Melvyn Bragg and Radio 4's history of being "interactive"

In this weeks BBC staff newspaper Ariel there is a full page interview with Melvyn Bragg. It opens with Melvyn admitting that he "worries about the BBC in a protective kind of way and I'm not altogether sure why." A neat summary of my feelings to my employer and favourite media owner. It will no doubt be leaked in full elsewhere. Ariel articles usually are. My favourite (non controversial) paragraph concerns Radio 4 and its long history of being "interactive".

"On Radio 4 I'm biased, but I feel its a truly great channel that knows where it's going even though its hard to bring in change. You don't associate middle England with fanaticism but if you wanted to, you could point the listeners to Radio 4. It's their channel, they own it and they let you know. It's a fascinating relationship to be in; the mail, the email, the correspondence, the corrections they send you, the extensions to your argument. It's intense. They were interactive before the word was invented. They're not just the protest vote"

One for Steve Bowbrick who has just launched his lovely new Twitter(and Radio 4 flavoured) service; Listen With Bowbrick which I've blogged about on backstage over there.