio 2's total audience share is provided by three shows: Sarah Kennedy, Terry Wogan and mine. And the biggest single show on a Saturday is not Jonathan Ross, it's presented by an 80-year-old gentleman by the name of Brian Matthew under the title Sounds of the 60s.
"Why are these successes not trumpeted? Because they don't fit with the marketing ethos of attracting new young audiences by showing them faces they already know."
A Radio 2 spokesman said: "Radio 2 has the most popular entertainers and music radio presenters in the business that come from a wide range of backgrounds and Ken Bruce is one of them."

soc160

Why radio stations insist on hiring "celebs" or "personalities" is beyond me... It's acceptable to an extent at Newstalk, purely a talk based station whit a lot of specialist programmes and they have commentators there to drive the station on but the utter nonsense at 2fm with giving celebrities shows. Why not just hire some DJ's! 98 brought in Aidan Power and it didn't work, they switched back and got radio people in and saw an improvement... Look at Spin and FM104, they don't mess around, they have DJ's playing music, not someone half famous on acting an arse.

twinklerunner

bbability wrote: »

A very interesting article in the Telegraphconsidering the trend happening on Irish radio at present.
"

When did he write that? Some of the details quoted are very out of date:
Tony Blacburn replaced Dale Winton as the presenter of Pick Of The Pops in 2010.
The Russell Brand incident happened in 2008.

L1011

September 2009 as the article says at the top.