Rumour on the radio circuit is that Radio 5 Live's Peter Allen may well join his boss Bob Shennan at the new Channel 4 Radio, which is launching in 2008. Allen was considered a bit 'Essex' by Radio 4 and an offer to join the Today Programme team was withdrawn recently. But he is the undoubted star of Radio 5 Live and would be sorely missed by a station whose news content seems to be rapidly diminishing. But his new partnership with Anita Anand seems to be working well and they are rapidly recreating the on air chemistry which was so good between him him and Jane Garvey, who recently took the Radio 4 shilling.Radio 5 Live is my station of choice. It's what I have on in the car (unless I am with my partner, in which case I have to suffer Radio 2 or Magic FM - yes, don't all be sick at once). If Peter Allen goes many listeners might follow. Don't do it Peter!
But every cloud has a silver lining, and if he does go it might leave an opening for the excellent Phil Williams to finally get his own show. Long overdue.
19 comments:
Same station choice for me Iain. Peter is good value. Victoria in the mornings also.
PA can bit of an old fart. And he and/or his producer made a serious mistake having Nick Griffin on live 18 months ago.
Channel 4 talk radio might be a good product. Though 24 hours is a long time to fill! Their hour long news via ITN is often threadbare.
Radio 1 or Galaxy is what I generally have to endure if I have passengers.
Five Live is brilliant. Anyone out there who's clinging to Radio 4, especially the Today programme, there is a great alternative! You'll feel so refreshed.
Do what I do and tell your partner to wear earphones.
I'm nonplussed by Allan. I think Anita Anand has deserved her own show for a long time and is wasted as Allan's 'bit on the side'. Anand should do the morning phone-in and Derbyshire should be booted out on her....behind. Although I much prefer Matthew Bannister when he did it during Derbyshire's leave. Richard Bacon is a waste of space. Stephen Nolan should do the late night show. Give Phil Williams the morning show and move Nicky Campbell to Drive.
Iain,
Like you I listen to Radio 5 a lot but I have recently re-tuned my alarm to Radio 4 as I cannot stand that pretentious self promoting idiot Nicky Campbell.
Peter Allen is without doubt the best and if he left I would probably follow him.
Nooooooo don't leave me.........
But Radio 5 seems to think that the only sport is chavball, so ZaNuLiebour, and Essex to boot.
Peter Allen is probably the most fair presenter on BBC radio. Whatever his own views he gives equal treatment to his interviewees. He also has excellent timing and a good sense of humour. The BBC cannot afford to lose him and may yet rue withdrawing the Today offer.
I get the impression that Peter Allan doesn't fancy the 5 live move to Manchester.
It seems crazy to move 5 live as much of the national news is generated in London and this has to result in duplication of effort with news teams for different stations in London and Manchester.
If some of the stations had to move then I'd have thought that Radios 1, 2, 3, 6 and 7 would have been far better choices
5 live is my station of choice, apart from the 8.10 spot on the Today programme (and I can't stand the Shelagh and Nicky show) but it's dumbed down almost beyond recognition, and the Richard Bacon effort just shows that he's still more suited to children's broadcasting than any intelligent news/discussion programme. Fi Glover, Anita Anand - even Edwina Curry were streets ahead. If the new Channel 4 station is as good as their TV news programmes there will be mass moving of the dials!
Much of the news might be generated in London but even now Fivelive still do the vast majority of their interviews over the phone and read a lot of their news straight from AP, AFP, Reuters etc. Nowadays news gathering is much more about internal and external networks which do not rely on location. There will always be on the ground news reporters based in London to put a mic in front of someone's mouth the result of which will be transmitted to Manchester instead of somewhere else in London. Therefore what difference does it make to move to Manchester in terms of Fivelive's output? The real stumbling block is the distress caused by uprooting families from their communities, schools etc.
I'd be sad if Peter left Five Live - he's very much part of my early evening tea and cigarette routine. I miss him when he goes on holiday.
Agree too that Nicky Campbell is foolish and lightweight - he still hasn't recovered from being rejected by Newsnight. I find his intellectualising nauseous.
I'm really looking forward to the non-BBC talk radio options in the works.
I hope Ms Anand considers moving to one of the new channels too.
The only reason for listening to 5Live if you don't do sport is Peter, John Pienaar (though he needs to ask tougher questions, even though his analysis is excellent) and (was) Jane. Peter and Jane were a brilliant double act.
Victoria Derbyshire is just too 'mumsy' and ordinary. She frequently runs out of questions, leading to an awful silence while she thinks of something to ask. She also always begins an interview with callers like this:
VD: "Hello, how are you?"
Caler: "I'm fine, how are you?"
VD: "I'm fine"
So that's OK then, they're both fine. Makes for terrific radio...
So, take away Peter and there's not much left really. The old adage "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" doesn't seem to apply to 5Live
Phil WIlliams is awful!! He's so cocky, and his fake laugh is cringeworthy.
Simon Mayo all the way - a real pro.
You're right, Iain: Peter's brilliant. The move to Manchester is at present scheduled to take place in 2011 (a brilliant piece of BBC planning: let's move the national sports radio network out of the location for the Olympic games a year before they happen, and then pay for everyone to stay in hotels on their return the following summer...)
I can't see Peter still being a Five Live presenter by then, whatever happens. I'm not normally publicly unpleasant about my colleagues, but Nicky Campbell is a self-serving egotistical twerp and I hope he is banished by the new controller.
I hope Channel 4 Radio works, too. It'll be good for the Beeb to have some decent-quality competition.
However, my experience in commercial radio suggests that the very high quality promised in the terms of C4's licence will suffer when cuts are made after about a year. It's a real shame, but it happens everywhere.
Oh, and Peter Allen's move to the Today programme was vetoed by the director of BBC Radio, Jenny Abramsky -- no-one else. The editor of Today was very keen to employ him.
Rhod Sharp on Up All Night, 1 a.m. onwards, is the best presenter on Five and one of the best in the UK. You can't find better coverage of US politics and current affairs from any other UK broadcaster. If Channel 4 Radio have any sense he'd be top of their list to poach. Allen, Bannister and Sharp all on C4 Radio would be fantastic.
I hope Peter Allan is on his way by next week.
He is such an arrogant and rude man. He is only interested in listening to anybody who agrees with him and he is always showing his ignorance and bad manners when interupting his co-presenters interviews.
The programme has improved since Garvey left and Anita has arrived.
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