SK not natural

[greenilex]

I am probably like a lot of my age-group - mid seventies - in having a radio in each room tuned to the station I use most often, R3. So as I move about I press a button and can listen fairly smoothly. I get annoyed with morning and evening presentation but feel compensated by the occasional serendipity. I do use the iPlayer, but not every day.

[Bryn]

. . . Of course, nobody from that 3.5million who have "never used a computer" has contributed to the Forum.

Don't be so sure. There may be among us one or more who registered via, and only use, a smart phone, and fail(s) to recognise it as a computer.

[french frank]

I would also suggest that the 70% of pensioners who do have used a computer are perhaps more likely to represent a likely population among which to find potential Radio 3 listeners.

There are swings and roundabouts. Radio 3 'pensioners' are more likely to be computer literate than the average older person, so as far as concerns the 'elderly Radio 3 audience' (no, not you, ferney!), there is a smaller percentage of a larger than average pool. And even among those who do have a computer, the majority of all audiences still listen via their radios, regardless of what other ways of receiving they may own.

Should iPlayer be a substitute for standard radio, so that people don't need to listen through a radio at all, or an additional facility?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... all right, all right - but must you show off quite so brazenly?

- "below average" is a phrase that has followed me throughout life. In this instance, I have only another twelve months before I get promoted.

[vinteuil]

... In this instance, I have ... another twelve months before I get promoted.

... and he continues to show off!!!



.

[Pianorak]

. . . a radio in each room tuned to the station I use most often, R3. So as I move about I press a button and can listen fairly smoothly. . .

Having a mixture of FM and DAB radios the signals of which are out of sync there's no fairly smooth listening moving about. Not blaming Radio 3, just saying.

[Sir Velo]

As at last year, 30% of pensioners have never used a computer. The average age of the Radio 3 audience is 59, which means a lot of older listeners are not in a position to take advantage of the iPlayer.

They want to listen on their radios at the most popular times for listening to radio. That means, effectively, to three programmes: Breakfast, Essential Classics and In Tune.

Mmm, I'm not convinced by that argument. For one thing, surely those "older listeners" are not constrained to listening at any given time of the day?

[Serial_Apologist]

Having a mixture of FM and DAB radios the signals of which are out of sync there's no fairly smooth listening moving about. Not blaming Radio 3, just saying.

The experience is slightly out-of-bodily!

[french frank]

Mmm, I'm not convinced by that argument. For one thing, surely those "older listeners" are not constrained to listening at any given time of the day?

The matter of whether individuals are free to listen at any time at all is not the main factor, apparently. Listening to the radio, for all stations, follows roughly the same pattern with stations like Radio 3 having some distinctive features which don't alter the pattern completely.

Breakfast time is, for pretty obvious reasons, the peak time for listening: people in the home, relatively immobile wherever they are preparing or eating the meal. It's the time when advertising demand (that is, demand from advertisers!) is at its highest. From 9am onwards, audiences drop away flatlining during the afternoon until drivetime, then falling again as people migrate over to television.

That is how people choose to regulate their day, and you seem to be saying that they should do it differently.

Radio 3's main differences are that the breakfast time peak is a little later and the audience doesn't fall away so steeply during the course of the morning. That is not to do with what's being broadcast (exception probably the evening concert where evening listening is higher on R3 than other stations): it's how people listen. You might as well tell them to sit at their computers and listen to Listen Again more. It doesn't suit their preferences. But yes, they could be asked to alter their Preferences.

[Old Grumpy]

... all right, all right - but must you show off quite so brazenly?






.

Now slightly above average (age), I have recently replaced my retro mobile telephone with a smartphone. I am loving the facility to download and listen to selected Radio 3 programmes on iplayer. Makes listening to programmes I want to hear much easier. One thing this site is very good for is flagging up potential programmes of interest. S_A's punning jazz bulletins and Dovers' Early Music alerts are my favourites, but the one offs (e.g. Keraulophone's heads up for the Joanna Macregor programme on Radio 4) are also very useful.

OG

[LMcD]

Mmm, I'm not convinced by that argument. For one thing, surely those "older listeners" are not constrained to listening at any given time of the day?

The lack of any such constraint is one of the (many) joys of retirement. A few days ago, I sat down in front of my PC just after 7.00 a.m. and watched Petrenko's Elgar 2nd from the Proms on YouTube - the work sounded no less splendid than it usually does.

[Opinionated Knowall]

T

Radio 3's main differences are that the breakfast time peak is a little later and the audience doesn't fall away so steeply during the course of the morning.

Interestingly, right through the CD Masters (from when it started at 9am), Classical Collection and the early years of Essential Classics, Radio 3 bucked this trend completely, with those programmes increasing the Breakfast audience, holding on to it, and handing on an audience of about the same size as 9am to Composer of the Week at midday. The last couple of years of Essential Classics and now the revamped version take over a much larger Breakfast audience at 9am, and immediately it plummets, at least according to the latest figures.

[Nick Armstrong]

I have recently replaced my retro mobile telephone with a smartphone. I am loving the facility to download and listen to selected Radio 3 programmes on iplayer. Makes listening to programmes I want to hear much easier.

Yes, I switched to a 'smartphone' for other reasons last spring, and what you say is proving a major bonus. Prior to that, I always said that having a good FM receiver in my old mobile was a powerful reason to stick to it: no longer, due to my now complete unwillingness to listen to live R3 save at dead of night. The R3 download application (on both the phone and my iPad) enables selective listening on the move without any signal or network being needed - it's transformed my listening. And both devices hook up with a single touch to the home hifi when here.

[oddoneout]

I think our Suzy tries too hard - a touch of the over-achieving headgirl? Her approach to punctuation I find less problematic that Petroc's. It's a bit exhausting to listen to, but at least doesn't make a nonsense of the text by putting in arbitrary gaps("Richard Egarr Undefiled Mother of God" being a notable recent one).