Posted by
Julie Tomlin
on 4 June 2008 at 11:27
Tags: BBC, Broadcast, Journalism, Media Business, National Newspapers, Radio, Television
Tim Walker sent flattering emails to BBC presenters telling them they were more deserving than Jonathan Ross of his reported £18 million salary… Read the responses here and here.
Posted by
Paul McNally
on 27 May 2008 at 07:35
Tags: Broadcast, Radio
If you’re a freelance journalist working mainly from home, you might already be familiar with the work of Adam Shaw, the co-host of BBC2’s lunchtime business news programme Working Lunch.
He takes up a new role today as business correspondent on Radio 4’s Today programme.
Putting aside the obvious issue of the credit crunch, Shaw tells the Independent that there’s another reason why business news has become such a major part of the news agenda recently.
“Businesses themselves are only just learning to talk to the media,” he says. “For a very long time many of them were awful at their own public relations.”
Posted by
Paul McNally
on 19 May 2008 at 08:31
Tags: Broadcast, Journalism, Law, Media Business, Radio
Gordon Brown is reported to have complained to BBC Radio 4 about his treatment by John Humphrys on the Today programme.
According to the Mail on Sunday, the BBC broadcast a “clarification” in which it admitted it might have misquoted the PM.
Posted by
Rachael Gallagher
on 15 May 2008 at 08:53
Tags: Broadcast, Radio
Former chief executive of TalkSport, Kelvin MacKenzie, has accused the station of allowing George Galloway to use his show on the station as a party political broadcast.
MacKenzie revealed in his Sun column today that he was forwarded an anonymous email from the station that revealed that Galloway took away with him after each show the contact details for everyone who had texted and emailed in the show, and later contacted them offering more information on him and the Respect Party.
MacKenzie claims he’s been told that listeners of TalkSport – the station which sacked a presenter of 13 years for saying he backed Boris Johnson on air – have been complaining to the station about receiving unwanted emails.
He wrote: “It’s clearly in Mr Galloway’s interest to peddle his personal manifesto during his show.”
Posted by
Martin Stabe
on 13 May 2008 at 09:52
Tags: Agencies, Magazines, Online, Radio, Television
Bloomberg has appointed the former editor-in-chief of Time Inc magazines, Norm Pearlstine, to the new role of chief content officer with a remit to expand the financial newswire’s activities in other media.
Bloomberg editor-in-chief Matt Winkler told the Financial Times that Pearlstine would seek growth for Bloomberg’s television, radio, magazine and online products.
Pearlstine, who leaves a job as a media advisor to the Carlyle Group, told the FT he would take time to learn about Bloomberg’s businesses before deciding how the company could expand its magazine portfolio beyond Bloomberg Markets.
Posted by
Rachael Gallagher
on 12 May 2008 at 09:05
Tags: Broadcast, Magazines, Radio
Former publisher of Dennis’ digital magazine Monkey, James Mallinson, is to launch a digital publication for speech radio station TalkSport, reports Media Week.
The online-only publication, delivered to subscribers’ inboxes once a week, has a new editorial team recruited to produce the title which includes Esquire’s sports editor Bill Borrows who will be taking up the position of editor on a freelance basis.
Posted by
Martin Stabe
on 6 May 2008 at 17:42
Tags: National Newspapers, Online, Radio
FT.com’s Alphaville has won the Webby Award and the People’s Voice award in the “Best Business Blog”
The BBC also collected two awards, with the BBC World Service winning the Webby in the radio category and the BBC News website taking the People’s Voice award in the News category.
The big winner among news publishers was the New York Times, which collected the Webby awards for best News site, best newspaper site, best mobile news site, and travel. The New York Times Style magazine won a people’s voice award for best editing and a Webby for best use of animation or motion graphics.
NYTimes.com site also won both the People’s Voice award for best newspaper website, beating out Guardian.co.uk, Independent.co.uk, WSJ.com and Variety.com.
The Webby Awards are presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a 550-member body of web experts, business figures, luminaries, visionaries and celebrities. The people’s voice awards are voted on by web users.
Posted by
Ruth Morgan
on 6 May 2008 at 17:05
Tags: Broadcast, Radio
TalkSport presenter James Whale has been sacked for urging listeners to vote for Boris Johnson in the London mayoral elections.
The veteran host, who has been presenting the show since it began in 1995, was found to be in breach of Ofcom regulations after a number of complaints were received during his show on 20 March.
TalkSport owner UTV conducted an internal investigation and sacked Whale before Ofcom had finished its own investigation.
UTV described the incident as “very unfortunate”.
The station said in a statement: “We have investigated the matter and after serious consideration, the station reached the decision that there was a clear breach of the rules and that we had no choice but to terminate his contract. James Whale is guilty of a gross error of judgment which we found to be totally unacceptable.”
In a statement on his website, Whale described the recent events as “somewhat unplanned, to say the least”.
Max Rushden has temporarily replaced Whale while the station looks for a permanent replacement. The Ofcom investigation is still open.
Posted by
Paul McNally
on 29 April 2008 at 08:24
Tags: Radio
Channel 4’s foray into digital radio could be delayed for as long as two years, according to a report in Media Week quoting sources close to the launch.
The broadcaster was due to launch its radio service this summer, with speech station Channel 4 Radio expected to launch six months later.
“Channel 4 is wobbling like mad at board level over the launch of this multiplex,” a digital radio source told the magazine.
Posted by
Colin Crummy
on 28 April 2008 at 17:07
Tags: Broadcast, Radio
The BBC director of audio & music, Jenny Abramsky, has rejected calls for the privatisation of Radio One and Radio Two.
Speaking at the Radio Reborn conference in London, Abramsky said it would be a “cultural travesty” to privatise the music networks.
She was responding to a speech by television executive and the man behind Big Brother, Peter Bazalgette, who last week called for the radio stations and Channel 4’s privatisation to fund public service content from the arts.
Elsewhere at the conference, Channel 4 radio boss Natalie Schwartz confirmed that the project will go ahead but refused to set a date for the launch of the second national ditigal multiplex.
Posted by
Paul McNally
on 28 April 2008 at 07:15
Tags: Radio
Humphrey Lyttelton, the veteran journalist and host of Radio 4’s I’m A Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, has died at the age of 86.
Lyttleton began his media career in 1949 as a cartoonist on the Daily Mail, also worked as a columnist for Punch and a restaurant critic for Vogue.
Posted by
Paul McNally
on 25 April 2008 at 15:04
Tags: Radio
London talk radio station LBC is to simulcast the final debate between the main London mayoral candidates, hosted by Sky News political editor Adam Boulton.
The debate will be broadcast on Sky News and LBC on Monday between 8pm and 9pm in front of an audience of 500 people.
Posted by
Colin Crummy
on 24 April 2008 at 10:21
Tags: Broadcast, Radio, Television
Channel 4 should continue as a public service broadcaster but not at the expense of the BBC, a survey by television industry magazine Broadcast has found.
Some 80 per cent of respondants to the Broadcast poll said they favoured Channel 4 remaining a public service broadcaster but 59 per cent said that top-slicing the BBC licence fee to fund commercial rivals’ public service content was a bad idea.
Posted by
Colin Crummy
on 24 April 2008 at 10:11
Tags: Broadcast, Radio
GCap Media is to increase the number of networked shows across its 42 local radio stations, reports MediaGuardian.
The move follows a relaxation of broadcasting regulator Ofcom’s rules on the amount of local programming that must be broadcast by radio stations.
New weekday and weekend shows will be rolled out across GCap’s One Network, which includes Capital 95.8 in London and BRMB in Birmingham.
Posted by
Colin Crummy
on 21 April 2008 at 10:04
Tags: Broadcast, Radio
Moving BBC Five Live from London to Salford will be an “all or nothing” operation, according to the radio station’s new controller.
Adrian Van Klaveren told MediaGuardian that all the station’s daytime shows will make the move to Salford in 2011. But he added that the move would not be a catalyst for the station’s relaunch.
Van Klaveren declined to specify how many staff he expected to take with him but said that “as long as you can get that absolute core of the people fundamental to the station’s success, then you have got a position where you build from and make a success of it”.
Posted by
Paul McNally
on 18 April 2008 at 09:51
Tags: Broadcast, Journalism, Radio, Television
Independent producers making TV and radio programmes for the BBC will be required to take its “Safeguarding Trust” course, under new guidelines published today.
According to Broadcast, the corporation has tightened up its compliance rules in the wake of the series of “editorial breaches” unearthed last year, which included incorrect documentary editing and faked phone-ins.
Posted by
Paul McNally
on 18 April 2008 at 08:36
Tags: Journalism, Radio
A radio journalist who was stabbed in the throat by a burglar has seen her attacker sentenced to seven years in jail, the Irish Independent has reported.
A Dublin court heard yesterday that BBC researcher Mairead O’Dwyer was lucky to have survived the attack, after Polish national Leszek Jaorsz stabbed her with a kitchen knife at her Dublin home.
Posted by
Colin Crummy
on 15 April 2008 at 13:13
Tags: Broadcast, Radio, Television
Broadcasting regulator chief Ed Richards has suggested the BBC Trust could play a role in reallocating the licence fee, if it becomes the way to secure public service broadcasting.
Speaking to MediaGuardian, Ofcom’s Richards said that if a slice of the licence fee were to be shared among other broadcasters for public service content, the BBC Trust might play a part in granting the funds.
Richards was elaborating on the first part of Ofcom’s review into public service broadcasting, unveiled last week. Although he said that he had no preferred funding option, the idea of taking the part of the licence fee currently ringfenced for digital switchover schemes and using that for other future public service content, would not harm the BBC. The BBC has already warned against top-slicing the licence fee.
Posted by
Colin Crummy
on 15 April 2008 at 09:13
Tags: BBC, Broadcast, Radio
A trio of BBC News veterans are among the contenders tipped to replace Jenny Abramsky as the head of audio and music at the BBC following her departure from the corporation next September, reports MediaGuardian.
Current director of news Helen Boaden is the early favourite for the job, with former deputy director of news and current Radio 4 controller Mark Damazer also tipped for the post. BBC director of sport and former editor of Radio 4’s Today programme Roger Mosey is also a leading contender for the role.
Posted by
Colin Crummy
on 9 April 2008 at 11:06
Tags: Law, Radio
A BBC Stoke reporter was pinned to the ground by six police officers and searched under the Terrorism Act after his radio transmitter was mistaken for bomb equipment, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Max Khan was ambushed by police after several shoppers raised concerns about “an Arabic looking man” “acting suspiciously” outside a shopping centre in Hanley, Staffs. Khan, who was returning from making a bulletin about a local post office, had been wearing a rucksack with radio wires and an aerial protruding from the top.
