Managing costs

I'm struggling to understand Radio 2's budget. It may be that curator-in-chief Lewis Carnie is, too.

In January last year, he announced the end of live night-time DJs on the network, to be replaced by repeats and playlists. “Radio 2 has had to make extremely tough decisions to reduce programming costs in order to make savings in line with the rest of the BBC. As a relatively small percentage of our audience listens to Radio 2 through the night, changes need to be made to ensure that our programming spend reaches the most listeners."

In the next financial year, Radio 2's content budget is being cut from £52m to £51m. And yet, from May, we see the return of live broadcasting, at least from midnight to 3am weekdays. O J Borg will be hosting the new slot, from MediaCityUK.

The brief: "We want to take this opportunity to remind people we are the home of great company and chat. O.J. is a hugely experienced radio broadcaster with warmth, a quick wit and in depth knowledge of mainstream music. For those working in offices and factories through the night, those driving up and down the country or for insomniacs everywhere - this show should be fully interactive and very much open for everyone to take part."

Playlists or repeats will still run from 0300 to 0500.