Danny Baker axed by BBC London.

So, it's been reported today that BBC London are axing Danny Baker's weekday afternoon show, as well as removing Gaby Roslin from the breakfast show.  But most attention has been on Danny Baker, who has often had an off and on relationship with BBC bosses.

He started on BBC GLR back in 1989, arrived on BBC Radio 5 with SportsCall on a Saturday lunchtime, and by February 1992, he had taken over the station's breakfast show, Morning Edition.  He did shows on Radio 1, Radio 5 Live, Talk Radio, Virgin Radio, before returning to BBC London in 2001, and taking over the weekday afternoon show in 2005, the show which has now been axed.  He continues to broadcast a show on BBC Radio 5 Live every weekend.

Danny Baker is one of those talents, rather like Chris Moyles and Chris Evans, who have never really sat totally comfortably, within the BBC.  In the past, pre-2002, they would have easily found a home within commercial radio.  These days, commercial radio has gone ultra-safe, timid, generic, and bean-counting to the Nth degree.  So it's harder now to see Danny Baker finding a home on commercial radio these days.

Some people have compared Danny Baker to Kenny Everett, but that is an unfair comparison, as they are two very different types of radio personality.  Kenny Everett had personality and a lot of creativity.  Danny Baker has attitude, and that's about it.  But the thing they both shared was that they knew exactly what they wanted to produce and how they wanted to produce it, and there are very few like them currently, across the world, people like Steve Wright, Danny Baker, Chris Evans, Keith Olbermann and Gay Byrne, and they are an essential part of the mix, yes, they are all difficult to manage, but at the end of the day, the passion they have for the product they produce comes through and they connect with listeners and viewers.  At the end of the day, that connection is what every station needs, not only to survive, but to grow.