Roger Wright talks to Mark Damazer at St Peter's College, 15 Oct 2012

[Serial_Apologist]

Don't know what you have to do to become a Master of an Oxford college ...

[scottycelt]

Don't know what you have to do to become a Master of an Oxford college ...

Maybe somehow manage to 'catch the eye' of the previous Master of an Oxford college ... ?

I feel sure we may even have the occasional forum member here with some valuable personal experience ...

[french frank]

I suppose what I meant was that you don't seem to need any academic qualifications beyond (in his case) a BA. Though he does have a CBE.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

not what but who i should think ....

[amateur51]

I'd call it "mutual sycophancy".

'Mutually assured distraction'?

[Richard Tarleton]

Don't know what you have to do to become a Master of an Oxford college ...

Distinction in another field seems to help, witness a couple of recent high-profile appointments to Cambridge masterships

[vinteuil]

Distinction in another field seems to help, witness a couple of recent high-profile appointments to Cambridge masterships

... as does the perceived potential to raise vast amounts of funding

[french frank]

Distinction in another field seems to help, witness a couple of recent high-profile appointments to Cambridge masterships

Well, in one case the FT reports:

"Archbishop Williams is retiring to the agreeable academic sinecure of the mastership of Magdalene College, Cambridge ..." (he, though, to be fair, has an academic background).

[DracoM]

What surprised me about the remarks about the Friends and The Radio 3 Forum was that an ex-DG was so wildly ill-informed, and I began to wonder why. It struck me that maybe that was how these bodies had been characterised TO him by various R3 apparatchiks, because they were so manifestly wide of the mark I did not want to think that they had come from his own imperfect and clearly prejudiced take on the forums.

What always amazes me about THIS forum is that any one contributor has views / awareness and in many cases depths of knowledge across a whole spectrum of music, that the BBB diet is by no means the core awareness at all, that world music, LJ, Jazz, choral music, opera et al all have both their individual adherents as well as a number of followers with astonishingly catholic tastes. Such an idea seems not to have either occurred to the Master of St Peter's, or shows how badly and prejudicedly he had been briefed by clearly ill-informed or mischievous underlings with their own agenda at his time at the BBC all clearly seeking to shape the DG's decisions/ concerns.

I sincerely hope that he is swiftly disabused of his warped and plain factually inaccurate opinions.

[french frank]

I sincerely hope that he is swiftly disabused of his warped and plain factually inaccurate opinions.

I think he probably just reads the newspapers! I'm planning to post a transcript of the extract, together with an explanation of where the comments deviate from strict accuracy. No names.

(He was only CR4, not D-G).

Note: I did get a nice reply from RW, after the Out of Office response. No acknowledgement from the Master, as yet ...

But, but, but - you pointed out what Andrew Marr said on Start the Week the other day: 'Radio 3 keeps getting it in the neck for not being easier, uh ...'

Yes, it probably does - still. Because people who pronounce on it are ignorant, and so are the people who listen to them. Same problem for FoR3!

[Russ]

You've hit the nail on the head, Dracs. Mark Damazer is usually a very savvy operator, and I had a big respect for him at the time he was Controller of R4, so I too wondered how he had arrived at a view about FoR3 that was, and more importantly still is, clearly so blinkered and misinformed.

Damazer introduced his guest as "an old sparring partner", so it is perhaps inevitable the mode they fell into during their talk was 'Controller to Controller', and thus some of their reference points were old and familiar ones that characterised a residual pattern of competition between them, and in particular, exploring the space and overlaps between R3 and R4. FoR3's purpose isn't, as Mark Damazer cited, "solely to give the R3 Controller a hard time", but I don't think FoR3 should shy away from the fact that part of its role is to act as a (hopefully constructive) sounding board and lobbying mechanism. Your 'mischievious underlings' notion has the ring of truth about it to me, and thus it would seem FoR3 has a future job of work to do specifically to broaden its public face in reflecting a more catholic appreciation of what R3 does and can do.

Russ

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

on reflection it seems to me more like a primate grooming session by members of the Senior Mess at HQ ... very little said that was not actually tittle tattly ... e. g. Handel or Haydn ...well yes if it is given time but as a quickie ...well the Sunday Glossy Pages innit .... bit of a disappointment from Oxford

[french frank]

Your 'mischievious underlings' notion has the ring of truth about it to me

I'm sure Damazer must have got his 'information' from somewhere, but whether it's from press articles or a BBC briefing (less likely now, I think) I don't know. I'll probably send him the transcript of what he said and what Roger said ... and correct him .

The only thing I was doubtful about was when Roger said that we didn't have 'one view'or 'one set of aims' (I'd say we did!), but from what follows I think he meant that we weren't just focused on classical music as Damazer said ("what they say is, well, we don’t need all this stuff on Radio 3, partly because we’ve got Radio 4 doing all of that sort of speechy stuff, and partly because all of this sort of Womad, world music thing you’re doing just gets in the way of a diet of classical music… you shouldn't do jazz'").

Interesting style markers: 'all of that sort of speechy stuff', 'all of this sort of Womad, world music thing'. That's supposed to convey our disdain, of course.

It's only about two minutes, but it is quite outrageous.

[Russ]

Interesting style markers: 'all of that sort of speechy stuff', 'all of this sort of Womad, world music thing'. That's supposed to convey our disdain, of course.

Be careful, ff. My reading of those style markers, and yes, they were interesting, was that it betrayed far more of Damazer's own agenda as R4 Controller than it did of any association to the perceived views or stance of the body calling itself 'FoR3'.

On which subject, whilst I fully understand the distinction between the positions being taken by 'FoR3' and the views expressed by individuals on this forum, it is not clear how the processes of 'FoR3' operate and how its positions are arrived at, so in a sense it is not surprising that Mark Damazer or his informants could have become misinformed or at least very confused.

Is 'FoR3' some kind of inner cabinet?

Russ

[teamsaint]

Somebody tell me it's worth listening past the drivel of the first few minutes.....