Why on earth is record review moving

[gurnemanz]

"Tom and guests unpack the answers to questions you've always wanted to ask" . Perhaps they could start with the title of this thread.

[Kernow Malc]

Well, that's my last regular tune in gone...

[hmvman]

I recall with a sort of fondness the regular 'Birtspeak' column in Private Eye twenty-odd years ago. Maybe it's time for Lord Gnome to resurrect it...

[Retune]

I recall with a sort of fondness the regular 'Birtspeak' column in Private Eye twenty-odd years ago. Maybe it's time for Lord Gnome to resurrect it...

Yes, they could 'unpack' the language of the latest nonsense every week. And there'd be plenty of material for a special issue in that piece announcing the firing of the BBC Singers and the cuts in the Orchestras a year ago (or 'Creating agile ensembles that can work flexibly and creatively', as they put it). Talking about the 'raft of Radio 3 programmes' that will be moved to Salford makes it sound like they will be marooned there (which isn't, I suppose, so far from the truth).

[french frank]

"For the cynic, then, it will be no surprise to hear that, given that the programme is indispensable, the broadcaster brilliant and the timeslot ideal, the new controller of Radio 3, late of Classic FM, has decided [to] move it to the doldrums, drowning it in the lassitude of a Saturday afternoon."

Oliver Willmott in The Critic, 30/03/2024.

[LMcD]

"For the cynic, then, it will be no surprise to hear that, given that the programme is indispensable, the broadcaster brilliant and the timeslot ideal, the new controller of Radio 3, late of Classic FM, has decided [to] move it to the doldrums, drowning it in the lassitude of a Saturday afternoon."

Oliver Willmott in The Critic, 30/03/2024.

Perhaps the theory behind this positively Baldrickian masterstroke is that Tom Service and friends/guests will whip up a storm of enthusiasm that will encourage listeners (new and old) to stay tuned to Radio 3 into Saturday afternoon and evening and then hopefully into Sunday ... then Monday ....

[french frank]

Perhaps the theory behind this positively Baldrickian masterstroke is that Tom Service and friends/guests will whip up a storm of enthusiasm that will encourage listeners (new and old) to stay tuned to Radio 3 into Saturday afternoon and evening and then hopefully into Sunday ... then Monday ....

Who knows? Willmott puts it down to establishment's effort to achieve 'inclusivity above all'. That seems to me, previously devouring R3 endlessly and now feeling pushed out, somewhat paradoxical.

[oddoneout]

Perhaps the theory behind this positively Baldrickian masterstroke is that Tom Service and friends/guests will whip up a storm of enthusiasm that will encourage listeners (new and old) to stay tuned to Radio 3 into Saturday afternoon and evening and then hopefully into Sunday ... then Monday ....

No theory, just an assumption that if the time it is broadcast doesn't suit, no matter, that's what catch up is for?

[french frank]

No theory, just an assumption that if the time it is broadcast doesn't suit, no matter, that's what catch up is for?

That can't be the whole picture though. If 'that's what catch up is for' it applies to any programme on R3 that goes out at any time. Why move Record Review from its aeons-old slot? And why bother with linear radio at all?

[Petrushka]

And why bother with linear radio at all?

Wouldn't surprise if R3 goes exclusively online before long.

[LMcD]

Wouldn't surprise if R3 goes exclusively online before long.

Possibly, but let's not forget that the decision to make BBC3 'online only' was reversed after 6 years.

[french frank]

Possibly, but let's not forget that the decision to make BBC3 'online only' was reversed after 6 years.

There were protests from influential groups (esp., from the BBC's point of view, the young), just as there were protests over the proposal to axe 6Music. Were R3 to go online only it would lose a section of its audience automatically. The influential MPs who might have headed protests are no longer there (MPs are more likely to listen to CFM). Would the reach actually increase? or would it fall even more, to negligible?

When R3 wanted to axe anything - like Choirworks - the PR was that it wasn't the content that was being axed (it would be included in other programmes): it was just the dedicated programme being dropped. So if "R3" were axed completely its content (classical music, long-form drama, jazz &c) could be included, erm, somewhere else. Sometimes.

Digital only would be a possibility, if it could be managed cheaply enough, to include an orchestra and the Proms.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Wouldn't surprise if R3 goes exclusively online before long.

I think that’s unlikely . Not BBC policy to remove the major radio networks from the broadcast chain - partly because a substantial minority (7 percent of households according to OFCOM ) have no internet access. The other factor is broadcast resilience . The internet isn’t reliable enough should we have major power outages or military conflict.

[french frank]

I think that’s unlikely . Not BBC policy to remove the major radio networks from the broadcast chain - partly because a substantial minority (7 percent of households according to OFCOM ) have no internet access. The other factor is broadcast resilience . The internet isn’t reliable enough should we have major power outages or military conflict.

That's the optimistic view. Pessimists wonder why the BBC would want to retain R3 as a separate network at all.

[oddoneout]

I think that’s unlikely . Not BBC policy to remove the major radio networks from the broadcast chain - partly because a substantial minority (7 percent of households according to OFCOM ) have no internet access. The other factor is broadcast resilience . The internet isn’t reliable enough should we have major power outages or military conflict.

Lack of access or unreliability hasn't been a factor to consider up to now, other than making the usual meaningless statements about being aware and vague assurances about provision being made, so I doubt it will be so in future. Look at the copper landline switch-off for a current example, and access to the likes of DWP that is online only regardless of the ability of those needing to use such services to access them in that way.
Decades ago county emergency planning operations used radio comms, working with volunteer amateurs* . However when mobile phones came in there was a rush to use the new toys instead(possibly also with the idea of not needing the volunteer input) on exercises, despite being warned of the problems with lack of coverage. It resulted in the amateur back-up folk(who had suspected there might be problems) quietly offering use of their radios/taking over the comms function as before...

*A family member was involved so I got an inside view.