Departures and arrivals

Hasit Shah inherits the poisoned chalice. He is a fill in 'til the next poor mug, no doubt, just like you were. Mr Bowbrick and AVK have a lot to answer for.



Goodbye Ellie and good luck. I hardly know you but I had held high hopes after "Fancy a chat?". Dashed again.

Well Hasit Shah will really have to work extremly record to surpass the dedication and enthusiasm shown by Ellie.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Surely this is some kind of joke?



Ellie you've been responsible for two blog entries and a paltry 8 blog posts in 8 weeks. You haven't even seen out your secondment.



Then there's Mr Bowbrick. "Our" blog editor. He's invisible, so much so, he isn't even one of the last 10 blog contributors, yet apparently he's responsible for this blog.



Now we welcome Mr Shah. Can I suggest he begins by reading the Fancy a chat thread. My first post there also provides some helpful historical context with other threads worth reading/



Lastly, a question and a piece of advise for you Ellie.



1. Will you be following up on the request you submitted for answers on the ratings? The weekend and your sudden departure is unfortunate but will not dim our interest.



2. When planning your conference coverage please make sure Richard Bacon and Gabby Logan aren't within 200 miles of the venues and the excellent Jon Pienear is used at every opportunity. Richard and Gabby have proven themselves unable to conduct serious political interviews or analysis.

As the Tory party conference is being held in Birmingham, Bacon and Logan will have to move out of London!

I would like to see Pienaar take over presenting PMQ and the MPs' panel and not have to defer to another presenter.

Someone well known in the broadcast media world once told me that going to work was never a problem because it is all so much fun every day, it just doesn't feel like a job. Life is one long party for all the BBC employees, right down the scale I suspect, somehow basking in the luvviedom that is the world of Bacon and his mates and at the expense of us all who pay for licences.

When your organisation has a guaranteed income of £3.4bn every year no-one tends to worry too much.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Good luck to Hasit Shah, I hope you can cope with the heavy work load of contributing to this blog. Have you seen Adrian van Klaveren in Five Live Towers or is he busy looking for a flat to rent in Salford? Must be hard to find one with the BBC only allowing claims of £1,900 a month for rent. Maybe driving up and down the M6 he might get chance to listen to some of Five Live’s output, but AVK don’t be tempted to text in while you’re driving remember pull over first ;-)

For the first time I think ever, moderators have started appearing on these Five Live Blog pages. Several removals are there to see. So who is moderating? I thought after the messageboards closed the mods disappeared, so someone must be reading them to decide something broke "House Rules".



And where is Hasit? He hasn't said hello yet and maybe he never will.

The mods have moved over from Blether with Brian since he's been on holiday for a month.

Hasit has given up already. Probably transferred to his next posting, the stays at Interactive seem to be shorter and shorter so that is possible.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Oops, there goes another one. From what I can remember it was pretty inocuous.

However, it's clear that there is one subject the BBC is quite touchy about.

Why is there no breakfast phone in blog these days? Is there a fear amongst you news editors that written comments on here might highlight how vacuous and moderated what is allowed to be heard on air these days?

Yes Lunchtime, my post was terribly inocous. I asked:



1. Where is Mr Shah? No post all week.

2. Why did the 5Live Head of Interactive leave? Who is his replacement and what about a blog to introduce them? And maybe explain what they do.

3. How much did the Twitter Masterclass Rhian Roberts and other 5Livers attended cost, and was it really necessary.



As you can see it broke the house rules.



1. There were questions.

2. I was trying to suggest some in the Interactive department paid more then a cursory and derisive look at the blog and their listeners.

3. I was asking how much something cost us.

I fear that in these times of multicultural Britain it's the subject that dare not speak its name.

The sad fact, repeated everywhere on these blogs when difficult questions are asked - often by ryanw on behalf of those who care about standards, is that those with power, paid for by us licence payers, can do what they like. They can ignore, complain, lecture and threaten.



Bob's your uncle - no answers from Hasit, Steve or AVK unless they fit the theory, which is that the BBC have a fantastic, audience growing station in Five Live, staffed by amazing, bright presenters who are attracting more and more listeners because they are so innovative, who can quip, fill their programmes with texts on zany subjects from dawn to dawn, literally, who are apparently in the self delusion thay they are intellectually superior to all, who are allowed to show their allegiances because they are doing it on our behalf, (and so be quiet if you don't like the style) but finally and unfortunately can't help showing they are coining it and are so happy to be what the BBC website calls: "BBC Talent". Once on the station gravy train, some people do not know where and when to get off.

8 days now, and nary a sign.



Who was the 5Live Head of Interactive who left?

Gill, Brett Spencer who was Head of 5Live interactive has left.



"left 5 live today. Best leaving gift - two seasons of FNL not yet aired here -- 6:14 PM Jul 30th via mobile web" https://twitter.com/brettsr/status/19925389776



EVEN worse then Mr Shah, who is suppose to be working on this blog, not contributing to the blog in his first week is that after 2 weeks, Mr Spencer's interim or full time replacement hasn't used this, the only 5Live forum on the BBC website, and the most appropriate interactive platform to share news of his/her appointment and aspirations for the station.



Further to Carrie's previously point, surely this appointment qualifies as a worthy post given the brief of "Big stories, changes and updates plus snapshots from the BBC's move to Salford."



As an aside I see Mr Bowbrick is a regular contributor to the Radio 4 blog. I can only assume now he no longer works with 5Live as he hasn't posted here for months and the station is no longer paying pro rata for his contribution.

More comings and goings... you can't make this up. Another PR disaster. When will they get the message?



"The BBC's human resources director for its new Salford HQ has become the latest senior BBC executive to decide not to move to the BBC North base. Paul Gaskin quit the BBC after less than two months in his £190,000-a-year role. Neither the director of BBC North, Peter Salmon, nor his deputy Richard Deverell, will be moving with their families to the area. The BBC Radio 5 Live controller Adrian Van Klaveren, another of the high-profile BBC executives leading the switch to the region out of London, will also not be moving to Salford."



https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/aug/23/bbc-salford-paul-gaskin



and this ...



Speaking to the Mail On Sunday, Gaskin said: "I did not want to move to Manchester and so decided to leave. It is as simple as that."



https://www.digitalspy.co.uk/broadcasting/news/a266164/bbc-north-hr-director-resigns.html



Oh dear.

Hasit has probably been lost in the removals van.



Personally I am fed up of this "do as I say, not as I do" lark, and wonder why there is no bottle from the underlings to just say, if you ain't going, neither am I. Trouble is, darlings, they haven't got the guts to stand up for themselves.

Where did that post come back from?



I actually wrote that I thought Hasit was lost in the removals van, and that the powers that be who refuse to move saying "do as I say, not as I do", should be stood up to by the underlings.

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