Media: Talk of the Trade: Radio 5 alive, but not quite kicking

GIVEN the BBC's unerring ability to attract bad publicity, Radio 5 Live's on the whole competent launch has received a relatively friendly reception. A disaster it most certainly is not. The influential Gillian Reynolds, of the Daily Telegraph, says it 'is very much part of the new BBC. It is not exactly exciting, but not bad either'. The Daily Mail described it as 'undemanding, mildly informative', rather akin to much of local radio. Anne Karpf in the Guardian said it was more like Radio 4 than she expected, but asked whether non-metropolitan CD males would take to it. As if to answer her question, the channel was completely ignored by the blokeish mass-market papers - the Daily Mirror, the Sun and Today.