My dear what's on (Radio Times)

Member Name: Daz_S

Product:	Radio Times
Date:	27/09/02 (36 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Radio listings, Design + layout, Film reviews

Disadvantages: Moving downmarket

Help, I'm an endangered species! Well, as someone who prefers radio to most TV, I often feel that way. And it's why I treasure Radio Times. As the name suggests, it's the only place where you can find proper detail about what?s on the wireless. That's its main strength, but not its only one.

I thought it would be worth saying a bit about the RT now because it's been through a few changes of late. It has yet another new editor - Gill Hudson - who has, like her many predecessors, felt the need to make some changes. For instance, she's axed John Peel (I admire Peel greatly, but even he'd probably admit his column had had its day). Hudson has also taken the mag slightly downmarket, or at least pitched it at a more youthful readership - introducing more bite-size mini-features and giving much of the editorial a more tabloid feel. In doing so, she risks alienating the RT's traditional core readership - at whom the old advertising staples of stairlifts and holidays in Bournemouth were presumably aimed. But the advertisers clearly think the mag will still appeal to this demographic: ads for hearing aids, Saga holidays and Ercol furniture still feature prominently.

Overall, though, the new editor seems to be striking the right balance between tabloidy snippets and longer features and interviews. The layout and design have improved considerably in the past 18 months. It's lively, colourful and readable - a far cry from the rather staid RT of old. Yet it has avoided becoming as besotted with the soaps as most of its rivals. It?s still head and shoulders above any other media mag for the intelligence of its columnists, the quality of its reviews and the detail in its listings.

Almost uniquely, it continues to treat radio as a mainstream medium, not a poor relative of the goggle box. Admittedly, it sticks the radio listings at the back, but as long as it continues to give it the space it does, it really has no rival

for the discerning viewer and list
ener.

Summary: