I watched Chris Addison’s enjoyable The Hunt For Middle England documentary over the weekend. A little long, but otherwise an entertaining piece.
However, at one point, having been told that a town in Derbyshire might best represent “Middle England”, Chris pitched up at BBC Radio Derby to broadcast a request on their morning show for listeners to call in if they felt they were representative of Middle England.
He told us in voiceover that 600,000 people heard this show, and then we got a sequence in which nobody called in. OK – I understand that it’s probably just a conceit that they edited out other callers. Otherwise, the fill-in DJ would feel very foolish. And maybe nobody relevant did call in about being a “Middle Englander.”
But 600,000? I rewinded to double check that number. Last RAJAR, the entire station reported a weekly reach of 192,000 listeners. And while it wasn’t clear whether he was on breakfast (100,000) or more likely, the mid-morning show (88,000), there’s nothing close to 600,000 people hearing the station at any time.
Sorry – it’s little things like that which annoy me.