Radio 3 schedule changes (‘edging away from speech')

[AuntDaisy]

Time to start thinking about acquiring more internet radios, smart speakers or streamers....

Or a Time Machine

[Dave2002]

This is going to mess up people who listen to "live" broadcasts, or only have kit which picks up programmes as they are broadcast. For various reasons I have recently listened to some programmes on a DAB radio - as broadcast - rather than as iPlayer on demand programmes. The morning programme seems to be a real curate's egg of a thing - with some interesting discoveries, yet also feels rather dumbed down.

Maybe radio is different fromTV - in that mostly we time shift almost all the TV programmes - which is possible with BBC programmes, yet slightly harder with most of the other broadcasters.
Strategies for listening to radio seem to vary, depending on kit available, and also user preference. We often have R4 programmes downloaded as podcasts - but sound quality is usually not such a big deal with most of those.

[oddoneout]

That may well be the case for a number of Forumites, possibly including yours truly. Perhaps one of the assumptions - or hopes - underlying this relaunch (or whatever you want to call it) is that former Radio 2 listeners who have increasingly felt ignored in recent years will find at least some of the 'new' Radio 3's offer to their liking.

If that happens then it will be touted as "attracting a new audience", deliberately omitting "lost the existing audience", and not collecting figures on either.

[french frank]

Perhaps one of the assumptions - or hopes - underlying this relaunch (or whatever you want to call it) is that former Radio 2 listeners who have increasingly felt ignored in recent years will find at least some of the 'new' Radio 3's offer to their liking.

That has been the 'hope' for 20+ years, and to an extent it has probably worked. But as R3's "Radio 2" audience increases R3's Radio 3 audience decreases.They are disposable. And the gain being? The afternoon 'concert' presenters are listed as Tom McKinney, Elizabeth Alker, Linton Stephens and Fiona Talkington.

Just had lunch at the Hungarian caff reinforcing my view that the under 50s prefer drinking Coke to wine (and eating all-day breakfast in preference to the 'Hungarian specials'). Mass products/culture rather than discriminating tastes. So be it, if that's what they want, I suppose. When Radio 3 is pretty much the same as Radio 2 they'll be able to save a lot of money by closing the station, Proms, orchestras and choirs.

Not surprisingly, we get the insults for defending the culture of a millennium but no intelligent arguments.

[oddoneout]

This is going to mess up people who listen to "live" broadcasts, or only have kit which picks up programmes as they are broadcast. For various reasons I have recently listened to some programmes on a DAB radio - as broadcast - rather than as iPlayer on demand programmes. The morning programme seems to be a real curate's egg of a thing - with some interesting discoveries, yet also feels rather dumbed down.

Maybe radio is different fromTV - in that mostly we time shift almost all the TV programmes - which is possible with BBC programmes, yet slightly harder with most of the other broadcasters.
Strategies for listening to radio seem to vary, depending on kit available, and also user preference. We often have R4 programmes downloaded as podcasts - but sound quality is usually not such a big deal with most of those.

I only listen to R3 as it is broadcast, lacking the kit to do otherwise, and my time listening has already reduced considerably since the changes to Afternoon Concert, and the repertoire of the evening concerts for several months now being of limited interest to me at best. The new schedules have so much that is of no interest whatsoever that listening time is likely to reduce even further - some of that reduction will be unintentional as I forget to tune in for the one thing that might appeal on a given day! I can see a time coming when I will have to invest in bits of kit to have an alternative to my not very large CD collection - but I doubt it will be used to listen to R3 on a regular basis as I don't think I can face the hassle of trying to pick wanted items out of the Classical Live(not) stew pot. Afternoon Concert has removed any expectation that using the online schedule will be of use...

[french frank]

Um, the lunchtime concert has been dropped completely, hasn't it? Except the Wigmore Hall recital on Mondays. The rest of the week the replacement for Afternoon Concert takes over from 1pm for 3 hours, followed by CotW.

Noted on the Lunchtime concerts thread.

[Barbirollians]

It's bloody awful

[Globaltruth]

I listen to r3 to escape Jools Holland, I don't care what he's presenting he has the depth of an oil slick...

[LMcD]

That has been the 'hope' for 20+ years, and to an extent it has probably worked. But as R3's "Radio 2" audience increases R3's Radio 3 audience decreases.They are disposable. And the gain being? The afternoon 'concert' presenters are listed as Tom McKinney, Elizabeth Alker, Linton Stephens and Fiona Talkington.

Just had lunch at the Hungarian caff reinforcing my view that the under 50s prefer drinking Coke to wine (and eating all-day breakfast in preference to the 'Hungarian specials'). Mass products/culture rather than discriminating tastes. So be it, if that's what they want, I suppose. When Radio 3 is pretty much the same as Radio 2 they'll be able to save a lot of money by closing the station, Proms, orchestras and choirs.

Not surprisingly, we get the insults for defending the culture of a millennium but no intelligent arguments.

Perhaps Radios 2 and 3 will be merged and become a 'new recipe' Radio 2.5 .

[french frank]

I listen to r3 to escape Jools Holland, I don't care what he's presenting he has the depth of an oil slick...

So 'a perfect fit' for the new controller's Radio 3

[Ein Heldenleben]

Um, the lunchtime concert has been dropped completely, hasn't it? Except the Wigmore Hall recital on Mondays. The rest of the week the replacement for Afternoon Concert takes over from 1pm for 3 hours, followed by CotW.

Noted on the Lunchtime concerts thread.

I reckon it’s to save money, Replacing expensive location or studio recording sessions by one artist or group with cheaper EBU pre records. Something that’s already been done to Afternoon concert.

So far the casualty tally runs
Lunchtime recital four days a week.
30 mins of Record Review
Jazz J to Z ..
Skellers and Gore appear berthless..
I’m sure there’s more …

[LMcD]

I reckon it’s to save money, Replacing expensive location or studio recording sessions by one artist or group with cheaper EBU pre records. Something that’s already been done to Afternoon concert.

So far the casualty tally runs
Lunchtime recital four days a week.
30 mins of Record Review
Jazz J to Z ..
Skellers and Gore appear berthless..
I’m sure there’s more …

No repeat of Monday's Wigmore Hall recital.

[Dave2002]

I listen to r3 to escape Jools Holland, I don't care what he's presenting he has the depth of an oil slick...

[Hitch]

Would it be particularly miserable of me to say that the rot started with Dr. Beeching?

[Dave2002]

I only listen to R3 as it is broadcast, lacking the kit to do otherwise, and my time listening has already reduced considerably since the changes to Afternoon Concert, and the repertoire of the evening concerts for several months now being of limited interest to me at best. The new schedules have so much that is of no interest whatsoever that listening time is likely to reduce even further - some of that reduction will be unintentional as I forget to tune in for the one thing that might appeal on a given day! I can see a time coming when I will have to invest in bits of kit to have an alternative to my not very large CD collection - but I doubt it will be used to listen to R3 on a regular basis as I don't think I can face the hassle of trying to pick wanted items out of the Classical Live(not) stew pot. Afternoon Concert has removed any expectation that using the online schedule will be of use...

Not sure that I can - or should - recommend anything, but this has got me thinking a little about on-demand radio. I don't actually know whether our DAB radio can also function as a streamer, or Internet radio. Maybe it can - or maybe it can only stream from a file server on our network. Last year I saw an advert for a reduced priced radio streamer - but I couldn't really figure out whether I wanted or needed one, so I let that offer go.

I still don't know "the answer", but continuing on from the earlier post about TV vs radio, given that we actually manage to watch almost all TV in on demand mode, via the internet, would it not also be possible to do the same for radio?

Possibly yes - but would require cheap and easy to use and install devices, and anyone who wanted good sound quality might have to pay more for a better quality device - but then that was always the way even with FM and later DAB [now - perhaps some form of DAB+].

Some people use devices like the Amazon Alexa boxes [shudder - I don't want to be tracked...] but those do show that on demand radio is possible.

The major losses with switching to internet delivery are/will be non availability in the event of local power losses or network failures, and also disruption to users who use mobile devices such as car radios [as at present there is no reliable on demand mobile network system which scales up to nationwide coverage AFAIK], plus also providers such as the BBC would have to implement/provide satisfactory VOD services [here I use VOD also to refer to radio streaming - as in theory radio should be less demanding than TV/video, and the technology for video and TV streaming now seems to be acceptably good for most people. There would be savings to broadcasters as there would be no need to repeat broadcast, though sometimes links might have to be updated, and edits [e.g. corrections ... etc.] made.

So are more people going to switch to on demand reception for radio services - and how?