BBC legend Sir Terry Wogan says it's no more the best broadcaster

London, Aug 12 : Sir Terry Wogan, a legendary Irish radio and TV broadcaster who mostly worked for the BBC, has said that the Corporation had lost standing as the finest broadcasting organisation in the world, as, according to him, the old "thoroughness and commitment" which he encountered in his early days with the Corporation had disappeared. He lambasted modern presenters for "just reading out the autocue" without any of their own personality and with these awful glazed eyes, like a seagull's.

He maintained that the BBC staff no longer held the job in high esteem. He said till a few years back, those who worked at the BBC drew job satisfaction from the fact that they were working for one of the finest broadcasting organisations in the world.

"When I started, people who worked for the BBC knew they weren't earning as much as people in commercial television, but they did have the satisfaction of knowing that they worked for one of the finest, if not the finest, broadcasting organisation in the whole world. I'm not sure they feel that any more, or at least that it means as much as it used to," The Telegraph quoted Wogan as saying. Describing the way times have changed, Wogan said today any Irishman like him won't get the same treatment as he got when he started his career in 1960s.

"When I sent in my first tape to the head of Gramophone Programmes at the BBC, I had made the fatal mistake of forgetting to rewind it to the start. Yet that gentleman took the time to wind it all the way back, and once he'd listened to it, things went from there. I can tell you, if I was a young chap coming over from Ireland today, they probably wouldn't even listen to my tape, let alone rewind. Somehow, that old-fashioned thoroughness and commitment have disappeared. I suppose no-one has the time for it any more," said Wogan.

ANI