Hundreds of BBC radio staff yesterday promised to strike over job cuts. The walkouts on 15 and 23 February will last between two and four hours and could hit programmes including Chris Moyles' Radio 1 breakfast show, Terry Wogan's Radio 2 morning show and Radio 4's Woman's Hour, In Our Time and Midweek.
The broadcasting union Bectu and the National Union of Journalists said up to 500 production staff would strike over plans to merge website, radio and technical roles into a single assistant producer's position. In total, the BBC plans to cut 239 jobs and create 124 new roles, forcing all those affected to reapply.
Bectu's BBC supervisory official, Luke Crawley, said: "The BBC is famous for making the best radio in the country and we think there will be a real impact on the quality of what's put out." The unions intend the walkouts to target live, non-news programming and will not tell the BBC when they are scheduled. A one-day strike last year by up to 11,000 staff played havoc with radio and TV schedules.
