For Want Of A Banister-An Alternate History Of British Radio

[Peelitebkearns]

Hi all,
I posted a discussion topic yesterday on whether I should do this and it generated some interest.

Knowing a fair bit on the subject, I thought I'd give this a go, since I've never actually seen anyone try and make an alternate history of Radio TL before. Though the Timeline does in time affect other media such as TV (and creates butterflies in political life) it is very much a radio-centric TL.

Well the first chapter's done, so here goes-I present my new TL, '
For Want Of A Banister-An Alternate History Of British Radio'.

 

[Peelitebkearns]

Chapter1

Chapter 1: The Nation’s Favourite?

“Well, you’ve got to admire Johnny. He had John Burt and co in one ear telling him he had to “modernise” the station and the “dinosaurs” and the “Hairy Cornflakes” in the other, telling him how Radio 1’s survival depended entirely on them remaining in their regular slots. Well there was only one Hairy Cornflake to be fair and that was DLT, but one is probably more than enough for a frustrated boss.
Travis had the biggest ego of them all, so I’ve been told-and I can well believe it, given that famous on-air tantrum. In a way I don’t blame him-he’d been working at radio 1 for 26 years by October 1993 and throughout most of that time ‘The Cornflake’ could attract crowds most pop stars would only dream of at the average supermarket opening if he wished, merely by cutting the ribbon and stroking his beard.

I think Johnny had to modernise to a certain extent and all things considered he did a bloody good job. Travis and Bates should count themselves lucky they had a dignified exit from Radio 1-Johnny had had enough long before 1996 and even considered resigning around 1992 or so (1). Had that happened, they may have been booted out by... I dunno, one of Burt’s mates I suppose”.

Interview with former Radio 1 presenter Neil Fox (2) in “A World Of Laughter, A World Of Tears: The Rebirth Of Radio 1”, documentary made for ITV 3, 2007 (3)

“The 10 years from 1992-2002 are widely considered to be the most tumultuous in radio history. The growing rift between John Burt and Johnny Beerling at the BBC was an embarrassment to the corporation.

Of course there had to be changes at Radio 1 in particular-Smashy and Nicy excellently epitomised what had gone wrong.
It had become a laughing stock with the nation’s youth, while their parents were often boasting about what loyal listeners they had been ever since it’s launch in 1967.

Johnny Beerling, who was programme controller at the time, partially agreed and gradually introduced more documentaries and speech-based programming in the early to mid 90’s. He’d also updated the music policy, introducing more New Music-based programmes.

However, then Director-general of the BBC John Burt, favoured a more radical overhaul of the schedule.

The awkward Equilibrium between Burt and Beerling during the early to mid 90’s did nothing to assuage the fears of the older members of staff, particularly the presentation team.

In the end the Axe would make its most prominent appearances towards the end of 1993. It had been rumoured for some time that long-standing weekend Morning presenter Dave Lee Travis, or “DLT” as he came to be known, had disagreements with management over the music policy he was forced to abide by. Travis, who until then had selected the music himself, had made his mind up to leave radio 1 when his contract ran out in October 1993 (4). He was to be temporarily replaced by Simon Mayo (5).

Not long after Travis’s departure, fellow Grand Old Man of Radio 1 Simon Bates saw that his days at the station were numbered and in December 1993, he vacated his long-running morning programme, to be replaced by Nicky Campbell (6).

Taken from “Analysis Of Commercial Radio in the 90’s” by Professor Torun Douglas, Faber and Faber 2011

“Well frankly, I’m leaving before I’m fired. I’ve had a great time here and I’d like to thank my friends within the BBC and I wish Nicky Campbell all the best for 1994, he’ll need it!” (7).

Quote From the last 5 minutes of Simon Bates Final Show on BBC Radio 1, Friday December the 24th, 1993 (8).

(1) This is the Pod. IN Our Timeline, Beerling did resign in 1993 and was replaced by Matthew Banister (a close friend of John Burt’s, who now presents on Radio 4). You’ve probably figured this out already, but this is where the Timeline gets its name. Fox’s dates are slightly wrong, but John Burt became Top Dog in 1992, so that’s when Beerling probably started to consider his position. In OTL, Banister made even more radical changes than those listed above-by the end of 1993, nearly all the presenters from August of that year had either left or moved times. This lead to criticism within the media, as Radio 1 lost many listeners. There were a few more “relaunches” over the next few years, leading to more negative press in the tabloids, but increasingly positive coverage in Music Magazines like Melody Maker.

TTL though, Beerling is persuaded to stick around, so he can oversee (and minimise) the changes he knows will happen. While this means some of the older listeners remain so for a year or 2, it also creates a tug of war between Burt and the most well-known presenters at the time. Whereas Banister was on-side with John Burt’s modernising plans, Beerling, is in the middle of the turmoil, receiving flack from both sides. Ultimately, this leads to a more drawn out process of modernisation, uglier departures down the line and in turn, negative press coverage, for longer. The fact that Johnny Beerling had been at Radio 1 from the launch onwards probably doesn’t help things either.

(2) I know, I wouldn’t be happy with the idea of ‘Foxy’ joining radio 1 either. IOTL, Banister considered signing Neil Fox for the Top 40, but ultimately decided against it because he wouldn’t meet Banister’s new edgy sound. Here though, Fox fits Beerling’s more pop-based daytime format, so he’s hired. Don’t worry though-this will turn out to be an ironically bad decision on Fox’s part. The “dignified exit” comment Fox made in the interview has a double meaning, not so subtlely referring to his own departure later on in the Timeline.

(3) Sorry, I just had to shamelessly mention one of my favourite TL’s on here. Besides, it kind of describes Radio 1 at the time, both IOTL and TTL I think.

(4) In OTL, DLT was due to leave Radio 1 in October 1993, but famously walked out on the station in August instead, after an on-air tantrum which made the news headlines, catapulting Radio 1’s troubles in to the limelight at the same time. In this Timeline, Banister’s non-arrival means he leaves in October as planned, though he still makes a few digs at BBC management during his last 2 months (saving an extra special, self-serving rant for his last show).

(5) In Real life, Danny Baker was DLT’s eventual replacement-he was Banister’s first signing evidently. He won’t be joining the network any time soon ITTL-in OTL, Beerling (by then ex controller) gave a speech at the Radio Academy Conference of 1994, where he accused Danny Baker of "Epitomising the new BBC man — only interested in promoting his own reputation rather than that of the network as a whole".
Simon Mayo had been doing Breakfast from 1988 until September 1993, at which point he asked to be moved to avoid the early mornings. He went on in OTL to replace Simon Bates on the morning slot in October. Bates’s later departure means this slot isn’t available just now, so Mayo is given weekend mornings for the time being. A more long-term replacement will be made in the future and I’ll cover that in future updates.

Evidently, Mark Goodier replaced Simon Mayo on Breakfast temporarily until the end of the year in reality, with Steve Right taking over permanently from the beginning of 1994. I don’t see that changing ITTL.

(6) Nicky Campbell was tipped to replace Simon Bates IOTL-indeed that was the consensus. However, Campbell at this point left his late night show to care for his wife, who at the time had cancer, returning in the new year to host Drivetime. Here, Simon Bates’s departure times with Campbell’s availability to return to full-time broadcasting, so he takes the mid morning shift.

(7) Bates said something similar at the end of his final OTL radio 1 broadcast, though he did not refer to his successor (who by all accounts, he got on well with). He despised Nicky Campbell however, so this is a dig at him (yes, the radio 1 crew of the late 80’s/early 90’s really were this catty).


(8) As eluded too earlier, Bates is leaving 2 months later than OTL because of the slightly calmer initial atmosphere. I did think of having him stay for another year, but decided against it. Other presenters who left around now OTL however, such as Garry Davies, will be sticking around for a bit longer...

 

[Peelitebkearns]

Hope you enjoy...

I'll post the next Chapter in the next few days, which will focus on the music polecy. After that, we'll be taking a glimps in to TTL's radio industry of 2007, before more detail on how commercial radio are reacting...

 

[The Oncoming Storm]

Looks interesting, please continue!

 

[Peelitebkearns]

Chapter 2

Chapter 2-To Play Or Not To Play?

“F**k you Beerling! I’ll start my show with whatever the f**k I like and you can like it or lump it. Hell, the Smith’s are the only decent mainstream band of the last few years anyway (1), so what am I meant to do, start my show with ‘How Soon Is Now’ every week? He’ll be telling me to play wall to wall Take That and do the show dressed as Kylie bloody Minogue next.”

Andy Kershaw, privately on receiving a letter from radio 1 controller Johnny Beerling, requesting he play a more mainstream song to start off his weekly shows (2)

“Got some new music for you now on 1-and I think it’s something you’re gonna like if you’re in to the likes of ‘The Wonderstuff’. They’re from Manchester and I know Jo and Steve have been playing them to death on the sesh (3) lately, they’re called Oasis and this is their debut, ‘Shakermaker’.”

Excerpt from Claire Sturgis’s lunchtime show (4), April 1994 (5)

“At the beginning of 1994, I was still working with Matthew at GLR and was satisfied with our progress. Over the past 5 years we had turned the old “BBC London” in to a vibrant alternative to mainstream radio, with a range of specialist shows and educational features throughout the day. Radio 1 hardly entered my mind. When I did give it a thought, I was amazed by how... well, 1980’s the presentation and the music policy still was. I knew John Burt was trying to bring more youth-orientated programming to the station, but I was totally amazed when I was asked to be deputy controller there. John Burt had already gained a reputation as a micro-manager, but I knew that Johnny Beerling wouldn’t be pleased with this new move. Never the less, I knew what I was there for-I was ostensibly John Burt’s “man on the inside”. The programming changes I made when I eventually became controller are already well-known, but my first task as deputy was to pressurise management in to enforcing more stringent playlisting on daytime presenters, targeting the youth audience. There had already been some modernisation by this period; ‘Is It Like Today’ by World Party was a regular on Daytime Radio 1. Even Nirvana were played on occasion (most notably with Jacky Brambles (6) and her successor, Claire Sturgis), but there were still a number of daytime presenters who were reluctant to play anything more challenging than M People. This was a disappointment to me, as many listeners didn’t get to hear the likes of Oasis, who were at this point breaking in to the mainstream and already being played regularly on the new Commercial alternative, Virgin 1215 (7). My patients were tested in a management meeting, discussing the summer Roadshows in 1994. In the end Oasis played live, but it was a pretty close run thing (8).”

From “The Axeman Of Radio 1-An Autobiography” by Trevor Dan (Harper Collins, 2004) (9)

(1) Andy Kershaw said something very similar about 80’s music in OTL, sometime in the 90’s.
(2) Johnny Beerling did indeed try to control what was played at the beginning of various specialist shows on the Network in OTL, when he first became Programme Controller. John Peel was asked to start with something more well-known. Peel did think about telling Beerling what for, but decided to assure management he would do what they said, before completely disregarding their “advice”. A few months later, Johnny Beerling got back to him, thanking him for “complying with my request” when he’d done no such thing.

ITTL, Beerling is coming under pressure from higher up to control what his presenters play. Whereas Bannister’s approach was to gradually enforce a playlist during the day (with daytime presenters only choosing a few tracks during their own shows by the time he left), while giving the specialist’s free reign to play what they like. Here though, Beerling is trying to be more “equal” in these new restrictions. While John Peel will probably respond like he did before, Andy Kershaw hadn’t joined when Beerling tried to do this the first time. I don’t see him taking too kindly to this-he’s known for going in to hyperbole a bit too much than is good for him in OTL anyway, so this is very much in character.

(3) Jo Wily and Steve Lamacq took over the Evening Session in September 1993 anyway, the vacancy still arises ITTL.

(4) In OTL, Claire Sturgis was at Radio 1 from 1993 to 1997 and was most prominent for hosting the Overnight shift for most of that time. In 1997 she’d doubtlessly had enough and jumped ship to XFM, where she was one of the launching staff. She stayed there for a while and now does the Voice-overs on Sky, as well as occasional work on Kerang!

Simon Bates was actually her Mentor and put in a good word with the bosses, which ensured she was given her own show (one of the only good things he did imho). They also used her for cover a lot at this point in time and she was tipped by some for promotion to a full-time daytime gig. Here, Simon Bates having a more sympathetic ear in Johnny Beerling and the absence of the presenter who was doing the show at this point In OTL means the show is hers. She’ll have a more successful radio 1 career ITTL-think TTL’s Jo Wily.

(5) This is around about the same time Oasis started being heard on Daytime Radio 1 in OTL! However, with presenters having greater control over their playlists, they aren’t heard quite as often on certain shows.

(6) She’s probably more known for being on ‘Loose Women’ now a days, but back in the late 80’s and early 90’s Jacky Brambles was a presenter on R1 (becoming their first female daytime DJ in the process). She did in fact play quite a lot of Nirvana and Rage Against The Machine, until leaving in December 1993 to immigrate to the US. This was entirely for personal reasons and isn’t likely to change-indeed, Matthew Bannister did try and persuade her to stick around. In OTL, she was replaced by Emma Freud (for about a year), who did a music and news type show. Her absence from that slot ITTL will become clearer as the timeline progresses.

(7) More regularly than in OTL, anyway. Virgin was (and still is to my mind) a Classic Rock station, but with radio 1 not championing Oasis and co as much as they did at this point OTL, Virgin are filling the void so to speak. There will be more interesting developments regarding Brit-pop’s affect on radio in late 94/early 95, however, so stay tuned.

(8) A similar discussion (all be it more muted) occurred in OTL, though at that point pretty much all the management were keen on introducing more Up and Coming music to daytime, so it was a non-event. Here though, management are more... divided on the issue, but at the end of the day there isn’t really a good reason for refusing to let them play.

(9) Ah, Trevor Dan! In OTL he was appointed as Matthew Bannister’s deputy programme controller of radio 1 around about the same time-after all, they’d worked together at GLR (both OTL and TTL). Here, John Burt has gone over Beerling’s head and has pretty much forced Dan on Beerling. In OTL, Trevor Dan was responsible for clearing out the last of the old-guard of Radio 1 (with a few exceptions) and banning artists such as the Beatles and Status Quo from being played. He was known as ‘Dan Dan, The Hatchet Man’ for a reason. Here he’s a somewhat less welcome arrival amongst the management-this is going to be the radio equivalent of the labour party in-fighting of the 1970’s. Once Dan becomes controller, there’s going to be even more fun than there was under Bannister, who at least seems to have a less abrasive personality...

 

[Peelitebkearns]

Back To The Future

“Lee Gets A Lie-in

Long-running host of the coveted radio 1 Breakfast Show, Ian Lee, is to step down from the programme at the end of September, to return to his previous late evening show. Over the past 7 years, audience figures have steadily increased, 7 Million listeners now tuning in (1) between 6 30 and 9 30 every morning to hear the comedian-turned-radio presenter’s often controversial material. He was reprimanded in 2004, after a comment on an interview he’d previously recorded with Babes and Becks (2), where he called the couple “the most mind numbingly boring people I’ve ever met”.
Later that year, he famously criticised the Brown Administration’s approach to the BBC’s licence renewal, on the day the former Prime Minister left Downing Street (3).

Lee, who took over the Breakfast Show from Richard Bacon in 2002 after the latter’s abrupt sacking (4), said “I’ve loved getting up at 4 o’clock every morning, to head to a basement in Central London to talk to the nation, I really, really have. But at least I’ll be able to watch Friday Night With Lee Evans (5) without falling asleep half-way through it from now on!”

Radio 1’s Programme Controller, Dave Lloyd (6), said “Ian has been a credit to the station ever since he joined in 1999 and I feel personally very proud to have been his boss in the intervening years. Though I am sad to see Ian leave Breakfast, I am of course delighted he won’t be leaving us altogether.” Rumours that Lee and the management had had a falling out were denied by both parties, with Lee commenting “Come on! We’re not in the mid 90’s now-and I’m certainly no Chris Evans”. There were reports that Lee was set to join rival station Power Radio, to present their new Breakfast Show, replacing Emma Forbs and Kevin Greening (7). Power Radio’s Programme Controller, Louise Bagshawe (8) wasn’t available for comment.

Lee’s replacement is yet to be made, but Drivetime presenter Steve Harris, who is Lee’s regular cover is a favourite, along with Simon Hurst, current Breakfast presenter on Radio 1’s ‘Sister Station’, 6Beets. Other, more unlikely candidates include former Late Night Talk show host Chris Moyles (9), who was recently sacked from his “Late Bit” on the national Network Talk Radio (10).”

From radiotoday.co.uk, 28th July 2009

“I can’t stand him! 5live is a no-go zone between 10 PM and 1 AM on Friday and Saturday nights, ever since he took over from Bryan Hayes.”
“I like the guy-he certainly makes weekend evenings more entertaining. Did you hear that interview he did with Dianne Abbot? Completely ripped her to shreds. His weekly movie reviews with Mark Kermode really are essential listening too (11).”
“He’s nothing but a poor man’s Paxman and he should have stuck to music radio. He thinks he can just ram his opinions down everyone’s throats. It’s nothing but brainless tabloid drivel-everything 5live was set up not to broadcast. The sooner Douglas (12) sacks this Paxman wannabe and brings Hayes back, the better as far as I’m concerned!”.
“He’s playing Devil’s advocate! He destroyed Dianne Abbot on his show the other day, but he did the same to that far-right plonker who appeared on his show last night-didn’t you hear that? Personally I’ve always liked him, ever since his days in local radio.”

Excerpts from the Thread ‘Jeremy Kyle-Is He Over His Head At 5live?’ on Digitalspy.net, date of discussion 29th July 2007 (13).

“I’m leaving daytime radio because I don’t want to play the same songs over and over again! Honestly, I loved Matthew Jay when I first heard him (13), still do in fact. Hell, I was one of the people who bought his albums, making him the most successful solo artist in years. Do we need to hear ‘Home Again’ every day though?”.

Ian Lee, privately

(1) In OTL, Chris Moyles had 7 Million listeners by May 2007 and by July 2009 in OTL, his audience was near the 8 Million mark. I’ve knocked a million off of Lee’s figures to account for the greater turmoil within R1 during the late 90’s and the longer time it took to recover some ground as a result.

(2) Another great Butterfly from this TL is that ‘Posh’ never joins the Spice Girls.

(3) Political Butterfly Number 1?

(4) For similar reasons he was given the boot from Blue Peter OTL. Here he’s never a Blue Peter presenter, instead hosting more alternative TV shows and of course, a radio programme...

(5) There is no such thing as Friday Night With Jonathan Ross here BTW and there never has been. Ross will still be successful though, as we’ll discover soon!

(6) OTL, Lloyd has been the Programme Director of several commercial stations, here I have him join the BBC in the mid 90’s. He’s another interesting figure in radio management.

(7) Greening survives to this day ITTL-his death can easily be butterflied away by an alternate (and more successful btw) radio career.

(8) OTL, she’s the current Member of Parliament for Corby!

(9) I just love the Irony of Moyles being considered a longshot for this-he never joined the BBC ITTL, so the people saying he’ll replace Lee are really just saying it as a joke, as Moyles has just been sacked from his previous job.

(10)Was left alone by Kelvin Mackenzie ITTL and was never renamed ‘Talk Sport’.

(11)I know Electric Monk was asking about him in my discussion thread, now Kermode makes a cameo.

(12)Lesley Douglas, Programme Controller of Radio 2 until 2008 IOTL.

(13)In real life, Jeremy Kyle started off as a music radio presenter. However, rather than developing an interest in Gerry Springer type chat shows as in OTL, here he’s remained in radio and has developed more of a taste for News/Current Affairs. Stranger things have definitely happend imho-after all, Gerry Springer was a News Reader at first. He isn’t at Paxman’s level by any means, but I can see him developing a similar interviewing style to Paxo.

(14)In OTL, Matthew Jay was tipped by some for big things, but his music career never really took off. He was dropped by his record label in 2002 and died the following year. However, it’s not much of a stretch to give him a lucky break -and in all likelihood, that probably butterflies away his OTL death.

 

[Peelitebkearns]

Hope you all enjoyed the last update. The next one might be a few days away, but it'll concentrate more on the development of commercial radio in 1994/1995, along with a bit more BBC-related stuff.

 

[Electric Monk]

Ok so I honestly don't know enough to comment much although I have some feedback in a bit, but I do want to raise a bunch of style issues.

I assume you're writing this MS Word and copy/pasting it, hence

[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri][FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3](8)[/SIZE][/FONT]    [/FONT][FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3]

that stuff cluttering up the text when I go to quote it (which is overlarge for me personally) and possibly results in a number of missing paragraph breaks that you also have. I don't know if you have a Mac or Windows machine but there a number of nice Mac writing programs (free, even) that I could point you to and I'm sure there are some Windows one as well. MS Word always screws up the formatting.

Furthermore the lack of bolding or italics or double paragraph breaks makes it too easy to jump into the next segment without realizing it's the next segment.

Now please don't take that personally, it's just style critiques much of which is subjective and I rather like this timeline despite jumping to wikipedia every minute.

Ok, comments:

Although I absolutely need the footnotes to follow along they threaten to overwhelm the rest of the timeline. Some of them can probably be cut (anything mentioning the future) or trimmed down (alternate careers can have a wiki link to their original one) but I understand that most of the audience needs them and its a fine balancing act.

Bates said something similar at the end of his final OTL radio 1 broadcast, though he did not refer to his successor (who by all accounts, he got on well with). He despised Nicky Campbell however, so this is a dig at him (yes, the radio 1 crew of the late 80’s/early 90’s really were this catty).

Any chance you'll be able to find some samples of this kind of thing online? I know the BBC online archives suck out loud, but there are decent fan collections of specific programs (oh Just A Minute, how I love you) and it'd be cool—especially for a radio timeline—if we could listen to some stuff.

Whereas Banister was on-side with John Burt’s modernising plans, Beerling, is in the middle of the turmoil, receiving flack from both sides. Ultimately, this leads to a more drawn out process of modernisation, uglier departures down the line and in turn, negative press coverage, for longer.

Ouch for the BBC, at least in the beginning. So they keep some viewers but draw out their modernization program… at what cost I suppose is the question.

Hope you all enjoyed the last update. The next one might be a few days away, but it'll concentrate more on the development of commercial radio in 1994/1995, along with a bit more BBC-related stuff.

I did enjoy it (Kermode!), but I had to cover my eyes screaming "Spoilers!!!". I don't think I'm used to timelines jumping that far into the future .

 

[Peelitebkearns]

Ok so I honestly don't know enough to comment much although I have some feedback in a bit, but I do want to raise a bunch of style issues.

Hey Electric Monk,

Thanks for your comments-they're welcome.

"I assume you're writing this MS Word and copy/pasting it, hence

[/SIZE][/FONT]
 
 
[FONT=Calibri][FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3](8)[/SIZE][/FONT]    [/FONT][FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3]

that stuff cluttering up the text when I go to quote it (which is overlarge for me personally) and possibly results in a number of missing paragraph breaks that you also have. I don't know if you have a Mac or Windows machine but there a number of nice Mac writing programs (free, even) that I could point you to and I'm sure there are some Windows one as well. MS Word always screws up the formatting.

Furthermore the lack of bolding or italics or double paragraph breaks makes it too easy to jump into the next segment without realizing it's the next segment."

You're write-I was using MS Word. I have a windows machine and I'll look in to the possibility of using another programme for writing my updates (I did think of doing notes in word and then updating on the site, though the trouble is my Laptop times out when I've been writing a post for a while.

"Now please don't take that personally, it's just style critiques much of which is subjective and I rather like this timeline despite jumping to wikipedia every minute."

Glad you're enjoying it!

"Ok, comments:

Although I absolutely need the footnotes to follow along they threaten to overwhelm the rest of the timeline. Some of them can probably be cut (anything mentioning the future) or trimmed down (alternate careers can have a wiki link to their original one) but I understand that most of the audience needs them and its a fine balancing act."

I like the idea of using wiki links, though I considered posting the notes sepeerately from the rest of the TL.

"Any chance you'll be able to find some samples of this kind of thing online? I know the BBC online archives suck out loud, but there are decent fan collections of specific programs (oh Just A Minute, how I love you) and it'd be cool—especially for a radio timeline—if we could listen to some stuff."

I can provide a few links. I did try and attach the clip of Simon Bates saying he was fired directly on to the site, burt it wouldn't let me.

Instead, here's a link on Simon Bates's time at radio 1:

http://radiorewind.co.uk/radio1/simon_bates_page.htm

Problem is, there are loads of audio links-the one's you'll be looking for (from the last show) will be near the bottom of the page.

You'll also need to register with them in order to download the audio files, but they hardly ever sendany emails.

"Ouch for the BBC, at least in the beginning. So they keep some viewers but draw out their modernization program… at what cost I suppose is the question."

The cost will be huge-it was IOTL after all.
They keep their viewers for a very limited amount of time. Beerling isn't completely aposed to making changes, but he's far from singing from the same hymn sheet as his higher-ups (or his most famous presentation staff). He's caught slap bang in the middle of it, makingmore gradual changes (with a lot more reluctance than Bannister OTL). Had he been either on-side with the modernisers or on-side fully with the traditionalists, things wouldn't be as bad. Trevor Dan being appointed as Deputy under Beerling only exasibates things further, he'll be taking over from Beerling when he steps down too, bringing about a drastic change at a time when things are even more unsettled than OTL (which is saying quite something).
As said before, he's been at radio 1 since the launch and therefore knows (and is extremely loyal) to many of the people John Burt wants to get rid of, a problem Bannister obviously lacked as a new arrival.

"I did enjoy it (Kermode!), but I had to cover my eyes screaming "Spoilers!!!". I don't think I'm used to timelines jumping that far into the future .

"

Well my plan was to let you in on some future events, but you don't know most of what's going on in 2007 yet, let alone TTL 2012! There's the internet/digital revolutions to consider, which will (like OTL) change the industry considerably. The updates specifically on the future won't happen all that often, we return to the present (1994/95) in the next update-and this is where it gets more "interesting", regarding commercial radio.

Thanks again for your comments/feedback and cheers for the plug on the Pop Culture Thread!

 

[Electric Monk]

I use Notational Velocity on OS X (which is amazing) and the closest thing I can find for Windows is this guy.

Some people grasp it right away, some people need time. Basically it's a mouseless note application (syncs with Simplenote, with a free account, so you can get it on your phone or any web client). You hit a key combo (say ctrl-opt-L) and the program comes up. You type the name of the note and all matching ones come up or you hit enter to start a new one, then you just start writing and never worry about having to save.

 

[Peelitebkearns]

To everyone who was reading this TL-I haven't forgotten about it, in fact I was talking to Johnny Beerling about this Timeline the other day.

Having bounced a few ideas around I've decided to redraft (some) of it, in order to produce more interesting results.

A lot of it will remain the same, but I'm just changing a few bits here and there...

 

[RobinCarmody]

Let me guess ...

... Gordon Brown becomes PM earlier and leaves office in 2004 partially because Britpop hasn't been sufficiently mainstream and universally-known for Blair to do what he did with it, thus leading to a different New Labour?

That for me is the most interesting WI of a different Radio 1 ...

 

[Peelitebkearns]

Let me guess ...

... Gordon Brown becomes PM earlier and leaves office in 2004 partially because Britpop hasn't been sufficiently mainstream and universally-known for Blair to do what he did with it, thus leading to a different New Labour?

That for me is the most interesting WI of a different Radio 1 ...

You'll have to wait and see, but you could be on the write tracks there. I'll be covering Britpop's alternate rise in due course and how it will affect the political world.

By the way, I really enjoy your work on Transdefusion!

 

[RobinCarmody]

Any chance of reviving this TL?

 

[Dathi THorfinnsson]

Any chance of reviving this TL?

Reviving old threads, necromancy, is frowned on on this board. Especially when it's a pure bump like this.

Just a word of caution from a fellow member.