Radio 4

There are two points of view about Radio 4 in today's Times: one person dislikes it intensely, the other is an avid listener. I have known people (usually women) who "listen to it all the time". One of these has radios in all rooms of her house and portables to carry from room to room so that she doesn't miss a word.
I used to like it a lot but now rarely listen to anything except "Desert Island Discs" (if there is someone interesting on), "Start the Week" (sometimes), "The Moral Maze" (if I remember) and the occasional play in the afternoon. But most of the plays are not to my taste. Nor to one of The Times writers: "what is the matter with whoever commissions these things? And why are the actors speaking..... So..... Slowly....?"
Incidentally, why is there a "Woman's Hour" but no "Man's Hour"? Because most of the other programmes appeal to men? Not so. Most men I know don't listen to radio at all - they're killing themselves doing DIY.
The Times writer also refers to the "dead air" by which she means silences. "The Dead Air on Radio 4 can stretch on for what feels like minutes". I haven't noticed that but, there, I don't listen to "Woman's Hour" or the plays. But I know it breaks the golden rule of radio writing told me a man who wrote and had broadcast about 50 plays, most of them Saturday Night Theatre. He said "the only thing you can't do on radio is silence."
From the horse's mouth.