January schedule changes

[french frank]

As rumoured (in the New Statesman article), Discovering Music is dropped.

Radio 3 will be taking a break from commissioning Discovering Music from the 1 January. Instead, music context will be covered throughout the schedule in some existing strands and by presenters in discussion with guests during intervals of live concert broadcasts.

It's as old as the hills: we're dropping programme X but its content will continue to be covered in existing programmes.

The Private Eye story that Night Waves was to be reduced to three nights turns out to be that Night Waves ends and 'Free Thinking' takes over

Also from January, following the success of the annual Free Thinking Festival produced by the Night Waves production team, Night Waves will become Free Thinking all year round in the Radio 3 schedules. The new programme will bring together the spirit of Radio 3’s festival of ideas and the station’s existing regular coverage of arts and debate.

As predicted, the Saturday Music Feature is dropped, or to put it another way:

There will also be a change to Radio 3’s topical magazine programme, Music Matters, which reflects important issues in the classical music industry. Music Matters will become a regular weekly fixture from September to July in its usual slot of Saturdays at 12.15pm.

And in the New Year we shall have every opera of Strauss.

If you can pick out any more goodies, the Press Release is here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2013/r3-jan-prog.html

[mercia]

......... so some Strauss opera at the proms ........

[Anna]

If you can pick out any more goodies ...

Oh Yes, "From every Strauss opera to a topical world music series and boundary pushing drama – Radio 3 remains a home for passionate minds everywhere.”
Funnily enough, I've always wanted to hear every Strauss Opera and more world music., having a passionate mind

[Don Petter]

"Also from January, following the success of the annual Free Thinking Festival produced by the Night Waves production team, Night Waves will become Free Thinking all year round in the Radio 3 schedules. The new programme will bring together the spirit of Radio 3’s festival of ideas and the station’s existing regular coverage of arts and debate."

What does this mean in real money?

[cloughie]

"Also from January, following the success of the annual Free Thinking Festival produced by the Night Waves production team, Night Waves will become Free Thinking all year round in the Radio 3 schedules. The new programme will bring together the spirit of Radio 3’s festival of ideas and the station’s existing regular coverage of arts and debate."

What does this mean in real money?

Reminds me of the Moody Blues intro spoken track on 'On the Threshold of a dream'

The Beginning

[First Man:] I think, I think I am, therefore I am, I think.

[Establishment:] Of course you are my bright little star,
I've miles
And miles
Of files
Pretty files of your forefather's fruit
And now to suit our
Great computer,
You're magnetic ink.

[First Man:] I'm more than that, I know I am, at least, I think I must be.

[Inner Man:] There you go man, keep as cool as you can.
Face piles
And piles
Of trials
With smiles.
It riles them to believe
That you perceive
The web they weave
And keep on thinking free.

[french frank]

What does this mean in real money?

What is troubling about the whole BBC(?) R3(?) style is that they won't call a spade a spade. We're axing Discovering Music is 'we're giving it a break'. Remember Mixing It? 'We're giving Mixing It a break and we have no plans to bring it back'? 'There won't be any more of the excellent Saturday Music Features' becomes 'Music Matters will become a regular weekly programme'. Night Waves is reduced from four nights to three becomes 'Night Waves is 'consolidated' with the three times weekly Free Thinking'. World Routes (axed) has become 'consolidated' with World on 3.

[Don Petter]

What is troubling about the whole BBC(?) R3(?) style is that they won't call a spade a spade. We're axing Discovering Music is 'we're giving it a break'. Remember Mixing It? 'We're giving Mixing It a break and we have no plans to bring it back'? 'There won't be any more of the excellent Saturday Music Features' becomes 'Music Matters will become a regular weekly programme'. Night Waves is reduced from four nights to three becomes 'Night Waves is 'consolidated' with the three times weekly Free Thinking'. World Routes (axed) has become 'consolidated' with World on 3.

Ah. I read it that 'Night Waves' was to be replaced by 'Free Thinking' (with which I'm not familiar) on every night of the week.

They won't, indeed, ever come out straight and say that anything is being axed. Items are absorbed, as within some great amoeba, and then effectively air-brushed out of existence.

[french frank]

Ah. I read it that 'Night Waves' was to be replaced by 'Free Thinking' (with which I'm not familiar) on every night of the week.

It says: "Free Thinking consolidates our two strong arts and ideas brands - Free Thinking and Night Waves - which have been delivered with such success by the same production team."

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Oh I wish RW was as clever as his brother.

[Flay]

Discovering Music (in its old form) was one of the best programmes on Radio 3. The archive was a treasure trove, available to explore when the need arose. It helped me get back into classical music.

What a disgusting waste. So much for the BBC mandate to "educate"

[teamsaint]

It says: "Free Thinking consolidates our two strong arts and ideas brands - Free Thinking and Night Waves - which have been delivered with such success by the same production team."

Kinda says it all really.
Just dismal.

[Suffolkcoastal]

Though there are some plus points, my survey for 2013 (just 11 days to go) makes for some rather depressing stats. The most glaring being the amount of non-classical music played in traditionally predominately classical programme slots (up between 20 & 25%!). Further increases in lighter composers (record years for Gershwin, J Strauss II and John Williams) continued establishment of CFM style composers such as Whiteacre, N Hess. Larger portions of composer's outputs often given to the more popular works, over 20% of Tchaikovsky being the three ballets, 15% of Brahms, Hungarian Dances etc.
All this doesn't bode well for 2014, what with the now total elimination of the remains of Discovering Music, think it's about time the word 'educate' was removed.

[Honoured Guest]

It will be interesting to read your final summary of your stats for the full year.

The January schedule changes strike me as the final stage of the implementation of the budget cuts for the station, establishing a new stable balance (for the time being) between the various elements of the output. For example, world music was over-pruned when World Routes was terminated in the autumn, but the introduction of some similar content to World on 3 from late January will restore a balanced (although reduced) output of feature and music.

Now, every part of the station's output has been cut to some degree, but the whole range of output is still being broadcast, signposted in regular slots. I'd expect future changes to be more in the nature of individual tweaks or touches on the tiller, unless further significant budget cuts are allocated. For example, I don't see why some limited-edition equivalent of Discovering Music might not emerge in future if the planned informal interval discussions prove to be generally unsatisfactory or grow stale and repetitive.

The reported "lightening" of the classical output is a different issue - unrelated to budget cuts - isn't it?

[french frank]

The reported "lightening" of the classical output is a different issue - unrelated to budget cuts - isn't it?

Not entirely, is it? The educative material reduced, the lighter material increased. Both seem designed to impinge on Classic FM's territory. It's all very well to say that Radio 3 remains 'distinctive' but if it becomes equally appealing to the CFM audience, they have a choice of two stations. Those who want the educative, challenging content are progressively squeezed out.

[Honoured Guest]

I interpreted Suffolkcoastal's comment about "the amount of non-classical music played in traditionally predominately classical music slots" as referring to programmes like Composer of the Week and In Tune. That seems to be fairer to more listeners, broadening the range of music featured, but it probably costs about the same and is similarly educative and challenging as the more narrow focus on classical music in earlier days.

The reported increasing predominance of the more popular works does sound more worrying, and it will be interesting to read the final summary of the stats to learn where this shift is occurring in the schedule. I mean, it would be understandable in the Morning programme which is aimed at the lighter listener and serves as a shopwindow to make a general audience fully aware of the more specialised output in the rest of the day. But it could be more problematic if it were also happening within the Live on 3 and specialised programming.

I think that the educative element of Live on 3 could actually be improved by using more of the intervals to discuss the evening's music and performers, to put it all in context, but of course it all depends on who chairs and produces these discussions and on what approach is taken.

As a suggestion, might The Essay slot (Monday to Friday, 10.45 to 11.00pm) be used on occasional weeks to broadcast music talks by a single contributor, as a partial replacement for, or mutation of, Discovering Music?