A love letter to Radio 3

[gradus]

R3 is Terra Incognita to many people. This morning I spoke to an educated intelligent forty year old who runs a local cultural institution and the conversation turned to BBC Radio, she told me that she listened to R2 in the car but had no idea what R3 broadcast and had never tried it. I was taken aback but I now understand a little better why the BBC worries about broadening the audience for our preferred radio station.

[gradus]

Yes points taken.

I still don’t mind if I never hear a note of Florence’s music again…

Perhaps I need to hear more of Florence Price's music to appreciate it better but I'm underwhelmed by what I have heard so far.

[DracoM]

erm.........Beeb ticking boxes?

[Ein Heldenleben]

R3 is Terra Incognita to many people. This morning I spoke to an educated intelligent forty year old who runs a local cultural institution and the conversation turned to BBC Radio, she told me that she listened to R2 in the car but had no idea what R3 broadcast and had never tried it. I was taken aback but I now understand a little better why the BBC worries about broadening the audience for our preferred radio station.

That doesn’t surprise me in the least. I gave up trying to have conversations with former colleagues at the BBC about R3 when I worked there as it was quite evident that virtually no one listened to it. It used to slightly annoy me that they often then went on to bag free seats at the Proms and then ask me about the works being played.
Radio 4 on the other hand seems to be a universal taste there esp the Today programme.

[french frank]

... the BBC worries about broadening the audience for our preferred radio station.

Not in dispute. The disagreement lies in how they choose to remedy the situation. 'Broadening the audience' just means 'getting more people to isten' (aka improving the ratings). On that basis the obvious thing to do is to ditch all the classical music, the drama, the arty stuff and put on more popular stuff - people can't get enough of that. Reposition some of the old favourites from R2 and R4 on R3 to make more space for other stuff. If they don't just mean improve the ratings: then

1. Define the aim

2. How to achieve it

[Kernow Malc]

Love letter? Divorce proceedings as far as I'm concerned. They've ruined it.

[DracoM]

Night TRacks

[antongould]

Not in dispute. The disagreement lies in how they choose to remedy the situation. 'Broadening the audience' just means 'getting more people to isten' (aka improving the ratings). On that basis the obvious thing to do is to ditch all the classical music, the drama, the arty stuff and put on more popular stuff - people can't get enough of that. Reposition some of the old favourites from R2 and R4 on R3 to make more space for other stuff. If they don't just mean improve the ratings: then

1. Define the aim

2. How to achieve it

We have discussed this many times over, now, many years but if you were appointed Controller of R3 would you look to increase its audience , and if so how …. ???

[french frank]

but if you were appointed Controller of R3 would you look to increase its audience , and if so how …. ???

That's asking the wrong question

That's why I suggested that first they should define the aim: if it's "We aim to increase the audience" it poses the question Why do you want to increase the audience?

If you want to 'broaden the audience' - a cliché if there ever was one and a meaningless one at that - I'd ask 'Broaden it in what way?' Increase it? Broaden the age range? Broaden the social grades? Broaden the music range? All of those? Or does it boil down to getting more listeners to make it worth spending money on the station? In which case you'd need to cut back on the R3 stuff and introduce as much new content… oh, wait …

There doesn't seem to be any vision at the BBC which recognises that the arts have an intrinsic value which makes them worth cultivating.

[hmvman]

There doesn't seem to be any vision at the BBC which recognises that the arts have an intrinsic value which makes them worth cultivating.

That seems, generally, to be the way of things now, the bottom line and ROI.

[richardfinegold]

I’m glad it’s not just me - I’ve never been able to see the inclusion of so much of her stuff as anything more than a ‘tick box’ exercise… (and I go out of my way to avoid it).

As opposed likewise to the work of plenty of other women composers - I’d say that my principal debt to R3 in recent years has been to open my ears to the music of Louise Farrenc, Charlotte Sohy, Doreen Carwithen, Hélène de Montgeroult, Mel Bonis etc etc

Same here, and I’ve given every recording of hers that can find a hearing. If only her Music was as remarkable as her Life Story

[richardfinegold]

Perhaps someone can tell an American why there is a move to defund the BBC?

[smittims]

Well, it was an American who disbanded the NBC Symphony Orchestra.

[french frank]

Perhaps someone can tell an American why there is a move to defund the BBC?

I'm not sure there's much of a move to do so but some people's reasons might be:

1. If 95% of what the BBC provides does not differ significantly from what the commerical companies provide, why should it be given public funds to do that, thus proviiding unfair competition?

2. The BBC so obviously breaches its own constitutional obligation to be (politically) impartial that it should not receive public funds while it continues to do so..

I should add that I do not support defunding the BBC on either ground because I don't agree with the premises on which they are based but if I were an American I wouldn't favour defunding the police, but some people do.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Perhaps someone can tell an American why there is a move to defund the BBC?

Because it’s in the commercial interests of a lot of press , TV and digital media companies to get rid of a major public service provider that stands in the way of them maximising their profits. With so much news now consumed online the BBC News website is now directly competing with News International , The Mail Group and a whole raft of other companies.The only element that politicians care about is news coverage - few of them watch any other tv at all in my experience. The problem they have is that the BBC is surprisingly popular with a lot of elderly voters.
Incidentally US PBS has a budget considerably less than a tenth of the BBC’s for a country 5 times larger.