a question of money

I was interested by this comment from Mark Damazer, resigning head of Radio Four - this was in answer to questions about whether financial cutbacks were harming the station...

Damazer says the cuts have been ‘utterly, utterly copable with. I haven’t had to decimate the schedule. The repeat rate is up, but only by a tad. The currency that works here is the quality of people’s ideas, and there’s virtually nothing I can’t do because of budget cuts. I can still afford Paul Merton, Graham Norton, David Mitchell, Melvyn Bragg, Martha Kearney, John Humphrys.’

Firstly, isn't it nice that Damazer thinks of Just A Minute first! Ahead of his daily breakfast news programme.

But - if he's thinking of Merton and Norton as high costs, maybe this is part of the reason why JAM now almost always records in London? And why Norton doesn't appear as often as the fans would like....