Enthusiastic presenters

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I would like to know who does the research for the presenters, I've never seen any posts advertised, as I would be applying as fast as I could complete an application.

Like so many positions, this appears to be a closed shop/ringed fence. You need to work for the BBC and be a former newsreader, gardening expert, comedian, etc. There is some scope for others to get into presentation which is why there are some, such as Suzy Klein, with considerable musical knowledge. But she is one of a dying breed.

[Word]

Unfortunately, like Eine Alpensinfonie , I can't help with information regarding how you would become a Radio 3 researcher, but hopefully someone here knows. Otherwise you could enquire of the BBC (easier said than done - it looks as if you'd have to e-mail a specific programme) or speculatively send in your CV, though I wouldn't necessarily recommend that approach unless you know to whom it should be sent.
(My one speculative job application was to Advanced RISC Machines, just after university, and I got a very nice letter in reply, but no job .)

[cavatina]

If you intend to continue your contribution to this thread, how about listing ten, or even five, Radio3 programmes you have actually listened to in the last week and comment on the presenters.

Well, since July 15th, I've been to every single one of the 26 Proms concerts, all three of the Proms chamber music concerts at Cadogan with Catherine Bott, all three of the Elgar Room jazz and poetry sessions as presented by Petroc Trelawny and Rob Cowan, the Human Planet world music programme in Hyde Park, and 26 pre-Proms talks recorded for Radio 3 (and spread across the programming) as presented by Louise Fryer, Sean Rafferty, Sarah Walker, Matthew Rowe, Peggy Reynolds, Stephen Johnson, Andrew McGregor, Rachael Leach, Ian McMillan, and Rana Mitter.

Some of us are trying to get back to the topic.

Oh, you mean the original topic of how Petroc Trelawny is a nincompoop for being enthusiastic and misusing the word "literally" in the heat of the moment?

Yeah, you just go ahead and do that.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

(My one speculative job application was to Advanced RISC Machines, just after university, and I got a very nice letter in reply, but no job .)

Today's piece of useless information - My sister was in the same class at primary school as Stephen Furber, who went on to be one of the chief designers of the ARM chip, as used in most of the world's mobile phones and the computers with perhaps the best operating system ever (Acorn). I still use mine in preference to a PC, as it performs most functions in a fraction of the time, even though the clock-speed of the computer is only a fraction of today's computers with their clumsily constructed operating systems. Word, had Acorn become predominant (as they deserved), your nickname might well have been EasyWriter, Impression or OvationPro.

[cavatina]

You won't have it, but if the BBC has, why can they not provide it?

I daresay the BBC doesn't think it's worth opening up internal policies to public debate because the vast majority of the respondents would not only have nothing of value to contribute, they'd do so in a noisome, hateful, inflammatory way that wastes everybody's time.

But then, it's entirely possible I'm projecting.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I daresay the BBC doesn't think it's worth opening up internal policies to public debate because the vast majority of the respondents would not only have nothing of value to contribute, they'd do so in a noisome, hateful, inflammatory way that wastes everybody's time.

But then, it's entirely possible I'm projecting.

Come off it! That's the argument used to justify one-party states.

[french frank]

If it were the case that the BBC took that view, it would be all the more reason to insist they opened up the books and were accountable to the people who pay their salaries

[cavatina]

Come off it! That's the argument used to justify one-party states.

A radio station is not a democracy.

[cavatina]

If it were the case that the BBC took that view, it would be all the more reason to insist they opened up the books and were accountable to the people who pay their salaries

True, but many among the self-appointed "vocal minority" of laypeople who actually give a damn might have a wee problem with the "strong passions versus critical reasoning" issue I referred to earlier. (No, I'm not talking about you, but I'm sure you know exactly what I mean.) And if even if it isn't universally true, could you really blame them for having that perception?

[cavatina]

these little slip ups can be very amusing. Opinion's from announcers

Since Sydney Grew isn't around, am I going to have to be the one who says AHEM?
No no, that would be wrong. Rise above it, let it go.

[amateur51]

If it were the case that the BBC took that view, it would be all the more reason to insist they opened up the books and were accountable to the people who pay their salaries

[amateur51]

A radio station is not a democracy.

No but the BBC is the publicly-funded broadcaster in a democracy

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Since Sydney Grew isn't around, am I going to have to be the one who says AHEM?
No no, that would be wrong. Rise above it, let it go.

Choose your mentors wisely.

[Word]

This board will yet achieve a Zen-like state .

My sister was in the same class at primary school as Stephen Furber, who went on to be one of the chief designers of the ARM chip, as used in most of the world's mobile phones and the computers with perhaps the best operating system ever (Acorn). I still use mine in preference to a PC, as it performs most functions in a fraction of the time, even though the clock-speed of the computer is only a fraction of today's computers with their clumsily constructed operating systems.

Hopefully he wasn't showing signs of his design prowess at that age otherwise I'd feel hopelessly inadequate.

I have long admired ARM's designs and remember being impressed by the Lander/Virus demo on the Archimedes. I also liked the way you could drag a file into a text input field and the file path and name would appear in that field. (You can do that with Mac OS X now but that was the first time I saw that feature).
I never had an Archimedes though; an Apple II when I was little and from there onto a couple of Amigas, a brief spell in the wilderness then back to Apple when Mac OS X 10.1 came out.

Word, had Acorn become predominant (as they deserved), your nickname might well have been EasyWriter, Impression or OvationPro.

Microsoft Word ! I have never been so insulted!
(I know, I should get out more .)

[cavatina]

No but the BBC is the publicly-funded broadcaster in a democracy

No kidding. But that doesn't change the fact that it's going to be an incredibly hard sell to convince people who've spent their entire careers in the music industry that they should be spending any significant portion of their time heeding unsolicited internal policy recommendations from people who've never worked in the music business, have no experience with radio or television, zero exposure to formal arts policy analysis--and to top it all off, never played an instrument and can't even read sheet music.

I'm not saying that in the spirit of an ad-hominem, but rather pointing out that you're never going to move past the "music professionals versus laypeople" disconnect if you don't work on your communication skills and start thinking about the serious problems you have with image management. Because right now, you don't seem to me to be getting much of anywhere--a few patronising pats on the head from the Trust notwithstanding--and if I were you, I'd put some real effort into asking why.

Like it or not, having clearly-articulated principles isn't enough. What do you need to change to be more effective as an organization? How can you make your case in a way that's more palatable (and less alienating) to a broader range of people? Blowing off questions like these with a "we're fine the way we are" strikes me as a huge mistake.

FF, you were quite adamant that you're not taking the line that "our opinions matter more because we've thought deeply about these issues and care about them more than the average listener". But really, why should your opinion matter more than any other segment of the 2-plus million listeners to Radio 3 if it's not that you're upholding well-reasoned principles which remain true to the finest traditions in the history of public broadcasting, have put a lot of thought into these issues, and care deeply about it?

It's all fine and good to listen to the feel-good rhetoric about "the vital importance of feedback from passionately-engaged audiences", but at the end of the day, some people work there, and some people don't-- and if you don't see a difference, you seriously need to rethink that.

Perhaps the answer is for more of you who care passionately about Radio 3 to have a look at the BBC careers page and take it from there.