The Radio 2 controller has said there is “bound to be a female broadcaster on daytime”, but declined to offer any guarantees of when despite criticism of the lack of gender balance on his station.
Bob Shennan said the station now had “12 or 13” regular female presenters compared with five when he succeeded Lesley Douglas five years ago.
He admitted the station “feels the heat” from people over the lack of female DJs in daytime, where none of the regular presenters from Chris Evans at breakfast to Simon Mayo’s drivetime show are women.
“The reason for that ... is they have all in the past few years beaten their old records for reach, the audience loves them,” Shennan, who also oversees 6 Music and is the BBC’s head of music, told the Radio Festival in Salford on Tuesday.
“I am very mindful of the law, and I am very mindful of the fact the audience really loves them. What I have been trying to do is ensure when at some point we make a change in daytime for whatever reason Radio 2 will have a strong roster of alternative broadcasters many of whom are female.”
But asked if the next daytime presenter would be a woman, Shennan said: “I’m not saying that. I will make that choice depending on what the programme is and who is available. The balance is much better than it was a few years ago. At some point there is bound to be a female broadcaster on daytime Radio 2, I can’t tell you when that will be.”
Shennan dismissed a report by the commercial radio trade body, the Radio Centre, which took Radio 1 and Radio 2 to task for not doing more specialist programming, as “predictable”.
“We were criticised for being mainstream,” said Shennan. “Radio 2 is a mainstream entertainment station, that’s what it’s for and we are trying to make it even more distinctive than ever before.”
Shennan said the difference between commercial radio and the BBC was “greater than ever before”.
“Our own evidence is that our offer musically is incredibly distinctive from commercial radio, something like three quarters of the songs we play are not heard on any other radio station in the UK. That is de facto distinctive. We were criticised for not doing enough for country music - that is an astonishing thing,” he said.
He added: “Commercial radio ... has moved into a world of programmed networks, they are very effective at what they do, they are clearly economically successful. The danger with that format is they are moving ever closer to streaming services. The thing that we do, and we have the great privilege of the licence fee, is put front and centre presenters with content, we believe in them and trust them.
“In commercial radio presenters seem to have less value now than they used to and I think there is a danger in that.”
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