I will try. Say the average age of listeners to R3 from age 15 to 105 is 58 or 60. The average age will be lower than 58 or 60 for listeners to R3 from age 0 to 105 or 4 to 105.
Now you might say hardly anyone between 0 and 14 will be listening to R3. I would ask how can we know. It might be that nearly all of the children of parents who listen to R3 also listen to R3. Given the nature of such households - attentiveness, musicality in families etc - I would even suggest that this is highly likely.
And it hardly matters that children who listen to R3 will be very small in number compared with the rest of their age group. The same applies to adults of any age who listen to R3 compared with those in their age groups. So incorporating the 0-14s could conceivably bring the average age of listeners to R3 down quite considerably. I accept that, equally conceivably, it would bring it down only a little but again I would ask how can we know.
We need fair and adequate consultation. Without such information, RW cannot say for certain that the average age of R3 listeners isn't younger than it was in the 60s and the 70s. This matters when we are forever being told about the changes in the number of listeners to R1 since its heyday in that era. It also matters when content changes are being made with no way of knowing whether they make any difference to the average age of listeners.
And I suspect that R1's current figures are being hyped up by the 4-14s who almost certainly would have had no equivalent voice for providing feedback to broadcasters 30 or 40 years ago. As an aside, like it or not, and I don't much, R2 is probably a titan.
Now you might say hardly anyone between 0 and 14 will be listening to R3. I would ask how can we know. It might be that nearly all of the children of parents who listen to R3 also listen to R3. Given the nature of such households - attentiveness, musicality in families etc - I would even suggest that this is highly likely.
And it hardly matters that children who listen to R3 will be very small in number compared with the rest of their age group. The same applies to adults of any age who listen to R3 compared with those in their age groups. So incorporating the 0-14s could conceivably bring the average age of listeners to R3 down quite considerably. I accept that, equally conceivably, it would bring it down only a little but again I would ask how can we know.
We need fair and adequate consultation. Without such information, RW cannot say for certain that the average age of R3 listeners isn't younger than it was in the 60s and the 70s. This matters when we are forever being told about the changes in the number of listeners to R1 since its heyday in that era. It also matters when content changes are being made with no way of knowing whether they make any difference to the average age of listeners.
And I suspect that R1's current figures are being hyped up by the 4-14s who almost certainly would have had no equivalent voice for providing feedback to broadcasters 30 or 40 years ago. As an aside, like it or not, and I don't much, R2 is probably a titan.
Comment