BBC Radio 5 Live has been criticised for the lack of female presenters in its new-look line-up after it announced the departure of some of its biggest stars, including Victoria Derbyshire, Shelagh Fogarty and Richard Bacon.
The shake-up of the station’s daytime schedule, in its 20th anniversary year, means it will have only one weekly programme fronted solely by a woman – a one-hour Friday afternoon show presented by Eleanor Oldroyd.
BBC director general Tony Hall has made a commitment to putting more female voices on air and Diane Coyle, the acting chairman of the BBC Trust, said in a speech last month that “increasing the number of women on air” was one of the corporation’s top priorities.
Derbyshire (10am to midday) and Fogarty (midday-2pm) presented their own shows on the station for several years. They will leave in the autumn, along with mid-afternoon presenter Bacon, after deciding to quit to pursue other opportunities.
Derbyshire’s show will be replaced by a new three-hour slot, extended until 1pm, anchored alternately by Adrian Chiles and Peter Allen.
Miranda Sawyer, the writer and broadcaster and founder member of lobby group Sound Women, said: “I think it’s quite sad that they can’t find a solo woman to present one of those shows. It would appear they don’t feel quite confident enough in whoever they have there to do it.”
Radio 5 Live controller Jonathan Wall said he felt “quite relaxed” about the number of women at the station, pointing to co-presenters including Anna Foster, who will continue on the drivetime show alongside Tony Livesey, and new signing from BBC Northern Ireland, Sarah Brett, who will co-host the new three-hour early afternoon show with Dan Walker.
Rachel Burden will continue on 5 Live breakfast alongside Nicky Campbell and its Saturday morning panel show, Fighting Talk, will get its first female host, Georgie Thompson.
“I would love to see which station has a stronger story to tell [on women],” said Wall.
BBC sister station Radio 2 has also been criticised for its lack of female presenters, with not a single show presented by a woman in its daytime weekday line-up.
Radio 4’s Today programme also came under fire for its lack of female voices, a criticism it tried to address with the recruitment of Mishal Husain to its rota of presenters last year, joining Sarah Montague.
Wall admitted it was “not ideal” to introduce so much change in one go, with the new schedule due to begin in October, but said it was “inevitable” given the station’s move out of London to Salford three years ago.
The new schedule comes at a time when BBC Radio is having to make further cuts as part of the corporation’s ongoing £700m package of Delivering Quality First cost-savings and follows changes at Radio 1 and Radio 2. Further cuts are also expected at digital station, 6 Music.
Wall said the new schedule would deliver some savings but it was not the driving force behind the changes. “We’ve got some daytime presenters who want to do other things, and I wanted to shape the schedule differently,” he said. “Now I have the opportunity to do that.”
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