Radio 2’s Paul Gambaccini sticks boot into BBC in no holds barred attack
Paul Gambaccini has taken his own bosses to task in a no holds barred attack in which he derides director general Tony Hall for acquiescing to a media ‘witch-hunt’ in the wake of the Jimmy Saville scandal and dismissed the broadcaster as the ‘worst employer of all time’.
The veteran presenter went on the warpath just days after being installed as presenter of Radio 2’s Pick of the Pops, attacking the organisation on a wide range of fronts.
Amongst the targets of Gambaccini’s ire were a ‘coterie’ of managers who valued high culture above popularity and expressed dismay at the treatment of former colleagues such as Tony Blackburn, who he said was wrongly sacked in the aftermath of an abuse inquiry headed by Dame Janet Smith.
Also in the firing line was a decision by the BBC to live broadcast a police raid on the home of Sir Cliff Richard, a decision seen as a ‘new low’.
Speaking to the Radio Today podcast Gambaccini said: “We know the current management team don’t care about us. Another of the great chasms that has opened up is high culture versus populism. You have Tony ‘Royal Opera House’ Hall versus Tony ‘Top 40’ Blackburn.
“We at Radio 2 know the current management of the BBC dismiss us. Our generation of presenters know we are expendable for the reputation of the current management coterie because they want to blame somebody and say it was all them.”
Gambiccini returned to the BBC fold 18 months ago after being informed he would face no action in a police inquiry into alleged historic sex crimes.
For its part the BBC has declined to comment on the remarks.