The imminent departure of Ken Bruce from Radio 2 has inevitably surprised and disappointed many people. Still a Rolls Royce of a broadcaster, from what I can tell because I haven’t listened to Radio 2 for many years, there has been no decline in his standards of broadcasting as he approaches his 72nd birthday. What drove me away from his show and indeed pretty well everything on the station was that it appeared to be getting old with me. While it’s true that you hear a far greater variety of music on Radio 2 than on many of the commercial stations where you generally hear nothing but oldies, since the arrival of BBC 6 Music I have found it to be tame and safe. For others, I know that change is an anathema.
Remember when Matthew Bannister took over Radio 1 and got rid of the Smashie and Nicey brigade of DJs? Dave Lee Travis, Alan Freeman, Simon Bates and the like? There was uproar because millions loved the unchanging familiarity. The trouble was Radio 1 was always envisaged as being for younger listeners. It had lost its way. Now, it’s obviously not my cup of tea because I don’t come from the 18-24 demographic sought by the station. Radio 2, until recently the home of Steve Wright In The Afternoon, a tired and clichéd show, has come to that point, too. The likes of Bruce and Simon Mayo have taken their formats to stations like Greatest Hits Radio, where the music is even less diverse, as the station’s name suggests, but it serves a purpose.
Not everyone wants to hear new music. People have other things in their life other interests and hobbies. Music is not their first love whereas it is not far off being mine. I don’t just listen to music, I devour it. At an age where I should be retreating to the world of Greatest Hits, Magic and Planet Rock, I find myself entering another one, with Hip Hop, Drum and bass and Jungle, all mixed in with every genre under the sun, occasionally broken up as it was yesterday with Led Zeppelin’s Communication Breakdown. But again that’s not for everyone. I know that not everyone wants the next song to be played to be one they don’t know. That is what the oldies stations are for, it’s what local BBC stations have turned into and sadly it’s what Radio 2 has become. Sadly, I emphasise, for me.
The principle of the BBC is to inform, educate and entertain and in terms of radio, it does a pretty good job. And while Ken Bruce has moved to pastures old, there’s no reason why his successor shouldn’t continue the same type of show, a mixture of the familiar and just occasionally for the new.
All of us at some point have listened to new music. How else would we have come to like the music we hear today? As a very young child, I fell in love with The Beatles and The Monkees, followed by T Rex and then onto Steely Dan. I still love all of them today. But as someone whose love of music stretches beyond obsession, I’m hungry to hear more. We are not all the same.
It’s rather nice that radio behemoth Bauer produces such a variety of oldie stations for the growing elderly demographic, not least because many younger people don’t listen to the radio at all. It’s great that somewhere like Greatest Hits radio will soon sound like Radio 2 a few years ago. Maybe they can snap up Steve Wright, too, and spare the rest of us his dreary Sunday Love Songs? Joking aside, commercial radio doesn’t need to inform or educate, just entertain and that, I suspect, is why so many listen to it.
In any event, everyone’s going to be happy. Ken will be there on Greatest Hits, as will Simon Mayo and countless former Radio 2 presenters, with music carefully curated for listeners, with added wall-to-wall adverts.
