Radio 3 spinoff station

[mopsus]

"Radio 3 will also get a new station to focus on calming classical music, aimed at helping listeners "unwind, de-stress and escape the pressures of daily life".

It will feature newly-released pieces and new compositions alongside performances of classic works. The BBC said the station would champion music by living composers including a new generation of artist-composers who receive a limited amount of airplay on other UK stations.

It will support the BBC Proms and feature content from the BBC orchestras and choirs as well as BBC Introducing acts."

Radio 2 spin-off among four new stations planned by BBC - BBC News

The spin-off station does sound to me a bit like the way Radio 3 is now! So where will that leave Radio 3?


(Please move this to a more appropriate location or delete if duplicated!)

[Russ]

A bit more detail:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2024/plans-digital-music-stations-extensions-bbc-radio-1-bbc-radio-2-bbc-radio-3/

[LMcD]

"Radio 3 will also get a new station to focus on calming classical music, aimed at helping listeners "unwind, de-stress and escape the pressures of daily life".

It will feature newly-released pieces and new compositions alongside performances of classic works. The BBC said the station would champion music by living composers including a new generation of artist-composers who receive a limited amount of airplay on other UK stations.

It will support the BBC Proms and feature content from the BBC orchestras and choirs as well as BBC Introducing acts."

Radio 2 spin-off among four new stations planned by BBC - BBC News

The spin-off station does sound to me a bit like the way Radio 3 is now! So where will that leave Radio 3?


(Please move this to a more appropriate location or delete if duplicated!)

Sounds a bit like an attempt - possibly doomed - to be all things to all men (and women, of course). If, on the other hand, it is a success, it may prove to be part of a wider process leading to the eventual abolition of broadcasts by BBC radio stations on FM.
(Presumably the 'old' and 'new' Radio 3's will relentlessly promote each other).

[french frank]

How will it change Radio 3? Will R3 continue to 'support the Proms and the BBC orchestras' as well? Will it still 'champion music by living composers including a new generation of artist-composers who receive a limited amount of airplay on other UK stations'. (What is an 'artist composer')? If R3 passes over the CFM 'calming classical music, aimed at helping listeners "unwind, de-stress and escape the pressures of daily life" and all the 'unclassifiable' stuff, that would be a welcome change. Which CFM presenters will they poach to present all this?

[Beresford]

Some of the new R3, R1, R2, and R5 stations will be only on Dab+. Does this augur the end of plain DAB? As it stands the plans will mean different overlapping groups of BBC radio stations will be on DAB, DAB+, MW, FM (and LW for R4), Freeview, Satellite, and the Internet. A hotch potch. Might make for some long winded trailers.
Several stations seem to have deserted plain DAB in the last year, including Classic FM and the other Global stations.
In my view it would make sense, and be cheaper, to have several of the stations presenter free (and trailer free), but I suspect the BBC want to avoid that path.

[oddoneout]

A bit more detail:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2024/plans-digital-music-stations-extensions-bbc-radio-1-bbc-radio-2-bbc-radio-3/

I've just read that link. The explanation of the R3 extension was for me, to use an inelegant phrase, vomit-inducing. Nothing to do with R3 that I could see, except in the very tenuous sense of including some bits of "classical" music.
It would be nice to think that creating a glorified and extended dumbtime station would mean that such content could be excised from what is left of R3 but of course that isn't going to happen. I imagine the advert infection will become even worse than it currently is if this goes ahead as they'll need to alert R3 listeners(repeatedly and with blunt implements) to what they are missing by opting out of R3X.
There has been forum discussion/suggestion in the past of a supplementary R3, but I don't think this was what as intended?

[LMcD]

Some of the new R3, R1, R2, and R5 stations will be only on Dab+. Does this augur the end of plain DAB? As it stands the plans will mean different overlapping groups of BBC radio stations will be on DAB, DAB+, MW, FM (and LW for R4), Freeview, Satellite, and the Internet. A hotch potch. Might make for some long winded trailers.
Several stations seem to have deserted plain DAB in the last year, including Classic FM and the other Global stations.
In my view it would make sense, and be cheaper, to have several of the stations presenter free (and trailer free), but I suspect the BBC want to avoid that path.

Indeed!

[french frank]

I've often posed the the question: What is Radio 3 for? Finally, I think we have R3 management's answer,

"[...] a calming classical music experience that matches[listeners'] daily routines and helps them escape the pressures of daily life."

[Ein Heldenleben]

Don’t know why people are getting so worked up about this . If it leads to the removal of certain late night chill out / relax / de-stress mixtapes on R3 so much the better, The reason they are doing it ? The enormous success of such mixtapes on Spotify et al. And that’s quite interesting : because those streamers’ editorial doesn’t fall under OFCOM’s remit it will be difficult to see how they (OFCOM) could object.

[french frank]

Don’t know why people are getting so worked up about this

I'm not sure that anyone is getting "worked up" about it. I agree that if it is intended to 'offload' the chill factor - Tearjerker was mentioned - on to the new station, so much the better. If the mixtapes move over too, that will be even better. The question mark is over what they will be replaced by on R3? Night Tracks, it seems, will be a simulcast. It is conceivable, therefore, that R3 won't change much from what it is now. R3Extension will be mixtapes (slow radio, mindfulness?) and R3 may still be Radio Ragbag as far as its CD sequences are concerned.

But I will not make up my mind about that until I see the programme schedule and playists .

[Ein Heldenleben]

I'm not sure that anyone is getting "worked up" about it. I agree that if it is intended to 'offload' the chill factor - Tearjerker was mentioned - on to the new station, so much the better. If the mixtapes move over too, that will be even better. The question mark is over what they will be replaced by on R3? Night Tracks, it seems, will be a simulcast. It is conceivable, therefore, that R3 won't change much from what it is now. R3Extension will be mixtapes (slow radio, mindfulness?) and R3 may still be Radio Ragbag as far as its CD sequences are concerned.

But I will not make up my mind about that until I see the programme schedule and playists .

“Vomit-inducing” ? Really ?

[french frank]

“Vomit-inducing” ? Really ?

'People'?

Though it might seem a particulaly appropriate reaction to anything BBC managers come out with relating to R3 or classical music!

[oddoneout]

“Vomit-inducing” ? Really ?

OK that was a bit OTT, but queasy certainly - bit like having had too much icecream or other sugar loaded comestible, reading about all that smooth, soothing, send you to sleep stuff. As I don't have to listen to it I shouldn't really mind, but my concern is what happens to what's left of R3 if this goes ahead. It could(and should) make things better but I have my doubts.

[Andrew Slater]

I wonder where they'll get the bandwidth from? New multiplex? (I doubt it.) Rent space on a commercial multiplex? Reduce the existing BBC DAB bit rates on the BBC multiplex to accommodate the new stations?

[french frank]

I wonder where they'll get the bandwidth from? New multiplex? (I doubt it.) Rent space on a commercial multiplex? Reduce the existing BBC DAB bit rates on the BBC multiplex to accommodate the new stations?

Not only bandwidth. The commercial sector is getting worked up about the plans, and in addition asks:

"“We would like to know where the money is coming from to fund these new services. The BBC often say that they need more funding to sustain current services and that they have already cut costs to the bone – including recently cutting back news and local radio funding. What are the BBC cutting to fund these new unnecessary services?"