Bring back daily radio reviews to the Guardian!
Early this year, The Guardian cut its radio reviews from daily to weekly, and we said “booooooo, hissssss!” To that end, we’ll be sending this letter to the paper to ask that they reinstate the daily article.
UPDATE: Two hundred and fifty of you have added your names, by email, Twitter and in person as well as the comments below. We sent the letter on Tuesday 21 February 2012, and the Guardian’s REaders’ Editor responded thus.
If you add a comment now we won’t be able to add you to the letter – but your comments are valuable, so please feel free to keep adding them!
Dear Readers’ Editor,
We are writing to express our disappointment and concern at the Guardian’s recent decision to discontinue its daily radio reviews and radio coverage.
We would strongly urge the Guardian to reconsider, and to bring back a daily space for radio coverage in the paper.
We think that the decision to reduce radio coverage is unfortunate and short-sighted for several reasons.
Firstly, radio is the only traditional media form whose audience is consistently growing – unlike TV broadcasts (and print media).
According to RAJAR’s recent figures, 89 per cent of the UK population now listen to the radio*.
In short, Britain is a nation of radio listeners, and is becoming more so. The Guardian used to reflect this.
Secondly, our radio listening habits are changing in ways that make daily reviews more important and more useful than ever.
Through services like iPlayer, iTunes and ‘listen again’ features, modern radio listeners are more likely to seek out specific programmes to listen to, rather than just tune into a station.
Reliable, trusted daily reviews like the Guardian’s are more important than ever for this new kind of listening, helping people to find the best and most creative programmes, and avoid the dross.
Finally, the Guardian’s daily radio column was quite simply very, very good. We liked it, and we want it back.
Yours,
*(NOTE: Original text updated to reflect latest RAJAR quarterly research.)
Add me to the list of those who support this.
With the sheer volume of radio programming now at peoples’ fingertips, especially with the rise of on-demand content, there does need to be more in the way of coverage of the expanding world of Radio, not less!
Stupid decision. More content than ever to write about, increasing listener numbers – and this is a paper that tries to appeal to an arts-literate audience. Reconsider!
Please add my name!
I would like my name associated with the above letter to the Guardian.
With so many choices we need reviews.
As one of the few media outlets to recognise innovation outside of traditional FM radio, The Guardian would do well to expand its coverage, not to reduce it.
I agree
Add my name
Please add my support
The reviews are for the listeners. Cutting them means that you are ignoring radio fans, so bring them back!
Radio is very important and informative radio reviews are essential.
Add me.
A really poor decision and very shortsighted – add my name to the letter please.
so sad. add me name too please. thx for this Connor
Gutted to have missed the deadline, and I speak as a loyal, radio-loving, Mahoney-loving Guardian reader, and as a producer of radio (not to mention a beneficiary of Elisabeth’s acute critical judgement on one or two occasions – it’s always a treat to be mentioned by her, whatever the assessment). Boo!
Shame. Shame. Shame. Back to daily PLEASE!
big support to the initative. bring it back!
As Internet radio brings us countless more stations and iplayer allows us to listen to shows in our own time how does it make any sense at all to cut your radio coverage?
Barney