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Diversity Cannot Be A Casualty of BBC Local Radio Restructure

by Marcus Ryder MBE

These are personal views, and do not reflect the view of Birmingham City University or the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity.

BBC local radio has been under-serving its Black, Asian and audiences of colour for decades. It is now at risk of failing them altogether.

In 2021 The Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity published the report “Diversity of Senior Leaders in BBC Radio News” by Nina Robinson and overseen by Dr Siobhan Stevenson.

The report found a shocking lack of racial diversity in local and regional newsrooms across the BBC.

At the time of writing the report there were:

  • No senior leaders of colour working in BBC Radio News for Wales.
  • BBC Radio News for Scotland not only had no senior leaders of colour, but had no journalists of colour working in its newsroom at any level.
  • Similar to Scotland, BBC Northern Ireland not only had no senior leaders of colour, but had no journalists of colour working in its newsroom at any level.
  • One BBC Radio newsroom serving a population which is less than 60% White, similarly had no senior leaders of colour, and no journalists of colour working in its newsroom at any level.
  • Taken as a whole only 6% of the BBC’s Radio News senior leadership across the UK Nations were people of colour and only 8% across their entire News and Current Affairs division irrespective of level.By almost any definition this is a damning indictment of racial representation in local radio newsrooms which are meant to serve their local populations.

On Sunday the 30th October we learned that the situation could become even worse, and already under-served local racial communities across the nation could see the service they receive from the BBC reduced.

The Guardian exclusively reported that the BBC planned to dramatically restructure its local radio offering.

The Guardian stated that:

 The following day (Monday 31st October) the BBC confirmed much of the Guardian’s exclusive, and it was revealed that the corporation was looking to “cut 48 jobs as part of the overhaul of local radio that will dramatically reduce content made exclusively for specific stations.

If this plan (or version of this plan) is implemented, the fear is that it would disproportionately affect the service provided to local Black and Asian audiences and the job cuts would also be disproportionately felt by journalists of colour.

These fears are primarily based around the fact that a large part of BBC local radio programming specifically targeting racial minorities is broadcast on a Sunday evening. Many BBC local radio stations have a show looking at local Asian issues between 18.00 - 20.00 followed by a show focusing on local Black issues between 20.00 - 22.00.

This time slot when these programmes go out is precisely the time when the BBC is currently looking to reduce its local original programming.

On Friday 4th November I met with Chris Burns, the “Head of Audio & Digital BBC England”, or to put it in normal language - “The Head of Local Radio”. To put it bluntly - the stakes were high.

Firstly, the meeting was initiated by Chris following a series of tweets about my concerns. This non-defensive approach to engage external parties is not the way many BBC execs approach external criticism and should be commended.

Secondly, our conversation was extremely constructive, but it was not possible to definitively allay my fears (and the fears I am hearing from many people internal & external to the BBC) as the BBC is still in a consultative phase on how it will restructure local radio.

Also while I believe it would be inappropriate to outline the exact details of what was a wide-ranging conversation I think it is important to put on record the main concerns and fears I raised about the restructure:

  1.  A lot of people are concerned that a restructure to Black and Asian regional programming could result in just one English Black show, and one Asian show made in one location with just limited input from the other regions - for want of a better term a “Dotun Adebayo plus” model - (a Black show fundamentally made in London with limited input from other localities).
  2. Journalists I have spoken to are looking for reassurances that any restructure should not disproportionately result in a reduction in the hours of black programming on BBC Sounds. Although I recognise that does not mean that the Sunday schedule is sacrosanct, and podcasts do not play an important role in any restructure.
  3. The current model effectively protects / ringfences a small amount of Black and Asian programming. This ringfencing is important, and there is a mistrust by many BBC journalists of colour I talk to of “mainstreaming” black programming, a policy which has seen previously protected content be subsumed into mainstream content and eventually wither away. That does not mean that the BBC should not seek for targeted black programming to get as large as possible, and staff working on these programming are not given career opportunities to work on other output.
  4. Black regional programming is qualitatively different from 1Xtra factual content and should not be seen as interchangeable. There are concerns across the industry (expressed most vocally previously by David Olusoga) that Black programming is often seen through the lens of “youth programming. To state the obvious, Black people continue to survive after the age of 30. Local radio programming seems to recognise this fact.
  5. Black regional programming plays a key industry role as a pipeline for Black talent throughout the industry (not just within the BBC) and we need to nurture this pipeline.
  6. Black and Asian local programming plays a critical role in nurturing both local and regional democracy; it highlights issues specific to local communities that would be missed on a larger national stage, it holds local politicians to account, and it creates a virtual “town hall” vital for democratic debate that is the lifeblood of democracy.
  7. Lastly, even if you think you have never listened to the local BBC radio Black and Asian shows you have almost definitely benefited from their journalism. The content they create and the issues they identify, are invariably picked up by larger national shows. Without these shows the content of ALL of the BBC would be less racially diverse and representative.

In fairness I believe Chris Burns was sympathetic to all the concerns I raised - although without betraying confidence I think BBC senior management would prefer if the changes they eventually implement are judged on “quality” rather than “quantity”. While I understand this concern I would argue that the level of racial representation in BBC local newsrooms is already so low (as outlined in the Sir Lenny Henry Centre report mentioned earlier) that it would be difficult to see how local Black and Asian programming could be cut any further and still even partially meet the needs of the UK’s diverse audiences.

Chris Burns did stress that the consultation is still ongoing. I sincerely hope that external partners - such as the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity - can be part of any consultation and it is as transparent as possible.

Our local democracy, and media diversity, literally depend on it.