Whither Radio 3?

[Norfolk Born]

Given the amount of idle chat on certain programmes, perhaps a thread entitled 'Radio 3 Witter' might also be of interest.

[Andrew Slater]

It seems to be the way of the world. Just about every organisation is top-heavy with managers who have little feel for what they are managing, and who therefore concentrate on the statistics (often known as Key Performance Indicators), relentlessly re-organising and pushing so that the numbers which should be high are maximised and those which should be low are minimised. As they have little understanding of the entity under their control, they fail to see any warning signs that they have been too extreme. Often they lock themselves away from the common herd and therefore don't even get a chance to see the effect of their campaigns. While the entity being managed goes to pot as a result of this myopic mania, the perpetrators get their bonus and move on, having done a 'good' job, as evidenced by the shiny KPIs. (Look at Railtrack, the banks, the NHS, ..., the BBC.)

Until this mentality is completely discredited (which will take more than the banking crisis), the madness will continue. In the mean time, I think it's imperative to continue to push against the spread of this mania to R3, irrespective of its perceived effectiveness. Otherwise (or even despite it) it can only get worse.

End of rant.

[DracoM]

Top post, Andrew.

Fear is the Key. To make, defend and keep a job, planners [sic] are afeard of moving out of the comfortable banality of Radio 2.5 presentation style which in turn means that to preserve numbers challenging content is reduced, a smaller list of /must-plays' is endlessly re-cycled - Spem in Alium 4 times last week, and that's just when I was listening to R3. Because our education system has since 1988 been increasingly and resolutely 'project-' 'assignment-based' and not 'thinking-based', innovation is rarely perceived, encouraged or rewarded. Chummy Cowan replaces Swain the Ascetic, CDM Brains Trust or similar disappears, Reith Lectures go to R4 and are Lawley-fied, [and, bizarrely, travels to different parts of the country to be broadcast - why? Radio is national already and can be heard in Devizes and Durham anyway? ].

Laurie Taylor's prog on R4 is called Thinking Allowed'. If only, I say. And why is it not on R3? As soon as you say that R4 is the Speech Network, you shoulder out of it the most trenchantly challenging because it also has to encompass The Archers, In Our Time, Clare in the Community, Endless News and You and Yours. There is little or no hope for strict and searching debate UNLESS you re-site that toughest material on R3, because it will always get shuttled out on R4 by the huge other claims on that channel.

I totally agree with Andrew and FF that we must go on lobbying and fighting and writing. I know this sounds pompous, but if groups like The Radio 3 Forum do not fight on, there will be a day if it is not upon us already when no-one at R3 will for one moment think that 'Breakfast' and all the twaddle that goes with it is not in fact a very beacon in the general Rafferty-isation of R3.

[antongould]

Yes both excellent posts - but what, and it will never happen, if an agreement was reached by all parties that for 2(?) years R3 went back to where it was in the 70s(?) and listener numbers fell dramatically...............what would you see happening then? We all, probably, have a view on what would happen to the audience but what if we did see a steep decline?

[cloughie]

Yes both excellent posts - but what, and it will never happen, if an agreement was reached by all parties that for 2(?) years R3 went back to where it was in the 70s(?) and listener numbers fell dramatically...............what would you see happening then? We all, probably, have a view on what would happen to the audience but what if we did see a steep decline?

I see no problem in that, whatsoever, the steep decline would probably be accounted for by the move to CFM of those wanting BCs not FWs. I would welcome a morning or two of Breakfast Penny Gore style 6.30-9.00, with nice chunky half-hour Symphonies, Concertos or oether enticing works, then 9.00-12.00 CD Masters - Bring it on! I don't give a fig for audience figures - it would actually be quite interesting to see how many of the new listeners who've joined R3 during the dumb-down years, would stick with the return to basics - just give us back our quality.

[salymap]

We can't go back to the old days because fashions have changed,those marvellous broadcasters are no more.

But what about demanding, well asking, for one phoneless, tweetless, email us-less day a week and see what happens to the figures? With, of course, more music, less chat.

[antongould]

We can't go back to the old days because fashions have changed,those marvellous broadcasters are no more.

But what about demanding, well asking, for one phoneless, tweetless, email us-less day a week and see what happens to the figures? With, of course, more music, less chat.

an even better idea - as usual - with statistical significance too!

[Bax-of-Delights]

Anton:
This is the nub and thrust of DracoM's post. The BBC have become fixated by audience figures and in so doing have lost the basic ethos of what R3 should be about. It is this constant search for ever larger listening figures (in some sense mirroring the catastrophic search for constant annual growth in the country's spending) that has brought the station to where it is today.
Now, whether I or DracoM or Norfolkborn or Andrew Slater no longer listen to long stretches of R3's output (7-12 and 4.30-6.30) because of the empty blether and oft regurgitated "best tunes" is neither here nor there. What is more important in the wider cultural life of this country is that, in my opinion, a golden seam of literary and musical heritage stretching back centuries is being systematically downmarketed (please excuse the phrase) to become "all inclusive". in the process just becomes another piece of broadcast musical wallpaper that exists for no other reason that it can be turned on/off at any time because like the no.9 bus there will another one coming round the corner any time soon.

[french frank]

R3 went back to where it was in the 70s(?)

That isn't the only alternative. What is being questioned is that, in order to 'move with the times', Radio 3 has to replicate the template of popular radio (not a little dating back to the 1970s).

a golden seam of literary and musical heritage

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

...er did not want to start a new thread so here is where i want to say thanks and express my amazement at the efforts made by ff on behalf of the cause [prompted by her latest newsletter]