Radio 2 has been told it must do more to tackle the lack of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) listeners among its 15 million strong audience while live music at Radio 1 and drama on Radio 3 are to be cut back to save money.
A BBC Trust report said on Thursday that the BBC’s music radio stations served BAME audiences less well than they do white listeners, a pattern reflected by shortcomings on BBC television.
The BBC’s music stations – spanning Radio 1, Radio 2, Radio 3, and digital stations 6 Music, 1Xtra and the Asian Network – had a 49% reach across all adults in 2013/14.
But the stations’ reach was a third lower – 33.9% – among BAME listeners, a disparity which the trust said required urgent attention.
The deficit was most pronounced on Radio 2, the country’s most popular radio station, where its reach among BAME adults aged 35 or over – the station’s target audience – was just 12%.
The station has previously been criticised for its lack of women presenters with a weekday daytime lineup that is entirely male (and white) – Chris Evans, Ken Bruce, Jeremy Vine, Steve Wright and Simon Mayo.
Station controller Bob Shennan, who has highlighted the number of women he has introduced elsewhere into the schedule, has previously said it is difficult to change the daytime lineup because the presenters are so popular.
The trust said: “Radio 2’s reach among BAME audiences over 35 is significantly lower than it is among white audiences. As Radio 2 has a remit to serve a broad audience over the age of 35, it should address this disparity.”
Elsewhere, the number of live sessions on Radio 1 is to be cut back from 250 to a minimum of 160 a year, with major live events reduced from 25 to 10 a year to save money.
Radio 1 was also told to do more to deliver a “range of public purposes in its daytime programming”, such as education and learning, and more “enriching daytime speech”. The audience for Radio 1’s two Newsbeat news programmes fell by a quarter in four years, to 3.4m in 2013-14.
Cost savings were also behind a reduction in the number of new dramas on Radio 3 from 25 to 20.
The mostly positive report largely rejected any criticisms from the BBC’s commercial rivals and its trade body, the Radio Centre.
But the trust did say that Radio 3, while remaining a “distinctive station”, should do more to differentiate itself from its commercial rival, Classic FM, which claimed that Radio 3 has “gradually eroded the gap” between the two stations.
“Radio 3’s distinctiveness from commercial station Classic FM has also been debated extensively,” said the trust.
“While Radio 3 overall is a distinctive station, in terms of its approach to classical music and mix of other programming, there are some parts of the schedule where similarities exist.
“Radio 3 should seek to increase choice for radio listeners by minimising any programmes and features that are similar to Classic FM.”
The report flagged up a steep decline in the number of hours younger people listen to the radio, down 29% in the decade since 2003-04 to an average of 15.4 hours a week among 15 to 24-year-olds.
Rather than switching on the radio younger listeners have turned to social media, online streaming services and on-demand video sites such as YouTube. The trust said the BBC had to do more to develop a “distinctive role online”.
Previously criticised for not reaching a younger audience, Radio 1 was now “more clearly focused on serving a young audience”. Changes have included Nick Grimshaw replacing long serving Chris Moyles on breakfast.
But the cost per listener hour of Radio 1 nearly doubled in the four years to last year to 1.1p, partly a consequence of its smaller audience. Radio 1’s reach among 15 to 29-year-olds fell from 43% to 40%, with a median age of 30.
Radio 2 has also been criticised, in its case for not doing enough for older listeners. The trust said listening among over 65s had since gone up although listening among under-35s has not fallen and the average age was the same at 51.
Such is Radio 2’s success that the trust said it might be hitting audiences for BBC local radio stations which have seen their audiences fall.
Despite criticism from commercial radio, it said the overlap between the music played by Radio 1 and Radio 2 and commercial stations was “low”.
6 Music, which recently became the first digital only station to top 2 million listeners, was “performing very well indeed”, said the report.
BBC radio is not yet halfway towards its savings target of £35.5m, part of £700m of savings necessitated by the 2010 licence fee deal. It has saved £16.3m, with a further £19.2m to come.
But savings made in programmes and content, of just over £10m, had been more than outweighed by increased overhead costs of more than £12m including the cost of moving stations into the BBC’s newly-refurbished Broadcasting House.
A BBC radio spokesman said: “We welcome this review, its endorsement of our strategy for music radio and its recognition that our stations are distinctive, deeply loved by their audiences and vital to the development of British music.
“We will implement the trust’s recommendations and will continue to champion UK music and culture whilst delivering a unique, high quality service to licence fee payers.”
Radio Centre chief executive Siobhan Kenny said: “This report provides plenty of food for thought for the BBC, with a helpful emphasis on keeping its music radio services highly distinctive from commercial radio.
“Too much of the daytime schedules of Radio 1 and Radio 2 are filled with mainstream music and speech. Efforts to address this, for example by requiring Radio 1 to be more ambitious in its speech output, are welcome.
“I look forward to seeing how such commitments will be implemented in practice and am happy to work with the BBC in the manner suggested by the Trust, to ensure that BBC radio provides something genuinely different for listeners.”
