Originally posted by french frank
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Parliamentary Inquiry: CFM lets rip
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OB too expensive? but they are not all over the place, surely some semi-permanent facilities for braodcasting purposes could be installed in a couple of Houses?
wonder what the Presenting budget has done in recent years
it is distressing to read of 'the proposition' a final confirmation, if needed, that R3 under Wright [and no doubt his bosses in recent years] has succumbed to the narcissism of being a brand, of serving the station and not the art .... Radio Three used to serve the art and was an example to the nation and the world now it just scurries after propositions, demographics and silky voices on air
the authority and authenticity we previously enjoyed has been squandered in the flight from virtue that characterises the BBC both under and after ThompsonAccording to the best estimates of astronomers there are at least one hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe.
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Originally posted by french frank View PostInteresting email just in with a scan from the Spectator. It describes a clip from Blue Peter in 1972. Yehudi Menuhin has his violin and is talking about the strings and Paganini, and then plays an operatic aria 'accompanying himself' (says Valerie Singleton) 'with the left hand pizzicato.' And then he plays a bit from Paganini's Caprice No 24. Four minutes of prime-time children's television, addressing children of 8 or 9.
The point being made was not that children's television should be just like that now, 40 years on, serious and not dumbed down in an effort to inspire young people; it was that Radio 3 'operates more and more on the opposite, unflattering and eventually self-fulfilling principle' that its adult listeners can be expected to understand almost nothing.
It may be that 'most' of Radio 3's listeners understand almost nothing. But many, under the age of 50, won't have been introduced to broadcasts like the Blue Peter one ... And the majority of Radio 3 listener ARE, in any case, over the age of 50.
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Originally posted by gurnemanz View PostWhen I was aged 14 in 1963 the marvellously serious and high-minded BBC with its edifying snippets such as bits of Paganini tossed the way of its younger audience almost completely refused to acknowledge the popular (pop), dumbed down music which my friends and I were interested in. I spent my teenage years listening mostly to pirate stations and Radio Luxembourg until one day I discovered Radio Three - while having a bath! - and it was Beethoven's Ninth.
A much better policy would be to present WAM as a cool, secret underground alternative to the establishment, Anglo-American commercial pop which drowns everything else out. It is much harder for teenagers today to resist commercial and peer group pressures than it ever was in your day, and projecting the image that WAM consists of gobbets of bland, soothing romantic pap for the terminally middle-aged and middle-class hardly encourages young people to give it a go.
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Originally posted by Master Jacques View PostIt is much harder for teenagers today to resist commercial and peer group pressures than it ever was in your day,
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Originally posted by french frank View PostLunchtime O'Boulez appears to have spent a couple of happy hours browsing through it too, if the new Private Eye is anything to go by...
Can't post a link, most of PE isn't online...
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Originally posted by jean View PostToday's even newer PE carries a letter doubting whether the puny Friends of Radio 3 exist much beyond Lunchtime O'Boulez's local winebar.It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.
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Originally posted by Stan Drews View PostAppears to have been written by:
Pretty poor letter for a supposed pro, btw.
[Ed: Who knows? Perhaps he IS the current L O'B!]It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.
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Originally posted by gurnemanz View Postquite a substantial overlap range and that with its recent changes Radio 3 is not in fact "targeting a broad audience'" but fighting over these middle range floaters.
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Originally posted by Serial_Apologist View PostHmm - I'm wondering about that. What I recall is being called a "square" for my love of classical music in the early 60s; and this was at a private school for boys from middle class backgrounds. This is just to remind people that middle class was not at all necessarily synonymous with "cultured" back then either - and by that one doesn't mean in the manner of received pronunciation. Fortunately, there was jazz around as a still-popular alternative to Cliff Richard, Adam Faith & co, and from Acker Bilk one could graduate on to mainstream and modern jazz without being thought uncool... which, of course, one still can.
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The view from South of the Channel
French classical station France-Musique has published an article on its website about all this: http://www.francemusique.fr/actu-mus...en-crise-20326
This is my swift translation of the same:
BBC RADIO 3 IN CRISIS?
Radio 3, the BBC's classical music station, has seen its listener figures drop and is receiving strong criticism in the UK
A 3.35% drop in listeners and above al a 13.9% drop in the average listening period for each listener in 1 year - the RAJAR figures for Radio3 paint a pessimistic piecture of the health of the BBC's specialist classical music channel.
However, the RAJAR report shows that in the last quarter of 2013, "there have never been more people listening to radio" and that Classic FM, the rival commercial station, had better results with its listener numbers rising by 250 000 in one year, taking its cumulative number in the final quarter of 2013 to 5.6 million as opposed to 2 million for Radio 3.
Since the end of January, a series of press articles in the UK - in particular in the Telegraph - have pointed out a certain amount of tension. In the ratings war, Classic FM accuses Radio 3 of mimicking its programmes, and of copying its "innovations” to recover viewer figures. The accusation was made in writing to the government commission covering culture, media and sport, and is a new element in the process being undertaken by the British government concerning the "future of the BBC”.
Classic FM's criticisms fall under three main headings:
1 According to Classic FM, Radio 3 broadcasts too many extracts and short pieces during the main listening periods
2 According to Classic FM, Radio 3 is pursuing listener numbers
3 According to Classic FM, Radio 3 is switching its content towards "lighter" content like film music.
In an open letter published on 30th January in the Telegraph, the Controller of Radio 3 Roger Wright responded by denouncing these accusations as "nonsense", and stressing “the complementary nature of the two stations". Mr Wright also stresses the rich programming of the station, its 600 live concerts a year, and reaffirms that his aim is to "enrich the fabric of British culture".
Unfortunately for him, Roger Wright also has to tackle the criticism of his own teams. One of his presenters, Michael White, for example, recently crtiticised the "pressure" exerted on the station and the "obsession with increasing listener numbers at the expense of programme quality". Wrong, says the Controller, pointing to more flexible management under his own Controllership.
In responses and counter-attacks, Roger Wright is trying to create a harmonious picture of Radio 3. He states that he's not trying to copy the competition, or chase after listener numbers, or cheapen programmes, and is not coming under pressure… But he does admit to "difficulties" encountered by Radio 3, starting with trying to find a "happy medium" between modernising the programmes (responding to changes in listening habits) and maintaining the station's identity.
The battle for music-loving listeners is underway.
Guillaume Decalf"...the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."
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Some comments on our Facebook page.
Oh, by the way, RadioCentre and Global Radio are appearing before the CMS Committee on 25 February, to give evidence anent.It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.
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A letter in the new Radio Times complains about 'Auntie's' declining standards, praises her 'love of art programmes' and a few other things, but is 'cross' that 'one of her favourite sons (Radio3) keeps taking chunks of Auntie's money to serve his own minuscule, private audience.'
So the RW effect isn't even working.
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