radio go go

g'day

just now, or if you like in a few weeks (at time of publication, look you see), it shall be that one of those things described as being "the end of an era" shall come to pass. despite the fact that he is not leaving radio entire, not even the station he is at home at, no more will it be that Steve Wright does his afternoon show. a "new direction" change has come, and so the unassuming, modest presenter of Steve Wright Presents Steve Wright's The Big Show, Part of Steve Wright Presents Steve Wright In The Afternoon, Hosted By Steve Wright, Featuring Steve Wright. every now and then he only played a jingle or reminder that you were listening to Steve Wright three or four times every five minutes, so focused was he on the actual show, and not just that it was him doing it. 

reasons exist for the removal of Steve Wright, no doubt. i would have little or no clue what they are. for what they are not, well, as his show remained one of the most listened to on the radio, i think one can safely put aside any idea of the vocal crowd "demanding" he be fired for the last few years had anything to do with it. so far as i am aware, since the dawn or advent of "social media" virtually every DJ has had the pleasure of a campaign against them or calling for them to be dismissed. my guess would be "age", added with perhaps he wishes to break away (rumours persist of a serious illness, but he is famously private), but likely it is all down to budget. 

the notion, or idea, of it being budget related certainly seem quite likely when you consider the replacement lined up. one would have thought lots of DJs vied or applied for the prestigious afternoon slot on Radio 2, many of them good, great, excellent or likely to be popular. but maybe none of them applied, for instead they for some reason decided that Scott Mills was the best replacement. deciding that he is in some way or another an adequate way forward feels like a bit of an insult to the outgoing Steve Wright. a worse choice could possibly have been made, mindful of the fact that they still employ Jo Wiley. 

my first encounter with this Scott Mills fellow was a while or so ago, maybe a year or two. it was not good. he was foisted on us as a stand in for Ken Bruce, and very quickly it became clear he was well and truly out of his depth. after giving him reasonable chance to get at least competent, it became clear that i, and many others, would just have to do without Pop Master whilst he made terrible attempt after horrible go at trying to at least read out one half of a question correctly. 

i had assumed, on the basis of the above, that this Scott Mills was some sort of "new talent" that they were bringing in, hoping to fashion him as a new presenter of note. so yes, i was horrified and aghast to learn that he had somehow managed a career of north of two decades doing radio stuff. based on how he does it now, i surely shudder to think how bad he was when just starting out. 

let it not be said that i am all negative on this. of course a huge plus of him having a permanent afternoon show is, presumably (let us pray) he will never, ever, never, ever again ruin Pop Master for us normal people. further, he is only getting two (2) hours, with Sara Cox - an actual, proper DJ - getting an extra hour each day. 

presumably, though (and to go back a bit), the decision to relieve Steve Wright of duties was with budget in mind. at present the bbc are facing a significant budget "cut", at least according to what they say. all to do with the licence fee being frozen, which is a hit, but yet they seem.....reluctant to talk of how much money they rake in from commercial ventures with products that the licence payer here in the UK apparently fund. getting some of the cost of having a Steve Wright on the books will help. 

and by the same margin, getting staff already on the books to do more for their money will help. hence us being treated to things like someone what does traffic updates to a minimum requirement level on the radio now also appearing on other shows, be it hosting things he is woefully not up to, or as a celebrity on basically every variation of a "celebrity" version of a show. even a dancing one, i believe. 

yet they seem reluctant to cut the biggest earner, who also appears to do the absolute least in return for the significant coins paid out. indeed, i speak of he. for some reason he gets paid in excess of one million pounds (not a typo) to sit there, introduce some goals and then ask other people what they thought of it. not really value for money. and their old argument that they have to pay "market rates" is a thing of the past, especially as this one routinely does the same job for other channels. 

no, i am not really all that @rsed about whatever silly or sensible things he says on social media, but i believe there are some who very much are. presumably they can't sack him as they fear as being seen to pandering to "the mob". also, they say sacking him "wouldn't make much of a budget change". but yes it would, it would free up around a million, i believe. one really, really doubts that people tune in to see whatever goals have been scored just because he hosts it, after all. clinging on to people "for the principle of it" did not do Boris any good. 

for me, the departure of Steve Wright is another few threads of a safety blanket gone. sure, true, maybe i have not listened to him so frequently, but there was a reassurance that he was there, that things were as i had always (or mostly) known them to be. many will, of course, feel their own blanket is in place, since this Scott Mills will be to them what Steve Wright was to me. and of course there were those who felt so for whoever was there before "Wrighty". 

will i be giving Scott Mills a chance? unlikely. his proclivity is to play many really, really crap songs, and for some reason his style is based on a "dramatic pause", or if you like silence, is a quite good idea on the medium of radio. it isn't. 

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!