Editor's Note: You can listen to Feedback online or download and keep.
Since many other presenters are weighing in with their views about the future shape of the BBC I wondered if I should give you mine. They are hardly revolutionary. But then I thought I had better be discreet.
As the presenter of Feedback I am not supposed to comment about the Corporation, simply be your advocate. However I know you would want me to say that Feedback should be on 52 weeks a year, that its presenter is grossly underpaid, and that all BBC Radio presenters, producers and executives should be obliged to come into the studio to answer your questions whether they want to or not.
I will dutifully ensure that those concerns, and any others you have, are conveyed to the appropriate authorities.
(By the way, thanks for your suggestions about where I should put my Dimbleby style tattoo. If they were printable I would outline them here).
Back to this week’s Feedback in which we discussed music programmes on Radio 4. Some listeners do not think there should be any at all. Others are concerned that musicians only agree to be interviewed when they have a new record out, and are never asked searching questions. Often pop stars are treated in a sycophantic manner, like royalty, say the critics. Hyperbole is the norm and the word ‘genius’ is so overused it has lost its meaning.
The Radio 4 series which gave rise to these concerns is ‘Mastertapes’, a five part series featuring Robbie Williams, David Crosby, Soul II Soul, Natalie Merchant from 10,000 Maniacs and Edwyn Collins. Congratulations if you recognised all five of them, let alone listened to their masterworks.
The producer is Paul Kobrak, and this is our feature.
Also this week, listeners asked why the prizes offered to raise money for Children in Need were auctioned rather than raffled, since it’s the rich who will usually win. I thought you might like to know which programmes are most valuable in the eyes of those listeners who bid to spend a day behind the scenes with them.
Woman’s Hour is worth £2,400
The Infinite Monkey Cage - £2,600
News Quiz - £3,303
Ramblings with Clare Balding - £3,505
The Shipping Forecast Masterclass - £5,100
The Today programme - £5,100
Test Match Special - £6,200
And way out in front - A Visit to Ambridge – for which the winner paid £7,500.
I would pay a year’s income to watch Alistair Cooke prepare and record a Letter From America.
Alas that is no longer possible.
Roger Bolton
Listen to the week’s Feedback
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