[peel] Times piece on new shows

[Andy Irvine]

"The BBC promised that One Music
would "keep Peel's legacy alive" by "championing a diverse,
unpredictable and non-commercial mix of new music"."

So where does diversity come into it when the show gets ghettoised into
three separate theme nights?  I'll be listening to the Huw Stephens thing on
a Tuesday (if it's not too MTV-indie), but, given that Thursday with da Bank
will play stuff which I'm largely not going to like, and that Wednesday is
even less appealing, I'm just not going to bother with those nights.  Too
much hard work - I'll stick with my cute kids with guitars, thanks.

Apologies if I'm being presumptuous here, but surely Peel played stuff
purely and simply because it was stuff he thought was good, wanted to listen
to, and hoped other people would like, irrespective of haircuts, politics or
ethnicity.  Like everyone else, I found plenty of his stuff unlistenable,
but he'd frequently play an absolute gem which, because of genre and nothing
else, I would never have given a chance to otherwise.  There were no good
and bad categories, just good and bad music.  The BBC have an impossible job
in finding a replacement, and I don't envy them, but to subdivide the Peel
concept into neat boxes represents a point well and truly missed.