But the initiative has infuriated the bosses of leading classical record companies who argue the offer undermines the value of music and that any further offers would be unfair competition. Managing director of the Naxos label, Anthony Anderson, said: "I think there is a question of whether a publicly funded broadcaster should be doing this and there is the obvious issue that it is devaluing the perceived value of music. This week the BBC will announce there have been more than a million downloads of the symphonies during the month-long scheme. When it's like that, radio is truly impressive.Peter Cole is professor of journalism at the University of Sheffield. Bannister has exactly the right tone of cool and detached engagement for the anchoring of live coverage of a developing major story. Bannister moved seamlessly between the two stories, interrupting his studio guests talking about the Gamesto bring increasingly disturbing, unconfirmed reports.Over the next three hours the Olympics, and the studio guests, were forgotten as the scale of what had happened emerged. Bannister is the consummate broadcaster and has never been better than he was on Thursday. Good live news radio is about calm authority, seamless continuity and an ability to orchestrate a constantly changing series of inputs.Hour after hour - and Bannister was on the air all evening as well as all morning, and again on Friday morning - he drew the threads together, modified the story as new information came through, and carried out dozens of interviews with official spokesmen and "experts" as well as members of the public It was a tour de force.
Matthew Bannister was presenting the daily phone-in on "making 2012 the best Olympics ever", when news of an incident on the Tube, the "power surge", came in. And The Guardian spoke in a leader of "trying to understand why people are drawn to commit such infamous and evil deeds".Another much-published photograph showed the overhead sign on the M25 - "Avoid London - Area closed - Turn on radio" Those who tuned to BBC Radio 5 heard news radio at its best. The Sun had its less than detached "news" story about "vile George Galloway". But of course there were moments when the attitude of the papers showed through. The Express had its telephone poll "Should terrorists be executed?".
The Telegraph had its veteran reporter, Bill Deedes, reflecting on the resilience of Londoners from the Blackshirt riots of the 1930s through to the present. The Independent had its famous chronicler of Middle East conflict, Robert Fisk, writing of the "total failure of our security services - the same intelligence 'experts' who claim there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq when there were none". The Daily Mail filled 23 pages with reports of the incidents, the Daily Mirror 34, The Independent 35 and The Sun 23. National newspapers react to a story of this importance and drama by clearing the decks, and much of the advertising, diverting almost all resources to the one story that renders all others marginal. Such occasions show journalism at its best, reporters for once having the opportunity to do what they believe they are there for, reporting. These are days when editors, particularly news editors, picture editors, and production editors, backed up by designers, dominate.
