BBC smiles through its tears

You can almost hear the teeth grinding down Marylebone High Street as Danny Baker launches a non-BBC podcast. The BBC is aware of his work, says MediaGuardian's organgrinder:

Some controversy about Danny Baker's podcast on Wippit.com, which seems an almost exact version of his BBC London radio show but without any BBBC endorsement. The BBC's podcasts are all strictly run as a trail at the moment with only selected shows included, presumably so that the corporation can't be accused on treading on any corporating podcasting toes. Baker seems to have his own ideas, though.

The BBC said in a statement: "We are aware of Danny Baker's podcast on wippit.com and are confident that it doesn't use any content from his BBC London 94.9 show.

"As a freelance broadcaster Danny has a range of broadcast and publishing commitments besides his BBC London 94.9 show which we continue to review with Danny to ensure they don't contravene BBC guidelines."

To be honest, Danny Baker is still using large chunks of content from his old Radio 5 show, never mind from Radio London, and none the worse for that.

What might be galling for the BBC, though, is that Baker's podcast isn't merely a bunch of bits cut from the programmes, but is all new material. And it features music, too, unlike many of the BBC podcasts which function like those tapes you used to make of the Breakfast Show chart countdown, but in reverse: "the song is starting, press pause, quick..."

Of course, the BBC should snap up the idea and push ahead of it - but in an age when the BBC Trust seems desperate to think about things so long and hard they might go away, it's not going to happen. If the Corporation doesn't come to an agreement with labels about allowing people to download programmes with music soon, it's not only going to lose its audience, but much of the talent is going to head off and become micropublishers.