Published: 25 May, 2012

• TO celebrate his 25 years in radio on July 24, 1989, Tony Blackburn praised commercial/private broadcasters and wrote that there should be radical changes at the BBC.

Would it not be more sensible, he stated, to shut down Radio 1 and 2 and expand commercial radio, which can do a far better job than an over-staffed, outdated, national radio system.

“I would also favour closing down all local radio stations, because, again, their track record is pretty dismal,” he said.

“A streamlined BBC would then [have] two TV stations and Radio 4, which in my view is the only station which operates on a national basis’’. He ends the point by saying that Radio 3 could be handed over to the private sector to operate on a subscription basis.

How many times do we hear how wasteful the public sector is compared with the thrifty and successful private sector?

If the BBC had taken notice of his analysis then there would be no Radio 2 and no Tony Blackburn’s Pick of the Pops show on a Saturday afternoon.

For the repentant sinner there will always be a place at the BBC; likewise, at Classic FM for David Mellor; and forgiveness in heaven for the Spectator Three, Boris Johnson, Simon Hoggart and David Blunkett, when that magazine was in Holborn and where one could “couch” when owls did cry in Lincoln’s Inn.
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