Jeremy Paxman has been told to "take the stairs" by the controller of Radio 1 Extra after the Newsnight presenter complained BBC elevators were made "hell" by playing the station's music.
Earlier this week, Paxman attacked the corporation as "smug" and, according to The Guardian, said: "My idea of hell is going down in one of the lifts in that ghastly new building (New Broadcasting House) in a lift which has Radio One Extra plumbed into it."
Now, the Daily Mail has reported Radio 1 Controller Ben Cooper has emailed Paxman, copying in BBC senior management, to say he should take the stairs if the music bothers him.
Paxman was told to take the stairs after saying Radio 1 music makes BBC lifts 'hell'
According to the paper, the email said: "Dear Jeremy, I read with interest your views on BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra. I am Controller of both.
"Clearly you are entitled to your view, but please consider who and what you effect [sic] when you express those views.
"If all this falls on deaf ears then my only other suggestion is to take the stairs."
When Paxman made the lift comment, he said he "could not understand" why the BBC does Radio 1 and attacked the "proliferation" of "extra" TV and radio channels.
He said: “There’s a pile of stuff on the BBC I can’t stand.. I don’t quite understand why the BBC does Radio 1Xtra, I don’t really understand why it does Radio 1.
"Clearly, you can meet those needs commercially … the BBC has got an unfortunate history of never seeing an area of broadcasting, or increasingly a web presence, without feeling the need to get into it itself."
He also told The Guardian: "The proliferation of extra television channels, the proliferation of extra radio channels – and, going further back, the move into local radio. These things just happened because the BBC is institutionally unable to countenance something without wanting to have it for itself."