An extract from a speech given at Green College, Oxford, in 2002 by Jenny Abramsky, then Director of BBC Radio [I have some more info on this]:
"I have spoken passionately about Radios 1 and 2 because I think they are regularly misrepresented. I do believe they are central to the BBC’s delivery to all licence payers. I do not accept that ‘public service’ for Radio should be defined in such a way that it denies the majority of licence payers Radio stations that are relevant to them. And I do not think the BBC should cut itself off from people whose main interest is music of a popular kind.
But it’s not just the popular that is important. Artistic expression, in all its forms, must be reflected on public service Radio.
The debate that has haunted Radios 1 and 2 for the last 20 years has, in an inverse way, engulfed Radio 3. Both inside the BBC and without.
There have been some in the BBC who have argued that a Radio station that delivers an audience of only two million, a share of 1.2% at a cost of £59 million, should not be part of a contemporary BBC... Why not use that money to reach the young? To get to under served audiences, to enable BBC ONE and BBC TWO to compete more effectively?
Those siren voices have argued that the BBC superserves (whatever that means) older upmarket listeners with Radio 4 and BBC TWO and will do with BBC FOUR, so what’s the point of Radio 3?
And externally Radio 3 has been under the spotlight as Classic FM has found an audience three times its size.
Classic FM is a wonderful station, but it is quite different. It does not do, and has no intention of doing, the range of programmes - speech as well as live music - you can hear on Radio 3. Classic FM aims, as its Controller regularly admits, at the audience that listens to Radio 4 and to Radio 2. It is about easy listening. And it is very good.
What it does not do is offer the cultural variety and cultural support of Radio 3. BBC Radio commissions more new writing than any other institution in the UK, and much of it is for Radio 3. It commissions more new classical music than any other institution in the world, all for Radio 3. Writing that is challenging, modern classical music that breaks with traditional form and expectation. It might appeal to a minority, but minorities have as much right to see their interests reflected on public service radio, as the majority.
Radio 3 funds 72 concerts of The Proms. It funds the five BBC Orchestras and the BBC Singers - £23 million a year. It broadcasts concerts from all the leading orchestras in the UK - without its patronage musical life in this country would be very bleak indeed. And it has embraced new music in all its forms - including jazz and World Music.
I’m sure a lot of you did not expect to hear that on Radio 3. But public service Radio can act as an impresario, and I really do believe that without that nurturing of all sorts of talent, the whole cultural fabric of this country would be the poorer."
"I have spoken passionately about Radios 1 and 2 because I think they are regularly misrepresented. I do believe they are central to the BBC’s delivery to all licence payers. I do not accept that ‘public service’ for Radio should be defined in such a way that it denies the majority of licence payers Radio stations that are relevant to them. And I do not think the BBC should cut itself off from people whose main interest is music of a popular kind.
But it’s not just the popular that is important. Artistic expression, in all its forms, must be reflected on public service Radio.
The debate that has haunted Radios 1 and 2 for the last 20 years has, in an inverse way, engulfed Radio 3. Both inside the BBC and without.
There have been some in the BBC who have argued that a Radio station that delivers an audience of only two million, a share of 1.2% at a cost of £59 million, should not be part of a contemporary BBC... Why not use that money to reach the young? To get to under served audiences, to enable BBC ONE and BBC TWO to compete more effectively?
Those siren voices have argued that the BBC superserves (whatever that means) older upmarket listeners with Radio 4 and BBC TWO and will do with BBC FOUR, so what’s the point of Radio 3?
And externally Radio 3 has been under the spotlight as Classic FM has found an audience three times its size.
Classic FM is a wonderful station, but it is quite different. It does not do, and has no intention of doing, the range of programmes - speech as well as live music - you can hear on Radio 3. Classic FM aims, as its Controller regularly admits, at the audience that listens to Radio 4 and to Radio 2. It is about easy listening. And it is very good.
What it does not do is offer the cultural variety and cultural support of Radio 3. BBC Radio commissions more new writing than any other institution in the UK, and much of it is for Radio 3. It commissions more new classical music than any other institution in the world, all for Radio 3. Writing that is challenging, modern classical music that breaks with traditional form and expectation. It might appeal to a minority, but minorities have as much right to see their interests reflected on public service radio, as the majority.
Radio 3 funds 72 concerts of The Proms. It funds the five BBC Orchestras and the BBC Singers - £23 million a year. It broadcasts concerts from all the leading orchestras in the UK - without its patronage musical life in this country would be very bleak indeed. And it has embraced new music in all its forms - including jazz and World Music.
I’m sure a lot of you did not expect to hear that on Radio 3. But public service Radio can act as an impresario, and I really do believe that without that nurturing of all sorts of talent, the whole cultural fabric of this country would be the poorer."
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