Why on earth is record review moving

[Ein Heldenleben]

I have some information, official and unofficial and this graphic of Saturday Audiences Through The Day was produced for the DCMS Charter Review. I had some more recent info than 2003/04 somewhere but the general pattern of listening is the same. Compare the CD Review 9am slot with the mid afternoon 2-4pm slot.

Thanks FF . Of course that was twenty years ago. If you correlated these figures against average audience in 2002 compared to now I guess you could estimate the current audience. But then you’d have to add in the Sounds element. Interesting that JRR does so well. I’m a bit of a loss as to why they are moving Record Review as 20 years ago it was the most popular programme of the day. Maybe no longer ? 200,000 is a pretty good audience for a specialist music programme.

[Serial_Apologist]

Very surprised to see Jazz Record Requests getting more listeners than the Proms.

[french frank]

200,000 is a pretty good audience for a specialist music programme.

And that's the point it reaches at its peak, others may tune in later so the total reach will have been higher. I'll see if I can locate the graphic for the 2013/14 Charter review. The figures may be up or down on these, but the basic pattern will be the same: 9am is peak listening for the entire day, 3pm is the absolute trough for daytime. It may be that RR will 'boost' that afternoon trough, but no way will the programme reach anything like what it would attract at 9am. If (by any chance) there's a rationale atb all behind this it's a pretty gloomy outlook for intelligent radio.

[Sir Velo]

Well it will be interesting to see if one of "the Nation's favourite voices" (sic) is able to build on Record Review's audience. If, as one suspects, it isn't the runaway success that the powers that be intend for it. it may not be long before the schedules are returned to normality and the experiment quietly forgotten as a "learning curve" for the new controller.

[french frank]

Well it will be interesting to see if one of "the Nation's favourite voices" (sic) is able to build on Record Review's audience. If, as one suspects, it isn't the runaway success that the powers that be intend for it. it may not be long before the schedules are returned to normality and the experiment quietly forgotten as a "learning curve" for the new controller.

It sounds, though, as if it will be the kind of programme that Breakfast listeners will just keep switched on while they do their various Saturday morning chores, listening to it now and again. The quality of listening, half listening, quarter listening, isn't registered by the RAJAR figures.

[Pulcinella]

Well it will be interesting to see if one of "the Nation's favourite voices" (sic) is able to build on Record Review's audience. If, as one suspects, it isn't the runaway success that the powers that be intend for it. it may not be long before the schedules are returned to normality and the experiment quietly forgotten as a "learning curve" for the new controller.

Or it gets dropped as nobody is listening to it.

[Ein Heldenleben]

And that's the point it reaches at its peak, others may tune in later so the total reach will have been higher. I'll see if I can locate the graphic for the 2013/14 Charter review. The figures may be up or down on these, but the basic pattern will be the same: 9am is peak listening for the entire day, 3pm is the absolute trough for daytime. It may be that RR will 'boost' that afternoon trough, but no way will the programme reach anything like what it would attract at 9am. If (by any chance) there's a rationale atb all behind this it's a pretty gloomy outlook for intelligent radio.

Good point . It may be that moving RR to the afternoon does indeed reduce that historic trough . Again all this is complicated by the Sounds figures which I suspect for RR are pretty significant. Incidentally controllers get (or certainly used to ) get all sorts of confidential figures on the popularity of presenters . Again I bet Andrew M does well on those. The other thing with Radio 3 are the audience appreciation figures which used to be stellar and I suspect still are.

[french frank]

The other thing with Radio 3 are the audience appreciation figures which used to be stellar and I suspect still are.

Yes, that's true. But there seems to me to be a flaw in this. Appreciation Index figures measure how much a programme is appreciated by those who listen to it. That probably rules out those who don't listen because they don't appreciate it. I would admit that it means what R3's selective listeners choose to listen to is recognised as being 'good'. But once again: "If you like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing you like." But who are the station's listeners who don't listen, why don't they listen and what do they want? Frankly, my dear ...

As has been pointed out, programmes listened to by a small number of enthusiasts get inflated AI scores. And anything vaguely 'specialist' scores more highly than popular entertainment shows.

[oddoneout]

Very surprised to see Jazz Record Requests getting more listeners than the Proms.

It would be interesting to see more up to date figures, but I'm not that surprised at JRR getting more listeners than Proms/Opera.It would be a fixed point for many listeners - week in week out, and probably with fairly broad appeal - whereas Proms/Opera is 'listen to selected items' territory, not so much consistency?
Certainly in recent years I would say I have listened to more JRR than Proms concerts(many more in the last 2 years), and no Opera as it's not my thing.

[Serial_Apologist]

It would be interesting to see more up to date figures, but I'm not that surprised at JRR getting more listeners than Proms/Opera.It would be a fixed point for many listeners - week in week out, and probably with fairly broad appeal - whereas Proms/Opera is 'listen to selected items' territory, not so much consistency?
Certainly in recent years I would say I have listened to more JRR than Proms concerts(many more in the last 2 years), and no Opera as it's not my thing.

I too feel much the same about the Proms and have done for a number of years - well decades now. And the number of operas I listen to would be too small to register on popularity programmes. I always listen to JRR, partly to educate myself up on early jazz.

[LMcD]

Certainly in recent years I would say I have listened to more JRR than Proms concerts(many more in the last 2 years), and no Opera as it's not my thing.

That goes for me, too!

[french frank]

Very surprised to see Jazz Record Requests getting more listeners than the Proms.

Remember that's the graph for Saturdays, the only day when JRR is on. It will have the same appeal for jazz fans as Record Review has for classical fans. The day to listen.

[Retune]

I wonder how much of this variation is due to the specific programming, and how much of it simply reflects a typical Saturday routine? It's natural to switch the radio on at breakfast time, and later at tea time. Many people will have other things to do in the afternoon and evening. If so, the new Saturday morning programme may get a lot of listeners, which is presumably what they hope. We'd need a control experiment to test how much the programming matters - I wonder what the graph would look if they broadcast 12 hours of Tom Service? (polite suggestions only, please).

[french frank]

I wonder how much of this variation is due to the specific programming, and how much of it simply reflects a typical Saturday routine? .... I wonder what the graph would look if they broadcast 12 hours of Tom Service? (polite suggestions only, please).

I can't answer the last question but, broadly speaking, I think listening reflects listeners' routines, with anything between 7am and 11am being the morning 'peak', a bit later perhaps at weekends. Drivetime is what it says it is: when people are driving home from work, a lower 'peak'. The Tom Service programme will have to be pretty diabolical to get low ratings. It may capture the Essential Classics audience better than Record Review. And one may draw what conclusions one likes from that.

[Barbirollians]

Thanks FF . Of course that was twenty years ago. If you correlated these figures against average audience in 2002 compared to now I guess you could estimate the current audience. But then you’d have to add in the Sounds element. Interesting that JRR does so well. I’m a bit of a loss as to why they are moving Record Review as 20 years ago it was the most popular programme of the day. Maybe no longer ? 200,000 is a pretty good audience for a specialist music programme.

look how audience started to fall when BAL finished in those days .