On weekday afternoons on Radio 4 Extra we currently broadcast The 4 O’Clock Show, with a mix of stories, comedy, interviews and quizzes. The programme is aimed at younger listeners and families and has been part of the schedule since Radio 7 became Radio 4 Extra in 2011.
With regret, we have today confirmed our plans for the programme to finish next spring and I wanted to explain why we have made this decision.
As listeners know, the Radio 4 Extra that we hear today is very much an adult network. This means that a dedicated hour for older children and families in the afternoons is not reaching its target audience. We know the average age of The 4 O’Clock Show listener is 60, and that there are very few children listening to Radio 4 Extra in the first place with only around 5,900 10-14 year olds listening to the programme.
At the BBC, we are committed to providing high quality children’s content. We also have to consider what is the best way to reach younger audiences, whose listening habits are changing as they grow up in a digital world. We know for example that the CBeebies podcasts are becoming more and more popular, with the numbers steadily growing every year. This suggests that online, on-demand content is a much more reliable way to serve the needs of this young audience.
The decision to decommission The 4 O’Clock Show from next April will enable us to reinvest some of the savings in additional children’s audio output online, with more content on CBeebies Radio, and also investment in content for older children.
The rest of the savings will go towards the Radio 4 and 4 Extra contribution to the BBC’s £800m savings target. This decision, together with our earlier announcement not to bring back Ambridge Extra for the time being, is in keeping with the primary purpose of Radio 4 Extra as a station bringing the best of the audio archive to our listeners.
On behalf of all Radio 4 Extra’s listeners, I want to thank the team behind the brilliant show for their creativity, energy and world class production values. It has been great to have the programme on the station but unfortunately we’re having to make tough decisions in all parts of the BBC, and this is one of them.
Gwyneth Williams is the Controller of Radio 4 and 4 Extra
