"Classical Live" was once Afternoon Concert

[french frank]

Radio 3's weekly reach in Q4 of 1998 was 2.54 million!

Yes, but the early figures are not directly comparable because the data were collected on a different basis. And I think there were 3m when Test Match Special was on R3!

[Hitch]

But the population has grown (by 21%?). Between 1999 and 2024 (the listening figures are not directly comparable btw), Radio 2's audience has grown from 9.7m to 13.3m. R3's went from 2.3m to 1.8m (all figures rounded).

The question is whether R3 makes strategy changes in response to poor listening figures, or whether strategy changes cause listening figures to fall.

Other members, such as yourself, are more knowledgeable on the matter than I am, hence my preference to let the implications speak for themselves and wait for confirmation or refutation. One would expect a national population spurt to provide a corresponding boost in listener numbers. It has not, and therefore one may ask if the BBC's guidance of Radio 3 since the millennium has been a failure. A more searching question, and one which you have considered, is whether the BBC's policy has indeed succeeded and whether, as I put it, both station and audience have changed and in which order.

[oddoneout]

What is it with these people? On the trailer thread I complained about the mess made of the advertised recordings from the Lammermuir Festival(including the obligatory ad insertion), and today there has been a similar mess, with unadvertised items puncturing the advertised - and doubtless also ad insertion. On Monday the Wigmore over-run was presumably the excuse as to why parts of the Lammermuir programme were ditched in favour of unadvertised items, but what the excuse is for today's insertion of Vltava partway through the baroque programme is anyone's guess. Why could it not have been lumped in with the 4 other pic'n'mix unadvertised items at the end of the Lammermuir recording?
On the plus side I was out until past the advertised transmission slot so couldn't suffer another infuriating and disappointing attempt at listening to rarely broadcast music. Tomorrow there will be a further Lammermuir snippet - perhaps 10 minutes worth at most - sandwiched between world premiere orchestral items and who knows what other surprise pieces.

I despair. Makes me wonder if AI generated playlists would really be such a bad thing, if this is what passes for human generated "carefully curated" programme content.

[smittims]

I suspect :

lack of education (i.e. knowledge of classical music);
lack of attention to detail about what makes a good continuous programme; and
a desire to be snappy, different and impress the boss.

I sensed this with Linton Stephens' sudden inclusion of Tshepo Tsotetsi's A Bubble is a nice Thing to Have between Beethoven's violin concerto and an overture by William Alwyn. I had to switch off as I felt I was being beaten about the head by the chap on the drum kit, and so I missed th start of the Alwyn piece. This was neither classical nor live.

[french frank]

What is it with these people? [...] I despair. Makes me wonder if AI generated playlists would really be such a bad thing, if this is what passes for human generated "carefully curated" programme content.

'Careful' curation depends on the ultimate aim. If they feel that, for the vast majority, listening to radio is now a background, uncritical, subliminal stream of something, that's what they provide. The shrieks of protest will eventually be silenced

[oddoneout]

Today's and tomorrow's schedule suggest that from 1pm there will be a number of items from the Lammermuir Festival broadcast. So, do I ignore my experience earlier in the week and tune in, hoping (not expecting, I'm not that deluded) that all the items will be played, and that whatever irrelevant matter (other unlisted pieces, in addition to the mandatory ad intrusion) is inserted isn't too long, or comes far enough through the programme that I just accept it's not worth waiting for one or two that have not been played yet, or do I take advantage of the good weather today at least and spend time in the garden. Hmm, difficult ...
I note that on both days that there is a void between the end of that first section and the 3pm slot, which on both days contains items that don't take an hour. In other words there is a great deal of air time(at least half the total) filled with non-identified pieces. Of course it goes without saying none of the output is live, despite the programme title.
I realise that I am not the audience R3 now wants but even if I had Sounds and could be bothered to fiddle to get the material I want to hear, that doesn't mean that I don't ever want to just sit down, switch on and listen to a coherent hour or so of music recorded from, in this case, the Lammermuir Festival, or put together in an intelligent fashion(perhaps with a theme) to form a pleasing whole. Again, I'm not silly enough to expect a live offering - Wigmore is as far as the current mindset seems prepared to accept.
Does the audience that listens to the morning schedules want the same 'stream of disparate music' format, but with longer pieces, that this slot now seems to be? I suppose if wallpaper is all that is required then yes - but, as ever, how does that address the R3 remit, and how is it different from using some digital 'play me two hours of classical wallpaper, no modern stuff' alternative?
Sorry, I realise that this is all the standard plaint, but it has got to me this week, given the general R3 antipathy towards baroque repertoire that means there is so little broadcast in the first place and now, having access to a decent chunk of material it has been put through the R3 sausage machine, to produce a musical equivalent of UPF*.

*ultra processed food - much in the news recently

[Nick Armstrong]

Today's and tomorrow's schedule suggest that from 1pm there will be a number of items from the Lammermuir Festival broadcast. So, do I ignore my experience earlier in the week and tune in, hoping (not expecting, I'm not that deluded) that all the items will be played, and that whatever irrelevant matter (other unlisted pieces, in addition to the mandatory ad intrusion) is inserted isn't too long, or comes far enough through the programme that I just accept it's not worth waiting for one or two that have not been played yet…

Precisely my thought process too (though I didn’t have any experience earlier in the week) and I came up with a rapid ‘No’ in response. I’ve totally given up on day time ‘offerings’ on R3 (other than COTW & CE). Not having to endure idiotic trailers is another factor.

There’s a Concerto Copenhagen concert from the Lammermuir Festival at 19:30 - that will have to do

[oddoneout]

Precisely my thought process too (though I didn’t have any experience earlier in the week) and I came up with a rapid ‘No’ in response. I’ve totally given up on day time ‘offerings’ on R3 (other than COTW & CE). Not having to endure idiotic trailers is another factor.

There’s a Concerto Copenhagen concert from the Lammermuir Festival at 19:30 - that will have to do

That's just typical. Thursday night is choir night, and it quite often happens that a rare evening concert I want to hear will be on that day... C'est ma vie.

[Nick Armstrong]

That's just typical. Thursday night is choir night, and it quite often happens that a rare evening concert I want to hear will be on that day... C'est ma vie.

“Sounds” are/is your friend

[oddoneout]

“Sounds” are/is your friend

Would be if I had the wherewithal to use it, as I have mentioned before.

[LMcD]

As I may have mentioned before, I have no trouble using Sounds and find it/them very helpful, and the same goes for iPlayer.

[Nick Armstrong]

Would be if I had the wherewithal to use it, as I have mentioned before.

I hadn’t picked up that you can’t…

I use virtually nothing else for R3 these days, very hard to separate the few grains of wheat from the extensive chaff without it/them

[Ein Heldenleben]

I hadn’t picked up that you can’t…

use virtually nothing else for R3 these days, very hard to separate the few grains of wheat from the extensive chaff

There was another (yes incredibly yet another ) Rach PC 2 from Boris Giltburg on this afternoon which - how can I put it tactfully? Perhaps showed the youngsters a thing or two about playing the work.

[oddoneout]

As I may have mentioned before, I have no trouble using Sounds and find it/them very helpful, and the same goes for iPlayer.

Normally we seem to be on roughly the same wavelength but not on this occasion. I am happy that you have no problems, but that is neither helpful(nor particularly kind) with respect to the fact that I can't listen to music on my PC, except occasionally some Youtubes which for reasons unknown do manage to come out of the machine at a sound level above a whisper. Going through all the faff of signing up to Sounds hasn't altered that. I am trying to get help from my son(as he obtained and installed the 2nd hand PC), but he is busy and contacting him is not easy; it isn't particularly his area of expertise or interest either. The fact that the destruction of R3 means that Sounds is a necessity, rather than a useful addition, in my attempts to listen to the now pitiful quantities of music that are of interest, does nothing to help when I can't make use of it, and don't know if, or how, that can be rectified.

Apologies. That should have been a PM not a post I think.

[LMcD]

Normally we seem to be on roughly the same wavelength but not on this occasion. I am happy that you have no problems, but that is neither helpful(nor particularly kind) with respect to the fact that I can't listen to music on my PC, except occasionally some Youtubes which for reasons unknown do manage to come out of the machine at a sound level above a whisper. Going through all the faff of signing up to Sounds hasn't altered that. I am trying to get help from my son(as he obtained and installed the 2nd hand PC), but he is busy and contacting him is not easy; it isn't particularly his area of expertise or interest either. The fact that the destruction of R3 means that Sounds is a necessity, rather than a useful addition, in my attempts to listen to the now pitiful quantities of music that are of interest, does nothing to help when I can't make use of it, and don't know if, or how, that can be rectified.

Apologies. That should have been a PM not a post I think.

No apology necessary - I hadn't appreciated the extent or severity of the problems confronting you!