BBC Local Radio closes Late Show for East Midlands
By James Cridland for media.info
Posted 15 May 2015, 12.18pm edt
Jenny Barsby's late show on BBC Local Radio in the East Midlands is to end next week.
The programme, which broadcasts on BBC Radio Nottingham, Derby, Lincolnshire and Leicester, will have its last edition on May 21st.
As of May 24th, East Midlands listeners will join the late show broadcast in the West Midlands, on BBC WM, Coventry & Warwickshire, Hereford & Worcester, Stoke, and Shropshire. The programme is presented by Graham Torrington (though the first will be presented by Stuart Ellis).
Speaking to media.info, a BBC spokesperson said: “We have taken the difficult decision to stop producing the Late Show on local radio in the East Midlands in order to refocus resources on delivering more digital journalism and more original journalism across all platforms to our audiences.
We’d like to take this opportunity to thank Jenny Barsby for a fantastic year fronting the programme and wish her all the best for the future.”
Jenny, who was born in Tunbridge Wells, has worked for the BBC for fifteen years.
Jenny Barsby took over from BBC Radio Nottingham's Amanda Bowman, who broadcast a late show from January 2011 across many of the stations in the Midlands, excluding BBC WM, until 2013. This will be the first time that BBC Local Radio in the East Midlands is regularly rebroadcasting a Late Show coming out of Birmingham. John Taynton's late show came from Birmingham and was carried across all Midlands stations, according to a correspondent below. That programme ended in 1996.
From 24 May, Graham Torrington's Sunday-Thursday late show will be networked on nine local BBC stations. He's no stranger to networking, though: Graham Torrington's Late Night Love was broadcast for twelve years on former GWR Group radio stations, reaching over 40 stations.
Torrington also broadcasts a separate weekend programme, Late Night Love Songs on BBC Radio Devon, Guernsey, Jersey, Bristol, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Somerset and Cornwall. Given the BBC's comparatively large local radio sizes, it's likely that he now reaches more potential listeners across BBC Local Radio than he did on the GWR network.
Many other BBC Local Radio stations share programmes across regions.
Jenny Barsby worked in the newsroom at Invicta Radio, now Heart in Kent. She started her BBC career at BBC Radio Kent, where she once saw Peter Sissons go to the loo, according to our tireless research.