Michael Makes The Grade As BBC Chairman

THE former head of Channel 4 - Michael Grade - has been appointed as the new BBC chairman taking on a role vacated by Gavyn Davies.

Grade - who is aged 61 and a former BBC executive - has immense media experience and was among the favourites to get the job despite his maverick reputation. He said he was “proud and delighted” to be chosen and will take the lead role in appointing a new director-general. “This is quite a day for me,” he said. “I would like to thank those who appointed me for having the courage to break the mould.”

He added that the editorial independence of the BBC was “paramount” in maintaining the support of the viewers and listeners. “It is my job, and the job of the whole board, to ensure that the BBC can continue to earn public and parliamentary support,” he stated.

Grade also said he would ensure the “provision of universally available, value-for-money, public service broadcasting is neither jeopardised nor marginalised”. He added: “Nothing must be allowed to deprive our children and our grandchildren of the rich experience we have come to expect and enjoy these past decades from the BBC.”

Announcing his appointment, Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell said Grade was “the right man at the right time”. He will take up the post that pays an annual salary of 81,320 pounds for four years from 17 May 2004. The appointment was made by the government after interviews were conducted by an independent panel, headed by a civil servant.

Grade, a former director of BBC Television, will now have to appoint a new director- general to replace Greg Dyke who welcomed the news of the new chairman.

Acting director-general Mark Byford said Grade was one of the major world figures in broadcasting with an outstanding record of achievement. “It’s great that Michael is coming back to the BBC and he will enjoy the full support of the whole organisation,” he stated. Acting chairman Lord Ryder said he would find a “united” board of governors optimistic about the future.

During his time as chief executive of Channel 4, Grade was not afraid of controversy, being labelled “pornographer-in-chief” by the Daily Mail newspaper. He comes from a showbusiness family, having TV mogul Lord Grade, a pioneer of ITV, as an uncle. As well as being director of programmes at London Weekend Television and BBC TV, he went on to head the merged Pinewood and Shepperton film studios near London.

As BBC 1 controller in the 1980s, he launched the top-rating soap EastEnders but axed science-fiction favourite Doctor Who. In an interview he once said there were two certainties in his life: “One is that I would like to be chairman of the BBC. The second is that no one will ever ask me. I’m a bit of a strong taste, I think. Bit too independent.”

He is the son of Leslie Grade, a top theatrical agent who booked stars such as Bob Hope and Danny Kaye. Michael’s career began in 1960 as a trainee journalist on the Daily Mirror where he was a sports columnist from 1964-66. His father suffered a stroke when Michael was 23 and it was an event that became a watershed in his life.

Another uncle - impresario Bernard Delfont - told him: “You’ve got to get serious, young man - your father’s not going to be the power he was and we need you to learn the business.” He consequently became a theatrical agent with the Grade organisation in 1966 and moved into TV in 1973 as deputy controller of entertainment programmes at London Weekend Television (LWT).

From LWT, Grade moved on to BBC 1 in 1984 where he won many admirers. His successes included driving up audiences for serious programmes such as Panorama and Omnibus by clever scheduling, while Bob Geldof said nobody else would have had “the bottle” to hand over a network for 24 hours to Live Aid in 1985. But he was not afraid to make tough decisions – such as dropping science-fiction favourite Doctor Who.

In 1988 he moved on to become chief executive of Channel 4. There, he sanctioned controversial shows such as The Word, Eurotrash and Dyke TV that led Daily Mail columnist Paul Johnson to call Grade the “pornographer-in-chief ”. But he put the channel on a sound financial footing and oversaw a growth in its share of viewers.

He also sits on the board of his beloved Charlton Athletic football club - whose south London ground, The Valley, is close to the Millennium Dome, where he was also a director. He has also spent time on the board of National Lottery operator Camelot.

Michael Grade’s achievements were recognised with a CBE in 1998.

The role of chairman and governors
Grade will lead the BBC’s 12-strong board of governors in monitoring the corporation’s activities on behalf of the public.

His most crucial task is to lead the process of appointing a new director-general to replace Greg Dyke who resigned in January.

The chairman’s role is not to run the BBC in a “hands-on” fashion day to day; Grade is expected to leave programme-making issues to the director-general. Instead, he is likely to adopt a more strategic role in steering the BBC’s longer-term future, beginning with renewal of the corporation’s Royal Charter that expires in 2006.

What do BBC governors do?
The governors’ role has become one of the most contentious aspects of the BBC’s operations over the last few years.

The Queen in council appoints the governors and they then appoint the BBC’s director-general and other senior management. They ensure that the BBC is accountable to parliament, licence-fee payers and audiences - in particular they must ensure the BBC offers value for money.

The governors also oversee the corporation’s editorial independence and have the power to investigate viewers’ or listeners’ complaints. They are usually appointed because of their experience in the arts, the public service and business. The governors are part-time non-executive appointees who meet once a month and hold the BBC’s managers accountable for their performances.

World’s Most Popular Jazz Station

THE world’s most popular jazz radio station on the Internet is Jazz FM that broadcasts its music nationally and internationally from its studios in London and north-west England.

This remarkable fact was discovered by a company from the traditional home of jazz - the United States - causing surprise to some. “We almost fell off our chairs when we heard,” said Richard Wheatley, the station’s chief executive at the time.

It all started about a year ago when Jazz FM executives heard rumours that their busy schedule of jazz, soul, blues and R&B music was registering a very high number of hits at peak times.

This stemmed from news reports that the station had been included in the industry’s MeasureCast Internet Radio Top Ten List. In a bid to confirm the news, Wheatley brought in the services of Arbitron, a leading US radio audience research body.

Arbitron not only confirmed the station’s premier jazz position but also listed it as the second biggest in the world. At that time the research showed that jazzfm.com, set up at a cost of 10,000 pounds sterling, had 800,000 visitors making 10 million hits a month.

This high ranking was no fluke. The latest figures released in July show Jazz FM ranked at number three with 974,000 hours of total time spent listening (TTSL). This term refers to the total of hours that listeners tune into a given station or network. For comparison WQXR was ranked number four with 964,870 hours of TTSL; KPLU was ranked number six with 695,540 hours of TTSL; and Beethoven.com was ranked number seven with 631,250 hours of TTSL.

Arbitron was set up in October 1999, establishing it as the world’s first streaming media ratings service. In November 2002, it acquired a licence to MeasureCast’s streaming measurement technology and related assets. As a result, Arbitron’s Internet broadcast ratings is now a server-side measurement that captures tuning to participating streamed media channels by compiling a near census of Internet tuning sessions.

Wheatley, who has now left the company, used to have his own show in the early hours of Monday mornings and said he received a great number of emails from people throughout the US after each broadcast. The company had also noticed a rise in CD sales direct through the Internet.

Jazz FM, which was reported in the Financial Times last year as having a 15 million pounds national sales operation, is now owned by Guardian Media Group (GMG) that has consolidated the operation into Chrysalis Radio Sales. The deal means Chrysalis now represents all GMG's radio stations and which now includes Jazz FM and sister station Real Radio.

GMG is a 39 per cent shareholder in Radio Investments that owns 22 radio stations, alongside Classic FM owner GWR and Caledonia Investments.

As far as radio programming goes, Jazz FM has a mix of familiar jazz, soul, blues and R&B songs during the day from the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, James Brown, Nina Simone, Wilson Pickett, Sinatra, Sam & Dave, Marvin Gaye and many others. At night and at weekends, more specialist programmes take centre stage.

Knowledgeable presenters are all important and the station has an international star line-up. Included are Peter Young with 25 years’ experience in radio, whose knowledge of R&B, soul and jazz is second to none. His Soul Cellar features 1960s and 70s soul classics, from stables such as Motown, Chess, Philadelphia and Atlantic alongside more recent jazz and R&B gems.

Then there is Tony Blackburn who first hit the air-waves on Radio Caroline, a North Sea pirate ship station. He then confirmed his pre-eminence with a long stint with BBC Radio 1. Through all this, soul, funk and jazz fusion have remained his private passions and now he has a chance to share those in some of Jazz FM 's top-performing programmes every night.

From across the Atlantic is the US veteran broadcaster Paul Gambaccini. His three-hour show Jazz 20 profiles the genre's leading compilation albums and counts down the week's 20 best-selling albums. He made his radio debut in 1966 and presented his first music show - a jazz programme - in 1967. He was nominated for Music Broadcaster of the Year in the Sony Radio Academy Awards in 2000 and 2002.

More listeners are tuning in. It now attracts 1.4 million listeners across the UK via its FM stations, DAB digital radio and jazzfm.com. Audience time for the two analogue Jazz FM stations has reportedly increased by 37 per cent and airtime revenues grew 18 per cent. Digital licences have been secured in London and central Scotland.

Looking ahead, GMG is exploring launching a TV version of Jazz FM. Research is being undertaken and, if viable, the channel would mirror the station’s music as well as featuring videos and documentaries. The channel is reputedly pencilled in for a mid-2004 launch.
GMG chief executive officer John Myers is understood to have been impressed with GWR’s Classical FM TV that boasts 1.2 million viewers a month and would like to see whether a Jazz FM equivalent might be possible.

"Jazz FM would like to move into TV, as I am positive that it can only improve the overall performance of the brand’s perception," said Myers. "Getting the brand in front of as many people as possible, no matter what the platform, must be our priority."
Web: www.jazzfm.com

Gin Iconic

GIN. The Dutch invented it, the British refined it, and now Miller’s have reformed it.

If Bombay Sapphire holds the crown for the most celebrated of all gin brands, then they may be looking at relinquishing that title to the new gin on the block, Miller’s Reformed London Dry Gin.

Distilled in the heart of England’s Black Country (using copper stills manufactured by John Dore & Company in 1903), Miller’s gin production immediately sets it aside from other gins because it uses a single-batch distillation process, similar to malt whisky, making it already a more costly and time-consuming product to make.

But what makes Miller’s truly unique is what happens to the spirit after distillation. Every drop of the distilled spirit is carefully drained and transported by ship to Iceland, where some of the planet’s purest and softest water is blended to the spirit, creating a rare clarity and smoothness. Most other London dry gins are blended with British spring waters.

Miller’s Reformed has been praised as “distinctive and sophisticated” and already appears to have the edge over all other gins. There is even a “secret ingredient” that Miller’s refuses to disclose – even the head distiller has no idea what it is – and you won’t find it in the list of exotic botanicals in the gin, botanicals that Miller’s rigorously monitor as part of their quality control process, explaining that the quality and yields of the essential botanicals vary from season to season.

Recently launched in the United States, Miller’s Reformed London Dry Gin was awarded the prestigious Gold Award at the Chicago Beverage Testing Institute, making it officially the World’s Best Gin in its category.

Packaged in a simple, clean yet stunningly eye-catching bottle, bartenders in Britain’s coolest establishments have been using Miller’s to great acclaim and customers’ delight.

Whatever part of the market the established gin brands claim as their own, they’ll soon be seen as conformist. Reformist is the future!
Web: www.millersgin.com

It’s Show Time - For New London Theatre

IMPRESARIO Sir Cameron Mackintosh is giving the London West End its first new theatre for 30 years. It will be named after the United States composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim.

A 500-seater planned for Shaftesbury Avenue, near Piccadilly, it is part of a project costing 35 million pounds sterling to boost his seven-strong chain of theatres. The Sondheim will be run as a small commercial venture hosting money-spinning transfers from similar-size London venues such as the Almeida, the Royal Court and the National Theatre’s Cottesloe.

Mackintosh – producer of worldwide hits such as Les Miserables, The Phantom Of The Opera and My Fair Lady – said: “The Sondheim will allow shows that might not get their money back on an extended run in a bigger West End theatre to have a chance – and maybe do an extra 16 weeks after the original runs have closed. I’ve longed to find a space where the public wants to go and the actors want to perform.”

The Sondheim will be flanked by the Gielgud Theatre on one side and the Queen’s on the other. Mackintosh owns the freehold of the Gielgud and the Queen’s and also the building that separates them. He aims to transform the block into a theatre centre. All office space between the two existing theatres will be cleared for new bars, a shared foyer and other amenities. Beginning in 2006, work on this site will cost 20 million pounds.

Stephen Sondheim is delighted that a theatre has been named after him. “The West End getting a theatre that can take transfers from subsidised studio playhouses for extended runs is thrilling for British writers and audiences and the fact that Cameron has seen fit to attach my name to it is thrilling for me,” he says.

Mackintosh plans to restore his chain of theatres to their former glory, describing them as a “unique treasury of Edwardian and Victorian buildings designed by great architects”.

A seven million pounds project at the Prince of Wales – a once-beautiful art deco theatre off Leicester Square – will start this summer. The result will be a cool, sleek “contemporary interpretation” of the 1930s building, and will sort out “the nightmare circulation and boring auditorium”, states Nick Tompson of Arts Team @ RHWL, the company that is leading the interiors work.

The theatre will have widened entrances and exits; a rebuilt auditorium featuring luxury colours such as gold, bronze and copper; greater leg room and more luxurious seating.

Other public areas, such as the front of house and the American and Delfont bars will be graced by curved lit glass and zinc. The exterior of the building will be updated with transparent materials and blue lighting to accentuate its position on the corner of the street. The theatre will reopen in 2004.

Only two of the seven theatres are operated by Mackintosh’s production company: the Prince of Wales and the Prince Edward (already refurbished). The remaining five are leased to other companies but the plan is to carry out improvements as the leases expire over the next three years.

Mackintosh regains control of The Strand theatre, Aldwych, in March, 2004. An upgrade to improve its sightlines, public areas and disabled facilities is expected to cost about one million pounds. The ornate interior will be fully restored and the building will house a new booking centre providing information on all the Mackintosh group.

From the age of eight - when he was taken to a matinee of Julian Slade’s musical Salad Days - Cameron Mackintosh never wanted to do anything else except produce musicals. (He persuaded Slade to show him backstage and was hooked.)

His first productions were small-scale tours but in 1969 he opened Anything Goes at an out-of-town venue, transferred it to the Saville Theatre and closed it after a fortnight. It put him in debt to the tune of 40,000 pounds. Predictably, he was undeterred and returned to his first musical inspiration and revived Salad Days.

“I churned out a lot of shows in those days,” he says. “Several nearly broke me - which was frightening but I assumed it was normal that leading ladies ran off, sets fell down, cheques bounced and backers didn’t materialise.”

In 1973 he produced an original musical, The Card, with music by Tony Hatch and Jackie Trent. The cast included Millicent Martin and the run lasted six months at the Queen’s. Things were looking up.

His first major international success came in 1976 with the musical revue celebrating the wit and lyrical genius of Stephen Sondheim. Side By Side By Sondheim moved from the Mermaid Theatre to Wyndham’s Theatre before transferring to New York.

It was followed by a hugely successful revival of Oliver! which spawned a significant collaboration with the then Arts Council of Great Britain (now Arts Council England) and sell-out productions of the all-time greats: My Fair Lady and Oklahoma!

In 1980 Andrew Lloyd Webber suggested to Mackintosh that the two should work together. The first project was Cats that opened at the New London Theatre (the last new theatre in the capital built in 1973) in May 1981 and on 29 January 1996 became the longest-running musical in the West End and on Broadway. The phenomenal success of Cats has been repeated worldwide.

“A lot of people thought it would be a catastrophe but Andrew and I had an instinct that dance was becoming popular. When Cats turned into a worldwide hit I knew that unless I was foolish – and I’m not – I had financial freedom and, more important, artistic independence for life,” he added.

The next landmark was Les Miserables that first surfaced at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Barbican Theatre in 1985, promptly transferring to the West End’s Palace Theatre where it is now in its 18th year. It opened on Broadway in 1987, winning eight Tony awards including best musical. It closed this year.

While sustaining an ever-growing number of international versions of Cats and Les Miserables, Mackintosh rejoined Lloyd Webber in 1986 to produce The Phantom Of The Opera at London’s Her Majesty’s Theatre. Michael Crawford’s charismatic phantom set the standards for the production that has accommodated numerous cast changes and continues to captivate its audiences.

His latest success is My Fair Lady that opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in July 2002 with 10 million pounds in advance bookings. When its London run finishes in August it goes to Australia and New York.

Mackintosh – said to be worth about 400 million pounds - has been called “ruthless” by his critics. He prefers “relentless”. “Most of the people here (his Bloomsbury office in London is in part of a three-house conversion) have worked with me for 25 years and know me well enough to tell me when I’m an idiot. You need someone to say: ‘That’s the crassest idea I’ve ever heard’ and because of that I’ve remained reasonably sane.”

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