When the Mrs has been using the car, I find that the radio is tuned to Radio 2. I quickly change it because most of its grossly overpaid presenters, these days, are not very bright and are all achingly woke. Besides which, I make it a point of principle to #BoycotttheBBC as I try to wean my wife away from the State broadcaster. My station of choice is Greatest Hits Radio, home to names from my youth such as Janice Long and Andy Crane. And this brings me to Simon Mayo.
For 17 years he was a stalwart of Radio Two. He is a bit older than me, so he played music I liked. And he is very obviously an intelligent man. His broadcasting was interesting. And as such, the Mrs and I would happily listen to his Drive Time show. But then disaster. The BBC decided that it had too many male presenters on Radio Two on the big shows so Mayo found he had a co-host in Jo Wiley.
There was no chemistry and the format changed. Listeners left and you could sense the exasperation in Mayo’s voice as he talked. Now at 5PM there is the ghastly Sarah Cox who thinks farting jokes are funny followed by an uninspired Wiley at 7. But back to Mayo. To great fanfare he has announced that he is joining Greatest Hits as of Monday to do a Drive Time show. He has even brought back his band, that is to say his weather guy and sports presenter. It will be just like old times.
Maybe it is me getting older but so much of Radio 2, when the Mrs forces me to listen, makes me want to scream. Am I alone in finding a woman on £1.3 million (Zoe Ball) telling us over and over again how we are ALL suffering under lockdown nauseating? Some, I suggest, suffer rather less than others. Mayo does not patronise. He just plays good music and can make me laugh, which – being an increasingly miserable old bastard – is some feat. When asked if he had any thoughts about going up against Radio Two, he observed, drily, that he couldn’t really comment as he doesn’t listen to it anymore. He is not alone and as he comes up against the station’s most inane DJ next week, that is to say Sarah Cox, there will be many more folks, I suspect, following my switch to Greatest Hits.
Let us assume that Mayo starts to make something of a dent in Cox’s listener numbers. It is a safe bet. Does this not rather beg the question of why we need Radio 2 at all? There are plenty of private sector stations offering the same sort of output as BBC Radio 2 (and One) so should the taxpayer need to pony up for a State funded alternative? Radio 2 no longer has a USP. So why should it continue to pay a fortune to multi-millionaire presenters funded by a poll tax on plebs like you and me?
If Sarah Cox thinks her farting jokes or Zoe’s personal struggles in lockdown have mass appeal, why not go to a Netflix Model so that only those who want to pay get to listen? Methinks we know the answer to that one.
Meanwhile, remember to tune in to Simon Mayo at 4 PM on Monday on Greatest Hits Radio. Whatever Mayo says, he was treated shabbily by the BBC and you can bet the ranch that he will be smirking as he watches the ratings for the ghastly Cox head south in a big way.