Wannabe rolling news channel BBC London has given in to listener pressure and returned to their regular programme schedule. On the night bombs first dropped on Baghdad the BBC's London station, presumably hoping for a quick war, cancelled all regular shows and went for a rolling war report format. But the decision was unpopular with listeners. Many emailed in, or posted complaints on the message board, pointing out that if people want rolling war news there are plenty of other TV and radio outlets (all telling us that "little has happened" and speculating wildly about "what that means"!) – and that there was no real London angle to the story and therefore noreason for a London station to go war crazy.
A spokesman for the station yesterday confirmed they would be restoring the normal schedules, including Danny Baker’s breakfast show: "After careful consideration, we feel that the time is now right to get Danny back on air at breakfast, while making full provision to respond to news events flexibly and comprehensively." That said with a seven minute news bulletin on the hour, four minutes half past the hour, and headlines at quarter past and quarter to, there won't be much room for anything else! The Association of Independent Music is still campaigning against the axing of a number of specialist music shows at BBC London which were dropped from the schedule as they went the more talk radio route.