This is such a shame. Local radio does give many a sense of community they otherwise struggle to find and the fact many of the presenters have been there for so long only adds to that. Changing the focus to such a wide geographical area means losing everything that makes Radio Sheffield special to Sheffield including the humour and the niche local places and sayings.
I’d also guess that it will make it much harder for local people to be featured on different shows sharing their opinions and experiences. More homogenising of the media sadly.
Thanks Fiona, I agree. There is no way drive time can work across the whole of Yorkshire. And having no local content between Friday at 2pm and Monday at 6am basically means the station shuts down for three days across the weekend. People will just switch off.
The changes in the pipeline will make the idea of local BBC radio irrelevant. While I've never been able to get my head around why they call 10am til 2pm mid morning and find myself frustrated at Toby Foster's outspoken views it fills a niche that I want. As someone who's passionate about Sheffield, South Yorkshire and the North Midlands I want to know what's going on here, on this patch. While York, Thirsk, Scarborough and Whitby are great places, they aren't this patch.
Thanks Dave. Yes, I think BBC bosses wanted to create a Yorkshire-wide identity but it's just too big and diverse an area for me. North Yorkshire and South Yorkshire are very different places and I can't see many people tuning in to hear just one story local to them every couple of days. Thanks for your comment 🙏
It's not just that, local traffic and travel is key. Yorkshire and the Humber is a huge area, to put all important road works and congestion into one report would be epic. Local delivery drivers need local traffic reports. This is why the national stations focus almost exclusively on Motorways and Major A Roads, add in regionwide school snow closure reports and the majority of the program content has been lost.
When you're working as far afield as Scunthorpe, Lincoln and Leeds, it's handy to be able to tune into Radio Sheffield on the way home and get the info that really matters. We don't want to loose that. Plus Howard Pressman's afternoon program is the one I listen to most of all, take that away and I'd probably listen to BBC Radio 2 or frustrate myself with commercial radio.
I admit I never listen to BBC Sheffield, mainly because I listen to radio for music and the music played is so extremely bland and generic. Sheffield Live local radio station is fantastic though and introduces me to new interesting music all the time, I've even got friends from outside sheffield tuning into it because it's far more interesting and varied than their local radio stations. Much more likely to hear local bands on there too. It would be good to see a follow up about the varied people involved in Sheffield Live which I imagine operates at a fraction of the budget as the BBC station.
Thanks John. No, neither do I but do know many people rely on it to keep them informed or just for companionship. I've not listened to Sheffield Live either but I'll give it a go. Happy to look into doing a story about them as well!
Mm, well, it was doing something good: so it had to be removed. That seems to be the name of the game nowadays. My husband and I have this catch-phrase: "Too good to last!" We recite it every time we find a decent product or service 😂 😂 😂
Thanks Ruth. I don't listen myself but I know it provides a really important service in South Yorkshire, to people who might otherwise be quite isolated. Hopefully the BBC bosses will change their minds.
I don't listen to it either - although I've spoken on it once or twice.
I consider it unlikely that the BBC will relent. Keep plugging the Tribune as just the job to plug the gap! Have you considered a reduced rate for the seriously disabled? (That's not me, I've just gone lame in one foot 😢)
You’ve provided some good points Dan with another good story in The Tribune. The BBC aren’t listening, are they-well neither will a big proportion of South Yorkshire after the changes come in, that’s for sure. They call the service they presently provide ‘LOCAL RADIO’ and it’s for South Yorkshire, they say. In common with the rest of the UK the BBC built-up a fantastic resource, invested money heavily in an infrastructure and people to provide a tried and tested local service, then wasted it. Come on, who is going to be interested in news about somewhere not local to you on a ‘local radio’ station? Really? What a waste of money, resources and talent and being so smug to assume, ‘it’ll be alright’, besides being geographically an ignorant thing to do. South Yorkshire people want a sense of belonging in straitened times like these, all day/every day, who want to hear a local voice when big issues occur (and programmes devoted to those issues, not a quick two minutes summary) in towns and cities in their region. It’s a poor show, I say. Not heard much from the local MPs or authorities about this and with local newspapers virtually wiped out, they can’t be relied upon to update like they used to, plus a lot aren’t full of ‘local’ news as they used to be, anyway - thank goodness for The Tribune.
As a resident of Stannington I can honestly say that BBC Radio Sheffield were fantastic during our recent gas ‘issues’ - as you say, a story that wouldn’t have had the coverage elsewhere.
I tune in when I want local, and the coverage is perfect - anything regional just won’t work (I gave up on regional tv News ages ago as it always seemed irrelevant due to the large area covered; stories from places I have no interest in and no knowledge of).
I’m going to try Sheffield Live again, it’s been a while. Hopefully they’ll be able to pick up where BBC let us down.
There's always been a problem with broadcast and newspaper journalism for Sheffield because of its position on the edge of South Yorkshire and its closer geographical and commercial relationship with North Derbyshire than the rest of Yorkshire. Sheffield Newspapers used to have full-time reporters in Chesterfield and Worksop and at one time tried to cover news and cultural events in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire. Morning Telegraph probably wasn't economically viable even then but it broke a lot more stories than the early years of BBC Radio Sheffield and the office was manned until 2.30 am. Look North on BBC TV has much more Sheffield news than it did then but 6.30 is pretty late in the day to get it. As for Chesterfield, the BBC relates radio stations to county boundaries and expects it to be served from Derby. Maybe the answer is some sort of Tribune of the air? Anyone out there want to fund it?
This is such a shame. Local radio does give many a sense of community they otherwise struggle to find and the fact many of the presenters have been there for so long only adds to that. Changing the focus to such a wide geographical area means losing everything that makes Radio Sheffield special to Sheffield including the humour and the niche local places and sayings.
I’d also guess that it will make it much harder for local people to be featured on different shows sharing their opinions and experiences. More homogenising of the media sadly.
Thanks Fiona, I agree. There is no way drive time can work across the whole of Yorkshire. And having no local content between Friday at 2pm and Monday at 6am basically means the station shuts down for three days across the weekend. People will just switch off.
The changes in the pipeline will make the idea of local BBC radio irrelevant. While I've never been able to get my head around why they call 10am til 2pm mid morning and find myself frustrated at Toby Foster's outspoken views it fills a niche that I want. As someone who's passionate about Sheffield, South Yorkshire and the North Midlands I want to know what's going on here, on this patch. While York, Thirsk, Scarborough and Whitby are great places, they aren't this patch.
Thanks Dave. Yes, I think BBC bosses wanted to create a Yorkshire-wide identity but it's just too big and diverse an area for me. North Yorkshire and South Yorkshire are very different places and I can't see many people tuning in to hear just one story local to them every couple of days. Thanks for your comment 🙏
It's not just that, local traffic and travel is key. Yorkshire and the Humber is a huge area, to put all important road works and congestion into one report would be epic. Local delivery drivers need local traffic reports. This is why the national stations focus almost exclusively on Motorways and Major A Roads, add in regionwide school snow closure reports and the majority of the program content has been lost.
When you're working as far afield as Scunthorpe, Lincoln and Leeds, it's handy to be able to tune into Radio Sheffield on the way home and get the info that really matters. We don't want to loose that. Plus Howard Pressman's afternoon program is the one I listen to most of all, take that away and I'd probably listen to BBC Radio 2 or frustrate myself with commercial radio.
I admit I never listen to BBC Sheffield, mainly because I listen to radio for music and the music played is so extremely bland and generic. Sheffield Live local radio station is fantastic though and introduces me to new interesting music all the time, I've even got friends from outside sheffield tuning into it because it's far more interesting and varied than their local radio stations. Much more likely to hear local bands on there too. It would be good to see a follow up about the varied people involved in Sheffield Live which I imagine operates at a fraction of the budget as the BBC station.
Thanks John. No, neither do I but do know many people rely on it to keep them informed or just for companionship. I've not listened to Sheffield Live either but I'll give it a go. Happy to look into doing a story about them as well!
Good piece Dan.
Thanks John 🙏
Mm, well, it was doing something good: so it had to be removed. That seems to be the name of the game nowadays. My husband and I have this catch-phrase: "Too good to last!" We recite it every time we find a decent product or service 😂 😂 😂
Thanks Ruth. I don't listen myself but I know it provides a really important service in South Yorkshire, to people who might otherwise be quite isolated. Hopefully the BBC bosses will change their minds.
I don't listen to it either - although I've spoken on it once or twice.
I consider it unlikely that the BBC will relent. Keep plugging the Tribune as just the job to plug the gap! Have you considered a reduced rate for the seriously disabled? (That's not me, I've just gone lame in one foot 😢)
You’ve provided some good points Dan with another good story in The Tribune. The BBC aren’t listening, are they-well neither will a big proportion of South Yorkshire after the changes come in, that’s for sure. They call the service they presently provide ‘LOCAL RADIO’ and it’s for South Yorkshire, they say. In common with the rest of the UK the BBC built-up a fantastic resource, invested money heavily in an infrastructure and people to provide a tried and tested local service, then wasted it. Come on, who is going to be interested in news about somewhere not local to you on a ‘local radio’ station? Really? What a waste of money, resources and talent and being so smug to assume, ‘it’ll be alright’, besides being geographically an ignorant thing to do. South Yorkshire people want a sense of belonging in straitened times like these, all day/every day, who want to hear a local voice when big issues occur (and programmes devoted to those issues, not a quick two minutes summary) in towns and cities in their region. It’s a poor show, I say. Not heard much from the local MPs or authorities about this and with local newspapers virtually wiped out, they can’t be relied upon to update like they used to, plus a lot aren’t full of ‘local’ news as they used to be, anyway - thank goodness for The Tribune.
Bob.
As a resident of Stannington I can honestly say that BBC Radio Sheffield were fantastic during our recent gas ‘issues’ - as you say, a story that wouldn’t have had the coverage elsewhere.
I tune in when I want local, and the coverage is perfect - anything regional just won’t work (I gave up on regional tv News ages ago as it always seemed irrelevant due to the large area covered; stories from places I have no interest in and no knowledge of).
I’m going to try Sheffield Live again, it’s been a while. Hopefully they’ll be able to pick up where BBC let us down.
There's always been a problem with broadcast and newspaper journalism for Sheffield because of its position on the edge of South Yorkshire and its closer geographical and commercial relationship with North Derbyshire than the rest of Yorkshire. Sheffield Newspapers used to have full-time reporters in Chesterfield and Worksop and at one time tried to cover news and cultural events in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire. Morning Telegraph probably wasn't economically viable even then but it broke a lot more stories than the early years of BBC Radio Sheffield and the office was manned until 2.30 am. Look North on BBC TV has much more Sheffield news than it did then but 6.30 is pretty late in the day to get it. As for Chesterfield, the BBC relates radio stations to county boundaries and expects it to be served from Derby. Maybe the answer is some sort of Tribune of the air? Anyone out there want to fund it?