Not for the first time I have complained to BBC Three Counties Radio about the use of their 0845 number for phone-in shows, especially the morning consumer programme which aims to curb fraudulent practice!  I received the following reply today from Laurence Culhane,  Assistant Editor


"Thanks for your email regarding BBC Three Counties Radio's phone in number.

It is an issue which we've been discussing over the last few months.  We are currently looking into what alternatives may be available to us.  As I'm sure you'll appreciate, changing our main contact number is not something we can do lightly.  We need to be sure that any change will be relatively future proof - but also provide value for money to the license fee payer.

Rest assured - we don't intend to take our listeners for a ride. "

Laurence




Perhaps so, but I would have thought any geographical alternative would be relatively futureproof and certainly better value for money to the license fee payer.  What's the problem?

IIRC they're moving studio from Luton to MK so they might feel the non-geo would remove 1 headache from the overall move. Not that I agree. I could also see them thinking that their overblown wide coverage area could lead some of their audience to resent a "foreign dialling code" even though a geo code would cost less to call.

(How a station can be "local" but cover 3 big counties even with opt-outs is left as an exercise for the gentle reader!)

3CR already have a studio in MK covering the morning and evening opt outs for Bucks (although it used to be just MK) the number is a different 0845 number, the main reason they use a 0845 is because they can alter which office and studio takes the calls easily, although as we all know this can be done with geo numbers as well, I suspect the BBC make a nice little earner out of the 0845 number range and it would be in the "too difficult box" to do anything else