Lots of radio news this week, possibly because it's the Radio Academy's Radio Festival in Cambridge. Certainly the anti-BBC rant published by the boss of local radio firm UKRD yesterday was timed to coincide with a speech at the festival by BBC top guy Mark Thompson.
In an open letter to the Beeb, UKRD CEO William Rogers accused the Corporation of using a "growing commercial approach" to "dominate local markets by ruthlessly cross-promoting its services using public money". In fact the BBC is harming the local commercial sector so much, Rogers argues, they should be passing on a share of the licence fee to commercial stations to fund their public service output.
Thompson's rant was mainly focused on the BBC's current attempts to get the licence fee increased - an increase, the UKRD chief argues, which cannot be justified. Nevertheless, according to the Guardian, he concludes his open letter by saying the BBC probably will get everything it wants because of an "unhealthy relationship" between the Beeb and the government. He writes: "I have come to the conclusion that the BBC will end up getting what it wants and I don't mean the extra sum on top of inflation that they claimed they wanted. That was, as far as I can see, simply an opening shot in the negotiations. The BBC is simply after an increase. They wouldn't know a real funding or income problem if it smacked them across the face".