Scala Radio

[subcontrabass]

New classical station:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/jan/21/simon-mayo-joins-new-classical-radio-station-after-bbc-exit

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-46947959

Looks a bit like a downmarket version of CFM.

[zola]

Not anything I would want to listen to but it presents an interesting challenge to Essential Classics and Simpering Sunday. Simon Mayo is a marketable radio personality who might well poach a good number of the casual 'radio as a pleasant background' listeners. Though I doubt that Radio 3's response would be to move back in a more serious direction.

[vinteuil]

.

https://radiotoday.co.uk/2019/01/bauer-to-launch-classical-station-scala-radio/

.

[french frank]

Not anything I would want to listen to but it presents an interesting challenge to Essential Classics and Simpering Sunday. Simon Mayo is a marketable radio personality who might well poach a good number of the casual 'radio as a pleasant background' listeners. Though I doubt that Radio 3's response would be to move back in a more serious direction.

Just read the article. Radio 3 to lead the charge to out-Scala Scala, 'going all out to entertain, laugh with the listeners, and have a good time'.

[Serial_Apologist]

Just read the article. Radio 3 to lead the charge to out-Scala Scala, 'going all out to entertain, laugh with the listeners, and have a good time'.

How do they know? I know the Powers That Be intend having spies in our computers, but have they already installed mikes in our homes?

[edashtav]

Scala Radio: all scales and staircases? To heaven or hell?

[LMcD]

Scala Radio: all scales and staircases? To heaven or hell?

Apparently it's going to be The Ladder With A Lorra Lorra Laughs....
Do we need - indeed, are there enough actual or potential listeners out there - for a third UK-based station playing classical music (however broadly defined)?
(I'm actually something of a fan of RTE's Lyric FM, which I receive via Freesat).

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

New Classical Music Radio Station

Simon Mayo is to host a new classical music station.

It sounds as though it will out-crassify anything CFM and Radio 3 has managed so far. My worry is that the BBC will follow its usual pattern of attempting to mimic the style.

[BBMmk2]

Simon Mayo is to host a new classical music station.

It sounds as though it will out-crassify anything CFM and Radio 3 has managed so far. My worry is that the BBC will follow its usual pattern of attempting to mimic the style.

My sentiments entirely!

[Dave2002]

From the Guardian article

The BBC, which still accounts for almost half of radio listening in the UK, is attempting to adapt to a digital future with its BBC Sounds app and investment in podcasts, but has to deal with the publication of the salaries of its most well-paid stars following an edict from the government.

Many leading male presenters were asked to take pay cuts after an outcry over inequality, while others were unsettled by their finances being made public – enabling deep-pocketed commercial rivals to swoop in and make compelling offers.

I have worked in places and/or countries in which personal salaries are known by the public at large - if anyone can be bothered to check. It’s not such a big problem if everyone’s incomes are known, though can have some odd effects.

The comment about deep pocketed rivals suggests that radio is still popular, though seen as a money making engine by some, including those who work within it.

[edashtav]

Can this thread merge satisfactorily with the earlier Radio Scala one.

[gurnemanz]

Simon Mayo is someone I have liked as a presenter on Five Live - an intelligent, sharp-witted and unflamboyant presenter. I don't know his Radio 2 stuff. I would have thought he has a following which is different from the typical CFM listenership, so there may be a niche there, especially with Mark Kermode chipping in. I wonder who else they will be hiring. I will certainly try it but can't imagine that I will become a regular listener - there are now so many online classical alternatives.

[french frank]

there may be a niche there

I'm sure there is. There is an audience for most things. The vital point is: where will that audience come from? It's most unlikely that it will come entirely from Radio 2 - which could easily sustain the shedding a few million of its listeners.

[french frank]

I'm sure there is. There is an audience for most things. The vital point is: where will that audience come from? It's most unlikely that it will come entirely from Radio 2 - which could easily sustain the shedding a few million of its listeners.

Coming back to this: it may be a wake-up call for Radio 3 to concentrate on its USP: serious, well-informed (and, when necessary, detailed) broadcasting of the arts; and focusing the 'classical' music programmes on a traditional canon up to (say) 1940(?); and at that point to follow the innovative/experimental. Leave CFM and Scala to deal with (hit) music from recent films and musicals. Which composers would that exclude from R3?

[Dave2002]

Coming back to this: it may be a wake-up call for Radio 3 to concentrate on its USP: serious, well-informed (and, when necessary, detailed) broadcasting of the arts; and focusing the 'classical' music programmes on a traditional canon up to (say) 1940(?); and at that point to follow the innovative/experimental. Leave CFM and Scala to deal with (hit) music from recent films and musicals. Which composers would that exclude from R3?

Ah - so you want to shut out a lot of Benjamin Britten and Tippett then? Also some Stravinsky, Bartok and Rachmaninov, Prokofiev and Shostakovich.
I suppose if you don't like Bernstein, 1940 might be a good shut off date. John Adams, Philip Glass, George Crumb and a whole bunch of others would be cut out by this, even Thomas Ades (I'm not fond of) or Brett Dean or Nico Muhly. Surely R3 should be presenting the work of modern and contemporary composers - and not just relegating them to H&N and a few "cult" niches within the schedules.