Interview: Henry Bonsu, BBC London (Evening Standard)
By David Rowan
JUST in case any BBC executives were starting to relax, here are a few more bombshells. The corporation is inherently racist, has undermined the needs of black licence-fee payers, and, in dumbing down, has failed in its public-service duty to represent ethnic-minority concerns. And no, this is not the verdict of some partisan think-tank or the latest Mark Byford-inspired apology. It is the considered view of one of BBC radio's most high-profile black presenters.
Henry Bonsu, sacked last week from his BBC London 94.9FM talk show, has decided not to go quietly.
A long-term BBC loyalist, at the station for almost five years, Bonsu was fired from his Sunday-night talk show for apparently being too "intellectual". As David Robey, the station's managing editor, made clear, Bonsu's "intellectual and considered approach ... does not fit in with our agenda".
The award-winning presenter - whose show was billed as offering "intelligent debate" on Afro-Caribbean issues ranging from education to gun crime - has his own view. "I was talking to people who didn't get access to radio," he says. "The management have a view on how black people should be represented, and they decided my approach didn't fit in." When he was called into the boss's office, Bonsu believed it was to discuss his forthcoming interview with Winston Silcott. In fact, he was shocked to hear that his time in radio was up because he was not delivering the ratings.
"You're not going to expect huge audiences at this time of night, as this is niche programming," he says. "The real question is whether there is room for such programmes on a station that boasts it's the most diverse in London. And the response I'm getting from the people who are contacting me now is overwhelmingly yes." BBC London, he says, is avoiding serious programming in its quest for populism. "They clearly want brash, loud, in-your-face programming nowadays," he says. "But the BBC is publicly funded, and London is the most ethnically diverse city in Europe. Yes, weekend programme figures are low. But why can't you have niche programmes at the weekend - not just for the African Caribbean community, but for the Chinese, Asian or Jewish communities?" Bonsu, 36, who lives alone in Brixton, sees his departure as symptomatic of a deeper failing to serve black Londoners. "Listeners are drowning in R 'n' B, hip hop and garage, but a huge number of people also want to talk about issues that affect their community." Now they will be forced to rely, he says, on pirate stations such as Powerjam and Galaxy, which host popular phone-ins.
"Remember who your licence payers are and listen to them," he reminds his old employer.
HIS bosses, for their part, offer a far more pragmatic view of Bonsu's sacking.
"Henry is a talented bloke, but his style didn't really work for us," says Mike MacFarlane, BBC London's executive editor. "His performance has not been particularly good in terms of audience, and the Sunday night show was one last effort, after various moves, to see if it could work." Since Bonsu was replaced by Eddie Nestor on his previous drivetime show, audience figures have shown a "marked improvement" which industry sources put at around 30 per cent.
Nor does the BBC accept that the station has a duty to offer programmes for particular ethnic groups. "We're not simply a black station, or anything else for that matter," MacFarlane says. "This is a general radio station for the whole of London. His criticisms might be valid if we had no other black presenters who were offering intelligent speech-based shows."
Bonsu, whose charm belies an undeniable arrogance, denies that his outburst stems from bitterness. Still, he is clearly angry.
"Of course I am. I was doing everything I was asked to do. I was never going to be a Jon Gaunt or Eddie Nestor - but there should be room for a whole range of programming styles." There is, he says, "a battle" to be fought over media portrayals of young black people. "I go to their schools, their social events.
Their culture is so much richer than what is beamed back to them - images telling them their lives are only about R 'n' B, hip hop and gun crime." The BBC, he says, has failed in this regard. "Why was it," he asks, "that the station trails for the BBC's Asian Network featured aspirational, professional Asians, whereas the trails for 1Xtra featured black ghetto youths running around the streets?" Is he saying that the BBC is racist? "It's been accepted that the BBC, like all big institutions, is racist," he asserts. By whom? "Well, Greg Dyke said it was 'hideously white'," he replies, a little disingenuously.
When pressed, he identifies a tendency among senior managers to pigeonhole black presenters as the voices of "ghettos and estates". "I know a number of broadcasters who have tried to get jobs at the BBC, but they were left with the impression that there was only room for 'edgy', street-smart Dizzee Rascal types," he says. "Executives who would run a mile if approached on the Tube by one of these youths have decided they are the vessels through which the community is represented." BONSU'S departure has certainly provoked concern among black organisations. "People are saying it's totally unacceptable," says Bobby Miles of the 1990 Trust.
"How can the BBC justify sacking an effective, popular and intelligent presenter, when there's been no indication that he's 'failed' in any way? The underlying message from the white middleclass people in authority is: 'We can't have a black man presenting a lively, intelligent debate about real issues.'" Karl Wilson, of the Blacknet UK website network, is equally convinced that Bonsu failed to conform to a BBC stereotype of "the black presenter". "They're looking for a particular type of black person who has a cockney accent and uses street talk," he says, "but nothing that presents black people in a positive light."
The issue, Bonsu suggests, could come to embarrass the corporation as it negotiates the renewal of its charter. "There is a growing coalition of groups and individuals who feel dissatisfied with the access they have to the airways, and who see my removal as a sign of serious problems that they will be highlighting during charter renewal." Corporation executives are likely to be furious at such a veiled threat from a man whose start in broadcasting resulted from a BBC ethnic minority programme (after Bonsu failed to qualify as a news trainee).
Born in Manchester to Ghanaian parents, he read modern languages at Magdalen College, Oxford, and after writing for newspapers became a researcher at Public Eye, Breakfast News and then Today. After moving to BBC London, he also developed a television career, appearing on The Wright Stuff, as a pundit on Littlejohn and as a reporter on RI:SE.
He now hopes to establish a talkradio station aimed at a black audience - although he admits to knowing little about how to go about it. "But if it falls to me to be a rallying cry for this long-term demand, then so be it," he says, with a slight self-deprecating laugh at what he realises sounds like pomposity. "Back in the Sixties, I'd have been up there with Malcolm [X]," he reflects with another laugh.
He's serious, though, isn't he? Isn't it the activism that really drives him? "Sometimes," he replies, "you just have to take a stand and not go gently into that good night."
(Evening Standard, March 10 2004)
JUST in case any BBC executives were starting to relax, here are a few more bombshells. The corporation is inherently racist, has undermined the needs of black licence-fee payers, and, in dumbing down, has failed in its public-service duty to represent ethnic-minority concerns. And no, this is not the verdict of some partisan think-tank or the latest Mark Byford-inspired apology. It is the considered view of one of BBC radio's most high-profile black presenters.
Henry Bonsu, sacked last week from his BBC London 94.9FM talk show, has decided not to go quietly.
A long-term BBC loyalist, at the station for almost five years, Bonsu was fired from his Sunday-night talk show for apparently being too "intellectual". As David Robey, the station's managing editor, made clear, Bonsu's "intellectual and considered approach ... does not fit in with our agenda".
The award-winning presenter - whose show was billed as offering "intelligent debate" on Afro-Caribbean issues ranging from education to gun crime - has his own view. "I was talking to people who didn't get access to radio," he says. "The management have a view on how black people should be represented, and they decided my approach didn't fit in." When he was called into the boss's office, Bonsu believed it was to discuss his forthcoming interview with Winston Silcott. In fact, he was shocked to hear that his time in radio was up because he was not delivering the ratings.
"You're not going to expect huge audiences at this time of night, as this is niche programming," he says. "The real question is whether there is room for such programmes on a station that boasts it's the most diverse in London. And the response I'm getting from the people who are contacting me now is overwhelmingly yes." BBC London, he says, is avoiding serious programming in its quest for populism. "They clearly want brash, loud, in-your-face programming nowadays," he says. "But the BBC is publicly funded, and London is the most ethnically diverse city in Europe. Yes, weekend programme figures are low. But why can't you have niche programmes at the weekend - not just for the African Caribbean community, but for the Chinese, Asian or Jewish communities?" Bonsu, 36, who lives alone in Brixton, sees his departure as symptomatic of a deeper failing to serve black Londoners. "Listeners are drowning in R 'n' B, hip hop and garage, but a huge number of people also want to talk about issues that affect their community." Now they will be forced to rely, he says, on pirate stations such as Powerjam and Galaxy, which host popular phone-ins.
"Remember who your licence payers are and listen to them," he reminds his old employer.
HIS bosses, for their part, offer a far more pragmatic view of Bonsu's sacking.
"Henry is a talented bloke, but his style didn't really work for us," says Mike MacFarlane, BBC London's executive editor. "His performance has not been particularly good in terms of audience, and the Sunday night show was one last effort, after various moves, to see if it could work." Since Bonsu was replaced by Eddie Nestor on his previous drivetime show, audience figures have shown a "marked improvement" which industry sources put at around 30 per cent.
Nor does the BBC accept that the station has a duty to offer programmes for particular ethnic groups. "We're not simply a black station, or anything else for that matter," MacFarlane says. "This is a general radio station for the whole of London. His criticisms might be valid if we had no other black presenters who were offering intelligent speech-based shows."
Bonsu, whose charm belies an undeniable arrogance, denies that his outburst stems from bitterness. Still, he is clearly angry.
"Of course I am. I was doing everything I was asked to do. I was never going to be a Jon Gaunt or Eddie Nestor - but there should be room for a whole range of programming styles." There is, he says, "a battle" to be fought over media portrayals of young black people. "I go to their schools, their social events.
Their culture is so much richer than what is beamed back to them - images telling them their lives are only about R 'n' B, hip hop and gun crime." The BBC, he says, has failed in this regard. "Why was it," he asks, "that the station trails for the BBC's Asian Network featured aspirational, professional Asians, whereas the trails for 1Xtra featured black ghetto youths running around the streets?" Is he saying that the BBC is racist? "It's been accepted that the BBC, like all big institutions, is racist," he asserts. By whom? "Well, Greg Dyke said it was 'hideously white'," he replies, a little disingenuously.
When pressed, he identifies a tendency among senior managers to pigeonhole black presenters as the voices of "ghettos and estates". "I know a number of broadcasters who have tried to get jobs at the BBC, but they were left with the impression that there was only room for 'edgy', street-smart Dizzee Rascal types," he says. "Executives who would run a mile if approached on the Tube by one of these youths have decided they are the vessels through which the community is represented." BONSU'S departure has certainly provoked concern among black organisations. "People are saying it's totally unacceptable," says Bobby Miles of the 1990 Trust.
"How can the BBC justify sacking an effective, popular and intelligent presenter, when there's been no indication that he's 'failed' in any way? The underlying message from the white middleclass people in authority is: 'We can't have a black man presenting a lively, intelligent debate about real issues.'" Karl Wilson, of the Blacknet UK website network, is equally convinced that Bonsu failed to conform to a BBC stereotype of "the black presenter". "They're looking for a particular type of black person who has a cockney accent and uses street talk," he says, "but nothing that presents black people in a positive light."
The issue, Bonsu suggests, could come to embarrass the corporation as it negotiates the renewal of its charter. "There is a growing coalition of groups and individuals who feel dissatisfied with the access they have to the airways, and who see my removal as a sign of serious problems that they will be highlighting during charter renewal." Corporation executives are likely to be furious at such a veiled threat from a man whose start in broadcasting resulted from a BBC ethnic minority programme (after Bonsu failed to qualify as a news trainee).
Born in Manchester to Ghanaian parents, he read modern languages at Magdalen College, Oxford, and after writing for newspapers became a researcher at Public Eye, Breakfast News and then Today. After moving to BBC London, he also developed a television career, appearing on The Wright Stuff, as a pundit on Littlejohn and as a reporter on RI:SE.
He now hopes to establish a talkradio station aimed at a black audience - although he admits to knowing little about how to go about it. "But if it falls to me to be a rallying cry for this long-term demand, then so be it," he says, with a slight self-deprecating laugh at what he realises sounds like pomposity. "Back in the Sixties, I'd have been up there with Malcolm [X]," he reflects with another laugh.
He's serious, though, isn't he? Isn't it the activism that really drives him? "Sometimes," he replies, "you just have to take a stand and not go gently into that good night."
(Evening Standard, March 10 2004)
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