Culture Politick

Radio

The BBC Trust has concluded its nine month in-depth study of Radio 2, whose terms of service licence state that it must appeal to audiences over the age of 35. BBC Trustee David Liddiment, who led the review, said:

“We’re aware of concerns about Radio 2 targeting a younger audience. The current average audience age of 50 is well within the station’s target audience, but the Trust is clear that this must not fall any further, and we would like to see Radio 2 work on its appeal to over 65 year-olds.”

Commercial radio companies have complained that the BBC has been unfairly crowding out its competitors by allowing Radio 2 to focus on a younger audience, pointing to research that shows the number of 15 to 34-year-olds tuning into the station has increased by 62 per cent since 1999, while listeners over the age of 65 have fallen. The switch in breakfast show line-up from a 71 year old Terry, to a 43 year old Chris has offered little reassurance that the trend is about to reverse.

Andrew Harrison, chief executive of RadioCentre, which represents commercial stations, has said:

“We welcome the fact that the BBC Trust is calling for a greater contribution from Radio 2 to the delivery of the BBC’s public purposes, especially in peak times… Over the last decade, Radio 2 has shifted its programming policies – nobody has intervened and this has been disastrous for commercial radio’s heartland audience and for the plurality and diversity of the UK’s fragile radio ecology.”

More in The Guardian HERE and HERE; Independent  HERE; Times HERE; and Telegraph HERE. You can read the BBC Trust’s full review HERE.

Tech

Useful analysis of Google Buzz vs Facebook in The Times today HERE, where it’s argued:

‘It’s not that Mr Zuckerberg is still only 25 and naively arrogant that annoys Google, nor that his company has enticed swaths of senior Google talent. It’s that Facebook’s fast-growing dominance of the “social” internet threatens its rival’s entire business model. If it can sell advertisers access not just to what you’re thinking, but to where you are, who you’re with and what you plan to do, Facebook’s revenues from individually targeted “behavioural” advertising could increase exponentially. And it knows it.’

Background to the Google vs Facebook story can be found HERE; HERE; HERE and HERE.

 Art

The first British exhibition of paintings by the Oscar-winning Welsh actor Sir Anthony Hopkins opens in London today. The 50 landscape and abstract paintings by actor, who has exhibited throughout the US, will be displayed at Gallery 27 in Mayfair, central London, until Saturday before moving to The Dome in Edinburgh for four days on 2 March. Hopkins began painting in 2002, paints every day in his Malibu studio and “takes his art very seriously”, according to exhibition promoter Jonathan Poole, who will play host at this evening’s launch as Sir Anthony is away filming. Five limited-edition prints will be available for purchase. More in the Guardian HERE; and Independent HERE.

Architecture

A plan to mark the entry points to Brick Lane with giant arches in the shape of hijabs has been condemned as offensive to Muslim women and a waste of £1.85m of public funds. Locals have said they risk ghettoising a community that considers itself tolerant and diverse. Tracey Emin, who lives just off Brick Lane, is one of a number of residents in the east London area who claim that Tower Hamlets council risks inflaming racial tension by trying to force the “hijab gates” – as they have become known – through without proper consultation. The Spitalfields Trust, which helped to save many of the historic Huguenot silk weavers’ houses that abut Brick Lane, has urged the council to abandon its “misconceived” idea. The council has extended the deadline for complaints to 22 February. More in the Guardian HERE.