Feedback

Does Radio 4 need to replenish its audience with an injection of young blood? Roger talks to the station's Network Manager Denis Nowlan about attracting new audiences and gets the views of age-aware Feedback listeners. And for many concert goers, the most taxing decision during the interval is whether to have a G&T or a glass of wine. But for Radio 3 producers, there's a tricky balance to be s...

Confusion, frustration, abdication and revolution in this week's Feedback. Vanessa Whitburn the longest-serving editor of The Archers is leaving after 22 years. She tells Roger about bullying from listeners, hints at plans for the Ambridge murder that never was and confesses that she often keeps quiet about her job for fear of being hijacked at social events. Also this week, Radio 4 listeners have...

Do BBC reporters know their Higgs boson from their Bunsen burner? Many of you think BBC science reporting is woefully inaccurate. Roger Bolton talks to David Shukman, a year into his role as the BBC Science Editor, to find out what steps the BBC is taking to equip reporters with scientific knowhow. Last week the Crown Prosecution Service published its first ever study into false allegations of rap...

This week in Feedback, we ask when music should be censored by the BBC. After a listener spotted that Oliver's Army by Elvis Costello had the 'n' word cut out abruptly during a 6Music show, we decided to look into how and why music is edited for offensive language. Roger Bolton visits Radio 1 and 1Xtra to meet DJ Trevor Nelson and Head of Music George Ergatoudis. George explains how they fulfil li...

In Feedback this week, you ask: where are all the right-wing comedians? Left-wing comic Jeremy Hardy returned to airwaves last week with his series of lectures 'Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation'. Never one to be shy about his political views, Jeremy had many of you laughing but others felt the joke just wasn't funny anymore and called for balance on the network. Roger puts your points to Caroline...

This week in Feedback, we ask whether listeners should be warned about strong language before it is broadcast. Many of you have written to us with your views on potentially offensive language, some in support of the realism swearing can provide, others saying there is no place for it on the wireless. But when Radio 4's Six o'clock news chose to broadcast a racially abusive term, it prompted you to...

Scaremongering or top notch investigative journalism? We hear your views on the BBC's horsemeat coverage. Roger Bolton asks Sheila Dillon, food journalist and presenter of BBC Radio 4's Food Programme, and Jeremy Hayes, the editor of Farming Today and the Food Programme to address your questions and finds out about their approach to covering this complex story. Also in this week's Feedback, is it...

Radio 4's forum for comments, queries, criticisms and congratulations. Presented by Roger Bolton, this is the place to air your views on the things you hear on BBC Radio. This programme's content is entirely directed by you. Producer: Kate Taylor A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.

Is BBC Radio 4 dancing to the tune of the McCartney family? Many of you wrote to Feedback with complaints after You and Yours welcomed Mary McCartney, daughter of Linda and Sir Paul McCartney, onto the programme to discuss the re-launch of the family's vegetarian food brand - just a few days after Sir Paul joined Sheila Dillon on the Food Programme for an extended interview about his life in food....

BBC Radio 2 has just announced record audience figures, but is the network satisfying all its listeners? Following changes to Sunday Half Hour, a new presenter for the Folk programme and a clutch of technical difficulties, Roger Bolton puts your concerns to Controller Bob Shennan. Also, Roger speaks to the Head of the BBC's Newsroom, Mary Hockaday, to get her views on the story that won't go away...

Why aren't there more female experts on BBC Radio programmes? Feedback puts your questions and comments to Philip Sellars, Editor of Documentaries at Radio 4, and Deborah Cohen, Editor of the Radio Science Unit. And we report from the BBC Academy's Women Experts Training Day, asking women themselves what they think is holding them back. Too fast - and you're furious. We hear from listeners who scr...

The BBC is a commercial free zone so why do so many guests on BBC radio shows always seem to be plugging something? One Feedback listener tackles the BBC's Director of Editorial Policy and Standards, David Jordan, on the issue. And are there enough female voices on the radio? Many of you don't think so. Earlier this week Radio 4 controller Gwyneth Williams acknowledged criticism that certain progr...

As the New Year chimes beckoned in 2013, many Feedback listeners bemoan the loss of some of the most well-known and well-loved voices on BBC Radio - from presenters to continuity, across the networks. In their place is a swathe of new talent. We welcome in the New Year with your views on the changes. Also, reporting climate change. This week, many listeners to bulletins in the Today programme cont...

Radio 4's forum for comments, queries, criticisms and congratulations. Presented by Roger Bolton, this is the place to air your views on the things you hear on BBC Radio. In a week when the BBC's own troubles have filled the schedules, what do you think of the way the Corporation has covered its crisis? Have programmes like Today, Call You and Yours and the Media Show restored your faith in the BB...

Presented by Roger Bolton, this is the place to air your views on the things you hear on BBC Radio. Can the future of radio really be digital when only 5% of the UK's 34 million vehicles have digital car radios? Earlier this week the Drive 2 Digital conference aimed to spread D-Love about digital on the move, but Feedback listeners still have questions. Roger invites one listener to join Tim Davie...

Radio 4's forum for comments, queries, criticisms and congratulations. Presented by Roger Bolton, this is the place to air your views on the things you hear on BBC Radio. This programme's content is entirely directed by you. Producer: Kate Taylor A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.

Presented by Roger Bolton, this is the place to air your views on the things you hear on BBC Radio. This programme's content is entirely directed by you. Are radio programmes about prisoners too sympathetic? In this week's Feedback, Roger meets two programme makers to discuss your questions on the rights and wrongs of radio about prisons. Rex Bloomstein is the presenter and co-producer of Radio 4'...

Presented by Roger Bolton, this is the place to air your views on the things you hear on BBC Radio. This programme's content is entirely directed by you. If the Prime Minister hasn't given a speech yet, why report on it? When a politician speaks, what does he really mean? In this week's Feedback, Roger Bolton gets a lesson in political code-breaking from chief political correspondent Ben Wright. B...

Radio 4's forum for comments, queries, criticisms and congratulations. Presented by Roger Bolton, this is the place to air your views on the things you hear on BBC Radio. This programme's content is entirely directed by you. Producer: Kate Taylor A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.

This week saw the end of the Labour Party Conference in Manchester - but not before an interview with Ed Miliband on the Today programme prompted a flurry of angry emails to the Feedback inbox. For many listeners, Evan Davis's technique proved infuriating. Talking over his interviewee, interrupting, grandstanding and answering his own questions, were some of the complaints. We get a response from...

Is an apology really an apology if you keep repeating the original offence? No it isn't, say many Feedback listeners. After security correspondent Frank Gardner told the Today programme about remarks made to him by the Queen, the BBC has apologised for a breach of confidence. But in this week's Feedback, listeners explain why they feel that by reporting the story, the BBC is in fact repeating the...

Serious news or tabloid tittle-tattle? Some Feedback listeners feel those photos of the Duchess of Cambridge got too much coverage on Radio 4's news output. Roger put your concerns to Mary Hockaday, Head of the BBC Multimedia Newsroom. And the BBC's new Director General George Entwistle, barely settled behind his desk, finds Feedback knocking at the door with a bulging volume of listener comments...

Were the Olympic and Paralympic Games just a crazy summer fling? Or will the enthusiasm of the audience have a lasting impact on the way BBC 5Live covers sport, particularly minority sport? Roger Bolton puts your questions to 5Live controller Adrian Van Klaveren. Roger also meets Breakfast presenter Rachel Burden, editor Scott Solder and 5Live's Head of News Steve Mawhinney to discuss what differe...

When it comes to music, variety is the spice of life at BBC Radio 2. Its database of tracks carries some 14,000 hits from every decade since the 40s. But it's the network's much vaunted playlist that every band and musician is itching to get on. This list of around 30 songs guarantees regular plays on the BBC's most popular radio station. Every week the great and the good of BBC Radio 2 gather for...

Is BBC radio suffering from an increase in technical problems? Many listeners think so, and over the last few months have sent in a flood of examples as part of Feedback's Operation Drop Out. Dropped lines, disappearing interviewees and correspondents who sound like Daleks. Roger asks technology controller Peter Coles what is going on. And the Today programme's Foreign Affairs Correspondent Mike T...