Does Chris Evans' departure highlight bigger problems at the BBC?

Whatever is going on behind closed doors at the broadcaster, something is amiss

For the second time in two years, Chris Evans has quit a high profile job at the BBC. The difference is that while his departure from Top Gear after a single disastrous season was regarded as a failure on his part, his decision to leave the Radio 2 breakfast show will be seen by many as a sign of something badly amiss at his employer.

BBC Radio was already in trouble before Evans announced on air that he was jumping ship for Virgin Radio’s digital service, where he takes over the same breakfast slot he has occupied on Radio 2 since 2010 (he has promised to stay in his old job until Christmas, so that the BBC can hire a replacement).

There was shock in July when Eddie Mair stepped down as presenter of Radio 4’s PM programme. The hard-nosed interviewer has since denied rumours he left because of moves to cut his reported £300,000-£350,000 salary as part of clampdown on gender pay inequality at the broadcaster (he said the decision was borne of “a sort of sense of ennui”). Either way, he was out the door and off to LBC.

Also throwing in the towel was Radio 1 breakfast host Nick Grimshaw, who in August stepped away from the highest profile job in British radio as his ratings plunged to a record low (though he hasn’t departed the BBC outright and will host an afternoon slot). Meanwhile, grumbles continue over the awkward parachuting in of Jo Whiley to Simon Mayo’s popular Radio 2 drivetime slot.

Against such upheavals, Evans’s announcement will be perceived as another black mark against management at BBC Radio. His listenership was solid, albeit in gentle decline – down from 9.91 million in 2014 to 9.2 million in May – and he was no longer a figure of controversy as in the past. To claim he was on his way to the national treasure status enjoyed by his predecessor Terry Wogan would be an overstatement. But his was not seen as a job up for grabs.

Now it will be a job very much up for grabs. Already several potential replacements have been touted. Sara Cox, his regular stand-in, is perceived as having the common touch, while her flinty humour is the perfect morning pick me up. Also in the frame surely is Whiley, whom executives at Radio 2 are clearly keen on, having already bunged her into the afternoon slot, despite the protests of Simon Mayo fans. A left field choice would be Claudia Winkleman, whose Claudia on Sunday show has confirmed her ability to deliver top level chat.

And with Strictly still a ratings juggernaut she would bring instant name recognition. Giving her the gig might also arrest the sense of musical chairs within BBC radio, whereby long-in-the-tooth broadcasters are switched between slots without any consideration given to new talent, as Winkleman would be regarded in the context of morning radio.

The degree to which his decision stems from the controversy over pay at the BBC is impossible to say. But he will have felt the heat last year as it was announced that he was the highest earner at the corporation with a package worth between £2.2m and £2.49m (it has since come down to £1.66m to £1.669m as a consequence of his quitting Top Gear).

Eddie Mair (left) stepped down from his PM programme in July (PA/Getty)

Claudia Winkleman was the only woman to feature among the top 10 earners – a fact reported to have provoked as much soul-searching within the BBC as pay levels themselves.

At the time Evans said it was right and proper that the pay of top presenters be made public. And because he is regarded as highly bankable talent operating in the commercially competitive market of morning radio, he was one of the few whose wages were not reduced as part of the BBC’s new push to eliminate the gender pay disparity.

But while meaningful steps to end the pay imbalance at the corporation are of course long overdue there is a sense that this doesn’t quite explain the air of crisis over BBC Radio. After all, the BBC’s television division has been subject to the same scrutiny – and it has not seen its top names stampeding for the exit.

One theory is that BBC Radio is simply feeling the sharp end of the competition posed by the internet. The worry that audiences – and younger ones especially – are abandoning the format is supported by data. Only 22 per cent of those aged 16 to 24 tune into radio regularly, which explains plunging ratings for shows such as Grimshaw’s, which lost 400,000 listeners in the first six months of 2018.

The only consolation for Grimshaw is that he isn’t the only one feeling the pressure – in July, overall listenership for Radio 1 fell to the second lowest level ever of 9.2 million, with Heart Radio now drawing a bigger audience.

Evans’ numbers are down, too, and overall the figures have been grim at Radio 2, which has lost 500,000 listeners according to the latest data. Even the esteemed Today show on Radio 4 is finding it hard to hold onto its audience, with 65,000 jumping ship in the first quarter of 2018.

Such a slump could be written off as part of a wider trend if the BBC’s rivals were also seeing their market shrink but they aren’t. Grimshaw’s predecessor Chris Moyles grew his Radio X breakfast listeners by 100,000 for instance, while Heart radio has surged to a record 9.5 million in the ratings

If it isn’t the medium of radio itself, then perhaps it’s the BBC. Carping about the broadcaster is a long-running national pastime yet some of the recent decisions in radio have called into question management culture.

There was widespread derision in July when Radio 1 abruptly pulled an interview with controversial YouTuber Logan Paul, with the excuse that the segment wasn’t of sufficient quality to broadcast.

The claim was met with incredulity. Radio 1 had been perfectly happy hyping the interview until a public outcry. Why try to fob off listeners with the threadbare pretext that the piece wasn’t good enough when it was plain to everyone that the broadcaster was bowing to the backlash?

It was foolhardy in the first place to speak with Paul, a controversial figure since posing on camera last December with the body of a person who had died by suicide. Backing out and then putting forth a flimsy excuse portrayed the corporation in an even poorer light.

There was also unhappiness over the addition of Jo Whiley to Simon Mayo’s Radio 2 drivetime show as co-host – against the vocal wishes of Mayo, who described the change as “difficult” and was “upset”.

His fans have been upset too, complaining of a lack of chemistry between the two and the fact that BBC took something that was working perfectly well and, in their opinion, ruined it (one listener said their personalities went together like “chocolate and cauliflower”).

Whether similar shenanigans explain Evans’ decision is hard to say. One rumour is that, despite his pronouncements to the contrary, he was uneasy about his pay being made public and that executives at the BBC were struggling to meet his demands in new contract negotiations.

He says he quit because he wanted to take on new challenges. But is hosting Virgin Radio’s equivalent of North Norfolk Digital – the service is digital only with a comparatively insignificant 430,000 listeners – the act of a man eager to take on the world?

Whatever is going on behind closed doors at BBC Radio, the worrying rate at which it is shedding presenters, or making its remaining presenters unhappy, speaks to something amiss. The question many will now be asking is not whether it will lose another big name – but who will that name be?