Originally posted by Anna
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Answer 2. For the Breakfast programme, the main audience would come from the R2 listenership, older, who would perhaps like a change from pop music + chat. From just after Christmas 2009, there was no longer any Wogan but the rather more frenetic Chris Evans who appealed to a younger audience. So Breakfast stoops a little more to conquer: April 2010 sees the announcement of the Charts feature, followed in May by the search for Everbody's Favourite Aria. Perhaps we must surmise that this isn't bringing in enough R2 devotees, so now we have the phone-in ...
Answer 3: on Essential Classics specifically: remember what Paul Gambaccini said back in 1996 (Radio Times interview)? He had a 'specific mission' which was to invite R4 listeners who had just been listening the Today programme to 'stay with the BBC rather than go to Classic FM'. The commissioning brief for EC also specifies that it 'should aim to hold on to as much of the breakfast audience as possible whilst drawing in new listeners from the post-Today Radio 4 switch over'. The sub-text is still to dissuade them from switching to CFM. CFM has nearing 6 million listeners: what do you imagine they listen to apart from CFM? The answer is predominantly R2 and R4 - a large pool for R3 to try to capture without damaging overall BBC radio figures.
Also, CFM changed its schedules last year: Simon Bates was to move from 8am-12pm to 9am-1pm, with a separate, new, breakfast programme beforehand. Bates pulled out, leaving CFM before the new programme started and CFM netted John Suchet, who had already been signed up for a new Sunday programme, to take over the 'flagship' programme from Bates. The plans were announced in June 2010, so R3's plan for a 9am rival must have been cooked up shortly after that. The closing date for tenders was 10 May, and the winner announced in June - time to have the first programme ready for the autumn.
Answer 4: See Answer 1. But I know what I think.
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