Radio Festival 2008: a lot of industry goodwill on diversity - but little action

Recent Radio Academy research found "quite a lot of goodwill" among commercial stations on diversity, but little action, while the BBC was better "but still not great". There has been much debate of late about ethnic diversity - or lack of it - in television, both onscreen and off. Lenny Henry put the issue back centre stage earlier this year in a speech to the RTS and an interview with MediaGuardian, in which he pointed out how little had changed since Greg Dyke labelled the BBC "hideously white". BBC non-executive director Samir Shah waded in last week, suggesting in a nuanced speech that broadcasters had overcompensated for a shameful lack of executives, directors and writers in TV by putting too many black and Asian faces on screen. You might think things would be better in radio, a medium that is supposed to be in touch... [read full story]