Radio Festival 2008: is local radio 'crap'?

This year's Radio Festival kicked off last night with a debate on the motion "This house... likes it local" A cat stuck on the end of a vacuum cleaner, Sally Mugnusson's fluffy bits and a right old ding-dong about whether local radio is "crap" with the BBC's Pat Loughrey. It can only be one thing - the opening session of the Radio Festival in Glasgow. It has now become traditional - well, for two years in a row, anyway - to open the festival with a debate, and this year's theme was localness. Or, in the words of the motion for the GMG debate: "This house... likes it local." It is a hot topic too, with radio groups such as GCap Media owner Global Radio ditching local DJs in favour of syndicated programmes across large networks of stations. It helps to compete with the BBC, see? Oh, and it's also cheaper. Anyway, Pat Loughrey... [read full story]