How R3's music remit has changed
Below are relevant extracts from the following source documents:
An extract from the BBC Handbook for 1961 gives an indication of how the BBC viewed the Third Programme at that time.
BBC Annual Report 1998-1999
John Birt's full review is available here
BBC Radio 3
"BBC Radio 3 has made conscious efforts to reach out to new listeners while continuing to be the UK's leading patron and broadcaster of classical music. It has done this by seeking a presentation style which combines quality and authority with warmth and accessibility. New programmes with a more contemporary style – such as CD Review – were introduced. Audience reach and share increased in 1998. Particular successes included Best of 3, a showcase for highlights of the coming week, and Jazz on 3. New drivetime programming introduced in 1997 began to attract bigger audiences. However, the new tone was not always well received. Some of the less successful changes were reviewed; for example, the amount of speech content in On Air has now been reduced. The network will continue to seek solutions which improve accessibility without sacrificing authority.
More than half of BBC Radio 3's music output is live or specially recorded. The excitement of the live event, as in relays from the Metropolitan Opera in New York, is an essential part of the network's schedule. An outstanding 1998 Proms season was built around a theme of music and politics. Danube Week brought listeners more than 30 hours of live broadcasting from 12 venues in Austria and Hungary.
BBC Radio 3 continues to offer a broad repertoire, with a central place for new work. It is the natural home of projects too ambitious for any other broadcaster; an obvious example of this was the festival of 20th century music, Sounding the Century.
BBC Radio 3 also plays a unique role in music education. Discovering Music with Leonard Slatkin, a ten-part series with the BBC Philharmonic was broadcast over Christmas. The network remained committed to the examination of ideas. Over the year some of the world's leading thinkers and writers – figures such as Noam Chomsky and Seamus Heaney – reflected on the 20th century in the network's major documentary strand, the Sunday Feature. It has been an extraordinary year for BBC Radio 3 drama. The Sunday Play continued to feature world classics and the best contemporary work, including David Hare's one-man performance of his own Via Dolorosa, an adaptation of Solzhenitsyn's Cancer Ward, and Andrew Rissik's innovative treatment of classic material in his Troy trilogy, broadcast over a weekend.
BBC Radio 3
"BBC Radio 3 has made conscious efforts to reach out to new listeners while continuing to be the UK's leading patron and broadcaster of classical music. It has done this by seeking a presentation style which combines quality and authority with warmth and accessibility. New programmes with a more contemporary style – such as CD Review – were introduced. Audience reach and share increased in 1998. Particular successes included Best of 3, a showcase for highlights of the coming week, and Jazz on 3. New drivetime programming introduced in 1997 began to attract bigger audiences. However, the new tone was not always well received. Some of the less successful changes were reviewed; for example, the amount of speech content in On Air has now been reduced. The network will continue to seek solutions which improve accessibility without sacrificing authority.
More than half of BBC Radio 3's music output is live or specially recorded. The excitement of the live event, as in relays from the Metropolitan Opera in New York, is an essential part of the network's schedule. An outstanding 1998 Proms season was built around a theme of music and politics. Danube Week brought listeners more than 30 hours of live broadcasting from 12 venues in Austria and Hungary.
BBC Radio 3 continues to offer a broad repertoire, with a central place for new work. It is the natural home of projects too ambitious for any other broadcaster; an obvious example of this was the festival of 20th century music, Sounding the Century.
BBC Radio 3 also plays a unique role in music education. Discovering Music with Leonard Slatkin, a ten-part series with the BBC Philharmonic was broadcast over Christmas. The network remained committed to the examination of ideas. Over the year some of the world's leading thinkers and writers – figures such as Noam Chomsky and Seamus Heaney – reflected on the 20th century in the network's major documentary strand, the Sunday Feature. It has been an extraordinary year for BBC Radio 3 drama. The Sunday Play continued to feature world classics and the best contemporary work, including David Hare's one-man performance of his own Via Dolorosa, an adaptation of Solzhenitsyn's Cancer Ward, and Andrew Rissik's innovative treatment of classic material in his Troy trilogy, broadcast over a weekend.
BBC Annual Report 1999-2000
Greg Dyke's full review is available here.
BBC Radio 3
During 1999 BBC Radio 3 reaffirmed its position as the UK's main cultural network, adding greater breadth and depth to its coverage of music, drama and the arts. In addition to the classical repertory, BBC Radio 3 features jazz, traditional, experimental and new music from around the world, and continues to act as a focus for cultural debate. The amount of speech in regular music strands was reduced, and live and specially-recorded music, documentaries and the best of new music and writing were given more prominent places in the schedule.
The amount of music in Morning on 3 (formerly On Air) increased, and in a new daily series, Work in Progress, creative artists mused on their current work. Masterworks now features more historic recordings, and the new Morning Performance carries live relays from festivals and surveys of the work of great performers and ensembles. Night Waves provides live cultural commentary every weeknight, at an earlier time. Late Junction gained a cult following for what is perhaps the most eclectic range of music on air.
As the world's largest music festival, the BBC Proms is a mainstay of live performance in the UK. More than a quarter of a million tickets were sold for the 1999 season, one of the most successful in recent years. Anniversaries of Poulenc and Richard Strauss were celebrated, and there was a special focus on the music of Carl Nielsen. Late-night concerts included an Irish Prom and a tribute to the music of Duke Ellington. Chamber music concerts were held at the Victoria and Albert Museum alongside the main programme at the Royal Albert Hall. While reaching out to the widest audience for classical music, the network is committed to exploring the most challenging work.
BBC Radio 3 seeks to inspire listeners who want to discover more across a wide range of arts activities. Events ranged from the critically-acclaimed tour through 2,000 years of Western music in The Unfinished Symphony on the eve of the new millennium, to the Weimar Weekend, in which John Tusa celebrated the 250th anniversary of the birth of Goethe, a series complementing the Samuel Beckett Festival at the Barbican and a Shakespeare Season.
Other drama included Karl Kraus's rarely-performed The Last Days of Mankind, broadcast over a weekend, adaptations of contemporary writing for the stage like Liz Lochead's Perfect Days, and specially commissioned work by Howard Barker and Wole Soyinka.
BBC Radio 3
During 1999 BBC Radio 3 reaffirmed its position as the UK's main cultural network, adding greater breadth and depth to its coverage of music, drama and the arts. In addition to the classical repertory, BBC Radio 3 features jazz, traditional, experimental and new music from around the world, and continues to act as a focus for cultural debate. The amount of speech in regular music strands was reduced, and live and specially-recorded music, documentaries and the best of new music and writing were given more prominent places in the schedule.
The amount of music in Morning on 3 (formerly On Air) increased, and in a new daily series, Work in Progress, creative artists mused on their current work. Masterworks now features more historic recordings, and the new Morning Performance carries live relays from festivals and surveys of the work of great performers and ensembles. Night Waves provides live cultural commentary every weeknight, at an earlier time. Late Junction gained a cult following for what is perhaps the most eclectic range of music on air.
As the world's largest music festival, the BBC Proms is a mainstay of live performance in the UK. More than a quarter of a million tickets were sold for the 1999 season, one of the most successful in recent years. Anniversaries of Poulenc and Richard Strauss were celebrated, and there was a special focus on the music of Carl Nielsen. Late-night concerts included an Irish Prom and a tribute to the music of Duke Ellington. Chamber music concerts were held at the Victoria and Albert Museum alongside the main programme at the Royal Albert Hall. While reaching out to the widest audience for classical music, the network is committed to exploring the most challenging work.
BBC Radio 3 seeks to inspire listeners who want to discover more across a wide range of arts activities. Events ranged from the critically-acclaimed tour through 2,000 years of Western music in The Unfinished Symphony on the eve of the new millennium, to the Weimar Weekend, in which John Tusa celebrated the 250th anniversary of the birth of Goethe, a series complementing the Samuel Beckett Festival at the Barbican and a Shakespeare Season.
Other drama included Karl Kraus's rarely-performed The Last Days of Mankind, broadcast over a weekend, adaptations of contemporary writing for the stage like Liz Lochead's Perfect Days, and specially commissioned work by Howard Barker and Wole Soyinka.
Statements of Programme Policy 2004-2005
These are the plans for Radio 3 for the coming year. The full document is available either as a PDF download or as a text file.
Live music and the arts
BBC Radio 3 provides a broad spectrum of classical music, jazz, world music, drama and arts discussions. It focuses on presenting live and specially recorded music from across the UK and beyond, including contributions from the BBC's own performing groups.
Radio 3's key service priority
During 2004/2005, Radio 3 will continue to present live music and debate, building on the strengths of its own performing groups and deepening its existing external partnerships. In particular, Radio 3 will continue to develop its learning agenda, involving its performing groups in education and community work to bring new audiences an experience of music.
Informing through a range of different viewpoints
Radio 3 is committed to engaging its audience in debate on contemporary issues. Our regular arts programmes Night Waves, Music Matters and lebrecht.live will be the main vehicle for these discussions. A number of special events are also planned by the network.
For example:
…Following the accession of new EU members, we are designing an evening on Europe of the Mind, examining the restoration of social and cultural ties severed by the Cold War.
…Rebuilding the Ark in December 2004 will examine the complex relationship between man and animals, putting ecological matters in a broad cultural context
Inspiring, celebrating and enabling UK culture
Radio 3 is committed to presenting musical and cultural events from across the UK. Live and recorded performances will come from a broad range of venues and festivals. We will continue to work closely with the BBC performing groups and with other independent orchestras and the major music and arts festivals.
We are the only UK radio station committed to commissioning long-form drama. We also encourage adventurous new writing in The Wire and The Verb. We will build on partnerships with leading theatre companies, including a new writing project with Shakespeare's Globe based around its local outreach work with community groups.
…More than 50% of the network's music output will consist of live or specially recorded music, including at least 300 live or specially recorded concerts.
…We will broadcast over 150 concerts of chamber music.
…We will commission over 50 new pieces during the year.
Living and learning
Radio 3 is particularly committed to developing an entry point to a wide range of music through a portfolio of activities, including programmes, interactive services, specially targeted concerts and educational projects, and by extending learning opportunities through returning output like Composer of the Week and Discovering Music.
Amateur involvement in musical performance will be celebrated and encouraged, and we will play a leading role in the national orchestral festival Listen Up! in autumn 2004, and in our own Choir of the Year Awards in February 2005. Making Tracks will continue to develop as a programme and online resource, stimulating the creative imagination of young people, and introducing children to live orchestral and choral music.
…We will continue giving opportunities to young musicians, by supporting the New Generation Artists scheme.
… All of the BBC's performing groups will engage in education and community work across the country.
In addition, all groups now have a learning specialist who will develop diversity projects with different communities across the country.
Coming together
World music is now established as part of our regular output and will continue to feature strongly on Radio 3, representing the different cultures in the UK. WOMAD and the Radio 3 Awards for World Music will provide focal points for this. In the occasional series Belief, public figures explain the impact of their beliefs on their life and activities. In representing a wide spectrum of religious and cultural traditions, this programme seeks to foster mutual awareness and understanding.
…We will continue to adapt our output to the needs of flexible lifestyles by imaginative development of our online on-demand listening facilities.
Presenting a unique experience of world culture
Radio 3 is committed to presenting its listeners with a view of music and the arts which extends beyond national boundaries. We will continue to use partnerships with broadcasters across the world to present highlights of musical life from outside the UK.
The annual Radio 3 World Music Day will continue to build international bridges in sound through presenting musical cultures from across the globe. The fact that performers also talk about how their music relates to their lives is crucial in developing both cross-cultural and human understanding; this also happens on World Routes on a more regular basis.
…We will continue to make the BBC and UK culture highly visible across the world through promoting BBC music material to other broadcasters outside the UK, offering the BBC Proms and other events.
Other commitments
We are also committed to:
…spending over 40% of our budget outside the M25 and investing in local cultural economies throughout the UK
…broadcasting all the concerts of the BBC Proms, as well as being fully involved in providing supporting programming and context, both on air and through our website
Live music and the arts
BBC Radio 3 provides a broad spectrum of classical music, jazz, world music, drama and arts discussions. It focuses on presenting live and specially recorded music from across the UK and beyond, including contributions from the BBC's own performing groups.
Radio 3's key service priority
During 2004/2005, Radio 3 will continue to present live music and debate, building on the strengths of its own performing groups and deepening its existing external partnerships. In particular, Radio 3 will continue to develop its learning agenda, involving its performing groups in education and community work to bring new audiences an experience of music.
Informing through a range of different viewpoints
Radio 3 is committed to engaging its audience in debate on contemporary issues. Our regular arts programmes Night Waves, Music Matters and lebrecht.live will be the main vehicle for these discussions. A number of special events are also planned by the network.
For example:
…Following the accession of new EU members, we are designing an evening on Europe of the Mind, examining the restoration of social and cultural ties severed by the Cold War.
…Rebuilding the Ark in December 2004 will examine the complex relationship between man and animals, putting ecological matters in a broad cultural context
Inspiring, celebrating and enabling UK culture
Radio 3 is committed to presenting musical and cultural events from across the UK. Live and recorded performances will come from a broad range of venues and festivals. We will continue to work closely with the BBC performing groups and with other independent orchestras and the major music and arts festivals.
We are the only UK radio station committed to commissioning long-form drama. We also encourage adventurous new writing in The Wire and The Verb. We will build on partnerships with leading theatre companies, including a new writing project with Shakespeare's Globe based around its local outreach work with community groups.
…More than 50% of the network's music output will consist of live or specially recorded music, including at least 300 live or specially recorded concerts.
…We will broadcast over 150 concerts of chamber music.
…We will commission over 50 new pieces during the year.
Living and learning
Radio 3 is particularly committed to developing an entry point to a wide range of music through a portfolio of activities, including programmes, interactive services, specially targeted concerts and educational projects, and by extending learning opportunities through returning output like Composer of the Week and Discovering Music.
Amateur involvement in musical performance will be celebrated and encouraged, and we will play a leading role in the national orchestral festival Listen Up! in autumn 2004, and in our own Choir of the Year Awards in February 2005. Making Tracks will continue to develop as a programme and online resource, stimulating the creative imagination of young people, and introducing children to live orchestral and choral music.
…We will continue giving opportunities to young musicians, by supporting the New Generation Artists scheme.
… All of the BBC's performing groups will engage in education and community work across the country.
In addition, all groups now have a learning specialist who will develop diversity projects with different communities across the country.
Coming together
World music is now established as part of our regular output and will continue to feature strongly on Radio 3, representing the different cultures in the UK. WOMAD and the Radio 3 Awards for World Music will provide focal points for this. In the occasional series Belief, public figures explain the impact of their beliefs on their life and activities. In representing a wide spectrum of religious and cultural traditions, this programme seeks to foster mutual awareness and understanding.
…We will continue to adapt our output to the needs of flexible lifestyles by imaginative development of our online on-demand listening facilities.
Presenting a unique experience of world culture
Radio 3 is committed to presenting its listeners with a view of music and the arts which extends beyond national boundaries. We will continue to use partnerships with broadcasters across the world to present highlights of musical life from outside the UK.
The annual Radio 3 World Music Day will continue to build international bridges in sound through presenting musical cultures from across the globe. The fact that performers also talk about how their music relates to their lives is crucial in developing both cross-cultural and human understanding; this also happens on World Routes on a more regular basis.
…We will continue to make the BBC and UK culture highly visible across the world through promoting BBC music material to other broadcasters outside the UK, offering the BBC Proms and other events.
Other commitments
We are also committed to:
…spending over 40% of our budget outside the M25 and investing in local cultural economies throughout the UK
…broadcasting all the concerts of the BBC Proms, as well as being fully involved in providing supporting programming and context, both on air and through our website
BBC Annual Report 2003-2004
The Governors' Review of Services is available as a PDF download or as a text file.
Remit
BBC Radio 3 aims to provide a broad spectrum of classical music, jazz, world music, drama and arts discussions. It focuses on presenting live and specially recorded music from across the UK and beyond, including contributions from the BBC's own performing groups.
Radio 3's audience has marginally increased, with an average weekly reach in 2003/2004 of 2.2 million (2.1 million in 2002/2003). The summer Proms season attracted a particularly strong audience and – following schedule changes in the autumn informed by audience consultation and research – the network achieved a record reach in the first quarter of 2004.
Notable output has included Berlioz day – a complete Radio 3 day devoted to the life and influences of the composer; coverage of the Radio 3 Awards for World Music, staged outside London for the first time; and an Arabian night, a special evening featuring the cultural and political life of the Arabian Peninsula.
We note that classical music remains at the heart of the schedule and the current remit requires that core to be complemented with other serious music genres including jazz and world music. We are aware some listeners are unhappy with the share of output given to non-classical music on Radio 3 and will remain mindful of this in continuing to assess the network's performance.
Remit
BBC Radio 3 aims to provide a broad spectrum of classical music, jazz, world music, drama and arts discussions. It focuses on presenting live and specially recorded music from across the UK and beyond, including contributions from the BBC's own performing groups.
Radio 3's audience has marginally increased, with an average weekly reach in 2003/2004 of 2.2 million (2.1 million in 2002/2003). The summer Proms season attracted a particularly strong audience and – following schedule changes in the autumn informed by audience consultation and research – the network achieved a record reach in the first quarter of 2004.
Notable output has included Berlioz day – a complete Radio 3 day devoted to the life and influences of the composer; coverage of the Radio 3 Awards for World Music, staged outside London for the first time; and an Arabian night, a special evening featuring the cultural and political life of the Arabian Peninsula.
We note that classical music remains at the heart of the schedule and the current remit requires that core to be complemented with other serious music genres including jazz and world music. We are aware some listeners are unhappy with the share of output given to non-classical music on Radio 3 and will remain mindful of this in continuing to assess the network's performance.
BBC Handbook 1961
The Third Programme is intended for minority audiences – for those whose tastes, education and mental habits enable them to take pleasure in close and responsive listening to broadcasts of artistic and intellectual distinction. The broadcasts are addressed to the intelligent layman [sic] and not to the specialist seeking to hear from his [sic] specialist or professional colleagues. Although the need is recognized for mediating between this intelligent layman and some of the material broadcast – certain kinds of new music, new poetry, scientific and philosophic discussion for example – he is assumed to have an appetite and a curiosity that would lead him to reject an injudicious popularization. The broad appeal of the plays of Shakespeare and some of the music of Beethoven is, however, just as characteristic of the Third Programme as the challenge of its more adventurous broadcasting. It goes without saying that the programmes seek to fulfil the highest standards of professional performance, and that the criterion of judgment of their success or failure is not the size of the audience they command.
The Third Programme is intended to be contemporary and forward looking; at the same time it seeks to fully represent the achievements of the past, the masterpieces of music and drama.
The Third Programme is intended to be contemporary and forward looking; at the same time it seeks to fully represent the achievements of the past, the masterpieces of music and drama.