History of Radio 3 (1992 - 1998)
Autres temps, autres moeurs
In 1992, John Drummond (workaholic, disdainful mandarin, but a man steeped in the arts and already at the BBC when he was appointed Controller) was succeeded by Nicholas Kenyon. Kenyon was considered an unlikely choice by some. Music critic of The Observer newspaper, he had a background in arts administration but no experience of broadcasting and didn't know the Beeb — not, at least, from the inside.
Change was certainly in the air — particularly with the arrival soon after Kenyon of a new BBC Director-General, consumerist and arch bean-counter John Birt. The harsh spotlight of Realekonomie began to flash into the untidy burrow which housed Radio 3. Idealists were out, ideologues were in.
However much it was denied, the fact that a new commercial radio station — Classic FM — was about to arrive on the scene must have exercised minds at the BBC, and at Radio 3 in particular. Classic FM was to be an all-classical music station, but targeted at the less rarefied end: a strictly limited repertoire of the already familiar, good tunes and short extracts (so-called 'bleeding chunks'). Nothing too taxing, just pleasant music. Robin Ray, chief music adviser to Classic FM was happy to admit it: the CFM listener of today would become the Radio 3 listener of tomorrow.
Classic FM, ridiculed when it started for the musical gaffes and mispronunciations of its disc jockeys, was nevertheless praised for its laid-back style. One of the first things Kenyon did was to send three senior members of the Music Department to the United States, to see what Radio 3 could learn from American classical music stations ...
Anachronistic, fuddy-duddy, old-fashioned — that was implicitly Kenyon's view of Radio 3. Long-serving presenters were pensioned off or moved behind the scenes where, presumably, their "perfect diction and graceful manners" (as Paul Donovan wrote in The Sunday Times) would not alienate a potential audience who would be made to feel excluded by anything that smacked of the upper middle-classes.
Long-standing programmes were axed in order to introduce "access points" for new listeners ... drive-time programmes, morning and evening, with popular classical music, news headlines, weather, traffic information. A Sunday morning of popular classics presented by Brian Kay, already well-known on Radio 2 and Radio 4, was introduced in a frank attempt to lure in a new audience for "classical music".
A Classic FM executive remarked that Radio 3 was now "changing to a format which is obviously closer to ours. That convergence will contribute inevitably to a reduction in listener choice." Significantly, within months of its launch, Classic FM had a weekly audience of 4.5 million, almost double that of Radio 3, and had landed the Sony Radio Award for national radio station of the year.
In 1995, Kenyon announced that Classic FM presenter Paul ('Music for Lovers') Gambaccini would move over to Radio 3 to present a new weekday morning music programme. His arrival was greeted with noisy hostility. Critic and listener outrage was such that, after one year, Gambaccini elected not to continue.
Former Radio 3 Controller John Drummond was among those who spoke up. "The BBC," he said, "has been an organisation which has seen itself as leading society, not following taste. If it no longer wishes to be that, I can't see any reason for its existence."
It's ironic to note that most of the programmes Nick Kenyon claimed to be most proud of have already been swept aside. For better… or worse…
Change was certainly in the air — particularly with the arrival soon after Kenyon of a new BBC Director-General, consumerist and arch bean-counter John Birt. The harsh spotlight of Realekonomie began to flash into the untidy burrow which housed Radio 3. Idealists were out, ideologues were in.
However much it was denied, the fact that a new commercial radio station — Classic FM — was about to arrive on the scene must have exercised minds at the BBC, and at Radio 3 in particular. Classic FM was to be an all-classical music station, but targeted at the less rarefied end: a strictly limited repertoire of the already familiar, good tunes and short extracts (so-called 'bleeding chunks'). Nothing too taxing, just pleasant music. Robin Ray, chief music adviser to Classic FM was happy to admit it: the CFM listener of today would become the Radio 3 listener of tomorrow.
Classic FM, ridiculed when it started for the musical gaffes and mispronunciations of its disc jockeys, was nevertheless praised for its laid-back style. One of the first things Kenyon did was to send three senior members of the Music Department to the United States, to see what Radio 3 could learn from American classical music stations ...
Anachronistic, fuddy-duddy, old-fashioned — that was implicitly Kenyon's view of Radio 3. Long-serving presenters were pensioned off or moved behind the scenes where, presumably, their "perfect diction and graceful manners" (as Paul Donovan wrote in The Sunday Times) would not alienate a potential audience who would be made to feel excluded by anything that smacked of the upper middle-classes.
Long-standing programmes were axed in order to introduce "access points" for new listeners ... drive-time programmes, morning and evening, with popular classical music, news headlines, weather, traffic information. A Sunday morning of popular classics presented by Brian Kay, already well-known on Radio 2 and Radio 4, was introduced in a frank attempt to lure in a new audience for "classical music".
A Classic FM executive remarked that Radio 3 was now "changing to a format which is obviously closer to ours. That convergence will contribute inevitably to a reduction in listener choice." Significantly, within months of its launch, Classic FM had a weekly audience of 4.5 million, almost double that of Radio 3, and had landed the Sony Radio Award for national radio station of the year.
In 1995, Kenyon announced that Classic FM presenter Paul ('Music for Lovers') Gambaccini would move over to Radio 3 to present a new weekday morning music programme. His arrival was greeted with noisy hostility. Critic and listener outrage was such that, after one year, Gambaccini elected not to continue.
Former Radio 3 Controller John Drummond was among those who spoke up. "The BBC," he said, "has been an organisation which has seen itself as leading society, not following taste. If it no longer wishes to be that, I can't see any reason for its existence."
It's ironic to note that most of the programmes Nick Kenyon claimed to be most proud of have already been swept aside. For better… or worse…