Radio listeners want what radio does, says radio

You might recall when RadioCentre, the commercial radio's industry body, launched the Big Listen, we cynically suggested the self-selecting nature of the participants and the angle of the quesations asked might generate the expectation of results giving thumbs-up to commercial radio plans.

James P has been on to tell us that - somewhat surprisingly - the responses have been collated and tabulated and in less than a month. Surprising not only because that's quite a fast turnaround, but also because the RadioCentre's own website hasn't published the results yet. To be fair, though, the Arqiva Awards, which they hold because very few commercial stations are in with a prayer of winning a Sony, came and went this week but the RadioCentre website is still encouraging its members to enter.

So, then, we're turning to Digital Spy to find out what RadioCentre discovered:

Chief executive of the RadioCentre, Andrew Harrison praised Ofcom's consultation paper on the Future of Radio, but said changes needed to be made now rather than when digital radio listeners targets have been met.

He said "Many of the areas require change to legislation and this unnecessarily hampers Ofcom's ability to regulate radio flexibly in the light of changing market circumstances. We recommend that future legislation should give Ofcom greater discretion within the context of policy goals established by Parliament."

The online poll also showed that listeners were not overly concerned about quotas for locally-produced programming, and so the RadioCentre has called for a focus on the provision of local material.

What excellent news for the radio companies - their own poll amongst their dwindling share of the audience has found that people aren't bothered by the expensive and time-consuming idea of local radio franchise holders actually making their programmes locally. Why, they couldn't have got better news if they'd rigged the poll...