[BN88]

Although I have to think some of the blame here lies with the 5 Live team (or their strategy), honestly.  Irrespective of whether the programme is being broadcast on the News Channel and BBC Two, it makes no sense to me that on a busy morning of breaking news they insist on sticking with their hour-long phone-in topic. It’s not the model for how most 5 Live programmes work - Breakfast, Drive, Nihal etc. all adjust their running orders to covering significant/breaking stories - and it’s also not how LBC, where single-topic hours are common during the day, operates either.

And if you’re going to simulcast 5Live for an hour to get in an extra dose of UK ‘news’, surely simulcasting the first hour of Drive would make more sense?

Agreed - always felt of all the possible radio simulcasts they could have chosen, Drive is actually the most 'rolling news' of them all. It's pacy enough with live reports and live interviews that you wouldn't really have to change much visualisation wise to create a useful hour or 2 of simulcast...

On simulcasting PM - isn't the issue there that they actually have much more pre-recorded reports, and it would be a question of how you 'visualise' that?