Hello...

Ah, fresh meat.

Be gentle lunchtime_legend or you’ll have even more of your comments removed.



Hello Hasit, I hope you’ll be a regular contributor.

We're all consenting adults on here.

Welcome Hasit.



Nice to have someone from breakfast taking reponsibility for the blog... which reminds me...



Why can't one the FIVE (!) people names here, https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/fivelivebreakfast/2008/10/the_breakfast_bloggers.html, find 5 minutes to write a breakfast blog each day? Very poor blogging effort here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/fivelivebreakfast/ and Bowbrickesque blogging through the month of August.



ALSO can you tell us who's taken over from Brett Spencer.



Thank you.

I actually took the time to watch the video above. It said we could post a message "on a BBC blog" -- I notice it didnt say a 5Live blog -- and it would take "all" our messages and "brings them to one place for you to read and respond".



Hasit, can you tell me where this BBC blog mentioned is please?



Hasit, are you sure that "all" our messages are displayed as this video suggests?



Hasit, could you please tell me where this mystic place is "all our messages" are for us to read and respond to?



I was under the impression that the blog was ignored, not all messages were included and that you could only read and respond (although there isn't a threaded conversation) during the time the programme is on.



In short, this promotional video is totally misleading.



Could you set the record straight please.



Thanks.

I am waiting to make a proper comment until I've seen a few answers materialise. I am wading through the FOI requests as mentioned on another thread. Cross eyed from the page set up but still attractive........

Wow...

New BBC blog editors come and go and promise things they never keep.



Hasit, just like your predecessors you have come along, wrote a hello message, and went away ignoring the readers and their comments ever after.

Praise = constructive comment

Criticism = abusive comment

I have posted on the Connect page but the frustration of the character limits is immense and I do not see why I have to pay to send a longer text if I wish to contribute. Emailing is a it of a bore in my situation.



Why has the Breakfast blog been dropped? This was a good way to expand one's comments.



Good luck to Hasit and Nigel. One beg: please improve communications with the posters on here who would very much like to be constructive but who, I believe, feel a bit patronised when noticed, and offended when ignored, which is the most frequent emotion and which leads to our sometime rudeness to the powers that be at the BBC.

Agree 100% Lunchtime. It seems that the meme of the week is "constructive comments".



Hasit, thank you for your reply. However, I'm troubled by your response.



If you never have a topical blog (Victoria's died, Breakfast is dying) and no other programme has one, how is the blog used for the Connect service?



Do you display the all blog submissions or subjectively cherrypick and/or edit the comments?



Am I correct in thinking that Connect is still only used during the programme and conversations can't be carried on after the programme.



I'm sure you accidently overlooked my question about the Breakfast blog. Could you please find out why the FIVE (!) people responsible for blogging during the breakfast programme haven't been able to muster 100 words between them since the July 29th?



Is a blog no longer going to be used during breakfast? And if not, doesn't this make a mockery of the claim to be using 5Live blogs for topical submissions?

I know, it's so hard being talented and creative. You just want to be loved don't you, you poor darlings.

Can you please tell me one thing, just one thing, that 5live has changed in response to listeners' comments.

Agree Lunchtime, sounds like only praise is acceptable.



Nigel hasn't even started properly yet, but we already have his charmless & confrontational approach - so familiar @ the BBC

Here's Nigel... some background on the new man. The tweet from Apr 29 is particularly instructive I think.



Nigel is ex 6Music.



Straight out of University and to the BBC it appears. Nice photo.

https://mcserver.gold.ac.uk/journalism/ma/2008/ma_journalism_jmm/Student_Profiles/Nigel_Smith.html



And some twitterings....



Read this! Nick Cohen on David Cameron and the middle-class in yesterday's Observer https://bit.ly/dwfcA1

https://twitter.com/nigelcsmith/status/21299333463



7:29 PM Aug 13th via API Retweeted by nigelcsmith

A familiar assault on the BBC: a response to David Graham's report for the Adam Smith Institute, Steven Barnett https://tinyurl.com/2etreoc

https://twitter.com/sambrook/status/21089645191



5:24 PM Aug 11th via TweetDeck Retweeted by nigelcsmith and 1 other

Is somebody who complains about the BBC "dumming down" dumbing down ?



Back to work. Today is my 10th anniversary at the BBC. 6:51 AM Jul 12th via web

https://twitter.com/nigelcsmith/status/18336045453



The one Leaders Debate I'm at home for and it's on the economy. BORING! 7:13 PM Apr 29th via TweetDeck

https://twitter.com/nigelcsmith/status/13084720865



And this gem from Facebook... read between the lines in typical BBC fashion.



Nigel Smith Guardian editorial. "If the Guardian had a vote... it would be cast enthusiastically for the Liberal Democrats." https://bit.ly/crBdpm



Nigel Smith My bosses have told me I can't comment on the contents of the editorial, merely that it is exists.

01 May at 08:04

Ticks all the boxes.

Welcome on board the gravy train, sir. The buffet's free, help yourself.

It's non stop to the end of the rainbow and your pension pot of gold

Hmmm. As we thought. And probably never had a proper job either Nigel. At least I got my hands mucky on the coal face of social work in the downtrodden cities and prisons of the north before I became a media-watcher.

****-***







self moderated

Well Steve I wish them both good luck and only hope that listeners will be treated with respect in terms of their opinions, in the same way as you wish all of us to be respectful. Good luck for the future by the way.

Yes, keep up your pointless narcissistic blogging.

Steve,



1. How were we expected to know you're no longer involved with the 5Live blog?



2. Who has replaced you? Or has the role been further downgraded to have 6 weeks secondments from staff training and experienced in other areas, like Ellie and Hasit?



Thanks

Steve Bowrick you being not involved with 5live anymore is news to me, were you not planning to tell the 5live blog community about this? Or were you planning to leave via the emergancy exit?



A man with your gravitas and knoweldge about 5live, would have been the ideal person to respond to our queries and generally to help this blog to run smootlhy, not some students who seem to be on work placements!!

What has happened to the breakfast phone in blog? There hasn't been a new one for nearly a week. Going the same way as Victoria's I presume.

Mr Bowrick

What you do not seem to realise is that Radio 5 is awful until 4 p.m. each day and that people have to let off steam somewhere.

The BBC is too scared to reintroduce a messageboard for the station because people like yourself are obviously too embarrassed to try to defend the "text us and tell us what you think" giggly, immature, celebrity obsessed, tabloid content of each show during the day.

The station is aimed at immature teenagers who will, quite naturally be listening to either Radio 1 or a commercial station.

Your listening figures are of course a sham as they were exaggerated by The World Cup, Wimbledon and the election.

Come off your high horse sir and use any influence you may have to do something about this dreadful station.

I am NOT a new member. Will you please publish my comment.



Thank you.

Yes, how many times have you turned on the radio ("text us if you ever text us - it's 5-Live") and wish you hadn't?



How many times have you been informed, educated or entertained (in a non Cheryl, Robbie sort of way)?



Certainly not since Klav turned up and told everyone the future's north

I think their rationale is "if people didn't like it, why do so many text and tweet the programme?"

They sure as anything ain't gonna read ones that say "stop all this rubbish text in nonsense" and "tweets are a ridiculous and shallow way of communicating" are they?! However, we all know that is true and they probably receive more of that kind than the other. Texts 'n tweets are very revealing about the dearth of real programme content and proper journalism which we used to enjoy on Five Live.

"influential destination"?

I'll ask again. What have any of the comments made on here influenced?

As has also been discussed recently on the post ‘New weekend evening schedule’ and other forums there seems to be a feeling from a number of listeners that 5 Live has become over reliant on text in listener contributions. It has become a dominant feature of virtually every programme emphasising the lightweight dumbed down feel of 5 Live.



I wonder out of an hour if the time spent on the half and hourly news and sport, travel reporters bigging their part up, wicket at the cricket, trailers and jingles and of course reading texts and tweets was taken out how much time would be left for original content and discussion?



Texts have become a crutch for presenters; it is lazy cheap radio that reinforces a particular side of the argument. The texts regarding Tony Blair’s donation were dominated by the we hate Blair / anti war lot, were people without strong opinion who think it is a generous donation or the right thing to do are less likely to text in. On immigration and benefits texts are always dominated by the Daily Mail scroungers view.



Though a small number of topical texts, if a more balanced argument can be presented, probably do have a role but this needs to be drastically reduced. Why are edited contributions from an email rarely used which allow for a more reasoned position / argument than the limited number of characters a text permits?



The worst type of text in are the trivial, ‘When was the last time you sat on a bus?’ and the like. These have become a major part of afternoons and drive to fill time. What has happened to Peter Allen a once great journalist and presenter reduced to filling the programme reading juvenile texts out.



Do we really need to hear everybody’s A’ level results by text today?



This and other issues about the station are what we want to discuss on here, but why do our questions not get answered by the likes of Adrian Van Klaveren? Do any comments on the blog ever result in change or are we just dismissed by the view held by Jonathan Wall that 'you cannot assume that 3 or 4 comments on a blog neccessarily represents a true cross of our audience'.

Dom, thats was a superb post. I think it should be copied to all BBC Audio staff, including Tim Davie and the Controllers.

Re-reading Dom's post again I think we should explore the entertainment and journalistic value of some of these twitter topics.



Text/Tweet in your A-level results clearly adds no value.



I am sure there are far worse examples, but they are so banal I switch off the radio and can't remember then. Compile I list of text/tweet ins which add no value might be edifying as the 5Live producers clearly are exercising very poor judgment currently.



Too many, too vaccous.

Dom said "I wonder out of an hour if the time spent on the half and hourly news and sport, travel reporters bigging their part up, wicket at the cricket, trailers and jingles and of course reading texts and tweets was taken out how much time would be left for original content and discussion?"



More to the point, it means the presenters are being handsomely paid for doing sod all, thereby defrauding the licence payer.

Ryanw some of Bacon’s gems, “When was the last time you saw a celebrity on a train”, “Text in a fact about somebody Scottish” and “I once bought a hot tub but I didn’t like it, text in something you bought that was expensive but was a disappointment”

Today text in “What do you not want to be reminded about?” – says it all.

Perfect Dom. I think we need to put this to our ever-responsive senior 5Live management.



What value does this possible add to anything? It is a perfect example of the trival and banal drivel that is routinely served up on 5Live these days.



I think we should keep up this list. My how far this station's standards have fallen.

It's funny when the powers that be patronise us with comments like Jonathan Wall's "ou cannot assume that 3 or 4 comments on a blog neccesarily represents a true cross section of our audience" [as if our comments are of any less value then anyone's else, or do not represent a percentage of the listenership and license fee payers] ... that they continue to ram Twitter and Facebook down our throats yet these statistics are quite revealing...



Jonathan Wall ... "5 live has set a new high of 6.76 million listeners each week"



and despite _continous_ on-air mentions, with the exception of Richard Bacon, the talent and the programmes have pathetic Facebook and Twitter figures.



Less then 1/3 of 1% of listeners follow 5Live on Twitter or Facebook.



LISTENERS

6,760,000 listeners



TWITTER

bbc5live - 23,571 [0.34% of listenership]

Gabby Logan 14,160 [0.2%]

Nicky Campbell 13,707 [0.2%]

Victoria Derbyshire 7,574 [0.11%]



FACEBOOK

5Live 7,034 [0.11%]

Breakfast 5,096 [0.075%]

Listening to Livesey 4,261 [0.0063%]

Excellent forensic work, as ever, ryanw, pity all the stats. and figures we pay for aren't available to the licence (poll tax) payer.

Great posts by Dom and arthurmee.Next time the 5live managers have yet another get together perhaps they would have the decency to supply us with some non patronising answers after discussing those constructive contributions, rather than the comments we were subjected too by Mr Wall and the ' 3 or 4 comments is not representative ' debacle or Wallgate as I prefer to call it.

ryanw is a star.

Could whoever is in charge of the much vaunted 'connect' page pls ensure that it works? Appears pretty stagnant at the moment (PH's show). Thank you.

Hasit,



I politely asked you way back on the 16th a question about why the 5Live breakfast blog has been ignored for a month, when alledgedly 5 people are able to post (see: [Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator]



You haven't been able to muster a reply in 10 days.



Post #11 from Carrie, post #12, post #25 from Zeldalicious all follow up on my original question.



Do you not read the blog?



Or do you just ignore our questions? You wouldn't be the first.



I would really appreciate a reply if possible as I am concerned that the BBC Breakfast blog is going to go the same way as Victoria's.



There are not so many posts each day that you can't read every one posted. If you are responsible for the blog that I think it is fair that you might spend 2-3 hours out of your 40 hour week reading and replying.



Is that asking too much? It seems so.

ryanw it seems to be the intention to fill the blog with two posts about Bacon in Edinburgh and Riley’s egg and spoon race and push post with difficult questions off the front page and hope they go away.

I keep getting promoted to give my thoughts on the 5Live website survey.. tell us what you think. Why do they bother? They never listen even when they ask. I've filled it out a number of times.



I remember months ago Mr Bowbrick, who disappeared without notice and trace until last week, asked us how we can give the blogs more promience.



Carrie and I offered immediate, simple and practical advice.



Has anything happened? No, of course not.

What did we expect, ryanw? I had forgotten our good ideas. I had also forgotten that when we thought we were being appreciated by Steve, all he was doing was patronising us. This is what this whole blog is, just a patronising exercise to shut people up from complaining by pretending to take note. I had a reference pulled on the Edinburgh blog because I put the BBC Scotland website referring to the Festival up in the post! How ridiculous can you get?



I am sick of so much of the output that I hardly listen to the wretched station anymore anyway. Nolan, Logan, Breakfast, it is all stale and small town radio. When it goes to Salford there will be even more Bill from Burnley phoning in and the rest of the country can go fiddle. And Helen whatever her name is with the voice, she says she will probably not go with Blue Peter but will apply for another job in the BBC, so presumably that means she will get the next Five Live vacancy.



I love the fact the powers that be of the Station are not going up to Salford. It says everything you needed to know about tokenism, respect for the listener, listening to the rest of the media who pointed out the futility of the exercise, and how dumbing down doesn't matter to those on the highest BBC salary.

Absolutely disgraceful interview by Logan of a 14 year old girl who'd had make-up tattooed on her face, almost bringing her to tears with a judgemental yummy mummy approach. Perhaps just acceptable if she'd only been interviewing the girl's mother but not to be asking those questions with the girl present. Quite shameful.

I totally agree with you, lunchtime_legend. My jaw was dropping at the rudeness and the judgmental and totally partial, and biased manner that Logan subjected this mother and daughter to. I wanted to comment then and there - but - 5 Live Connect not in use for her show, I don't use twitter and I concluded that an email would not be read out - so was left fuming.



Logan's demeanour, manner and attitude was wrong in so many ways: Aggressive, superior and a mind already made up; The mother & daughter displayed more courtesy and good manners than Logan ever could. I am also a mother of a teenage girl and no, I wouldn't 'allow' my daughter to have this semi-permanent make-up done BUT Logan is wasted in the 21st Century - she would have made an excellent Witchfinder General.

Fortunately Rachel Burden is filling in tomorrow, who, though not everyone's cup of tea, seems to me to be a far more likeable person.

Also we won't get The Five Show with Logan and Riley who might as well dispense with their side by side chairs and share a sofa.

Another week draws to a close and Hasit hasn't mustered the energy to blog about anything or reply to our simple questions.



He either is intentionally ignoring the questions or not reading the blogs.



That begs the question what does he do with his time? Connect in the morning we're told. And in the afternoon?



The sooner we get some transparency the better.



No post from the Nigel Smith, the new Interactive Head either. Where is this radio interactive chief, why "In Edinburgh moonlighting at the TV festival" ... of course he is. What a good way to spend your first week in a job at a radio station.



https://twitter.com/nigelcsmith/status/22172298916



I am sure he paid his own way. This couldn't be radio business could it.

Richard Bacon will interview Tony Blair next week. Yes that's right, the heavyweight hard hitting incisive inquisitor aka "the big personality" will be interviewing the former Prime Minister next week.

One blagger to another then. Won't be listening, as is now usual. But if anyone does listen, expect it to be all sycophantic labour luvvie nonsense as if we have all forgotten the crushed lives of the injured and dead Blair is responsible for.

Today's texter - "do you know a war criminal called Tony?"

I think the fact Bacon is asking for questions fot Tony Blair via Twitter says it all.



In reply to his request Susanna Reid: @richardpbacon You are not serious? (that's a question to you, not TB)

It would be pointless for Bacon to attempt anything serious and I don't see that old lefty Marr making a dent on Teflon Tony on TV either. We know the BBC was in NuLabour's pocket. They even sacked their Director General when the Government told them to.

As far as I can see there is no Connect contact page today. Of course no blog ever again on the Breakfast page, with no explanation offered to all those who have enquired. Lacking manners. BBC is becoming part time. Hasit has never re-appeared since 17 August, and Nigel, the new Interactive chief, started his job last Monday yet nary a word since, except his tweet about "moonlighting at the Edinburgh Festival". No doubt as he had started his new job he was being paid by me to have yet more fun at my expense. Ten years of fun, fun, fun.



I have some views on the cricket. Shame I can't send them in the preferred contact method.

ryanw sounds a sad guy. .

Yes sad like many of us about the way Five Live has changed and dumbed down.

Thanks for your charming intervention Craig Spence Glan Conwy.



That contribution really helps enrich the debate here.



Although it does seems from this blog https://garethdwyerconwyblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/craig-spence-another-old-boyfriend-of.html you do have a few more friends then me, at least in Llanrwst.



Good luck to you.

What's all that about? Llanrwst!



Anyway I guess we will all die of shock when Hasit actually reappears.

Hasit who?

So much for fresh meat. Positively gamey now.

Just how long does it take to write a blog piece, saying sorry for the neglect of duty, and move on? Or has Hasit already gone? It's a cunning plan, to save money. Keep you waiting as long as possible to become more involved in knowing how the station will develop etc., all the time the office chair of the current writer of "Behind the scenes at BBC Radio 5 live. A blog where Controller Adrian Van Klaveren, senior managers and editors talk about what's important at 5 live and 5 live sports extra. Big stories, changes and updates plus snapshots from the BBC's move to Salford" is actually empty, windows boarded up, tumbleweed gently rolling across Hasit's old office, in the background the hum from other offices where people laugh about Colin, Richard and Stephen and how they are so good for the station.

Drinking, drugs, obesity. This is undoubtedly 5live's target audience.

Does Boyd Hilton ever do any work at the, as Bacon would say, ‘Prestigious Heat Magazine’? He seems to spend his days hanging around Five Live – I know their readership is the target listeners for AVK but give us a break.

I believe the going rate is £200 a pop.



So, hypothetically if you were a friend of a presenter and had a job in the media, it would be nice be paid by the BBC to catch up regularly wouldn't it.



Of course we will never know as any kind of alledged nepotism would be hypothetical and protected by layers of BBC bureaucracy and payments masked by the Freedom of Information derrogation that prevents the people that fund the BBC knowing how their money is spent or wasted.

In the Times today there is a case (settled) of a woman from the BBC HR dept who was bullied when she railed against the payout for redundancy someone was going to get, who was due to retire the same year. Six figure pay out!! the woman who was in the Tribunal settled for £50k. At least she exposed it. Profligacy of the worst kind.

BBC staff are up in arms over their pensions (incompetantly managed) and Salford (an old sop to New Labour) but the peolple who have to pay for them are rained -on every day.



I posted in July Klav. wouldn't turn up 'till Sept. if then.



As, when the Ross/Brand thing broke - an October, everyone:Lesley Douglas, Byford, Jana Bennett, Thommo etc. all of them were on holiday. A half-term holiday, see. When they are given prep school holidays of 12 weeks+



Next week, after a few meetings, someone new will pop-up & repeat what we all know

Where's Hasit?

I had occassion to email Mr Van Klaveren this week.



I think it is only fair, given that I am quite a strident critic of the direction of the station (spiraling in a downward direction in general) that I say that the 5Live Controller replied to me promptly and with a thoughtful and thorough response. This is not unusual.



What does puzzle me though is if the Controller has the opportunity to reply in this manner to a license fee payer why can't someone find the time to write the occasion post to all of the audience on the blog. Perhaps the man who's day job it is? https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/5live/hasit_shah/



Oh, and whilst I've throwing bouquets, nice to see 5Live Sport in Bath last night. Pity the daytime team have yet to discover the South West.

The latest from 5Live Connect anonymous.



"Hi everyone, I'm Hasit. I'm taking over from Ellie. I'm going to run 5 live Connect."

"Hi everyone. My name is Carrie and I'm neglected."



By the way, I agree ryanw, that rugby programme last night was so much fun, so spontaneous, so apolitical, so amusing, so very unlike so much on this station at the moment.

Ah well, they win.

I've gone back to Radio 4 after 9 years with 5 live.

Most of it was good ... the last couple of years have been appalling and I've given up hope of it improving.

They won't care as they stifle any worries or complaints about the station.

Goodbye 5 live. You were an excellent station.

Well it’s all happening at Five Live so much news to share about the station on the blog. Was that tumbleweed?



Really glad you’re putting so much effort into your work experience placement Hasit.

How many hours of that Connect rubbish is there? It hasn't been running all morning all week has it? That is real-time tool so I am presuming you only have to administer it when it's running?



Hasit has abdicated his responsibilities on the blog, like so many before him. If he's not running Connect all day I wonder what our money is being spent on because by his account they are his two responsibilities.



The 5 people we pay to blog on the Breakfast blog (https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/fivelivebreakfast/2008/10/the_breakfast_bloggers.html%29 have ignored throughout the whole month of August and despite any number of polite requests questions about it have be ignored by Hasit and the other 5Live staff who read this blog.



It is incredibly poor.

More over zealous moderation. You do begin to wonder when you write a critical post about value for money and what the staff employed by the taxpayer do and it mysteriously gets refered for consideration if it isn't because there's a culture of unaccontability and shutting down desenting voices. And just who I wonder referred it, and who is considering it?



Imagine if I wrote something critical about the way the blogs are being handled and those responsible for them sit in judging of the whether they post is worthy.



It's hardly transparent is it. I didn't say anything defamatory or racist or threatening... yet surprise surprise... post #76 has disappeared.

Do you think someone should be told Hasit has gone underground?



As for modding, I don't understand it at all. Maybe Hasit is clicking that 'complain about this comment' button.

Conspiracy theory: don’t post any blog articles and don’t reply to comments / questions, so nobody reads the blog, therefore BBC can’t justify the expense of running the blog, as a result the blog gets scrapped, nowhere for listeners to post negative comments so they must all be happy, job done.

I've just discovered an excellent critique of the BBC by a former channel controller.



I think it also sums up our experience with the blog nicely.



"Often the BBC does good speech, it doesn't do good action."



"Stuart Murphy, the Sky1 controller, spoke today of the frustration of working for his former employer the BBC, which was "90% meetings, 10% action"



https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/aug/27/bbc-sky-stuart-murphy