Every presenter working at every local BBC radio station has been put at risk of redundancy under new proposals at the corporation.
In a staff meeting today, all audio teams at 39 stations were told further details of drastic plans announced yesterday.
All Band E Lead Presenters, Band D Senior Presenters, Band C and B Presenters, Band C Journalists and Content Producers, Band B Journalism Coordinators and more are now at risk of redundancy.
These include high-profile breakfast show personalities, long-serving networked night-time hosts and weekend presenters.
They will all need to apply for new roles to become such as Presenter/Producer, News Reader, Reporter, Programme Producer, Social Media Journalist, Sports Journalist and more, if they wish to remain in a job, or go through a selection for retention scheme.
A voluntary redundancy scheme has also been launched effective immediately.
Roles not at risk include Executive Producers, Technical Operators, Schedulers, Receptions and Administrators.
All Channel Island staff are unaffected by redundancies.
All 39 Local BBC Radio stations will have the same staffing model – enough to cover Breakfast, daytime and sport programmes, plus on-air news and digital content.
A BBC spokesperson told RadioToday: “Our proposals clearly set out the need for a number of new and different roles. Adapting our services requires a completely different way of working and fewer presenters. We are conducting this process fairly and in consultation with staff, doing our very best to avoid compulsory redundancies.”
Rhodri Talfan Davies, BBC Director of Nations, says: “These proposals aim to maintain the distinctiveness of our local services while allowing the BBC to adapt with our audiences and ensure we remain relevant. Taken together they will ensure our network of local services – across tv, radio, online and Sounds – offer more value for audiences.
“Of course, change is never easy – and we will work closely with all our colleagues to introduce these plans sensitively and fairly. BBC Local Radio remains an essential service for millions of listeners – the very best local radio network in the world – but it’s also essential we make difficult choices that will enable us to reach out to many people that increasingly rely on their mobiles for local content.”
This story first appeared on radiotoday.co.uk