The Yorkshire and Lincolnshire Thread

Well, I hope I never have to work with him. He's either too arrogant or stupid to realise he'll never work there again. I may have disagreemnets with my bosses from time to time but I always understood our positions - and I'll never use the c-word. As soon as you start insulting people, rather than debating, you've lost any credibility.

There are some points that Belfield gets right about BBC LR management where they are allowed to continue to ruin radio stations and/or get promoted, but his homophobia, transphobia and misogyny, along with his jealousy of Stephanie Hirst, an innovative broadcaster who loves the medium then discredits the legitimate observations he makes about how awful BBC local radio is.

The point around Stephanie is it doesn't matter whether she is an innovative broadcaster who loves the medium, it's that the figures for the show are awful, and in any radio business other than the BBC and local radio, she would have been replaced if the figures dropped so much. For me, she is living on past glories, because the show she does now is no way near the quality it was at Galaxy or Capital etc.

Belfield might go about it the wrong way with the language he uses, but he has a point about the content of the show not relating to the audience. Hirsty is broadcasting a show to that is aimed at the supposed new audience of BBC Local Radio but it isn't there, because the BBC haven't told that audience that they want them now. The obvious case was the show she did from Ibiza! Totally pointless to the current Local Radio audience.

I think some of Belfield's points are reasonable, although perhaps expressed in an unhelpful way. The "open letter" he wrote when he left Radio Leeds was vitriolic about certain individuals but then very generous about people like Andrew Edwards which gave me the impression that there was some validity in what he said about the likes of Liz Green.

That said, I believe he is now in the clickbait game, I haven't seen his recent stuff but I gather that he was putting out some appalling material in the hours/days after Caroline Flack's death.

The relevant stuff is more to do with certain BBC management which I have come across - I cant disagree with much of that.

What Alex and you don't appear to understand is that LR needs reform. Management is one thing, but they have to try and attract a new audience as the largely elderly listeners pass on. The likes of Hirsty and Johnny I'Anson at Radio Leeds is exactly where they should be directing their editorial agenda towards, broadly accessible presenters who can please 30 somethings and the loyal older audience.

When LR does programming well, it's some of the best public service radio in the country. But lazy features (missing words and treasure hunts) and a R2 lite style playlist isn't going to bring in those listeners.

As for Belfield himself, his YouTube channel has clips of him presenting a phone-in from home where he gets wound up by a caller discussing the Coronavirus and a 20 min tirade against a BBC Radio Northampton presenter, the kind of stuff that shouldn't be made public. BBC LR egotistical radio presenters really are a special breed.

It's an incredible piece of work. Well done Alex.

You are wrong, I do understand that Local Radio needs to reform, and I understand that both Steph and Johnny are the type of presenter they need to have more of. My point was that there's no point changing the format and style of say Radio Leeds with a show like Hirsty is doing, without actually telling anyone that she is there. I live & work in Radio Leeds area and I don't see any advertising for the shows/station. There's nothing in the local spot after Look North about the new shows/format.

If you aren't already a Radio Leeds listener because you think it's too old for you, how do you know that it now wants you?

Thanks for your input Mr Belfield.

What a tirade.
Whether what he says is correct or relevant is lost under the overwhelming bitterness.
He is not going to be employed by anybody in any industry ever again if that is the way he carries on afterwards.
Why would anyone trust him?

Whether you like it or not it is not possible to force people to listen to a particular presenter or station. Therefore for a change in target audience to be successful you need external marketing aimed at the new target audience which simply hasn't happened in the case of local radio. I have never listened to any of Stephanie's work so I have no idea if she is a good broadcaster but there is something about her current programme which means it has alienated the previous audience and failed to pick up a new audience which means that it is not a programme that should be continuing.

I'm not Alex Belfield, nor have I ever met him. I have worked with people who worked with him at Radio Leeds. However I am someone who has worked in the radio industry for over 20 years and have presented on & programmed award winning radio stations in that time.

What you seem to be missing is that I'm agreeing with you, that both Hirsty & Johnny are very good presenters and should be the future template for BBC Local Radio, and when they do stuff right, it's the best around. The problem is that if the BBC don't tell anyone outside the radio industry & the land of radio geeks that their local radio stations are changing then there's no point.