All seemed to be going extremely well. I became a loyal and engaged listener. It began to garner rave reviews, from the likes of Iain Dale. There were segments from James Cridland and David Lloyd and a weekly long-form interview with an industry expert. The glue holding it all together was Stuart Clarkson, a veteran producer, presenter and 5 Live freelancer. Radio Today owner Roy Martin contributed to a sometimes geeky but nonetheless informative segment, in discussion with Clarkson, about personnel moves, tech issues, multiplex slots, OFCOM decisions and the onward march of Global and Bauer. Then the wheels suddenly fell off the bus. Cridland and Lloyd quit. Then COVID hit. Then Clarkson and Martin began to sound really tired and disheartened. The big blow was when Clarkson announced he was taking a break, but having now started his own station - Rumbolds Radio - there’s no sign of his return. Then weekly episodes became irregular. Then, horror of horrors, guest presenters, mostly fairly minor players, began interviewing their mates or former bosses, some of whom weren’t really major players themselves any more. Without the steering hand of Clarkson, a few of these were excruciating. There’s nothing worse than self-regarding radio people interviewing other self-regarding radio people. In one particular interview, the interviewee could hardly get a word in edgeways due to the over-wrought and unctuous behaviour of the interviewer, who was so obviously keen to solicit the favours of his guest. Then there were unspecified problems with Twitter and an ugly social media spat between Clarkson and Christian O’Connell (from which O’Connell did not emerge well). I can well empathize with Roy Martin, who has himself now started Radio Travel News. It’s been a terrible 12 months for all concerned. I do hope that something can be rebuilt because the pre-COVID Radio Today podcast was one of the best.
