The BBC’s content chief claims the exodus of older presenters on Radio 2 is ‘natural evolution’ as she denied the station was ‘trying to get younger’.
Charlotte Moore admitted the broadcaster was ‘absolutely’ trying to make sure it does not keep getting ‘older and older’, but she did not think ‘we are chasing young’.
Her comments come after a string of older presenters including Steve Wright, Ken Bruce, Vanessa Feltz and Paul O’Grady left Radio 2 and were replaced with younger presenters.
Industry insiders have previously claimed the station has been deliberately trying to drive down the age of its main presenters.
Charlotte Moore, chief content officer for the BBC, spoke to the perception that Radio 2 was deliberately trying to reduce the number of older presenters in order to woo younger listeners
There have also been repeated complaints for loyal listeners the station is desperately trying to appeal to a younger audience.
But the BBC’s chief content officer, Miss Moore, speaking to the Broadcasting Press Guild, said: ‘I don’t think we are trying to get younger’.
When asked about the perception that Radio 2 is desperately trying to reduce the number of older presenters, she said: ‘I don’t see it as an age thing at all… I really, really don’t.
‘I think people make their decisions and it’s always been a station with lots of people of different ages. It’s always had people from their 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, and Ken [Bruce] was there for a long time.’
Asked if it had been deliberate for so many older presenters to have left, she added: ‘No, I think it’s natural evolution. It’s natural evolution of the station and of the BBC.’
She added: ‘I don’t think we are chasing young. We are absolutely trying to make sure it doesn’t get older and older and older and older, and I think that’s for the whole of the BBC, of course, otherwise we just won’t exist, will we?’
Moore said O’Grady, whose death she described as ‘devastating’, had chosen to leave Radio 2 and ‘we always evolve schedules’.
She said Bruce had left receiving a ‘great offer’ from commercial radio and it was now a case of trying to ‘reinvent behind him’.
Steve Wright, 68, saw his Radio 2 show axed last year and replaced by a programme fronted by Scott Mills, 50.
Bruce, 72, is being replaced by Vernon Kay, 48, while Owain Wyn Evans, 39, has taken over from Feltz, 61 and O’Grady, who recently died aged 67, had seen Rob Beckett, 37, replace him after he left.
Steve Wright, 68, had his show axed last year and replaced by a show fronted by Scott Mills, 50
During the talk, Moore said returning to filming Top Gear would be ‘really inappropriate’ as Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff continues to recover from his accident.
The 45-year-old presenter was involved in incident at the Top Gear test track last year in December while filming the motoring TV programme at Dunsfold Aerodrome.
It has previously been reported that Flintoff will not return to the show with question marks about whether the programme will carry on.
She also revealed that William Golding’s Lord of the Flies will be adapted for television for the first time, with BBC teaming up with BAFTA award-winning screenwriter Jack Thorne.
She said the Coronation Concert will see the Royal Ballet, Royal Opera, Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal College of Music and the Royal College of Art come together for the first time ever for a ‘spectacular’ performance, hosted by Hugh Bonneville.
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