Commercial radio executives have criticised BBC Radio 1 and Radio 2 for failing to fulfill their public service remit – and suggested the two stations be switched to digital-only in a bid to boost digital take-up.
Ashley Tabor, founder of Heart and Capital parent Global Radio and Global Group chief executive, said Radio 1 should concentrate on breaking new British music and that Radio 2 was "too young". He claimed the two stations were delivering on only 30% of their public service commitments.
"These two powerhouse radio stations should do what they were set up to do — provide that which cannot be provided commercially, that's where the value is. Good-quality content which is not commercially viable," added Tabor.
The Global boss said Radio 1 was not doing enough to support new British music, adding that he wanted it to break at least 10 new UK bands next year — and described its playlist as "very, very mainstream".
Paul Keenan, chief executive of Kiss and Magic parent Bauer Radio, said the two BBC stations could be used as a key driver in encouraging digital take-up by removing them from analogue and making them digital-only, including digital audio broadcasting (DAB).
"If you moved Radio 1 and Radio 2 that would show us the way [on digital]," Keenan told the BBC's director of audio and music, Tim Davie, at the Radio Festival in Salford today.
Davie defended the track record of the two stations, saying Radio 1's audience had got younger — the average age of its listener is 29, at the very top of its 15- to 29-year-old target audience — and Radio 2 was also changing its offering, including more speech content.
"Last week we were doing a poetry week for goodness sake," he added. "It is absolutely not our strategy to go and sit on top of commercial radio. We are not in local [music] radio.
"Should Radio 1 be driving down the age of its listeners? Yes, but not ad infinitum. Look at the breadth of the Radio 1 and Radio 2 playlist – it is in a different dimension [to commercial radio] statistically."
To which Tabor replied: "Statistically but not in reality. There has been progress [on Radio 1] but we are still a million miles from where we need to be. No one is saying Radio 1 should not play hit records but they are there to break new British bands and they do not do it."
On the suggestion that Radio 1 and Radio 2 should go digital-only, Davie said the BBC had a commitment to making its services universally accessible.
Later in the day, in another session, Davie explained: "I can't see it being in listeners' interests to take Radio 1 and Radio 2 away from them when DAB is in a limited number of households."
Both BBC and commercial representatives agreed that the DAB signal had to be strengthened and extended across the country before digital radio switchover could become even a distant possibility.
But it remains to be seen who will pick up the £100m tab, with Davie saying he did not have the necessary funds. Tabor said the commercial sector will only pay for the rollout of those local DAB multiplexes that are commercially viable.
Davie added that he had pushed to increase coverage from the "late 80s" to around 93% of the country, and was strengthening the signal coverage in London.
"There is a lot of discussion about the BBC's funding at the moment," he said. "Unless we give people better content and better coverage, we ain't going anywhere. There may be tensions in terms of speed and tensions in terms of who funds what, that is where it is going to get a bit lively. The onus is on all of us to create stronger content. We need to win this with the listeners."
Andrew Harrison, chief executive of the commercial radio trade body, the Radio Centre, said: "There is no doubt if [digital take-up] carries on at its current projectory we will never get there."
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