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

[mercia]

I don't see how that defends Your Call. Yes, there were various programmes built entirely round the requests of listeners - he himself launched Listeners' Choice and then Radio 3 Requests.

Since Roger axed those successively, it's a bit odd to be praising Your Call on the grounds that it's nice to hear from listeners now and again!

I must have misunderstood what he said if you haven't taken the same interpretation from it

[french frank]

I won't link to the article which describes how the genre of 'world music' was invented in 1989 - I think the participants, those still alive, find it rather embarrassing so I'll spare their blushes! But it marked the moment when 'music from elsewhere' (studied by ethnomusicologists) which had been rooted in the past came to be a 'music of now', including fusion with other genres and more of a popular/urban, commercial genre.

That was what Drummond recognised - that this was a new genre which deserved to be recognised. When FoR3 took a line on this, it was that the new music had the effect of largely eclipsing the traditional musics, like Indian classical most notably, but also the traditional folk musics in Radio 3's output. That seemed to be the wrong way round: no other station would regularly broadcast global traditional musics, whereas some aspects of popular world music would find a larger audience on Radio 2 (and a place now on 1Xtra).

But it's one thing to say a particular type of programming would be more suited to a service other than Radio 3 (I've heard it said by world music specialists); it's quite another to say Radio 3 shouldn't do it when it's perfectly obvious that in reality no other service would take it on. That's why we've never lobbied for any programmes to be removed. That doesn't have any other motive than a sense of fairness. (I once found us on a world music forum being described as 'the loathsome FoR3' - all in a day's insults . But then, they were probably under the impression that we were trying to get rid of 'all of this sort of Womad, world music thing'.)

[french frank]

I must have misunderstood what he said if you haven't taken the same interpretation from it

I'm not saying that that wasn't what he was implying. That would make us both right!.

[teamsaint]

Just a small point, and not really that important perhaps, but my first introduction to World music, as for a lot of people, would have ben around 1985 on John Peel and Andy Kershaw's radio 1 shows, rather than R2 as suggested.
Sorry if that is a bit nit picking !
Anyway, quite why R3 can't satisfy a wide range of music tastes, based around classical but encompassing all the areas it currently covers, with 24 hour a day broadcasting and a wide variety of ways for listeners to hear the shows, (as they never tire of telling us) is way beyond my understanding.Perhaps they do manage this.

[french frank]

Anyway, quite why R3 can't satisfy a wide range of music tastes, based around classical but encompassing all the areas it currently covers, with 24 hour a day broadcasting and a wide variety of ways for listeners to hear the shows, (as they never tire of telling us) is way beyond my understanding.Perhaps they do manage this.

Bof! I wrote a reply to this but it became so long I've deleted it. I'll probably post it on the FoR3 blog ...

[teamsaint]

Bof? ! like in Batman ? or in some other way ?!

I'll try to read your blog, as long as I'm not going to be embarrassed !!

[french frank]

Bof? ! like in Batman ? or in some other way ?!

I'll try to read your blog, as long as I'm not going to be embarrassed !!

You won't be! It was just a 'quick' outline of R3 strategy over the past ten years which illustrates why our particular constituency of the Radio 3 audience has been sidelined by the priority to target new audiences. And now we're working to show that, even as it is, Radio 3 itself is being downgraded by the BBC.

And that should matter to all of us.

[teamsaint]

Absolutely. Quality is under attack everywhere(sweeping generalisation time)And presenting music of good quality on the BBC , from whatever part of the musical spectrum, is so important to the musicians. They deserve it. I am constantly amazed at the talent there is around, and how tough it is for them to get a good airing.
In fact the sheer quantity and diversity of musical talent around is a beacon of hope in pretty dark times.

Oh no, probably off topic again

[aeolium]

Radio 3 itself is being downgraded by the BBC.

I thought that was apparent in the way that discussion of R3 occupied so small a proportion of the Damazer/Wright interview, compared with Wright's past career and his work on the Proms. Of course, it wasn't a BBC event, but it was an interview of the current Controller of R3 by the former Controller of R4. Damazer might have asked Wright why he thought R3's budget was being significantly cut when R4's budget was being largely protected.

[Andrew Slater]

It might be useful to 'stand back' and view the affair in a slightly different light.

Although Mr. Damazer was clearly grossly misinformed (I suspect he's dipped into a few threads here and got the wrong impression: easily done, judging by some of the posts), has he in fact done much damage?

Often, telling people not to do something is more effective at getting them to do it than telling them to do it: academics aren't known for doing as they are told (or at least they shouldn't be!) I wonder how many people who were at the talk and didn't know of FoR3's existence have now investigated, but wouldn't have done so if we had been treated in a more bland manner; nor would RW have been forced into defending FoR3.

Or perhaps he was confusing FoR3 with musoc.org (which appears to be off-line at the moment).

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

i think Mr Damazer was picking nits off Mr Wright's back ...

[french frank]

Btw, for those who want a bit of body language in the Wright-Damazer talk, here's the video version.

Vairy in-ter-esting ...

Firstly, it clarifies who Damazer was addressing when he said: 'Please don't join this group ...' - the audience, of course.

Secondly, you could see Roger at that point beginning to react quite quickly to what was being said (thanks again, RW)

Thirdly, I did form a conclusion about the relationship between the two of them, but I was probably quite mistaken ....



As for FoR3 not being clear about our position on those particular points, we do have an FAQ page, including:

Is FoR3 purely a classical music group?
What is the range of programmes that FoR3 supports?
Does the music include jazz?
What about world music?
What about other musical styles?
But you would like to see the amount of classical music on Radio 3 increased?

[scottycelt]

I think it wasn't so much what Damazer said ... as il-informed that may well have been ... it was more the manner in which he said it that I found irritating and indeed unworthy of someone in his position.

In any case, the listener (certainly myself) surely wanted to hear what Wright had to say not Damazer ... ?

[french frank]

I've downloaded the video and studied that exchange carefully: it's actually quite funny. I think this is the right order of events:

When MD urged people not to join FoR3, RW gritted his teeth slightly (facial muscle); mention of being 'tortured' for years brought a very tiny flicker of a (polite?) smile, but when MD started declaring that black was white, RW started biting his lip, then a slightly uncertain shaking of the head. He tried to stop him, but MD ploughed on ('you shouldn't do jazz'). And finally he managed to interrupt him. A fine and gentlemanly thing, since he knew it was all rubbish.

The only difficulty is that there's always a reticence about disclosing what we are saying ... .

[jayne lee wilson]

Yes, RW's courteous and careful refutation of MD's FoR3-caricature made Damazer look a little foolish, stubbornly moving on to the next question without acknowledging his mistake. Thanks, RW.