Culling of local Radio could spell disaster for communities

Cuts at BBC local radio stations could spells disaster for communities, talents and local news

Talks of cuts at BBC local radio stations could result in the lost of most if not all, programmes aimed at the African, Caribbean and Asian communities in the local community they server. 

Of the 40 local stations, only a handful of programmes specifically reflecting and targeting local communities could be left following this latest rounds of cuts.

In the decades I’ve worked for, and being associated with the BBC, specifically local radio stations, this is not new. I’ve experienced cuts, mergers of programmes especially those targeting the African, Caribbean and Asian communities and restructuring on numerous occasions.

When I started at BBC Radio Gloucestershire in 1987, at its launched in Gloucestershire, the BBC gave us a hour long show which was to cover issues pertaining to both the African Caribbean and Asian communities across the county.

It was a mishmash of a programme, which we were initially banned from structuring so we could serve our audiences as effectively as possible. Thankfully, things improved over the years in one respect – in that when I stopped working on the show almost two decades later, my programme had grown from one hour, to a three hour show focused on the African and Caribbean communities, albeit, it was by then as a result of a ‘regional merger’ which meant it was expected to represent the Black communities living in Gloucestershire, Bristol and Wiltshire. 

My final decision to leave that programme was due to the fact by that time, I was mainly living and working in London, for yet another local BBC radio station, and the final nail in the coffin was as a result of another upheaval at the BBC, they were once again changing the structure of local specialist shows.

I say all the above, only to say, these changes/upheavals within the BBC are not new. Many of the presenters of the African Caribbean programmes at these regional radio stations have been the subject of endless ‘restructuring’ over the years.

In the early 2000s when I joined BBC Radio London, we had a unit - the Community Affairs Unit (CAU) dedicated to supporting all African Caribbean (AC) programmes across the country. We were fully staffed.  At its height there were 12 journalists working in the CAU servicing the regional AC shows as well as working across Black London bringing stories to mainstream news across Radio London. 

Within a few years, the CAU has gradually been reduced to a point where there was only one person trying to service these programmes across dozens of radio stations.

Shortly after, the number of regional African, Caribbean and Asian programmes were also drastically reduced to the position where out of the BBC’s 40 stations there were only 12 with specialist shows! These programmes were all slotted into those stations’ weekend outputs. 

Now, under these new proposals, weekend programmes, with the exception of sport coverage will largely run on a regional basis – spelling the end for many of the unique shows now airing on local radio stations.

I could go on forever but my biggest fear is for those many talented individuals from our communities who will no longer get the opportunity to get onto that media ladder through their local radio stations.

When I first joined local radio, I had no media experience, that opportunity and access fuelled my love for the media leading to a Post Graduate degree in Broadcast journalism much later in life. Without that first exposure and foray into media via my local radio station, my trajectory would have been vastly different.

People from African, Caribbean and Asian backgrounds are already vastly under-represented in the media and for many of us who eventually got our foot in that door, local radio was vital. I am greatly concerned about what these cuts in specialist programmes will mean for talents among these communities.

As licence fee payers, I believe we are already being poorly treated by the BBC in the number of shows, programmes or access we’re given, and it is only through these programmes that many of our voices are ever heard.

We MUST voice our concerns now before the deed is stamped. Let’s not wait until the changes are firmly in place before we start lamenting and demonstrating!

My passion stems from my love of these shows as well as being the owner of a specialist PR Agency who rely heavily on these programmes, who has long campaigned and shouted for our voices to be heard much more loudly through mainstream media, with our stories being authentically told in our own voices I am genuinely concerned for the future. 

Maybe this latest cut will finally, drive us to start supporting those Black media outlets out-there trying to give their communities a much stronger and authentic voice. It is not all about digital, which I understand how the BBC plans to service many of these communities in the future. There are many within our communities without access to digital media. These programmes can and need to coexist alongside any digital output.

If you feel, like me, that the BBC should rethink its proposal, “make a complaint” Call 03700 100 222, or register your complaint here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/contact/complaints

Evadney Campbell MBE is a former BBC Broadcast Journalist and is the co-founder of Shiloh PR, a specialist public relations agency.