Latest RAJARs

[Beef Oven!]

I've got various bits and bobs stretching back ten years, and including 2015 :-) . The picture looks fairly consistent.

CD Review/Record Review is possibly the most popular single programme of the week (i.e. only one programme per week, not daily) with the Sunday morning programme reaching a similar sized audience. What seems to happen is that the Saturday Breakfast programme gradually builds up until listening hits a peak at 9 am; it begins to fall off as the Breakfast listeners switch off. But then there seems to be another smaller peak at 9.30. Overall, Saturdays have the highest peak of the week, but Sunday programmes maintain their listening levels better so some may amass more listeners overall than Record Review.

Slender evidence but Record Review is among the most popular programmes of the week, and BaL looks to be a very popular part of it.

Thanks. Interesting.

I need to cogitate. For example, is 'Saturday' the dependent or independent variable?

I have a hunch about Bal.

[doversoul1]

My guess is it will finish this summer (150 progs is 3 years) and the first was on Oct 27 2013.

But it's not always possible to go back : if they've signed up Elin Manahan Thomas and Simon Heighes (or anyone else), they can't just say - Oh, you were just a stop-gap: we can get CB back again now. But maybe now and again for concert introductions, first …

ff #320

… a couple of intelligent, experienced broadcasters can make of it. Just up Skellers' street?

I meant Catherine Bott for this. Early Music Late is excellent as it is.

I assume listeners on iPlayer don’t count? One thing that keeps me away from listening to the radio is the lack of playlists.

[french frank]

ff #320

I meant Catherine Bott for this

Not sure she would relish the early morning starts. I'd pencil her in for Sunday Mornings, though, which has two ber-lokes at the moment instead of the BBC regulation alternating Him and Her.

[Anastasius]

ff #320


....... One thing that keeps me away from listening to the radio is the lack of playlists.

It's not only playlists but total lack of any information as to actual CD catalogue number. Last time I checked, CD Review did provide this essential information. In-Essential does not and when I quizzed them the excuse given was lame in the extreme. I think it's down to their awful 'one-size-fits-all' software with that execrable and utterly pointless Playlister.

And please don't get me going on the extension of Playlister....namely, you can get the same piece of music (with a bit of luck but more often then not, the wrong piece of music) but not by the same orchestra or the same conductor or even the same singers from Spotify. So BBC, what is the point?

[VodkaDilc]

I've got various bits and bobs stretching back ten years, and including 2015 :-) . The picture looks fairly consistent.

CD Review/Record Review is possibly the most popular single programme of the week (i.e. only one programme per week, not daily) with the Sunday morning programme reaching a similar sized audience. What seems to happen is that the Saturday Breakfast programme gradually builds up until listening hits a peak at 9 am; it begins to fall off as the Breakfast listeners switch off. But then there seems to be another smaller peak at 9.30. Overall, Saturdays have the highest peak of the week, but Sunday programmes maintain their listening levels better so some may amass more listeners overall than Record Review.

Slender evidence but Record Review is among the most popular programmes of the week, and BaL looks to be a very popular part of it.

My R3 listening is now much-reduced, for all the reasons discussed here over the years. CD Review is one of the last to go - I still listen occasionally, but the presenters usually put me off. Like many others I have found that my CD collection has the advantage of no filling between the music. The Proms and Choral Evensong remain my most valued programming.

[french frank]

My R3 listening is now much-reduced, for all the reasons discussed here over the years. CD Review is one of the last to go - I still listen occasionally, but the presenters usually put me off. Like many others I have found that my CD collection has the advantage of no filling between the music. The Proms and Choral Evensong remain my most valued programming.

In fact, in these RAJARs the listening hours have held up quite well. But they clearly show a very wide spread between those who might switch on for (part of) Record Review - or Choral Evensong and that's it for the week; and those who switch on and listen to programme after programme, who are most likely to be the morning listeners because Breakfast and Essential Classics are structured in such a way as to encourage it. And - because 'people' appreciate having something on in the background to listen to (or half listen to) - the programmes get quite high appreciation scores.

Appreciation scores are sometimes criticised because they measure the level of appreciation of those who choose to listen - who are also likely to be the people who appreciate it. Those who DON'T appreciate a given programme tend to be those who don't listen, or did but have given up.

The implications of this could be discussed in some detail, but the fact is that AI, or Appreciation Index, is the key metric which the BBC uses to establish … 'Quality'.

[french frank]

Controller might be a bit pleased at this quarter's figures, if word on the street is correct. Have to say I don't think he's put a foot wrong so far - perhaps he'll be encouraged to do more good things …

[subcontrabass]

Controller might be a bit pleased at this quarter's figures, if word on the street is correct. Have to say I don't think he's put a foot wrong so far - perhaps he'll be encouraged to do more good things …

Looks like more listeners but fewer hours (per listener and total)

[french frank]

Looks like more listeners but fewer hours (per listener and total)

Listening hours are 13m all but - which is healthy. Share slightly down because overall radio listening is quite strongly up. The joker in the pack is Classic FM which has also done well and that has happened before - there's no 'one goes up and the other goes down' as listeners shift from one station to the other: they both go up in parallel. CFM's Breakfast figures are up even more than R3's - and R3's are good this quarter at 751,000.

[antongould]

The Squire has just welcomed all his new listeners ...... Petroc has saved us .....

[Stanfordian]

Looks like more listeners but fewer hours (per listener and total)

That's what I would expect by R3 playing more bleeding chunks of works.

[Beef Oven!]

Where have the 1m R1 listeners gone?

[french frank]

That's what I would expect by R3 playing more bleeding chunks of works.

It's certainly what one would expect of Radio 3, which averaged 5.9 hours per listener per week. Compare that with Radio 1's figure of 11.7 hours (and 6 Music's 9.7 hours). Even Classic FM (complete with bleeding chunks) only averaged 6.6 hours pl.

Radio 3 has a much more diverse schedule, with jazz and speech programmes causing some to switch on and others to switch off. Even the presenters change weekly or fortnightly, rather than the unvarying Chris Evans, Nick Grimshaw, Shaun Keaveny encouraging 'routine' listening (yes, Radio 3 listeners do sometimes shun some rota presenters ). It also/therefore has a more diverse audience, accentuated by the attempt to widen the knowledge base of the classical listenership: what suits one audience causes another to switch off there too. Radio 3 traditionally had 'selective' listeners and one of the key aims of Roger Wright was to coax listeners to 'stay with the station longer'. Hence the longer programmes and attempts at seamless transition from one to the next. That never really worked, though.

People who listen indiscriminately to whatever happens to be on clock up higher listening hours per week. People who choose a particular programme and switch off when it finishes listen less. There also seems to be a mild tendency for smaller weekly audiences to listen longer, and this quarter had a comparatively large audience.

[french frank]

Where have the 1m R1 listeners gone?

Spot something strange about these BBC headlines (large and small)? What goes up tends to go down and vice versa:




Net loss looks like 250k. Partly, the answer could be further down the story - the R1 age group (15-24s) is listening to less radio.

[subcontrabass]

It's certainly what one would expect of Radio 3, which averaged 5.9 hours per listener per week.

Down from 6.9 in the corresponding quarter last year and down from 6.4 in the first quarter of this year.