BUYING THE BBC TO SAVE MONEY

Interesting to read how the private sector could help us all by running parts of the BBC; I am advised;

"As the BBC comes under increased pressure from tightened budgets, the executives of the Birmingham-based commercial radio station brmb have come up with a solution to maintain localness and save money. There is serious debate about limiting BBC local radio stations to one or two locally produced shows a day with BBC Five Live filling the rest of the time. In light of this the management of brmb has offered to run BBC WM at a significantly reduced budget with a saving to the BBC and the licence payer.

The senior team behind brmb, Phil Riley and David Lloyd, have a track record of major achievements in the radio industry. Between them, they have experience of major roles in broadcasting in the UK from regulation to content creation and business management. They successfully rebuilt London talk station LBC, re-establishing the image of the station and its audience. The team also applied in 2003 for an OFCOM licence to run a commercial talk station in Birmingham ‘WBC’. Chief Executive of Orion Media (parent company of brmb) Phil Riley believes that it is unthinkable that the UK’s second city should not have a fully operational news talk service: “The suggestion is outrageous. This city creates a mass of news and sport stories everyday. It is unacceptable that the BBC should be cutting back on its service to the city. We already have an accomplished and credible news and sports team based at brmb ready and willing to provide the service. 

“Great talk radio is about not just news, but local presenters, interesting guests and listeners who want to participate and reflect the richness of the area where they live.” The financing of the service is not an issue, Mr Riley says:“From our understanding of the costs of running BBC WM, we believe we could achieve a fifty percent saving. This would be great news for the listeners and the people of Birmingham and the country at large. Isn’t this the ‘Big Society’ in operation - a commercial business offering to provide a public service at a fraction of the cost?”

Have to agree with this....just think, a 50% saving simply by getting the BBC bureaucracy out of the way...