Your call?

[johnb]

ff,

I remember you saying that the average age of R3 is (or was) 56. Do you know if that was a straight average of the age of the listeners or if it was weighted by the number of hours that each person listened?

I ask because, of course, retired people have a greater opportunity to listen (e.g. during the day time) and are usually not as pressurised for time, which might well skew the average age if it is weighted by hours listened.

[petalmoore]

I can also claim three, and have no wish to move to the fourth. Why, if this is the audience does not Roger Wrong provide the programmes we want, use his common sense. The younger audience are not switching over in droves so are probably content with whatever it is they are currently listening to, meanwhile the existing audience are increasingly frustrated by the gimmicks, guests and tinkerings. Roger it's simple Level 1 is on Classic FM, let's get back to proper Level 2 on R3!

Yes, there is a mixed message here, since the vox pop element is only uncovering existing listeners who conform to what the potential younger audience would see as a fuddy-duddy stereotype (we know better, of course...). The potential new listeners will only materialise if R3 actively goes out looking for them by canvassing people outside the existing set of listeners, for example in the ways I suggested at the start (open-air concerts, music college students, children's choirs and orchestra, community choirs etc) and then broadcasting what they say, putting something on BBC Music Magazine, posting comments on Facebook etc. where that target audience might actually see or hear something about the changes and take some notice.

The result mightn't be what I actually want - I simply think the R3 management hasn't gone about achieving its own remit very effectively enough, and we've ended up with a half-baked, motley, format.

[Norfolk Born]

Going back to the original message - it was a lady listener this morning. I believe she was a Guide leader or something similar. (I was still fuming inwardly at being restricted to the first movement of the 'Moonlight' sonata.)

[french frank]

nI remember you saying that the average age of R3 is (or was) 56.

RW quoted 56 last week - last time I saw an official figure it was 59.

I think it would be a straight 'average', not weighted. If you want a fairly recent breakdown by age, the BBC charter documentation had it (average age then 57). Hmmm. I downloaded the document but nothing showing on google now.

In 2003/04:

Over age 55 - 60% who account for 69% of the listening hours.

Of the remaining 40%: age 45-54 - 18.4%; 35-44 - 11.3%; 25-34 - 6.3%; 15-24 - 4%

[I've just unearthed a letter from BBC Audience Measurement: 2006, Quarter 3 (Proms quarter), average age given as 60, but a single quarter in isolation is obviously not reliable as a general indication. Male 57.5%, Female 42.5%]

[kernelbogey]

On the basis of those figures, I think the current attempt to woo another audience even more misguided. I'd have thought all the texting n emailing n phoning-in would be aimed at the 25-34 age group. If the audience heartland is over 55, then targeting more of that age group and maybe the 45-54s would make better marketing sense. Seems like a case for bringing back Brian Kay (or a clone) on Sunday morning . Et cetera, et al.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Petalmoore mentions lack of female callers, this is possibly that the R3 audience is overwhelmingly male?

Or is it that the women who listen have more sense than to perpetuate this pointless exercise? If so, they have my enduring respect.

[french frank]

Seems like a case for bringing back Brian Kay (or a clone) on Sunday morning . Et cetera, et al.

For some people, bringing Brian Kay to Radio 3's Sunday mornings was one of the worst crimes of Nick Kenyon. But among the random figures I've been able to accumulate, that programme stands out as by far the most popular. Listening plummeted when he departed and even Rob's Collection didn't do a lot to recover the numbers.

However, bring him back and we come to a frying pan and fire situation. No longer imitating Classic FM but turning into Radio 2's Light Programme (with Mr Kay's immortal phrase for requests, 'Don't be afraid to be obvious - Bolero and the 1812 Overture will be fine.')

[kernelbogey]

I wasn't serious about bringing back BK: the point I'm making is that he obviously hit the spot on Sunday morning for the key audience, cardy and all, and no subsequent formula has lasted long. I guess Rob may stay the course now as he has the kind of friendly gravitas that I think was the key to BK's success with that audience. I just don't believe the current strategy for Breakfast will make any real difference to audience numbers.

[Norfolk Born]

Brian Kay's Light Programme, which (was) ended in 2007 was broadcast on Sunday afternoons.

[french frank]

Brian Kay's Light Programme, which (was) ended in 2007 was broadcast on Sunday afternoons.

But this was the earlier version (Brian Kay's Sunday Morning) which ended on July 15 2001. It was replaced by Sunday Live with Stephanie Hughes. After a few years that was replaced by the Cowan Collection, succeeded by Iain Burnside (Sunday Morning).

[kernelbogey]

How time flies when you're enjoying yourself!

[Lateralthinking1]

These figures represent the average age from what age? 15? 18? Presumably not 0 unless 0 year olds are more adept at completing surveys than I was when their age!

[french frank]

These figures represent the average age from what age? 15? 18? Presumably not 0 unless 0 year olds are more adept at completing surveys than I was when their age!

RAJAR audience is 15 years and above, though for Radio 1 they also collect the 4-14 year-olds, of whom I think there are about a million.

[Lateralthinking1]

Ah! Thank you and characteristically you have anticipated my next question.

If the average age of people is 36 - I wonder why that is an official figure I seriously doubt - then we wouldn't wisely be taking much notice of it in regard to the average age of listeners to R3 which only takes account of over 14s.

If RAJAR generally goes from age 15, does this mean that in the real world the average age of listeners to R3 is in the 40-44 range? I think it might be. If not 45-49. Actually, the latter is more probable. Ditto R4. Could it be that in reality they are drawing in much younger average audiences than in the 1960s and 1970s irrespective of any decisions by editors?

(Let us say that the percentages are about the same as in those decades and as I say it might be better than that. That to me still means more significant younger audiences now seeing that we have a bigger elderly population).

As for the headline figures on audiences, R1 is doing worse than is revealed. The direct comparison each month with other stations is rubbish because only it among BBC stations that also appeal to some adults appears to take account of 4-14s.

Then you get this business of drawing in the young to all stations through programme changes because there is a panic that radio will just disappear. The young aren't listening.

Really? How could anyone possibly know if the 4-14s are only being selectively consulted?

[johnb]

If RAJAR generally goes from age 15, does this mean that in the real world the average age of listeners to R3 is in the 40-44 range? I think it might be. If not 45-49. Actually, the latter is more probable. Ditto R4. Could it be that in reality they are drawing in much younger average audiences than in the 1960s and 1970s irrespective of any decisions by editors?

You've lost me. Can you please elucidate?