Guardian interview with R3 boss Alan Davey

[Hitch]

I thought this might be of interest:

"Five orchestras, £60m and the Proms: a day in the life of Radio 3 boss Alan Davey."

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

He's saying all the right words - and even in the right order. I hope he is allowed to deliver.

(And I've just remembered - nowadays, even Radio 3 controllers are younger than me!)

[Serial_Apologist]

He's saying all the right words - and even in the right order. I hope he is allowed to deliver.

(And I've just remembered - nowadays, even Radio 3 controllers are younger than me!)

When either you're knocking on or losing your marbles is when important people start looking smaller; this being the radical senior citizen's equivalent of most people's remarking on the police looking younger than themselves.

[french frank]

He's saying all the right words - and even in the right order. I hope he is allowed to deliver.

(And I've just remembered - nowadays, even Radio 3 controllers are younger than me!)

I liked: "He is coy about the changes he is planning, but hints at the launch of a weekly programme that will take an in-depth, nuts-and-bolts approach to musical works – a tacit admission that scrapping Discovering Music in 2013 was a mistake."

The survey we sent AD some months ago was clear that a majority of our supporters (contemptibly few though they be :-) ) wanted just such a programme. Pushing at an open door there, I'd say …

And FoR3 gets a mention here, albeit … 'equivocal' Nevertheless, he's still saying the right things (and Michael White has been as critical as we have!).

[mercia]

"he has to boost overall numbers of listeners ...."

"chasing ratings is a recipe for disaster, he says"

isn't that a contradiction ?

[french frank]

"he has to boost overall numbers of listeners ...."

"chasing ratings is a recipe for disaster, he says"

isn't that a contradiction ?

It's a challenge, perhaps, more than a contradiction?

[VodkaDilc]

Presumably this is in tomorrow's paper, so I will resist the urge to peep now. I find this business of tomorrow's newspapers being released early to computer-type readers very disturbing - but I am 66.

[Hitch]

I didn't mean it to come as a shock.

[VodkaDilc]

(And I've just remembered - nowadays, even Radio 3 controllers are younger than me!)

I think the last one who was older than me was John Drummond - possibly the last one who was any good at the job too.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

When either you're knocking on or losing your marbles is when important people start looking smaller; this being the radical senior citizen's equivalent of most people's remarking on the police looking younger than themselves.

Ooh - I dunno. I think I'm with Norma Desmond on this - I'm still big; it's Radio 3 that got smaller!"

[mercia]

I don't have a dictionary to hand but I thought "ratings" (in this context) meant the same as "number of listeners"

if the changes he makes increase the number of listeners will he not have increased the ratings ?

[Old Grumpy]

He's saying all the right words - and even in the right order. I hope he is allowed to deliver.

(And I've just remembered - nowadays, even Radio 3 controllers are younger than me!)

Good interview I thought. Double bonus is that all the words are right and in the correct order - this being the Guardian and all!

Younger than me too - hey ho!


OG

[antongould]

Did anything bad ever come from Stockton-on-Tees? ... IMVVHO a very good / hopeful interview ......

[teamsaint]

In my line of work, a quality product will almost always out perform our market expectations.

If we commission purely with an eye to sales, we tend to create mediocre books.No contradiction in the R3 version, which is having an eye to ratings numbers and chasing listeners for the sake of it, IMO.

Oh , and sombody tell him Discovering Music needs to be a daily strand, not weekly. Doesnt need to be a full half hour or hour, just a short feature some days, perhaps .Be bold.

[french frank]

I don't have a dictionary to hand but I thought "ratings" meant the same as "number of listeners"

if the changes he makes increase the number of listeners will he not have increased the ratings ?

I would say 'chasing ratings' implied getting as big an audience as possible by any means, including 'dumbing down', because numbers are all that matter (which is the case with commercial media); and this is in most cases looking for material known to have popular/populist appeal. But persuading more people to listen to Radio 3 without dumbing down is 'a challenge': the easy way is to dumb down with populist presentation like using popular celebrities, playing short pieces, playing the same works regularly so that they become familiar to people who don't know very much. The things that Radio 3 has been doing. That's where they fall between two stools: they don't increase audiences and they do lower their standards, which is what I take Davey to mean by a 'recipe for disaster'.

All right - a narrow line, I'll give you