We haven't had quality radio in the States for 10 years now. It's a shame it is happening to the BBC now.

A real anti BBC hate campaign is building up about this on the Yahoo British Dance Band forum, here
http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/british-dance-bands/ under the thread "Radio 2 - Sunday Nights", but you have to sign into Yahoo Groups and seek consent of the moderator before accessing messages (a result of the same problems that beset this board, I'm afraid, of attempts at access for malicious purposes).

 

It's a different world we live in. I am only 49 but the past 15 years I feel like I'm living in another world. We just lost channel 2 and Showtime on the cable because the companies can't come to an agreement[ Staten Island,New York]. I miss when TV and water were for nothing. And the shows were better, so was the water. Sorry to hear what is happening with radio in Britian.

Some informed comment on this - both within the report itself but also amongst the comments to it.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandpopmusic/10223409/Russell-Davies-on-Radio-2-Who-will-remember-Toots-Mondello-now.html
 

Here in the US, commercial radio stations that play "golden oldies" going back even to the 1980s (incidentally about the decade when I stopped listening to pop music) are becoming hard to find on the dial.  What disturbs me more is that in my region, our Public Radio stations are abandoning music programming in favor of the very informative news-talk programming also available to those stations.  I like the news programs and sometimes listen to them religiously, but I find losing the music programming option intolerable.  One of my nearest Public Radio stations has at least kept classical music in the morning on weekdays, but the next nearest cut all their classical music, and another station I could pull in on my vehicle's radio a bit east of where I live, just dropped its daytime jazz format in favor of an all news/talk, a format I have heard its staff disdain in the past, but apparently committees and focus groups have overpowered the arts in their case.  The nearest station, that still has classical mornings, does have a weekly jazz-swing show on which one can at least hear music of Bing's era, if not a lot of Bing, so that's something at least.  I have become more and more grateful that local public television airs old Lawrence Welk shows weekly. I became rather tired of Welk in my early years, but I have to admit that some of the shows offer very good renditions of older songs, especially when they let the musicians really swing.  Since I don't have access to satellite radio or cable or satellite TV and can't stream any media over my internet, I may not be aware of some offerings of Bing's or Bing's era music, and only can speak of the meager offerings broadcast over the air in my area.  I certainly mourn the music programming option reductions for my UK friends.

I agree with the general tone of what all forum members are saying about the state of current radio regarding classic jazz, pop, and the crooners. This kind of music, which once was the pop music of the day and relied heavily on radio for its exposure, is disappearing from radio programming nowadays, and of course, this is really a pity, not only because there are a lot of people who appreciate it and would love to hear it on the radio, but also because many people who have never heard this kind of music perhaps will never be exposed to it because it is hardly played anymore over the airwaves. If younger listeners only hear Bing on the radio at Christmas (and then there's mainly one song, "White Christmas," that gets played) there is no way that they can appreciate his artistry because it is mostly unknown to them. What I mean is that one can't appreciate what one doesn't know, and unfortunately, radio exposure of jazz and classic pop has gone down steadily in recent years. The same can be said of classic country music: there are hundreds of country stations all over the country, but they play mostly new country, and the phrase "classic country" mostly designates now the country music produced in the 1980s and '70s.

And then, there's of course satellite radio, which I have in my car and really enjoy listening to every day on my way to and from work. However, satellite radio is sort of like a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it is thematic, and that is good because if I feel like listening to standards, swing, or classic jazz, I can always find a good station that plays those genres 24/7. Yet at the same time, something is missing because of that thematic format, something which was not missing on old-time radio: that is, the fact that if you always choose the same thematic stations, there are a lot of styles to which you are not exposed. And that was not the case in the days of old-time radio, when one could listen to classical music, swing, vocalists, country music, news, drama, &c. all on the same radio station. I guess all of this is just another sign of how new technologies affect the way we experience music and the world around us in general.