Timing of Choral Evensong.

[Guest]

How I long for the days when CE was broadcast at 16:00h! This brought the afternoon to a civlised close, with the news following straight afterwards.

It was my practice to pour an early G&T and sip it through the CE hour, but 15:30 is really too early for that, as well as breaking into the real afternoon.

What hope of getting CE back to its 16:00 slot?

[gainasbass]

Not much chance of returning to the 16.00 slot at the moment I fear; ie as long as SR and "In Tune" have a 16.30 slot. What a coincedence, magnetman, that your post should be submitted around the first anniversary of the announcement of the re-programming of CE to 15.30, which was made by the BBC to the congregation present for last year's SCC broadcast from Winchester Cathedral.

How I also yearn for the 16.00 slot (which must have fitted in much better with the end of afternoon school for the choristers, as well as being more acceptable for the lay clerks); but my greatest regret is how many young people are being denied the opportunity to listen to the live broadcasts in their entirety because of school commitments etc (yes, I know that CE is generally repeated each Sunday, but family, not to mention ecclesastical, commitments can often get in the way of listening), and not everyone has access to LA.

As a teenager, I can remember looking forward to Wednesday broadcasts of CE and racing home from school to listen to the Home Service (before the days of R4/3) on mw. In those days the programme was only broadcast for 45 minutes, and was often finished at the expense of the closing stages of the service and the organ voluntary, depending, in particular, on the length of the psalms for the day.

Since those days the BBC introduced, for a comparitively short period, broadcast CEs on Friday each week, and extended the broadcast length of the Wednesday slot to an hour. We must be grateful to the BBC for the longest running OB, and hope that it will continue throughout the present century and beyond! As to the return of the 16.00 slot, we can only hope!

[ardcarp]

My God, magnetron, if I started G&Ts at 4pm, I'd be paralytic by suppertime. But it's a most original argument for returning CE to the old time!

[DracoM]

How I long for the days when CE was broadcast at 16:00h! This brought the afternoon to a civlised close, with the news following straight afterwards.

It was my practice to pour an early G&T and sip it through the CE hour, but 15:30 is really too early for that, as well as breaking into the real afternoon.

What hope of getting CE back to its 16:00 slot?

No chance, I fear.

The decision to repeat COTW at 6.30-7.30, the espousal of 'live' evening concerts have both shoved Rafferty back to 4.30 so that he can get in his 2 hrs. As a result CE gets shoved back too. Interestingly, that puts Rafferty out of kilter with every other 'drive time' programme on BBC radio, which as far as I can see all start at 5 p.m. so by any standards a bizarre decision.

However, a 3.30 p.m. start for CE is pretty early for some foundations - all manner of complications with schools etc as a result. We went through all this a few years ago when the timings changed. Means that choristers more or less completely miss afternoon school with rehearsals / sound checks etc. Some foundations do indeed start CE at 3.30 p.ml.. but rather more start at or about 5 p.m.. 5.30, and some Oxbridge colls at 6.30.

[Nick Armstrong]

My God, magnetron, if I started G&Ts at 4pm, I'd be paralytic by suppertime. But it's a most original argument for returning CE to the old time!

The thought occurred to me too!

Perhaps it's a rather stronger argument for a St John's (Cambridge) style 6.30pm start for the broadcast?

[french frank]

It's an illustration of how beholden people in the (broad) 'music industry' are to Radio 3 and how they can therefore be manipulated to suit Radio 3's purpose/schedule.

I think I would probably - in these days of iPlayer - drop the repeat of CotW, either completely, or return it to a later slot (and it's been on late night, mid evening and early evening) or reduce the repeat to an edited omnibus edition for the weekends. Thus returning In Tune to 5pm.

Most of what lies behind this is, I think, about money (repeats are less expensive and they also fill slots for which R3 would otherwise have to find alternatives). In terms of content spend the popular music stations have been gaining hand over fist compared with Radio 3.

Could anyone explain why Radio 1's content now (2011-12) costs more than Radio 3's (with all its outside concert broadcasts, special features and expensive full-length drama)?

[magnetman]

I should have explained (but did not) that my CE G&T has to be the only one of the evening! It merely brought it forward (but spoiled dinner preparation).

[muticus]

You poor thing - I would hate to have to move on the the Whisky and Soda quite so early!

[mopsus]

Didn't Radio 1 sponsor a music festival recently? There was a bit of a row about it, partly stirred up by promoters of other music festivals in competition with it for audiences.

Is R3 drama very expensive? Many of the Sunday-night plays only involve a handful of actors. And here too, repeats are frequent.

When I used not to work on Wednesdays I used to do the Private Eye crossword during CE, being thwarted only when the post brought Private Eye a day late.

[french frank]

Didn't Radio 1 sponsor a music festival recently?

Radio 3 'sponsors' the Proms for two months every year! (As to how much they 'cost' - let's not go there ...)

Is R3 drama very expensive? Many of the Sunday-night plays only involve a handful of actors. And here too, repeats are frequent.

Radio drama is one of the most expensive genres. CD-based music programmes on R3 cost (median) £650 per hour. Median cost of drama on R3: independent £18,525 per hour, in-house £23,965 per hour (NAO figures for 2007-08).

[Flosshilde]

It was my practice to pour an early G&T and sip it through the CE hour,

So much more refreshing than comminion wine.

I used to do the Private Eye crossword during CE, being thwarted only when the post brought Private Eye a day late.

Well, one has to do something while those tedious sermons drone on.



I thought that Choral Evensong was a religious service? & that the reason for broadcasting it was so that those people who couldn't attend church could derive a feeling of participation from home?

[mopsus]

In my case CE broadcasts aren't a substitute for attending services. One reason I wasn't very happy when they went out on Sundays was that I'd already been to church once that day, and was possibly going again later, so didn't feel like listening to a broadcast service as well. (But I know other church-goers who are quite happy to listen to the morning R4 service on the way to their own church, so different strokes for different folks!)

As for radio drama: noted. I wonder if Radio 3 syndicates its plays to other English-speaking countries? That could actually be quite a nice little earner if they do.

[ardcarp]

my CE G&T has to be the only one of the evening!

Ah, you're clearly a person of self control. For me, one thing leads to another.

[Flosshilde]

You can resist anything except temptation?

[ardcarp]

Zacly. Hic.