Review of Radio 3

[french frank]

Has the ad dropped down below FoR3 now? It was at the top a short while ago - I have a screen shot. (Ah, it seems to top the list if you search on BBC Radio 3, not for Radio 3 on its own.)

[Bryn]

Has the ad dropped down below FoR3 now? It was at the top a short while ago - I have a screen shot. (Ah, it seems to top the list if you search on BBC Radio 3, not for Radio 3 on its own.)

Not a particularly savvy move by the Beeb, I would venture. It's much less effort to enter "radio 3" into a search facility such as Google than it is to both with typing "BBC" too. All power to FoR3!

[french frank]

All power to FoR3!

Don't pull the trigger, Bryn!

We've just had an email from some adviser in the Belgian parliament: I wonder if they really wanted BBC Radio 3?

[Old Grumpy]

Not a particularly savvy move by the Beeb, I would venture. It's much less effort to enter "radio 3" into a search facility such as Google than it is to both with typing "BBC" too. All power to FoR3!

Much less effort to type both than bother an' all!

[ChrisBennell]

And another thing - if you do a search on "BBC Radio", Radio 3 doesn't appear at all. Radio 1,2 4, 5-live, World Service are all there -. Very sad!

[Richard Tarleton]

Double-page article on R3 by Bryan Appleyard in the Culture section of the Sunday Times today - looks as if he talked to ff

[french frank]

Double-page article on R3 by Bryan Appleyard in the Culture section of the Sunday Times today - looks as if he talked to ff

He did indeed! He asked what I thought about A. Davey's appointment - and I was enthusiastic (I thought he sounded incredulous - Wh-y-y-y-y?) . Anyone who professes an interest in medieval literature, Macs and cultural theory must, in my view, be all right

[french frank]

I've now read the article, and I might have written it myself. It is the stoutest defence that's been made for (so-called) 'high culture' that I've seen in many a year. He makes attacks on Ed Vaizey and Tom Watson for their recent pronouncements, and apart from my own reported comments, I liked this:

"Watson, a Labour MP, needs reminding that Radio 3 and the Arts Council were started by Attlee's post-war Labour government in the conviction that nothing was too good for the working man [sic]. Many important people forget this."

Copies of this article will be sent to all the people with power and influence at the BBC, and will be tucked under my arm when I meet Alan Davey.

[Honoured Guest]

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/culture/film_and_tv/article1488148.ece

[Padraig]

Thanks anyway, H G, though I could not get reading the whole article.

[Serial_Apologist]

Thanks anyway, H G, though I could not get reading the whole article.

From reading what there was of it, I had some kind of deja vu.

[french frank]

From reading what there was of it, I had some kind of deja vu.

You mean you'd deja vu'd it here?

Seriously, this may not be the outright onslaught on the present state of Radio 3 that many of the noisier critics might have wanted. But it's the justification for Radio 3 which is totally negated by the recent overlay of populism. To quote another point that I made: ' "If you're to talk for 1 1/2 minutes about a piece of music, you don't want to be told it's been requested by so and so for such and such a reason, you want to be told something about the music..." But that interaction with listeners is dear to the heart of marketing types at the BBC. It is all part of the desire to chase new audiences and provide "access points".'

[Richard Tarleton]

I particularly liked:

One figure that will catch the eye of marketing types is the average listener age, 58. this puts Radio 3 outside "the demo", a nasty media term for the target audience, usually defined as people between late teens and early middle age. Periodically, Radio 3, like every other media organisation, feels the need to chase youth - is Radio 1 ever asked to chase age? - which always fails because there is a natural age for all outlets. That 58 has remained, unmoved, down the decades and is unlikely to change

Exactly! Market segmentation! Radio 3 is alienating a large part of its core audience while failing to secure a new one. This is not to say that R3 only appeals to this demographic - many on this forum have listened to it from an early age - but many of its core audience are in this demographic. He goes on:

"I don't think it's surprising", says one grandee. A lot of people come to classical music late in life. Young people look to the music of revolution."

The 50-90 demographic is an expanding one. There's nothing wrong with catering for it.

[teamsaint]

you never see job adverts for Grandees, do you?

perhaps they are in the Times, or somewhere.

Edit: perhaps the FoR3 Forum should have some grandees.
I think it would add something.

[french frank]

I wonder who the 'grandee' was? Perhaps the Trustee who I met a couple of weeks ago. He was (surprisingly) good: when I pointed out that Radio 2 had dropped all* its light classical/orchestral programmes, he explained with great accuracy to his colleague why it was necessary that a programme like Your 100 Best Tunes should be on Radio 2, not Radio 3.

* Except Friday Night Is Music Night which, as I pointed out, had very little (not my phrase!) classical music - it was mainly film music, Broadway &c - the kind of thing that is now invading Radio 3 - as a prelude to dropping FNIMN, perhaps?