Latest RAJARs

[french frank]

And talking of the ladylike Mumsnet, this thread from Feb 2016 is not only entertaining to read, it's interesting to analyse the posters - these are by no means the Classic FM listeners. I mean, seriously, these are real listeners. I hadn't caught up with this discussion

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Assuming I am a typical R3 listener, I am accustomed to week-long immersion events, and, if I don't like the subject, there is plenty on iPlayer from previous weeks to keep me going. I seem to recall Roger Wright was always having immersion events- weekends, and all week. But it didn't seem to make much difference.
However a constant unrelieved diet of Schoenberg would I think force closure of R3. There is a limit on how much listeners' ears can be educated, and moved away from existing predilections.

There is a big difference between the "all (or nothing) composerthons" that RW thought were a good idea - every work ever composed by Bach/Beethoven/whover, played end-to-end with no other Music by anybody else broadcast during the weeks that these took place - and the "immersions" such as the focus on the Second Viennese School during the first week of this year (or the Monteverdi specials of last week). There never was a "constant, unrelieved diet of Schoenberg": just greater focus put on the works of Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, ans a few of their contemporaries during the course of the otherwise "normal" R3 schedule.

[Serial_Apologist]

There is a big difference between the "all (or nothing) composerthons" that RW thought were a good idea - every work ever composed by Bach/Beethoven/whover, played end-to-end with no other Music by anybody else broadcast during the weeks that these took place - and the "immersions" such as the focus on the Second Viennese School during the first week of this year (or the Monteverdi specials of last week). There never was a "constant, unrelieved diet of Schoenberg": just greater focus put on the works of Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, ans a few of their contemporaries during the course of the otherwise "normal" R3 schedule.

Plus, contrary to some opinions, there is no limit, if we have the open ears Radio 3 encouraged, twice upon a time.

[Lat-Literal]

The interesting point about the Radio 3 audience is that people don't listen for longer. The average last quarter was 6 hours per listener per week. But the average will be made up of people who (allegedly) listen to Breakfast for about 20 minutes per day + anything else; those who just listen to Late Junction ('the only good programme on Radio 3'), or Jazz Record Requests, or the play, or the concert, or they have it on all day while they do other things. In other words, many will listen in a very focused way for relatively short times, and they select their programmes. That was what the Third Programme audience was 'supposed' to do. The era of non-stop half-listening hadn't yet dawned.

But as for ads putting off audiences (BBC trails, anyone?), this was the evidence we presented that Radio 3 was angling for the Classic FM audience:

https://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/2019507-Classic-FM-Ads-are-too-depressing

So, Essential Classics, anyone?

Fair points but navigation in this era is extraordinarily difficult especially if one is to avoid all the things one wants to avoid and not miss out on anything one doesn't want to miss out on. Let us take Villa Lobos as just one example. If I don't want to miss anything by Villa Lobos on BBC Radio 3 I have to go through the entire schedules for each week with a microscope. Then multiply that by all of the other things I wouldn't want to miss out on in radio and television across dozens and dozens of stations and it is like a strategic exercise in a war room. What also happens is that I write everything down and then don't manage to hear 75% of it. Arguably I hear more things when I am not drained by planning and the process is sporadic but then I get all the duff stuff too. My election manifesto sets out my fully costed proposals for reducing the number of station licences to pre 1979 levels.

[french frank]

Plus, contrary to some opinions, there is no limit, if we have the open ears Radio 3 encouraged, twice upon a time.

But back to my earlier comment - in general there's no predicting why one quarter happens to be lower/higher than expected, especially with Radio 3. A clutch of 'rogue' samples could distort the whole picture. My brief analysis is here.

[Lat-Literal]

But back to my earlier comment - in general there's no predicting why one quarter happens to be lower/higher than expected, especially with Radio 3. A clutch of 'rogue' samples could distort the whole picture. My brief analysis is here.

Yes, succinct and to the point - but it also has musicality.

[french frank]

Yes, succinct and to the point - but it also has musicality.

[antongould]

Presumably Squire Trelawney has gained all the listeners who have left Chris Evans ..... ????

[antongould]

Presumably Squire Trelawney has gained all the listeners who have left Chris Evans ..... ????

"Radio 3 has a weekly audience of 2.06 million listeners - compared to 1.88m last quarter and 2.20m last year. The network’s share is 1.2%, from 1.1% last quarter and 1.2% last year."

Perhaps not .......

[french frank]

"Radio 3 has a weekly audience of 2.06 million listeners - compared to 1.88m last quarter and 2.20m last year. The network’s share is 1.2%, from 1.1% last quarter and 1.2% last year."

Perhaps not .......

The irritating thing is that even () the BBC describes the new results in a stupid way: Chris Evans has "lost" half a million listeners. No, he hasn't. Figures fluctuate as there are hardly going to be the identical number of listeners over a 12-13 week period - and the same number with a different sample the next quarter. Some quarters the number is up, sometimes it's down: next quarter CE could "gain" half a million listeners. Next quarter, oh, dear, he's lost them again and so on …

So Radio 3 - a disappointing Quarter 1, a better Quarter 2. Saying that it "lost" 10% of its listeners last quarter makes no sense when you then have to say next quarter, 'Oh, no: they're back again this quarter'.

I haven't checked Radio 1 and Radio 2 figures closely, but at first sight it looks as if both are down while R3 (and CFM) are up. What goes down must come up, and vice versa. Still, it's reassuring that last quarter's R3 figures weren't the start of a terminal decline

[DracoM]

And Proms season usually influences numbers, doesn't it, when the next quarterly figures are presented?

[french frank]

And Proms season usually influences numbers, doesn't it, when the next quarterly figures are presented?

Yes, it does often - though even with those there can be 'rogue quarters' when the results have been horrible - not necessarily related to the Proms programme, either!

As for the squire: Breakfast had 100,000 fewer listeners (down 13%) this quarter than a year ago, and 80,000 more than last quarter.

[antongould]

Just so I can tell my grandchildren to look out for it - what is the ff definition of terminal decline ..... ???? - 2 successive quarters with results down on both last quarter and last year .... ????

[french frank]

Just so I can tell my grandchildren to look out for it - what is the ff definition of terminal decline ..... ???? - 2 successive quarters with results down on both last quarter and last year .... ????

Longer than that - for 'terminal' I'd look at five years and no obvious changes in management strategy.

We've had a 'significant' change (for the better, in my opinion) which was of a kind that might have adversely affected figures, but hasn't. A year ago the result was astonishingly good, last quarter it was terrible. This quarter, steady as she goes. IOW, an everyday story of R3 life.

[Lat-Literal]

Oh well, (young) people are turning to repetitive news, repetitive commercials and repetitive music that isn't music. That's the main news and it is all because of their mobiles and their apps. It is non radio on the radio but not on what we knew as the radio while real radio is being broadcast by themselves. That is to say anything they want that isn't formulaic is selected intermittently from a range of websites. This is the second quarter in a row that commercial radio has outperformed BBC radio. LBC is even further on the upward curve. Nick Ferrari's breakfast show is now at well over one million. Farage also pulls. Seriously, if you were to ask me what tools I would use to make the life of terrorists uncomfortable without actually resorting to torture. I'd stick them in a room with the doom and gloom adverts and the bit of content fitted around them. But then happily I am no longer really of this world. R3 hasn't had the best of quarters nor has it had the worst. It's R2 that has suffered and especially in the last few days. But then you see it is all about profile. That Chris Evans thing worked against them and let us be in absolutely no doubt what that means. BBC management worked against them. Rather like politicians, their dreams are very rarely impact free.

In contrast, the clever people at LBC had their microphones with the big LBC logo attached to them right at the front of every press conference during the election. In that way, they managed to be seen on the BBC's television news nightly. Simultaneously, their confrontational approach to interviews creates news so Martha Kearney and Co feel obliged to buy into those interviews as soon as it is one o'clock. Only a few in the BBC have actually caught on. I could hardly believe that BBC Radio London had vastly enhanced figures at one point in the day seeing that the audiences are consistently tiny. But then I spotted the name. Vanessa Feltz. Now she knows how to make the news as we have recently discussed. Grim and the rest of the R1 gang are up a bit for now. 5 Live is down a bit for now. 6 Music is 6 Music for now. Fluctuations. Two fairly positive points. The most listened to station in London is R4 and one of the substantial increases has been for R4 Extra. No news at the latter is clearly good news to many, (most of whom are aged over 25 and soon leaving politics to those aged 16).