It is time for the BBC to relinquish Radio 1 and Radio 2

I haven't minded the argument that, if it just caters for uncommercial audiences, BBC Radio will become elitist in its appeal, rather than the people's powerhouse that it must remain.

Meanwhile, the commercial sector's lobbying has been woodenly self-serving, offering few balanced arguments that public service policy makers might respect. But things have changed.

The BBC's future licence fee is substantially lower than it wanted and the forever threat to its funding now comes as much from those philosophically against it, as from competitive public service broadcasters who ask why, if we are to have a tax to buy great content for the nation, the BBC should be our sole agent.

So, like any family in reduced circumstances, you cannot just carry on as if nothing has happened.  
Strategically, any business manager would now say that we must thrash out our real priorities and deliver them excellently - not sigh deeply and skim another 10% off everyone's budget.

Radio 1 and Radio 2 have been extraordinary successes, but they are not Radio 4. You can't argue that only BBC managers or BBC funding could preserve their character - unless that character be defined solely by expensive TV cross-over presenters.

While the licence fee lasts, the BBC has to provide something for everyone.  

But the Radio 2 audience is super-served elsewhere in the output, and across TV, radio and a developed online offer, it would be astonishing if the BBC lost unique users without Radio 1.  

Despite commercial complaints about its omnipresence, BBC online provides little specifically for younger users outside online versions of its TV and radio properties.

Knowing the tendencies of financial shareholders, I'm cautious about commercial ownership.  
So I would not auction Radio 1 and Radio 2 to the highest bidder, but, like Channel 4, hold them in public ownership, carefully regulated and raising their own revenues.

These massive national audiences would provide a life-changing fillip to commercial radio, at no cost to the cultural life of the nation - although  Jonathan Ross would almost certainly be unaffordable.