..I wonder if it might have more to do with Maconie's many stringed bow, and him wanting to devote a little more time to the writing and possibly more TV? I can't see Radcliffe decamping elsewhere - I suspect that if he could write an ideal job description it would match the one he has now. Either way, I hope it doesn't happen as I love the show.

Also - I always thought Stuart would have been a perfect choice as Wogan's successor, and if Chris Evans keeps shedding listeners at the rate he's doing at the moment then R2 may need a new man in the not too distant.

....I recall that when the leak came out of the BBC payroll dept, Mark Radcliffe was alledgedly being paid £198k for his 4-nights late-slot solo show. I can well imagine that his rate improved as the new show went out earlier and that Stuart would have earned the same. The article in the link declares it "expensive". Too right.

The BBC needs to cut its salaries/overheads and having (presumably dirt-cheap-by-comparison) Marc Riley, Gideon Coe, Sean Keaveney and Lauren Laverne available soon, M&S may need to sharpen their pencils.

Having missed literally a handful of shows since Mark Radcliffe joined R2 several years ago I'd be absolutely gutted if his output was reduced. It is essential listening. One obvious solution is to make it simply the Mark Radcliffe show again. That's what it was when he first joined R2 and was highly successful. Indeed so successful it was brought forward to earlier in the evening. It would half the presenter salary bill immediately - no offence Stuart!!

Bruce Dickinson's BBC 6 Music rock show is to be axed and Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie's Radio 2 show cut to three nights a week in the latest changes to the two stations.

Dickinson, the lead singer of Iron Maiden, has presented a rock show on the digital station since it launched in 2002. It is the first 6 Music show to be axed since the BBC announced plans to close the station at the end of next year.

Radcliffe and Maconie's award-winning weeknight show, which has been running on Radio 2 since 2007, will be cut from four to three nights a week.

Their Thursday night outing will be replaced with a new live music strand, In Concert, which previously aired on Radio 1.

The Radcliffe and Maconie Show will switch to three nights a week from 12 April. Dickinson's 6 Music show, which currently airs on a Friday evening, will finish at the end of April.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/mar/10/bbc-6-music-bruce-dickinson

Alan Carr STILL has a show on Radio 2.

Dale Winton. What a waste of space

couldn't think of a more appropriate way of expressing my feelings

... if the guys are looking to lessen their output, that's fair enough. But I can't imagine why Radio 2 are not *extending* it to five nights a week, frankly, and ditching the rather variable Friday Night is Music Night.

It’s surely a coincidence that the R&M show is another forum for the kind of new or unfamiliar music, appealing to 30-40 something rock fans, that 6 Music also gives oxygen to.

But as the repositioned R2 struggles under the weight of the new comedy, documentary, live music and over-65 focused jazz programming required to keep the BBC Trust happy, the idea that the “best of 6 Music” can easily be shifted over to this unwieldy behemoth looks more unlikely.

As I have been reading it, the Radio 2 audience has been slipping under the 50-year-old target audience level. Well I am their target audience and I say bravo to R&M and also Stuart's Freakzone. Who the hell says 65-year-olds only want jazz?

My criticism of the R&M show is the number of times it is only the one of them. I prefer M to R but see that they work well together. Why oh why BBC do you not just give the show a name, rather than a personality, and we can understand it may have a revolving door policy of presenters between 8 - 10pm AND incorporate a live concert in the mix on a regular basis. Then pay per play.

... to John Peel.

admittedly, but if I did I would be writing e-mails to complain. What will become of Lord Nodwood of Holdershire?

Don't catch the R & M show often these days. But ever since the glory days of Out On Blue Six on the old Radio 5 he has had my vote as the best radio music show host of my listening lifetime.

How much does he get paid? No idea. But it's probably a damn sight less than other, higher-profile presenters who are, in all honesty, no bloody good.

But it may still be too much. My guess is he'd do a show he loved doing for a damn sight less. And if you wanted to respond that I've unilaterally decided to cut a man's wage packet, I'd say that some of you have chosen to give some of his co-workers the sack.

The real question? Why is an organization in as much trouble as the BBC seemingly incapable of making a single decision that is either a) financially sensible, or b) valid artistically. That last adverb isn't right but I'll be damned if I can think of a better one.

I wish we knew the real reason for this.

I find the lack of honest and open explanation from BBC annoying. And why no announcement until so late? Smacks of worry. Obviuously want to minimise chance of popular backlash. So they present a fait accompli.

And to think that THEY think this is a good move. For what purpose? More cheap, dull, backward-looking live material. Oh deep joy, not.

The BBC seem to do a fine job of running like scared rats before ill-informed and dubious justifications from politicans, Sky and other loud-mouth commentators who seem to have no idea of what the public actually want.

I am finding that as the years progress [48] I am ever less interested in listening to any radio. Commercial radio is almost without exception dire, and I do not want to listen to adverts.

Instead of getting the likes of me to listen to more radio, the BBC are driving me away. Well done BBC.

Extraordinary.