Feedback

Who are all those people laughing on Count Arthur Strong's Radio 4 comedy show? Not Feedback listeners who want to know why he's still on air after seven series. Listeners find all the spin and speculation ahead of Wednesday's budget a turn-off. Can't we just wait until we actually know what the Chancellor is going to say they wonder? Paddy O'Connell opens the doors of Broadcasting House during a special recording of the programme at the More Than Words Festival in Bristol. But does anyone want to come in? And are the pauses in The Archers getting longer and what could you fill them with?

After The Now Show this week tackled gay marriage, child abuse and the Catholic church some Feedback listeners contacted us with concerns. Roger asks Jane Berthoud, BBC Radio's head of comedy, how her team assesses controversial material and whether in this case the right decisions were made. Robust and challenging - or simply a slanging match? When presenter Justin Webb first joined the Today programme he said he'd be gentle and let politicians have their say. Then he changed his mind. In this week's programme he joins BBC Radio 5Live's Victoria Derbyshire to discuss the difference between aggression and persistence in the political interview. And after many Feedback listeners reported hearing the repeated use of "Facades" by composer Philip Glass in an array BBC Radio programmes. we finally hear from the man himself. Ahead of his installment as BBC Radio 3's Composer of the Week, Philip Glass offers his own slightly surreal insight into the popularity of this particular piece.

This week the news carried tough stories about the situation in Syria, and about the death of 15 year old Kristy Bamu, at the hands of his sister and her partner. Too much information said some listeners, especially as some reports did not include a warning about the graphic content. Is it the end of the road for BBC Radio 2's traffic reports? With websites, apps and local radio providing up to the minute information that's relevant to you wherever you are, some listeners think the end is nigh for traffic on national radio. Sally Boazman, aka Sally Traffic, tells Roger in no uncertain terms why she and her ilk are still providing a vital service. And over-emotional ranters or real people speaking truth to power? Presenters Stephen Nolan and Victoria Derbyshire reveal all about the art of the phone-in. Presenter: Roger Bolton

The fate of BBC local radio is once more under the microscope this week, as media consultant John Myers publishes his report on the best way to cut costs and keep quality. As the BBC World Service turns 80, it has thrown open the doors to its news conference. For the first time the daily meeting where editors discuss the news agenda was broadcast around the world. Feedback went along to find out how much the great and the good consider what the audience wants to hear. On BBC Radio 4 a recent edition of Front Row focussed on computer games. About time too said many listeners. So will there be more discussion of the topic in the future? Roger meets editor John Goudie to find out.

Thousands of listeners are furious about BBC Scotland's decision to end two long-running and popular programmes. Roger asks Jeff Zycinski, BBC Scotland's Head of Radio, to explain why the Janice Forsyth Show and Mary Ann Kennedy's Global Gathering have to go. And what's the point of BBC 5Live Sports Extra if it plays the same match as BBC 5Live? Sports Editor Michael Carr explains why this happened - and why it may well happen again. Plus we reveal the cause of the loud snaps, crackles and pops that have infested BBC Local Radio online for the last few weeks. And it's not, as some have suggested, the ghost of Nigel Pargetter searching vainly for Radio Borsetshire.

Did the death of singer Whitney Houston and the acquittal of football manager Harry Redknapp deserve to top the news bulletins? Many listeners feel that important events at home and abroad were shunted aside unjustifiably. In this week's Feedback Roger asks Mary Hockaday, head of the BBC's newsroom, whether the right decisions were made. During a particularly robust episode of the Moral Maze, many listeners felt debate gave way to a dust-up. Michael Buerk tells Roger how he tries - and sometimes fails - to ensure the discussion generates more light than heat. Last week teacher Deborah Mole and her student Kevin agreed to listen exclusively to each other's favourite station for a whole week. They reveal what the experience has taught them.

Roger Bolton asks Andrew Scott, Head of Radio and Music for Future Media, why iPlayer editing is letting listeners down. There are five months still to go until the Olympics, but have Radio 4 listeners already had enough of sport? Following Clare Balding's series Sport and the British - and her appearance on Midweek - Roger hears from listeners who want to keep the station a sport-free zone. And the Feedback Listening Club returns, with three listeners gathering to discuss Radio 4's Saturday Live. Plus a new Radioswap begins, as teacher Deborah Mole agrees to swap BBC 6Music for her student Kevin's favourite station, 1Xtra. Tune in next week to find out how they get on.

A clearer focus on news and more coverage of minority sports. That's the order from the BBC Trust, which has just completed its review of 5Live. Do you agree? The recent audience research RAJAR report shows a drop in the station's listening figures. So we find out if listeners think the Trust has got the answer. Are you experiencing a sense of deja entendu? When it comes to radio dramas, many listeners feel the rate of repeats has increased. Roger asks Jeremy Howe, commissioning editor of Radio 4 drama, if we really have heard it all before. And while From Our Own Correspondent almost always gets it right, should the correspondent have been reporting on a wedding so soon after an attempted coup? Roger talks to editor Tony Grant about finding the stories behind the headlines.

The decision to end Radio 4's Home Planet has dismayed many listeners. This week two listeners meet commissioning editor Mohit Bakaya to ask - what on earth is going on? And Happy 70th Birthday Desert Island Discs. Executive producer Cathy Drysdale tells Roger how this weekend - each BBC local radio station as well as BBC Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales are running special programmes dedicated to the music choices and personal stories of hundreds of listeners. We also hear your reactions to news that the BBC Trust has ordered BBC managers to rethink cuts to local radio budgets.

In the first programme of the new series, Roger Bolton talks to Lewis Carnie, head of programmes at Radio 2, about the delicate business of finding suitable stand-in presenters. After countless tales of woe from listeners trying to contact programmes, Roger issues a challenge to Radio 4's network manager Denis Nowlan. Can he negotiate the website and deliver a listener's message? And will it be read? And what are your hopes and fears for radio in 2012? Listeners share their aspirations, and presenter Jane Garvey provides a sneak peak of what 2012 will hold for Woman's Hour listeners.

Less than two years ago the BBC Asian Network faced extinction. It was spared, but now its budget is set to be cut by almost half. What will this mean for the station, and for its audience? Are you filling in the Delivering Quality First consultation document? If so you still have plenty of time, the deadline is 21st December 2011. But some listeners feel the document itself isn't delivering much in the way of quality; too dense, too long and too much jargon. Roger enlists the help of Marie Clair of the Plain English Campaign. And after a Radio 4 news report accidentally declares the speed of light to be many thousand times slower than it really is, Feedback sorts out all this pesky business with neutrinos and relativity once and for all.

Radio 4 Controller addresses listeners' concerns about schedule changes. And while Radio 4's Remembrance Day coverage is praised, some listeners feel some of the comedy broadcast in the days surrounding Remembrance Day was inappropriate. And this week's Feedback Listening Club is formed of three tenors from a community choir in Blackburn. They turn their forensic listening abilities to Woman's Hour, and (whisper it) one of them is a man...

The World at One now has 15 extra minutes to fill, following the shake-up of the afternoon schedule on Radio 4. Roger asks Nick Sutton, the programme's editor, what he plans to do with the time and how much investigation he has done into what the audience really wants to hear. The BBC Trust has launched a review into the impartiality of the BBC's reporting of the Arab Spring. Alison Hastings, chair of the Trust's Editorial Standards Committee, explains the reasons for the review and the scope of its inquiry. And a keen-eared listener who is also a ferret fan questions the identity of Eddie Grundy's ferret, Daphne. Judging by the sounds she makes, he accuses her of being... a guinea pig. All will be revealed.

Can local radio thrive despite the cuts? And what does the new Radio 4 schedule hold? Presented by Roger Bolton.

Why were listeners' views on the two biggest news stories of last week not covered in Any Answers? Roger Bolton asks the programme's editor Clare McGinn why calls on the row over the St Paul's protest, school results and downsizing of homes left no room for listeners' views on Gaddafi's death and the proposed EU referendum. It's the beginning of the end for long wave. Tens of thousands of small-time mariners, who can't afford expensive equipment and currently rely on hearing the Shipping Forecast on long wave, will have to find other ways of checking the weather once the signal is switched off. Your verdict on Radio 4's new Sunday night schedule. Finnemore fans call for a second series of his Souvenir Programme and mixed reviews for Tonight with Rory Bremner.