1988 was the year BBC Radio Gloucestershire launched. I don’t recall too much fan fare at the birth of this new radio station but then I would have been about 19 all streaks , designer stubble and Radio 1 in the Capri.
Before that and as an even younger chap ,still in late years of primary school or the beginning of my secondary education at Berry Hill Academy for young gentlemen, it was a mixture of Terry Wogan and Ken Bruce that started my mornings thanks to Dad’s radio or wireless as he insisted on calling it.
There were however times, oh so special times when instead of having to listen to Tel , we tuned into a different radio station , one that played Adam and the ants and Buggles and not Ann Murray or John Denver.
That station was called Severn Sound and we could listen to it in the mornings following snow. Dad would have it on as they would update us all with the list of school closures. This was my first real insight into what was real local media. Somewhere that we could turn to to get information that meant something to us ( yes to me it meant not having to hear that “ streets of London “ song and possibly a day off school but an invaluable lesson none the less.
Let’s not forget as well that this was in many ways a golden age for local media and the reporting of local issues. The Citizen , the Dean Forest Guardian and a young and vibrant Forest Review were all landing on people’s doorsteps and informing the people of the Forest of Dean of the latest news, events and sporting milestones. Deaths and the court files I also recall were a particularly popular read in those publications.
But people did still turn to Severn Sound initially to hear those local news stories and discussions despite all the other media offerings. But they also listened because of a sense of belonging, a sense of community which only truly local radio stations can offer
So in 1988 with Severn Sound going down the more corporate route of so much other local radio , the BBC clearly saw a need for a truly Gloucestershire based and inspired radio station. One that would furnish its listeners with stories, with music and with information relevant to them , be they in Hucclecote , Lydney or Tewkesbury. It was very quickly the counties radio station. It was Gloucestershire, it was part of the set up of our county and in many ways is the place where the glory of this wonderful county and all the different villages towns and districts come together, sticks their chests out and says , we are Gloucestershire, we are diverse but united.
Now I’m much older and the streaks and highlights have turned a little grey , or been replaced with a bald patch and the stubble is less Don Johnson and more Brian Johnson but I listen now to Radio Gloucestershire for the school closures when it snows but now its to see if I am to take my lad to school rather than to hear whether I would be receiving tuition about the History of the world from the delightful Miss Townshend that day.
As a Councillor and a Council leader in the last 20 or so years, the vital role this radio station plays has become more and more apparent to me. Remember the floods, remember the Foot and Mouth outbreak and of course remember the last few years.
During the very worst of the Covid pandemic the local delivery of BBC Radio Gloucestershire was fundamental in getting information out that meant people could understand what the situation was and to alert communities about what was being done to help them. The value of Radio Gloucestershire to the people of the Forest of Dean during that period is immeasurable. I have no doubt at all that it will prove just as an important a community information source during the cost of living crisis that will be already affecting some and will soon be affecting many others
Those newspapers I mentioned are either long gone or changed into something barely recognisable to what it was in those halcyon days. The Review is trying but delivery and its costs is clearly an issue and the same seems to apply for the Forester newspaper, I now buy the online version of this. And as for the Citizen , its now once a week and its online coverage, shall we say isn’t the easiest of reads.
But now some clever people in very nice suits are saying that what we need is more online on demand local services rather than the kaleidoscope of Gloucestershireness currently on offer.
The Forest of Dean like many rural districts, including others in our county, dont have the benefit of complete and top quality broadband coverage.
People in such areas do still rely on their televisions and their radios in many cases to find out what’s going on both locally and nationally. In many cases Televisions “local” delivery was removed many years ago and although Points West clearly tries to deliver a local news programme, the coverage area is such that it is regional and not local.
So for the BBC bigwigs and I heard one being interviewed on the station last week ,to suggest that they can now realign what the meaning of local might be, seems to me at least to be at best misguided and at worst a dereliction of duty.
Local is local , regional is regional and to try to say the two are the same is simply nonsense. The fact that they propose these changes nationwide show just how little they understand the medium they are charged to control.
To treat rural areas such as Gloucestershire, Cornwall and Cumbria to name but three the same as more urban areas such as our major cities and in particular London will not give a balanced offering. Already those areas are blessed with numerous commercial local stations and ultra-quality broadband, rural counties and rural areas do not and the BBC simply must differentiate between the two.
I admit to being a fan of BBC Radio Gloucestershire, Ive been grilled by Mark Cummings and Steve Kitchen in interviews but always know that they do it , not out of ego or to cause a headline, but out of wanting to get the facts and to allow their listeners to understand the issues. They ask the questions that the people of Gloucestershire would ask if they had the chance.
Anna King has made me cry while I was driving to work ( she knows why, and it’ll remain between us) and I met David Smith over a blackcurrant bush at 7am in the morning. I’ve been interviewed by Manpreet in the dark looking at a newly painted mural of The Singing detective. I urge anyone who listened to say that hearing Mark and Bekka in the mornings during that Covid period didn’t just make things a little bit better.
And all the while these things are going on there is a reason, something behind the interview, the piece, even the show .It might be information gathering, entertainment purposes or just trying to tell people that are local to us something we feel they should know.
I, like thousands of others Mr BBC suit want to rely on this wonderful service we get, and we pay for.
We demand that we hear Gloucestershire Road issues when we drive home. We don’t care that the road works through Little London are of little consequence in comparison to the motorway tail backs towards Swindon or how there’s an accident in North Somerset. No Sir we want to be told about those bloody traffic lights in Little London, do you hear?
The BBCs motto is “Nation shall speak peace unto Nation” . That’s fabulous and it alongside streaming services, online production and modern entertainment has its role in this world.
But not at the expense of the production of truly rural BBC local radio that means local not a mishmash of regional offerings that no one will listen to and will not last as long as a Cummings County Quiz.
No Sir as Dire Straits would have said if this was 1983. I want my Radio Gloucestershire and we want it as it is.
Its Ours, Its Comfortable, Its homely , Its bloody great and its Gloucestershire on the radio.
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