Changing the channel

OUT of the frying pan into the fire. Whatever possessed Michael Grade to jump ship from the BBC and take the top job at ITV?

These are two organisations facing enormous difficulties. Clearly, Mr Grade either relishes a challenge or has been seduced by a pay packet beyond the dreams of avarice.

He is leaving a BBC still shell-shocked and humbled by the Blair Government for daring to challenge the invasion of Iraq.

The Corporation, saddled with rising costs and the task of leading the national changeover to digital broadcasting, is desperate for more money.

Michael Grade was one of the the few TV negotiators who might have extracted more millions from the Government.

It takes a special talent for haggling to explain why the BBC should get more taxpayers’ money at a time when it is paying a single entertainer, Jonathan Ross, a cool £18 million for three years’ work.

Michael Grade had the rare ability to argue a difficult case.

Now he is leaving, who will take his place? What will become of the BBC’s long-term financial plans?

Not that things will be much easier at ITV. The days when commercial television was a licence to print money are long gone.

ITV advertising revenue is in freefall. Competition for viewers comes not only from a host of new stations but from the vast and growing lure of computer entertainment.

Michael Grade has to persuade a new generation of viewers to stick with Coronation Street or Emmerdale when they could be flying starship fighters through cyberspace.

Back in the 1980s the launch of Channel 4 and breakfast broadcasting looked like enormous hurdles. How easy they seem today compared with Michael Grade’s task of keeping both viewers and advertisers loyal to ITV.

We wish Mr Grade well. We in the Midlands have fond memories of the glory days of ATV under his uncle, the great Sir Lew.

But times have changed. What looks like a dream job today could well turn out to be a poisoned chalice.

Sad loss of radio’s great personality

In these days of shock jocks and endless pop ‘n’ prattle from local radio, it is hard to remember the impact Alan Freeman had on broadcasting.

Back in the days of the Light Programmes, “Fluff” burst upon the sedate world of BBC presenting like a thunderbolt.

At a time when most presenters adopted a deferential air, Freeman treated us as equals. We were his mates.

The pirate revolution of the 1960s owed much to this great personality who was broadcasting for nearly 50 years.

Alan Freeman has died. Pop pickers everywhere will remember him fondly. Not ‘arf.