When Is It Time To Retire A Show

squonk

After the sad passing of Steve Wright I read and watched some commentary saying he died of a broken heart because of his treatment by the BBC and, in particular, Helen Thomas who cancelled his show and seemed to bear a lot of ire from other radio industry people for this.

It got me thinking. I’m sure Steve was savy enough to know that he’d reach a sell-by date eventually and, maybe with his industry hat on, wasn’t surprised at the cancellation but on a personal level I’m sure it hurt.

I loved his show and was sad when he finished because it really was the last bit of the sort of radio I remember and enjoyed in a main afternoon slot, so the end of an era.

I did have to realise that radio had moved on, for better or worse. I would have thought that a strong ratings getter would survive as long as they pulled in big numbers consistently. I imagine that’s the case with Ian Dempsey who must have had the same slot for over 25 years now. However if you want to pull in a younger demographic I presume it’s a trade off between the number of new listeners you expect vs those you’ll lose by axing a show. I’m interested to know what the general opinion is really.

Dense fog

Because the BBC don't have advertising, they can afford to change things up even when a show is still fresh and popular. It's a different kettle of fish over here, The Ray D'Arcy show sounds 15 years past it's sell by date to me but apparently it brings in enough advertising to cover Darcy's wages of 1100€ a day 🤷‍♂️

EmmetSpiceland

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121792127#Comment_121792127

D’Arcy’s show was stale for years, even before the move to RTÉ.

ford fiesta

Regarding Steve Wright on BBC Radio 2 - BBC could have created a new show "as a bridge" between Steve's show and Sara's show.

Axing Steve totally was a very bad move.

Former Former Former

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058337021/when-is-it-time-to-retire-a-show

he died of a broken heart because of his treatment by the BBC 

He was a 69 year old man who'd had a double bypass and was not very good at looking after himself. His own brother said the 'broken heart' thing was a load of bollocks.

squonk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121793371#Comment_121793371

To be honest I did think that. Someone on a thread for his show posted a recent pic at round the time he was cancelled and he didn’t look to be in great shape so definitely his health was a bigger faction. Plus being the savy radio guy he was I’m sure he was well aware that you can be cancelled on a whim. It got me thinking about other long running shows though which is why I started the thread.

GSF

He wax still getting paid the same for 2 weekend shows as he was for the 5 weekday shows plus Sunday love songs so he must have had a good agent. His weekday show was retired when he left. POTP and SLS aren’t exactly unique formats