Radio 3 Schedule changes

[LMcD]

Damian Thompson has a rant in the Spectator's (paywalled) 'The mutilation of Radio 3': "...reducing the serious presentation of classical music to the point where Radio 3 is little more than a Spotify playlist interrupted by disc-jockey burbling."

It's hard to disagree with him.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Damian Thompson has a rant in the Spectator's (paywalled) 'The mutilation of Radio 3': "...reducing the serious presentation of classical music to the point where Radio 3 is little more than a Spotify playlist interrupted by disc-jockey burbling."

Thanks for posting .An excellent article which uses ample quotation and example to prove his points. What makes it telling is the author knows the station well and is pretty complimentary about some presenters. Of course spotify and the music streamers plus easy access to news services via smart speaker will pretty soon kill off low grade or low added value radio. One day we’ll have AI generated radio presenters. It raises the intriguing possibility of having very high quality links between pieces . At that point unless R3 gets its thinking cap on it’s all over - in the same way that’s rapidly happening to some of the terrestrial TV channels.

[DracoM]

..............and, IMO, he's damned close to being dead right.

[Old Grumpy]

Damian Thompson has a rant in the Spectator's (paywalled) 'The mutilation of Radio 3'

I seemed to be able to read (what I suspect is) the whole article...

...and I certainly am not a Spectator subscriber.

[french frank]

I saw this earlier this evening when someone sent it to me. Quite a few (of us) would agree, though it makes me a little uncomfortable that by saying much the same things we are with the ultra-conservatives "who don't like change" brigade. I agree he made the point well about the length of time RR had been on R3 and that the afternoon slots are downgrading the programmes when boosting ratings is more important than quality content.

[Ein Heldenleben]

I saw this earlier this evening when someone sent it to me. Quite a few (of us) would agree, though it makes me a little uncomfortable that by saying much the same things we are with the ultra-conservatives "who don't like change" brigade. I agree he made the point well about the length of time RR had been on R3 and that the afternoon slots are downgrading the programmes when boosting ratings is more important than quality content.

I don’t think Damian is an ultra conservative to be honest.

[french frank]

I don’t think Damian is an ultra conservative to be honest.

I would tend to disagree but I'm only judging by what he writes and who he writes for. Incidentally, he is a forum member though he only joined to post something a couple of years back. Can't remember what.

[Serial_Apologist]

I would tend to disagree but I'm only judging by what he writes and who he writes for. Incidentally, he is a forum member though he only joined to post something a couple of years back. Can't remember what.

Is he any family relation to Mark Thompson, anyone know?

[smittims]

We've seen umpteen complaints about the Jackson regime , but I can't imagine a return to how we'd like Radio 3 to be. I suspect it depends on the uncertainty about the BBC's future generally, including how it will be funded when the licence fee comes to an end, andthat may depend in turn on the outcome of the General Election, which surely , morally-speaking, should have been yesterday. I suppose there are a lot of worried heads in the BBCat present, who feel that the survival of something called Radio3, however dumbed-down, is better than abolition. I'd have preferred them to brave all and celebrate intellectual standards, but that may have risked a 'First-day-of-the-Somme' annihilation.

[Serial_Apologist]

We've seen umpteen complaints about the Jackson regime , but I can't imagine a return to how we'd like Radio 3 to be. I suspect it depends on the uncertainty about the BBC's future generally, including how it will be funded when the licence fee comes to an end, andthat may depend in turn on the outcome of the General Election, which surely , morally-speaking, should have been yesterday. I suppose there are a lot of worried heads in the BBCat present, who feel that the survival of something called Radio3, however dumbed-down, is better than abolition. I'd have preferred them to brave all and celebrate intellectual standards, but that may have risked a 'First-day-of-the-Somme' annihilation.

Exactly! - One danger of over-using historic acts of bravery in resistance as analogy consists in the slow downward trickle, once allowed unrecognised, then becoming an avalanche. Always better to stand one's ground in comparative safety from the start.

[french frank]

We've seen umpteen complaints about the Jackson regime , but I can't imagine a return to how we'd like Radio 3 to be [...] celebrate intellectual standards, but that may have risked a 'First-day-of-the-Somme' annihilation.

It seems to me there's a baby-and-bath-water approach, with apparently not a great deal of analytical thinking by BBC managers (or even listeners sometimes!). Times change, tastes change, fashions change. But how does R3 respond to such changes? and what should not change? What exactly are the 'indispensable' drivers of the changes made?

So, for instance, one can understand the Controller of Radio 2 deciding that in 2023 FNIMN no longer 'served' the Radio 2 audience. But what exactly is the thinking behind putting it on Radio 3? [I think we should be told!]