Why is Radio 4’s Today programme losing so many listeners?
The Today programme has lost 800,000 listeners in the past year. That’s about a tenth of its audience, gone.
I listen to the Today programme, but I want to stop. It is unmistakably weak at the moment. Sometimes it’s for reasons you can’t quite put your finger on. It just sounds uncomfortable and clumsy at the moment. Many recent features have felt contrived and uninteresting, almost like dad dancing. Certain presenters need to be put out to pasture (and Sarah Montague wasn’t one of them).
Then of course there are the manufactured polarised debates. These have always been a staple of the Today programme, and even the publicity shot in this Radio Times piece depicts the presenters having a debate at the breakfast table, complete with finger-pointing, as if that’s a selling point. In today’s highly charged political atmosphere, it is frankly the last thing we need more of.
All this means that I have found myself switching off the radio in disgust quite a lot recently.
I haven’t yet switched off completely — but only because I can’t think of what an alternative morning listen might be. Any suggestions?
This Link was mentioned on duncanstephen.co.uk