JimN wrote:I firmly believe that BBC Radio was much better before the 1967 bonfire. The Third Programme survived reasonably intact, likewise the Home Service.
Fair enough. Your description of the Light Programme is a good one. You call the 1967 changes a bonfire but the service was not destroyed in this process. It was just renamed Radio 2 and, initially, carried on much as before. Radio 1&2 was essentially a shared service, carving up airtime and transmitters to simulate two stations where one had been. It was even run largely by the old Light Programme team. New people at all levels were added for Radio 1, of course, but nobody was moved out and most programme ideas from the Light were replicated on Radio 2.
It was some years before complete separation was achieved. By that time it was clear from public reaction that the move had been welcomed and so the evolution continued to what we have now.
Present-day Radio 2 is nothing like the old Light Programme, I freely concede! But it is also Europe's most-listened-to radio station. So I have to accept that it has its finger on the pulse, if not always on mine!
