"I agree that R3 has dumbed down and diversified too much. I work and miss a lot of the best serious classical programming either in the day when at work or the middle of the night when I have to sleep."

David Dobbie, Sheffield

"I have been a regular listener to R3 since 1977 and owe my introduction to classical music, and subsequent musical education, to it almost entirely. Like the rest of the contributors to this site I have noticed a steady deterioration in the quality of both the programmes and the presenters over the last few years. It seems to me that if the BBC had set out to deliberately alienate its core R3 audience it could hardly have done a better job."

Rick Walsh, Lincs

"Have only just discovered this group/site and, in common with many others, have been pleased to discover that 'I am not alone', even though listening to Radio 3 is in many ways a solitary occupation (in the car, in bed etc.)

Like many others this is my major complaint: the lack of classical music on the BBC in the late evening is irritating, to say the least. On the other hand, it does force me to go and access my CD collection! (And it really has helped me to know that I am not the only person who does not like Late Junction, much praised as it is in other places.)"

David Penfold, East Sussex

"Personally I listen to music on R3 less and less, mainly because the deteriorating standard of presentation, the hype, and the opinions of some of the presenters, force me to turn over to R4. Perhaps that's what the BBC is hoping we'll do, so they can get rid of R3 altogether."

David Hunt, Somerset

"It is good to see people defending the identity of Radio 3. A recent off the cuff/perceived concern of mine (just based on my experience of turning on the radio when I can) is the preponderance of music from american musicals and light classical music. (It leaves me wondering if these genres count as 'classical' music in the BBC's statistics).

Also, I have fond memories of the Radio 1 John Peel show which used to cover a lot of diverse ground that has now found its way into Radio 3. Surely more diversity on Radio 1 and 2 would be as culturally enriching in its way as preserving Radio 3's classical/high art identity."

Dominic Rivron, N. Yorks

"There are things that we can't easily make explicit that still matter terribly. It's not just the measurable hours of classical music (or the awful chat, the pop music, etc), but the way in which it is all done that matters. It's the attitude that is expressed in the grating, matey style, the trashy inclusion of clips and ads (precisely what we need a publicly funded service to avoid), the fear of contextually necessary pauses and silences, the announcers who can't even pronounce German and Italian, the feeling of being talked down to.

This is a simple attack on culture itself, the sort of thing that we see all around us, and it must be comfortable for the BBC to tell themselves they are in the swim, where it would have taken real guts to stand up for what has been entrusted to them.

No doubt it will be said that such vague (i.e. immeasurable) things cannot be taken into account because they are only matters of opinion. Nonsense. The controller of Radio 1 would never have thought it OK to have Top of the Pops introduced by Patricia Hughes, and he wouldn't need figures to explain why. If the controller of Radio 3 can't tell what we're talking about here, he's not fit to do the job. But of course he knows well enough. He is deliberately assaulting the taste and values of those who used to love and be proud of Radio 3.

We don't want to have Radio 3 in the background at the office. We don't want to have to go to a computer for it. We want to switch on the radio as we used to and be sure of hearing something we had gone there seeking: classical music, intellectually stimulating talks, etc (and that does not mean endless interviews with people in the music business). Until it returns, people like me will simply have to tune into the radio of other European countries where yob culture hasn't, as so often in England nowadays, come to take over and effectively drown out the voices of the rest."

Iain McGilchrist, Kent

"One thing that I feel very strongly is that the bits of R3 which are still presenting classical music, are doing it all wrong. There is too much chat, too much interviewing, too many presenter 'personalities'. The point is made on your pages by someone in connection with arts broadcasting. Instead of a serious talk on something we get a bunch of people discussing the topic, i.e. having a gossip. This is in stark contrast with the schedules of the 1960s where there were proper talks by leading experts in many fields."

Peter Bettess, Durham

"Some thirty years ago my musical taste in the sixth form and at university was formed by listening to R3 (and its predecessor) in the evenings. I am convinced that a lifetime of pleasure would have been denied me if I had not had that opportunity. I am equally convinced that that opportunity has now been witheld from my sons who are just entering that same critical stage of their development."

Christopher Shaw, Hants

"At the age of fourteen, I discovered Radio Three and a whole world whose existence I had not hitherto even suspected suddenly opened out before me. Over the last thirty-odd years Radio Three has challenged and goaded me, infuriated me and, ultimately, taught my spirit not only how to fly, but where it might fly to. From this you may now see why I believe that it is vitally important that the current project to dumb down, dilute and marginalize the content of Radio Three should not be allowed to pass unchallenged. I am not unique, there are many, many children of my generation who, I am sure, could tell a similar tale.

How will Radio Three serve the new generation and bring an appreciation of the finer aspects of our culture into their lives? By insisting in maintaining the discredited postmodernist paradigm that holds pop music in the same esteem as Bach? By encouraging them to mangle their vowels and stutter in their speech? By proving that sloppy and lazy thinking is in any way acceptable? I don't think so!"

David J Woodhead, Lancs

"Radio 3 is one of the things that the BBC should be cherishing, not trying to dumb down.

There is still much that is wonderful on it, and while I like 'World Music', I do not see what it has in common with the core strengths of Radio 3. I also don't see the BBC using the same argument to force Radio 1 or Radio 5 Live, for example, to start playing Beethoven Symphonies. Why should they?

Please, force the BBC to start justifying at least a proportion of its licence fee by cherishing the artistic excellence of Radio 3 as it was at its best."

William Battersby, London

"Basically there are four types of classical station: 1) Presented music: like Radio Clásica, Bayern 4 Klassik or France Musiques; 2) Unpresented music: like Swiss Classic, Hector or Sinforadio; 3) Stations of a general cultural content, with classical music, radio plays and cultural or political features. (Like hr2, DRS2, Espace2 or DLR); 4) Commercial stations: these usually have an 'easy listening' format (Mozart's Kleine Nachtmusik and Ravel's Bolero up and down ad nauseam between advertising).

In principle BBC R3 would fall into category 1, but unlike most other stations of category 1, the presentations are also delivering positive opinions. Sometimes I have the impression that the presenters were demoted from football or advertising presentation, and so they are doing their best in peddling classical music in the same way, but have absolutely no personal interest in the subject (other than maybe the golden buttons on the jacket of the violinist or some such.)

Although the type of music is generally of high quality, the 'digesting' and presentation is sometimes worse than with stations of category 4. A good deal of it probably is just thoughtless boiler-plating, but part of it as also deliberate dumbing-down in the senseless quest for quotas. But in fairness it needs also to be stated that the BBC commissions work to composers, which is an important cultural contribution.

Unfortunately the trend is everywhere: Bayern 4 Klassik last year did the same thing. They drew so many protests that they silently abandoned this approach and they are almost back from where they were before (of course nobody admits that they did something wrong)."

Karl M, Marburg, Germany

"I clearly remember discovering the 'Third Programme', aged about 12. I didn't understand it, yet knew instinctively I would return, did so in my 20s and have listened to little else since. Having read all the comments on this website, I find that each concern of mine about Radio 3's dire state has been eloquently touched on; but may I add a few jottings?

One outstanding feature of Radio 3 used to be that announcers never commented on the programmes. Never. A live concert would finish with applause which was allowed to continue for a time commensurate with the event, a slight fade, the announcer would simply underscore what we had heard, name the performers etc. and then gently return us to the continuity studio. The listener was able to form their own opinion of music and performance. Almost overnight, some time in the '80s, that regime changed, Quite abruptly, we found announcers gratuitously enlightening us with their own opinion of the performance. The pause after the end of the music became jump out of the chair to reach the switch to silence the uncritical zeal of a blaring announcer, instead of being able to relax in the concert afterglow.

Mispronunciation used to be unknown, but is now a daily occurrence. Come on chaps, Götterdämmerung isn't that difficult. I'd like to suggest that the most significant comment to be found on this forum, 'In order to reach everyone, you have to go up-market as well as down', should be engraved on plaques, and presented by FoR3 to each of the BBC Radio bosses."

James Miller, Cambridge

The number of times that we, my wife and I, are tempted to switch off seem to be increasing, especially for the jazz programmes and the intrusion of jazz into the normal piecemeal programmes such as In Tune. My wife does like jazz but wants it to be on Radio 2.

I personally want a piecemeal programme or continuous concert between 3 pm and 5 pm when I like to doze - being now rather old (80). Though the afternoon religious service on Wednesdays causes me no problems!

Martin Mottram, Wilts

"Having been a listener to Radio 3 since the 1970s I have been very depressed about what has been happening to the programming, content and presentation of what once was a wonderfully quirky, intelligent and stimulating station. I have now almost given up listening to Radio 3. Many of the programmes are bland (one exception being the excellent CD Masters intelligently presented by Rob Cowan and Jonathan Swain) and most of presenters just plain irritating.

I have just returned from being away for a couple of weeks. This morning I switched over to Radio 3 from Radio 4 at 8.00 am. I had switched off by 8.25 am and put on a CD.

Why? Following a piece of music was the usual silly link and a trail about a concert at 7.30 pm this evening. After a short piece of music I heard another trail for a jazz concert to be broadcast from the Barbican next week. Another silly link and another short piece of music. This was followed by a reminder of what was to come after the 8.30 am news (which I had already heard and is well covered on Radio 4). At this point I switched off in disgust. I probably will not bother to switch on again today (unless to listen to CD Masters and Lunchtime Concert).

I now find I switch it off more than ever or do not bother to listen to it at all. Where are the stimulating and challenging discussions, the poetry and the plays both classic and contemporary? Rarely on Radio 3 and therefore not on BBC stations at all."

David Collins, Wiltshire

"I have a love of classical music, although I also appreciate other musics, including rock and that from other cultures. However I feel cheated that in working long hours, my only chance to listen during weekdays is in the later evening, and then all I can get on R3 is Late Junction! I wouldn't mind maybe two evenings of LJ, but not every day."

Dr Chris Brophy, S Yorks

"Radio 3 is about the only BBC channel I listen to; and I always listen to it every morning from 9 til 11, apart from other times after consulting the list of programmes. I find CD Masters and CD Review still generally very good. But there is a recent tendency to mix classical with jazz or popular music. I think it is quite reasonable to cater for another minority taste such as jazz, but I think it is better if this is in separate programmes, not mixed together. Perhaps we are narrow in our tastes - although I range from Early Music to contemporary composers, but I do not take in present day popular music. If Radio 3 starts mixing it up, then the likelihood is that those regular listeners will just switch off, and stay switched off!"

Alex Bruce, Sussex

"I can only agree with the messages on your noticeboard, and as for those ghastly trailers – who do they think they're speaking to!! The listener is obviously looked upon as some sort of idiot to be patronised… Listen Up!… I shall write no more."

T Seda, Channel Islands

"What is the problem with reserving one radio programme for intelligently presented serious music? Personality-led broadcasting of every musical style known can be found all over the spectrum, and is undertaken by commercial operations. The only long term justification for the licence fee lies in delivering those things which a commercial service provider cannot. Yet the BBC is seemingly determined to make itself indistinguishable from commercial broadcasters."

Paul Jansz, Herts

"Radio 3 seems to be trying to turn itself into a version of Classic FM – minus the commercials but with a thin, unconvincing veneer of 'multi-culturalism'. The effect will be to wreck both its reputation and popularity. The latter derives from the former. Radio 3 can never hope to rival other stations in the numbers game – that has never been its purpose."

Nigel Rodgers, Wilts

"It would be difficult to be more condemnatory of R3 than most of your current contributors. The pity is that most of them only want to reverse the decline of R3. But R3 at its inception was a shadow of its predecessor the Third Programme, which broadcast not only music but full length plays by playrights through the ages from Euripides and Aristophanes to Jean Anouilh and Christopher Fry.

My solution has been to get a multichange CD player and create my own concerts. Switching the radio off is not good enough, if there were a separate section of the licence for radio one could refuse to pay it; that might get some action."

David Morgan, Herts

"The traditional values of Radio 3 are not being eroded, they are being abandoned in the name of that modern essential - accessibility, which I have heard defined, in literary terms as, 'use short words'.

When the BBC has this series of radio channels, why is it seen as necessary to dilute the quality we have become accustomed to by giving us more and more non-traditional programme content?

The answer, we are told, is to attract more listeners from a more diverse background – how successful is this? How many young people, of school age, rush home to tune in to Radio 3 at 1540 for Makings Tracks, (or is it spelled Trax these days?), am I being overly cynical to suspect that this is a sacrifice of 20 minutes of my afternoon enjoyment on the altar of equality?"

David Lingard, Lincs

"What do I most dislike about Radio 3 today? World Routes – banality dressed up as high art; Making Tracks - even more banality, dressed up as an embarrassing and second-rate clown; an insistence on telling me how wonderful something is, rather than allowing me to make up my own mind. Please drop the: 'I'm sure you will agree' tag.

What do I most miss from Radio 3? Peter Barker (some things I just have to let go of); the Radio 3 silence. There is nothing wrong with space before, and particularly after, a piece of music. I miss the days when any broadcast was followed by a silence, often long enough to allow me to decide whether to switch off, and certainly long enough for me to absorb what I had just listened to, rather than being bombarded by DJ-style post-match commentary. Some announcers are better at respecting the space than others; but all, I suspect, are being urged on by their controllers to fill every available piece of airwave.

And Radio 3 is still the only broadcast radio channel I ever listen to – apart from very occasional forays into Radio 4. I do, however, more often than I am happy with, find myself switching off, not because I find something less interesting, but because I find it positively annoying."

William Johnston, Brighton

"Hardy R3 perennials flourish unchanged. And this is as it should be: when a formula works well, let it be. Weighed in the balance, the upside still wins; but it's a near thing. The downside is conspicuous and prevailing. Continuity can be cursory, and the actual announcing gruesome in tone and level. Inability – seemingly wilful – to pronounce composers' names even, let alone the (often foreign!) titles of their pieces and the names of characters in their operas, precedes jejune titbits, often misleading, sometimes inaccurate, usually irrelevant, by way of replacing sensible, grown-up introductions. (And the trailers - vulgar, inept, imbecilic, far too often repeated – are literally a switch-off.)

Good talks, as of old, and long serious documentary programmes at which the channel once excelled, have all but disappeared. Serious contemporary music, once responsibly and comprehensively covered, is now (apart from the Chosen Few) ghettoised as if there were no duty towards it in the very meaning of the corporation's charter. Mid-to-late evenings are an almost daily desert of twaddling flimflam (its place, if you like this kind of thing, is clearly elsewhere). The cheapness of all this is completely unnecessary; it indicts the present management; it could be and should be unknit and reversed."

Robin Holloway, Cambridge
(edited and reproduced, with permission, from The Spectator)

"Despite many interesting and artistically distinguished achievements, the current policy of Radio 3 is more explicitly ideological than it has been at any time since the Glock regime – although the thrust of the ideology is very different this time: popularist as opposed to exclusively intellectual. But I believe that ideological positions blur a sense of responsibility. It is the duty of the officers of Radio 3 to achieve a retention and increase in public interest by means of inspired planning and good presentation. It is not their duty to 'put over' a point of view; this is the criticism I would make of the present administration of Radio 3. Real evaluation and judgement is sacrificed to a (feeble) attempt at a supposed and quite arbitrary 'relevance' (or trendiness).

It is high time that Radio 3 took back its rightful position as a principal contributor to the musical life of this country and veered away from its seemingly idiosyncratic and wayward by-paths of little interest in themselves and of even less effect."

Alexander Goehr, Cambridge

"Many of the best things in life – Wordsworth, dark chocolate, classical music – appeal only to a minority; and probably this will never change. It certainly won't change through those who cater for that minority by diluting their products, or borrowing tacky sales techniques from perceived rivals.

We ought to be very concerned about a generation that is growing up without proper musical education in schools, and make sure that those who, nonetheless, develop an interest are intellectually stimulated rather than patronised by what they hear on the radio."

Timothy West
Prunella Scales, London

"Like you I am immensely grateful to Radio 3 for a host of reasons and for the many wonderful things they have done and continue to do. It is however depressing to see the channel dumb-down, and often in a manner some people feel to be patronising. (They do not feel similarly patronised by, say, Classic FM as it starts from a different standpoint.) It is hard to see how it helps popular appreciation of the arts to mispronounce the names of composers and artists, or to play to young people the pop music they can readily find anywhere else."

Dame Gillian Weir, Berkshire

"For many years the Third Programme was the flagship of culture, admired throughout the world. Despite many protestations that Radio 3 is not 'dumbing down', the most dispassionate observation tells us that it is. Why is there now such an unbalanced concern for youth? The so-called 'serious' listener has always been in the minority and the BBC should unashamedly cater for that minority even though to do so might cause it to suffer in the childish ratings war."

Antony Hopkins, Herts

"I agree wholeheartedly with you. The truth is that our present politicians are obsessed with reviving the class issues. Serious music is elitist (dreadful word!) and therefore (upper) middle class. Oh, dear!"

Christopher Robinson, Cambridge

"We entirely agree with you. We hope that later you might spread your activities to promoting a return of Radio 3 to the literary importance it (and the Third Programme) once had."

Ann Thwaite
Anthony Thwaite, Norfolk

"R3 has been badly dumbed down, both in the dilution of its quality, and in regard to the puerile nature of much of the announcing. Pop, rock, light music and so on have no place on R3: there are already two other BBC channels for them; and there is Classic FM for the kind of drivel that is film music these days and it should be left to dispense the other kinds of pot noodle music that panders to the City Boys with a low threshold of boredom and a short attention span."

David Wulstan, Cardiganshire

"I've worked from home for the last five or so years. First thing I did, on getting up, was to turn on the radio. I was in seventh heaven, no more missed programmes I wanted to hear. Sadly this is not the case now. I very rarely turn the radio on. Radio 3 is responsible for its own death. A pity they can't see that."

Jackie Howell, London

"I cannot describe how relieved I am to discover that so many people seem to share my deeply held dissatisfaction, which I previously thought was restricted to a small circle of like-minded friends.

I take comfort that your site does not restrict its criticism to the deteriorating quality of the programming, though this is of course paramount. Long may you also continue to campaign against the insidious 'dumbing down' inherent in the tone and content of over-familiar announcers, and the relentless drive to make programmes more 'interactive'."

Peter Wynne, Lancashire.

"I have been a passionate listener of R3. The current small output of the spoken word saddens me greatly (as evidence of this, one of my favourite pastimes would be collecting old issues of The Listener so I can wallow in what R3 used to be like. By the by, there is a secondhand bookshop in Greenwich which keeps hordes of them).

The last really memorable occasions I remember on R3 in recent years were the excellent programmes to commemorate the death of Isaiah Berlin with the brilliant recollections of Henry Hardy and a series which I think was called 'The Word Made Flesh' from the mid to late 1990s.

Apart from the Sunday Feature and Drama on 3 the only spoken word output is the 'Twenty Minutes' concert segment which is becoming increasingly marginal."

Azeem Sahu Khan, Fiji

"I very much support your aims and aspirations for Radio 3 and have written to the Controller on several occasions pleading for a much more vital and confident attitude to the political pressures propounded in that weasel, 'Sir Humphrey' word 'accessibility'. What is wrong with the simple principle that an individual might actually have to concentrate and do some work to appreciate and understand some of the most sublime creations of Western European Music Art?

They tell us we are an ageing 'audience profile', and no doubt we are. But they never ask themselves how we all came to that ultimate nirvana which used to be Radio 3. We were either introduced to it in our infancy, or perhaps stumbled on it when channel hopping… whatever, we came to it through choice. For most of us, part of its attraction was assuredly because it seemed a secret garden of delight, a parallel world almost. And one comes to it when the time is right."

Leo Allan, Dorset

"Almost every time I tune in to Radio 3 these days I mourn the variety and the dignity of the broadcasting I appreciated and learned so much from in my earlier years."

Alan Brownjohn, London

"As a routine listener to Radio 3 for over 30 years what I have particularly noted over the last few years is the increase in jazz and world music programmes. Whilst I have always enjoyed Jazz Record Requests on a Saturday afternoon, I now find that Saturdays seem to be dominated by it, as well as programmes devoted to it during the week in the afternoon. As for world music, the late evening programme prevents me from listening to classical repertoire whilst engaged in a spot of 'pre-slumber' reading.

Please keep up the pressure to ensure that Radio 3 remains a unique source of serious and learned music. We would be culturally the poorer without it."

Andrew Howarth, Herts

"I am very concerned at the gradual and insidious degradation of Radio 3, both artistically and, also, technically with the widespread use of the Optimod compressor wrecking FM music quality.

I have only just heard about FoR3 and wish to offer my full support for what you're doing."

Nick Hope Wilson, South Somerset

"I have followed FoR3's campaign for the last year or so with interest. You have my full support. I am extremely concerned about the current state and trajectory of Radio 3, having been a regular listener since the early 1970s.

It appears that the current '"dumbing down" by stealth' campaign might now be turning its attention to Morning on Three. In comparison with the Radio 3 of the 1970s and 1980s the current offering is almost a different station, and I fear it will soon be indistinguishable from a mixture of Classic FM and Radio 1."

Andrew Slater, High Peak

"5.24pm, Saturday evening, and I would like some classical music on. I go to a radio and switch on R3. What do I get? Music of R2! A band plays smoky, speakeasy jazz. A Billie Holiday voice croons the blues.

Just out of interest I switch to R2. Maybe there I will find classical music at this time? But, no, R2 is playing pop. Note that because of where I live in the UK, even Classic FM is not an option.

So is there no longer a system? Our right to choose has been taken away from us. 5.24pm on Saturday evening and I want classical music but I am not permitted to have it. Some individuals at R3 have decided that we listeners must listen to jazz, or go elsewhere.

For years we have had an excellent system. Let it not be wrecked."

David Cade, Machynlleth

"I strongly support what you are trying to do. We must protect this important bastion of the arts. On a personal level, Radio 3 has given me access to much new music and I am eternally grateful for that.

Pop music is everywhere – which is perfectly okay. But it seems right and proper that, as classical music lovers, we too have a place to go. That has to be what public service broadcasting is all about."

Mike Addelman, Manchester

"I support your aims, and urge Radio 3 to reverse its tragic decline in standards. Many days between 10pm and 12pm I am forced to switch off and reach for an old CD instead, a poor substitute for the excellent broadcasting Radio 3 used to offer in this time slot.

This is all the more frustrating since there is no other classical music/arts broadcaster to fill the gap."

Richard Handel, Milton Keynes

"What is alien to R3 in its remit as a serious classical music station are programmes such as Making Tracks which wastes air time in my opinion. Put it on a kids' channel where it belongs…

As for programmes such as Late Junction and Mixing It, I'm sure there is an audience for it. Artists such as Brian Eno and PJ Harvey have their merits (I love Eno) but a) they're not Schubert and b) they're not Radio 3. Nor for that matter is Brian Kay. 'Light Programme' suggests Radio 2 which has similar programming, plus jazz."

Laurence Skelding, Bradford

"Am sad to hear the half hourly news round-ups on R3 in the morning. The effect is to destroy any possibility of hearing pieces greater than 25 minutes long. Am often wondering if R3 in the morning is a commercial station given the existence of plugs for less than wonderful networks, roots and world music. As for Making Tracks, I am still waiting to hear if the presenters have received their redundancy notices.

Keep putting the people who are running R3 into the ground under as much presssure as possible."

Michael Owen, Bristol

"My father, Eric Warr, was Assistant Head of Music, BBC, from the late 1950s to his retirement in 1964. As his son, I too am deeply saddened and upset by the Radio 3 rule of young men in suits. Father listened to an enormous amount of contemporary music and put some of it in the schedules. He ran the Proms too.

I am glad that father is not here to witness the destruction of all he helped to build up."

Hilary Warr, Cheshire

"I am extremely heartened to find that I am not alone. Like countless others I owe my musical education almost entirely to Radio 3. The current programming and schedules are a patronising betrayal. In frustration I now resort to recording the night time transmission so that in the evenings and at the weekends I have a more stimulating alternative to the dispiriting jazz and World music slots."

Jonathan Darwall-Smith, Surrey

"I'm so pleased that others are taking Radio 3 to task over the shift in its output over the last few years. I complained about this on the Radio 3 message boards some years ago: that I don't want to switch on in the late evening and find programmes being done by dozens of other radio stations. I've listened to Radio 3 daily since about 1968. Radio 3 is unique in catering for classical tastes and I hate to see it being diluted like this."

Raphael Szynowski, London

"I learned about your website from the article in Private Eye. Am strongly in favour of your aims. It is sad that there is so little classical music broadcast in the evenings when I and many others actually have time to listen."

Erin Brent, Oxford

"Thanks to Lord Gnome's magnificent organ I now know I'm not just a grumpy 50-year-old despairing alone at the dumbing down of a once great station; all power to your elbow."

Michael Hodges, London

"Read about FoR3 in Private Eye. Have thought for some time the station was losing it. Nice to know I'm not alone! Not entirely convinced about reducing the jazz content but, hey, we can discuss that. Let's make the Beeb rock (classically)!"

Roy Emery, Somerset

"Has Radio 3 lost its way? Well, how can I put this, Radio 3 has become BORING. Why boring? No, not because it's stuffy or elitist or whatever, but because it's trying to be the same as every other radio station, i.e. because it is copying every damn trick in the book of How to Market Yourself in the Most Inane Way. 'Let the music speak for itself' was my music teacher's mantra but – like 'more is less', 'keep it simple' – a mantra so much ignored by the flash-bang-wallop school of broadcasting ubiquitous on today's radio and TV. And what of the future? God spare us from the dire output designed to 'pull in' i.e. 'totally, like turn off' young listeners that is Making Tracks. If that is the future of Radio 3…

What's so awful about a station which dedicates itself to classical music and arts?"

Rosalie Robertson, Bristol

"The old Third is still pretty green in my memory. I was about 15 when it started and thus of that generation (working class, grammar school boy in Nottingham in my case) for whom it was a revelation. A series I especially remember was 'The Ideas and Beliefs of the Victorians', in 48 parts. Can you credit it? And all reprinted in The Listener too.

Since we can't have the original Third Programme back, at least let R3 be as good as possible. Keep up the good work."

Dr John Poole, Hertfordshire

"I heard about you via Private Eye. I thought I was suffering alone."

Sally Goodsell, Norfolk

"I've just found your site, having read about you in Private Eye. More power to your elbow! My main criticism of R3 is the lack of good drama (just one decent length play on Sunday night if you're lucky) and a really challenging arts critic forum - plus also the decline in the volume of serious music."

John King, Bexleyheath

"I am more than glad to learn that I am not the only person who finds R3's output progressively more distressing. The list is endless – from the insertion of Broadway show songs into a supposed 'classical' programme in the early(ish) morning to the announcers who sound like they are trying to sell mobile 'phones and the view that Latin American café music is a suitable bedfellow for Mozart. I support your views, and will watch developments with interest."

David Trickett, London

"Radio 3 still gives us excellent programmes, despite the widespread farming out of production to third parties, but there is a shift, and an undesirable one, in favour of fringe activities, designed, it seems, to capture the attention of listeners who are thought not to be generally attracted to Radio 3 as it is formulated at the moment – but who probably never will be.

This chasing after listeners threatens the very essence of Radio 3, the very quality or property that makes it so vitally important to present-day listeners."

J L A Hartley, London

"Thank Heavens! Couldn't agree with the views here more. My earliest acquaintance with almost all the great plays of the past was owing to broadcasts on the Third Programme. During my years of 'O' and 'A' levels I had such a valuable resource in that programme.

So many performances have stayed with me all through my life: Wolfit in John Gabriel Borkman and The Dance of Death, Richardson as Shotover, partnered by Edith Evans, Patrick Wymark as Coriolanus, Gielgud as Hamlet, so many, many. What is there now for a young person, as I was then?

I might add that in my early years of listening, when I was barely in my teens, my first introduction to music came from the incidental music for many of the plays."

Steve Evans, Shropshire

"I support everything you stand for. I regret the state of Radio 3. The present management has transformed the world's most marvellous radio station into one which I (for one) found I was frequently switching off. Can any listener think of any one person in 'world'(!) history with greater opportunities to enhance musical and artistic cultural life than the controller of Radio 3: a massive budget – a 24-hour national radio station (with international connections) – half a dozen orchestras – a professional chamber choir of exceptional quality, a choral society, and more?

The programming is so awful – for example who is likely to want to listen to some US musical immediately after a work by Bach or Mozart? In my case I switch over to Radio 4 and seldom return. I listen to Radio 3 less and less. Gone are the marvellous in-depth programmes – the passionate advocacy of experts. Now the silly, shallow banalities. Some of the music is still, of course, wonderful, but what a tragedy!"

Nick Zelle, Malta

"Radio 3 and its predecessor gave me most of my musical education (supported by some violin and piano lessons to very moderate levels) for which I am extremely grateful. However I have heard the core classical repertoire recycled now for over 50 years, together with some eagerly searched for and taped) not-so-core Szymanovsky, Martinu, Howells, etc., (now even rarer) and am not a fan of jazz, cross-over, 'world' or 'early' musics. I find the repetitive formats of the regular daytime programmes with their 'jolly-you-along' presenters uncongenial to the extent that, now I am retired, I rarely listen except to selected items. Instead I am writing my own music and listening to other unsung composers on the SibeliusMusic website. Not much chance of my returning to regular R3 listening now."

Alan Hilton, Uxbridge

"Discovered your website through the article in this week's Private Eye. As a teenager in the 1980s I discovered classical music through R3 and I find it difficult now not to regard that period as a golden age. Its tone was classless, ageless and uncondescending – a radio station aimed at intelligent adults. I have viewed its steady decline over the last ten years or so with great sadness and am pleased to see an organization campaigning to reverse it."

William Hale, Cambridge

"What a relief to know that there are other people who think similarly to me with regards to the accessibility of classical music on Radio 3, and care enough to form a group. Keep up the good work"

Stephen Williams, Swansea

"Keep applying the pressure! I have become increasingly uneasy about the changing character of R3 but until I read about FoR3 in Private Eye I did not realise there was an organised resistance. When Charter renewal time arrives, how about a separate charter for R3? And maybe R4?"

Raymond Hillyard, Essex

"Thank you for what you are doing. I am thoroughly fed up with the relativism that accords equality to pop, folk, jazz and classical music, and am particularly annoyed that R3 is given over to non-classical music at the time (10pm to 12pm) best suited to hearing the classics undisturbed. Keep up the pressure."

Seamus Cunnane, Cardigan

"I have been listening to Radio 3 since its inception, and I wish to add my name to the growing list of those who deplore its 'dumbing down'. In addition to restoring classical music to its former place, I would like R3 to give more time to classic plays unlikely to be broadcast on other channels."

Ian Brydon, Kent

"What an excellent campaign, and not before time. I'm afraid Classic FM has dragged down standards at R3, just as everyone predicted it would."

Peter Richards, Cambridge

"We used to have Radio 3 on constantly during the day as well as looking forward to many evening concerts. No more – the new, trendy programming is a faint shadow of the high-quality broadcasting we were accustomed to. The constant self-advertising is more like Classic FM, while the lack of background information about the music played and the insipid 'trendy' style of many of the presenters is simply not in keeping with the high standards we expect from the BBC.

I could go on, but I won't, as I now know that in FoR3 I am among like-minded people."

Janet Berridge, Canterbury

"Radio 3 is our station of choice and we were beginning to despair and fear for the future. Individual complaints clearly have no effect – group action is the only way.

I have some faith in Michael Grade's ability to roll back the tide of 'interactivity'."

Andrew Davies, Suffolk

"I am entirely in support of your objectives. Radio 3 is taking a terrible step towards mediocrity. I want serious music, educational discussion about serious music (What's happened to programmes like Antony Hopkins' Talking about Music? – gone for ever, but there are others who could present a similar programme). Please Radio 3 management, go back to our traditional values. This is so important in a public service broadcaster. Excellence is not for the minority – it should be for all!"

Richard Abel, Solihull

"I miss the programmes about music, that put the music into context, or talked about the way pieces were constructed. (I don't think they dare talk about things like this anymore, it's all jolly-jolly stuff like: "and the performers really look like they are enjoying themselves." Great.)

I would like a daily programme that talked about music, preferably over several days (until they've covered it properly) on a chosen area of music, to avoid the bits-of-this-and-that tendency that seems to assume we don't want to listen.

Sorry to rant, but I've stopped listening to a lot of R3, I used to listen every day."

Andrew Robinson, London

"We have R3 on all day here and have noticed its deterioration with anguish, so we applaud your efforts to stop the rot."

Adrian Hawksley, Wiltshire

"As a long time listener to R3 I am bemused by its current attempt to be trendy. Surely the whole point of a real public service arts channel is to provide content (and explain its context) that is not otherwise readily available."

Geoff Dodd, Cheshire

"I rarely listen to Radio 3 now but I still put it on occasionally, out of old habit, only to be driven away. I very much support the aims of your organisation, and in particular your desire to see a return to intellectual seriousness."

Ralph Sydenham, North Wales

"In this household (which has no TV) the failure of Radio 3 to provide for our tastes, when we want to indulge them, has led to the acquisition of a monster collection of CDs, and as time goes on we tune in less and less – probably only four hours a week now."

Michael Franklin, North Lincolnshire

"Well done. I fervently support your efforts at improving the quality of what R3 now puts on. Some of the evening 'music' is of such poor quality that several times recently I have had to double check that the radio was tuned to R3 and not one of the pappy stations the children are inclined to turn on.

You're certainly right about the 'old' listeners increasingly switching off. I do, regularly."

Valerie Balleny, London

"Keep up the good work! Radio 3 has been one of the constant backgrounds to my life for longer than I care to admit, and I would like to be able to keep it that way…"

Jane Calin, Bath

"I am so in agreement with your aims; I have been a Radio 3 devotee since pre-teen years, and forty years on value it above all other broadcasting. It is the envy of all other musicians world wide and cannot be allowed to dumb down. It has never been about trying to attract bigger audiences: this makes no sense. By all means have slots for minority interests but keep it mainline classical serious listening."

Nicola Hall, Bristol

"If Radio 3 were a building, it would surely by now have been given by the nation to the safe-keeping of the National Trust, who know how to preserve something of such national artistic and cultural importance in a sensitive yet commercially realistic environment. I don't recall wandering around any of their properties and seeing inappropriate adverts for other productions insensitively placed in a way which compromises my aesthetic appreciation of the treasures within, yet this seems to be the trend developing, for example, on Morning on 3.

"The whole point of art and culture is that it is not entertainment, doesn't aspire to be, and has good reason not to become so. That may mean it reaches a smaller number of people, but then, comparing the numbers attending the latest blockbuster film with the numbers visiting a remote provincial art gallery doesn't tell us anything about the artistic integrity of a nation's artists (or musicians); it merely informs us that many people sometimes want to be entertained. That may indeed include some R3 listeners, though not always, I suspect, when they are actually listening to the unique quality of material that R3 can produce."

Martin Myers, Bushey, Herts

"I've just discovered your site and feel so encouraged to know that there are other people who feel like I do about evening programming on R3. Late Junction seems to be an excuse for world pop music and much of it is horribly dull and monotonous, like a nightmarish endless Edmundo Ros session. ('World Music' can be fascinating and exciting but not much gets on to Late Junction.) Why does the BBC take up so many hours each night for such mediocre stuff? One can now rarely tune in to chamber music or choral music (with the recent exception of the Rachmaninov Vespers – thank you).

R3 has been such a source of inspiration and joy for most of my life and it is so sad to see it being wrecked by people whom one can only suppose have interests other than music at heart. I was a 'working class' child with no access to music other than the Third Programme as it was and then R3. It changed my life and educated me about music. How can they expect young people now to enjoy classical music if, when they turn on R3 they don't hear any? You have my fervent support."

Maureen Green, Brighton

A recent grouse, pretty universally shared in my experience, concerns Radio 3's evening schedules from 9.30 pm to midnight, when real music is banished … It must be pretty dispiriting for Radio 3 regulars who've been out working all day …

Richard Osborne, music critic

"My perception is that the demise of Radio 3 is symptomatic of the 'dumbing down' of all things cultural. As I grew up listening to the Third Programme I had assumed that my growing disappointment with what has recently happened to its successor was, perhaps, something to do with my advancing age (Grumpy Old Man!). You can imagine my joy, therefore, in discovering that this is not the case and that my concerns are also being articulated by others. (Clearly not all grumpy old men!)"

Paul Reeve, East Anglia

"Sometimes, the self-advertisement is almost as irritating as Classic FM's dreadful commercials."

Janet Jarvis, Shropshire

"I've just read about FoR3 in this month's Oldie Magazine. More power to your elbow!

"It's the incessant self-advertisement that irritates me most …"

Fred Sheldon, Uttoxeter

"Maybe it's just me, but I found it rather curious that on R3's Front Page it reads: 'By popular request: listen again to Stage and Screen's special on Julie Andrews.' My first thought was: By popular request from whom? Julie Andrews is fine. She sometimes shows up on PBS (that's the television division of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting) here in the States when they do their fund drives.

I just wouldn't expect to hear this on R3 … well I used to say that. Now I don't know what to say or think. It seems as though how I described R3 in the past as a combination 'Conservatory of Music and International Performing Arts Centre' is changing. And the changes I've seen thus far are slowly chipping away at what has been known as the finest classical music station in the world and the envy of the world.

Where is R3 going?"

Justin Sanner, San Francisco

"Radio 3 has been highly susceptible to an unprecedented shift towards popular cultural values. Yet as part of the media, universally available, it is in a position to make a stand against them and insist instead on the highest artistic and intellectual standards. It could, as it once did, demand whatever levels of attention and sensitivity the music requires from the listener, offering no insulting half-measures or lies about the challenges the music presents. It could confine itself to being the one thing in the media that an intelligent person can really engage with with self-respect."

Sean Austen, Wolverhampton, West Midlands

"I love Radio 3 (I used to love it more) but I have stopped listening on Saturdays from 4.00 to 6.30 because I don't like jazz and I've stopped listening any evening after 9.30 or 10, when Late Junction starts. If I want to listen to light popular music, or jazz (which I don't anyway), or other trendy music, there are other channels I can hear them on. Radio 1 or 2 for a start.

Why is it that those of us who want particularly to listen to real classical music, as also those of us who want to hear good classical drama on radio, are always the ones to be penalised and told we are 'elitist'. 'Elitism' is not a 'bad thing'. It means that something is special and it doesn't exclude anyone who will take the time to listen. Bring back Radio 3, please."

Rosemary Anderson, Lancaster

"Roger Wright claims to have a genuine love and knowledge of classical music, yet he suggests that other people can listen to it at their place of work. Using serious music as 'background' is not a mark of genuine appreciation.

The dialogue between Radio3 spokespeople and Friends of Radio 3 seemed difficult to follow; then I realized that a lot of the answers from the BBC side are non sequiturs, red herrings, smoke-screens to hide unpalatable facts. The expression which seems to fit the case is, 'I don't mind, and you don't matter.'"

Mary Grayling, Norfolk

"One problem the BBC seems to have is that it does not realise that scheduling and variety are also important. Both the BBC and FoR3 seem to be concentrating on content, and while I would like to keep the classical music content on Radio 3 high, and not reduced to the level of some other more popular classical stations, there are also issues about having too many similar programmes, or scheduling at inappropriate times.

The current scheduling means that it is almost impossible to hear any classical music from around 9.30 pm onwards most nights till midnight. Similarly, there is jazz on Saturday for several hours, where the same content could perhaps more usefully be split over several days.

There are some who are beginning to think that it is possible to have too much of a good thing. While a yearly programme of classical hits selected by Rambling Sid Rumpole might be very entertaining, if this were put out every day from 10am to 1pm this could get monotonous. Variety is the spice of life they say – perhaps we all – the BBC included – need to heed this message."

David Martland, London

"How I agree with the vast majority of your correspondents. R3 is there to serve an audience which pays its licence fees, and thus directly funds R3, and pays the salary of its director. In such circumstances it is not too much to expect that legitimate concerns will be responded to properly, and not ignored in the manner all too clearly depicted in the history of the dialogue with the BBC. If Wright wishes to keep this, or any other, job, he will soon learn that it is best to respond positively to criticism.

However, can I just say that not all is lost as a result of request programmes: although many do not care for Brian Kay's Light Programme, as I type this I am listening to 'Dies Natalis' by Finzi on his Sunday request programme, and this is a rare treat. It is the loss of any classical repertoire after 9pm in evenings which is the serious degradation of R3, and the serious betrayal of its core audience."

Christopher Storey, Heswall, Wirral

"I sometimes have to pinch myself when I realise that in the UK, at, say, 10 or 11 o'clock in the evening, a listener cannot routinely expect to find the BBC broadcasting 'classical' music somewhere on its spectrum.

I do not object to world music, pop music, rock music, or indeed any other form of music; but I do object to their ousting classical music from the only BBC outlet which broadcasts that form at all.

As has been said elsewhere, Radios 1, 1Xtra, 2, 6, and almost all commercial stations, pump out popular kinds of music endlessly. They do not seem troubled by the need to "break down boundaries" or "draw in a new type of audience". Why, then, should the minnow in the pond have to be the one to make all the concessions to end up doing something which is already being done elsewhere, and doing it not as well?"

Bill McCudden, Bucks

"I have died and gone to the other place! I cannot believe it! I have just kicked my radio off in total disbelief. Brian Kay's … Light Programme has been promoted to a weekday afternoon slot! I thought (hoped) it has been slain. Is R3, my beautiful R3, insane?

(At 32 I'm just too young to be a Victor Meldrew but "I can't believe it" is what I really need to repeat over and over again in complete disbelief.)"

Daniel

"'Transfixing in its awfulness.' That is how a R3 announcer described a rendition of an aria he had heard whilst sitting in a Kentish cafe, the other day, drinking coffee. What an apt description to describe a lot of the output of the 'new look/listen' R3. On Saturday night I was preparing supper in the kitchen (where else?) and I turned on the radio and selected Radio 3, of course, only to hear some amateur piano playing by Bobby Crush, this being just one item in another of those nonsense programmes that seem to have crept into R3's output of late. There I was now, with burning toast (for my baked beans on toast, with bacon), transfixed in its awfulness. What in God's name is happening to Radio 3?"

Nick Hickson South London

"I entirely agree with your concerns about the changes Roger Wright has made, is making to R3. Much as I enjoy world music, especially African music (perhaps owing to my African up-bringing), I wish there were much less of it on R3 than is the case presently. It's sad to learn that the excellent Choirworks has been axed in favour of the Andy Kershaw programme, which I think was already too long, and rather stubbornly didn't, unlike Late Junction, attempt to bear any relation to R3's core output of classical music. Give us much less world music, and much more classical music, especially contemporary classical music."

Xavier Ogena

"If I want this new style of programme, I am perfectly capable of tuning my radio to Classic FM. I am sure I am not alone in playing CDs and LPs of my own in order to hear good quality classical music. I didn't think I would ever find myself so frustrated and angry with Radio 3."

Linda Gerow, Essex

"Although much of R3 is still excellent, large tracts of it are now forbidden territory for me. I don't mind a bit of world, jazz or crossover – but the balance is now completely wrong. As for light music, film music, showbiz, rock and pop – they shouldn't be on R3 at all, let alone in such huge quantities. And even when we do get classical music it is often the same old stuff regurgitated over and over again, 'presented' by people who don't seem to know much about music. The highlight of my day has for some time been Composer of the Week, invariably a quiet, thoughtful, witty and interesting programme – you could have knocked me down with a feather when it wasn't abolished in the latest round of changes.

Another thing that gets me down is the dreary predictability of the rigid daily timetable. There's no room for surprises, for little quirky corners. I must admit, though, that none of the current presenters can match Paul Gambaccini for awfulness. His arrival on the scene prompted me to write to R3 in protest. Since then, however, I've given up. I just turn it off and read instead. The trouble is, if you turn it off you often forget to turn it back on again."

Imogen Olsen, Kent

"I do think that much on Radio 3 is still good, but I agree with you about the inane advertisements, the frantic efforts to be popular, and the inclusion of the odd pop piece in a mainly classical programme. Oddly this is often enough to make me turn off, thus they are losing audience."

Alex Bruce, Brighton

"I have sent loads of messages to R3 about their endless jazz, world and rock music and all the other horrors presented to us at peak time. I have received a set thank you message which is always the same. I have asked when they asked me if I wanted R3 to turn into its present mess; after all I do pay for the station. No reply! Surprise!"

D Priest, London

"I am a lifelong fan of R3. There are two things that distress me most at the moment – the increasingly banal corporate and dumbed down tone of its presenters and the intrusion of vast swathes of jazz and world-music-cum-pop. I used to write to Nicholas Kenyon about such matters and always received a courteous reply (good for him) but saying nothing of interest. Nevertheless the "Gambaccini-isation" of R3 continues apace, and I wonder if your site might be an effective way of countering this."

S A Hobley

"Roger Wright's 'massive revolution' may have been largely unchallenged but it has not been unnoticed and is deplored by us. We are very pleased to learn that there exists a movement and a voice in the form of 'Friends of Radio 3' and hope you will have enough influence to stop the rot spreading any further.

The Classical Jazz we have accepted as being fair enough but if it is being used as the thin end of the wedge to broadcast less and less classical music we would rather do without it."

G and D Fortune

"I have been a serious listener to Radio 3 for years. I watch no television and my radio is permanently tuned to 3. The decline in the service is depressing and sad."

Howard C Marshall, Worcestershire

"I'm more and more likely now to only turn on R3 when I've checked in the Radio Times that there's actually something that I want to listen to, rather than just turn on the radio.

It's all very sad that such an excellent radio station is now being systematically trashed. Heck, I know that it's only occurring in small increments, but the process is well and truly under way."

Richard V Harris, Dorset

"Shalom from Israel

In terms of live broadcasting and non-CDed recordings, BBC3 is great – the daily programs from Wigmore Hall as well as "BBC Orchestras" and the occasional specials on Sundays. As you wrote, Kol Hamusica is very limited in that aspect.

There are, however, one or two things in BBC3 which could be improved:

1. Abandoning the format of music-news-music, and moving on towards programs which are longer and can accommodate, as a result, a whole Mahler symphony for example. (The only time in which Kol Hamusica had a similar format that comes to my mind is during the 1991 Gulf war.)
2. Inclusion of contemporary music – I might be wrong, because my listening hours are 6-16GMT, Sunday through Thursday, but I rarely hear works by Reich, Glass or Cage, for example (not to mention "local" composers such as Gavin Bryars or Michael Tippett).

Assaf, Israel

"Having read the various comments so far submitted, I have to say that I entirely concur with the vast majority of them. I too recoil from the Third World rock music which is thinly disguised as 'world music'; there are genuine folk or 'high culture' musical forms from these countries, but this is not one of them. All this stuff, and the people who present it, should be on Radio 1 or Radio 2 as might seem most appropriate.

I, too, want to hear mainstream 'classical' repertoire, and find baroque and early classical music to be a source of particular ongoing fascination. This, of course, is exactly the sort of material which is often consigned to the middle of the night, when I, even though I am rather nocturnal, would prefer to be lying in bed asleep. So it's not exactly three cheers for Radio 3, but one day Roger Wright might get it right – time alone will tell, or not, as the case may be… "

B Ellis, Manchester

"A curse on Late Junction. I can live with the notion there might be 'music' on R3 that I happen not to like. What exasperates me is that on the rare occasions when Radio Times tells me there's supposed to be an item thereon that is of interest, there is no way to tell even roughly what time to tune in. Or even to know whether it will be on at all. Short of listening to a featureless expanse of almost entirely revolting noise, I'm stymied.

What puzzles – nay, baffles – me about R3 is why it goes to such trouble to drive away its potentially core listeners. Audio wallpaper of every colour and texture is available from any number of sources. Hotbeds of presenterism are rife across the airwaves. I accept that there's near-continuous 'classical' (for want of a better term) music programming from 9am to 5pm weekdays. But most of the year, I'm at work during those hours.

Comes the evening, it's Rafferty's roundabout until 7-ish, with a ragbag including a large amount of chat-for-the-sake-of-it. We then get a concert between 7.30 and 9.30. At which point classical music is not part of the R3 offer until after midnight. And as I have to go to work next morning, the overnight programmes are no help, however much interesting music they carry."

Douglass MacDonald, Essex

"H.L. Mencken wrote: "No one in this world, so far as I know – and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me – has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people." Recent trends in Radio 3 scheduling have led me to the inescapable conclusion that Radio 3 management has firmly espoused this view.

How else is one to interpret:

1. a schedule which offers no regular classical music after 9.30 pm and which contains almost no educative material aimed at anyone over the age of 15;
2. the assumption that everyone has a computer and is prepared to use it as a source of high-fidelity music;
3. the assertion that one can (or might be allowed to) listen properly – i.e. attentively – to any piece of music at one's normal workplace;
4. pieces of music faded out to make way for the start of others;
5. announcements and trailers obscuring the first few minutes of a piece of music.

Especially galling is the apparent disregard of the older, long-time audience of serious listeners in favour of those immersed in "yoof" culture. This may not actually be the case but it is my perception and, moreover, one shared by very many of my acquaintance."

David Samuels, Hertfordshire

"It isn't simply that Radio 3 has changed its style. It's shifted its focus from serious attention to the material to the way the material is packaged, especially in the early mornings. No voice comes on the air without constantly repeating its name, the name of the programme, the name of the station and where it can be found on the dial, telling us the time, what's going to be on later in the programme, later in the day, later in the week, all the contact numbers – address, telephone number, email address, website address; then there are the repetitive 'built' trailers (usually for TV or non-classical programmes on Radio 3 or elsewhere) which become progressively more annoying, the additional news bulletins, retained in spite of complaints right from the time they started.

The whole mix becomes unlistenable to as you find yourself trying to guess what snippet of irrelevant chatter they can come out with when the current piece of music ends. And to cap it all (I don't think I was mistaken), a piece of music was faded out last week because the programme was running out of time!"

Sarah Spilsbury, Bristol

"I think for the forseeable future I shall ditch Morning on 3 in preference for R4 news in the morning, thus avoiding two dumbed down programmes for the price of one, the other one being BBC 6 pm news.

The FoR3 website is an excellent and praiseworthy idea, and one which gives me hope that I am not the only R3 fan currently lamenting their rebranding and dumbing down. My main concern at the moment is the total change to a 'Classic FM' style programming. The next thing we know it will be Russell Watson and Charlotte Church hosting CD Review on Saturday morning, with a Building a Library feature on best 'Babes' album. if my oven worked off gas I'd stick my head in it in disgust."

Jeremy Holmes, Manchester

"Just to add my voice to all the others – there is nothing much I can add except one positive note: I know it is not everybody's cup of tea, but I am really grateful that this time round at least Choral Evensong has survived. I miss Humphrey Carpenter on Saturday afternoons and have not listened to Brian Kay's programme on Sunday. And yes, please can we have Radio 3 back after 21.30."

Elisabeth Townsend, Northampton

"It is sad but true that, like so much of the media, the BBC is dumbing down, and has been for years. I comment regularly to the BBC about various aspects of their programming (radio and TV) and receive anodyne responses which fail to address the issues I raise. I feel that the BBC treats its audiences with contempt and is now almost totally ratings driven. Very sad."


John J Armstrong, Dundee

"I don't expect my view to be more than an isolated one, but I do believe that the extent to which a nation shows the world that it cares about the arts has a bearing on that nation's standing in the world.

I believe it is the duty of the BBC to show the world that the arts matter, in times of war as well as peace, as it has done in the past. Radio Three is the ideal medium for doing this, and the BBC should embrace such a duty with passion and commitment. An excellent start would be made quite easily by increasing the amount of air-time devoted to the best (most stimulating and enduring) music and discussion."

Stephen Howard-Smith, Crewe

"We have both been listening to Radio 3 since we were teenagers. In that time, there have been many changes, most of which seem not for the good of the listener. However, especially lately, things have got appreciably worse. We now have presenters trying to be personalities, trailers galore (although not always a bad thing, in moderation) and massive dumbing down of every programme.

As for the evening schedule… what on earth is material such as that doing on a station that purports to be a "classical music" station? There are many pop stations out there so why does it have to encroach on our station? Classic FM will be taking listeners from Radio 3 at 9pm onwards due to there being no Classical material available via the BBC.

As a result of these recent (and not so recent) changes, we listen to CDs more often than the radio these days, which is a great shame for us both."

Jonathan Welsh and Lynn Hodson, Suffolk

"I can listen much more now than most licence fee payers as I am recently retired. Before, I was starved of broadcast classical music as I very often did not arrive home before 9.30 pm when there was no further classical music programmed. In fact, in those days, I tuned into Classic FM as there was nothing on R3.

The treasury of Western classical music is vast. I cannot understand why, over the last couple of years in particular, the BBC, as the public service broadcaster, is devoting less and less time to classical music, but seemingly competing at a lower level with the commercial broadcasters."

gacv, London

"My first reaction to your site – Thank God – I thought it was just me! The colour, passion and beauty of classical music! In a world stuffed with junk pop etc."

Julian Stockwin, Ivybridge, Devon

"Having been a newbie listener to R3 for a few months now my main feeling about the station is disappointment. Quite frankly, it is not how I imagined it to be, due mainly to the scheduling. I have read all the dialogues between Roger Wright, Jenny Abramsky & yourselves with phrases such as "listening to programmes at work or in lunch breaks". What type of jobs do they think people have – all office-based with good quality sound systems and no ringing telephones? And lunch breaks – what are those? Cup of coffee and a sandwich on the run more like.

All our offices are computerised and not one machine has speakers. I do have a radio in my office but the phone rings constantly, 'listening' – as in 'being attentive' is impossible. Composer of the Week – midday and midnight, The Ring – 5.00 p.m. start! I feel discriminated against as a worker in that my listening can only be roughly 7.30 p.m. onwards and then curtailed at 9.30. Yes, I can put on a CD (and my collection is growing), but I like to hear something I haven't got, to expand my knowledge. I have tried CFM, but those adverts!"

Susannah John, Wales

"Your aims and sentiments echo mine – I have been a R3 enthusiast since my teens. The present dumbing down of content and presentation saddens me greatly."

Richard Unwin, Cambridge

"I agree with those who state they are presenting a 'dogs breakfast' on Radio Three. To put Rock and Roll on the Kershaw programme is the last straw. There are thousands of Rock stations, cannot we have one decent classical and literature station. I don't agree with the people who say you shouldn't market Radio Three – it needs more marketing. People are hungry for culture. The British public are not all morons happy to be dished up with a diet of chat shows and Pop Idol."

Rob, Cheshire

"Their only interest is to make sure people's machines are switched on. They're not interested in whether people are listening."

Bayan Northcott, music critic, The Independent

"Just another person who is fed up with what has happened to Radio3. Unlistenable to in the evening and infuriating during the day with the constant requests for emails and the frequent news broadcasts in the mornings."

RL

"Once upon a time it did not matter that 99% of radio channels played non stop pop music, all day and all night. Radio 3 always offered an alternative, where we could listen to the finest quality music, poetry and other arts programmes. Sadly this choice no longer exists because for some reason the BBC has chosen to make Radio 3 into yet another pop channel. This evening it happens to be called "world music", but clearly it is not. Surely world music should be used to describe the wonderful and authentic musical traditions of countries such as India or Japan. No, this is yet more pop, presumably a misguided attempt to boost Radio 3 audience ratings.

Do you really think that this will attract new listeners? Isn't it more likely that you will simply deter the dedicated and enthusiastic audience you already have? We are forced to listen to pop music in almost every aspect of life, wherever we go or whatever we do, whether we want it or not. We must endure pop music: on the television, in taxis, in lifts, in restaurants, at the hairdresser, in the supermarket, during the weather forecast, in hotel lavatories, in church, at sports events, in petrol stations, even now in WH Smith - a book shop! Why can't we have one, yes just one place where we can go if, for some unknown reason we were born with a dislike of this repetitive banging and screaming." IJ

"If you can get Radio 3 back to broadcasting classical music and not this fusion/cross over/songs from the shows garbage then good luck to you. It has its place on Radio 2 but they're busy broadcasting what was on Radio 1 a few years ago so I don't suppose they've got the time."

ML

"I am only just turned 30 years of age, yet my formative years were as a listener to Radio 3. Then I seemed to be able to enjoy a vast range of classical music which was presented in an utterly uncomplicated manner. Today, we even have the burden of 'instant interactivity'. How many minutes of potential music time are wasted with banter by presenters and now instant reaction by listeners?

Radio 3 should really be about music provision. Its management should be proud not to succumb to interminable popularism and apparent 'listener empathy'. I could happily ramble on about my complaints about what was until a few years ago a much-loved source of entertainment and education.

For a BBC which changes the orchestra recording of the Archer's theme tune in order to "update" or "refresh and reinvigorate," I suspect the dumbing down approach is far more ingrained than anyone would believe."

Richard Milner, Hull

"The most disappointing time for me is late evening – 10pm onwards, there's hardly ever anything I feel like listening to at that time. With many new CDs now less than £5.00 each, the radio has to provide something of special interest to be listened to."

Graham Carter, Wiltshire

"Please could we not have these creeping "Listeners' Requests" which often appear on Morning on 3 and CD Masters. Play the requests but it is not necessary to mention the name of the requester. Sounds a bit like hospital request programmes."

Carol Kohll, London

"Despite some recent rescheduling, I still find the weekends particularly arid (CD Review and the Cowan Collection excepted ).

I loathe "celebrity interviews" where the interviewees are simply famous for being famous. Si j'etais Roi I would impose a total media blackout on such self-obsessive pap.

I would also listen after 10 p.m. if the station were to broadcast core classical rather than the ragbag of odds and ends on offer in the pre-midnight slot. A rerun of "Afternoon Performance" would be particularly welcome to those of us who have to work during the day."

Finlay Forbes, New Malden, Surrey

"I am dismayed at the way the channel has been lobotomised in the wake of Kenyon and although RW has steered R3 away from the worst excesses of NK there appears to be an insidious agenda at work and it is evident that this is being pursued without any consideration to the actual aims and objectives of the channel."

Steve Dean-Wiley, Essex

"It seems that Radio3 has been going downhill for the last three years or so, causing me much anguish. The R3 leadership seems quite dismissive of the protests of people like ourselves who rue the diminution of classical music, particularly from the evening schedules. Indeed, I feel that there is a sense of delight in overturning established programmes, just to hear us fusty old bores moaning on about it.

Plenty of people on the message boards have complained about the lack of classical music after 9.30, and yet Late Junction still occupies the 10.15-12.00 slot four nights a week. I realise that there are many people who like this programme, but surely some balance could be introduced. No, you can't please all the people all the time, but that's not an excuse to please only Late Junction listeners."

Chad Pillinger, Newcastle

"I am very disappointed at the new scheduling on Radio 3, the request and interaction programmes are tiresome, and all too often we tune in and think we are on Classic FM."

Margaret Keefe, Twickenham

"To quote Wogan, I was beginning to think, "Is it me?" Time was when R3 was my default station, but no longer. I look for precisely what you are advocating – a strong diet of "classical music". I won't like some of it, or perhaps even most of it. But I certainly don't like continual exposure to Upper Aztec atonal chants or mid Saharan group motets.

As a mature educated(?) person, the time between 9-ish and midnight is my preferred time for listening – not on R3 though."

G. Peter Smeaton, Parkgate, Wirral

"This is more of a lament for the loss of the quiet studious contemplative atmosphere, which R3 always infused into my environs when I had it on. It still does, but now I find it increasingly lapsing into self consciously trendy flirtations with the outer reaches of pop music, jazz and similar such types of ephemeral entertainment.

What I choose to listen to is classical music. While I find it difficult to listen to some of the most modern music, I am always willing to give it a go, and have been agreeable surprised by my reactions to composers such as John Adams and Arvo Part. Mainly I like stuff from plainchant to Benjamin Britten. Radio 3 for years was the sole outpost of such music. I didn't expect Classic FM to be the success it plainly is, but now there is a rather unsatisfactory alternative. The faux bonhomie of the presenters is fairly irritating. Now that we have Radio One's cast-offs riding their hobbyhorses through the Radio 3 schedule it is hard to see where it will all end. I would mind less if Radio One were to put on a few hours of classical music in the evening, but we shall see formation flying by Gloucester Oldspots before that happens."

Chris Rayner

"I am strongly in support of your aims, particularly in respect of challenging the appropriateness of World popular music on Radio 3. Why does the station segment its output so pointlessly? In current parlance, I don't believe that these audiences – for World Music forms and art music – are close enough culturally to ever sample each other's output in large numbers. Maybe good sense will prevail and Radio 3 will start to better serve its core audience, and move popular forms over to Radio 6. R6 already hosts good specialist shows that cover more diverse popular forms such as Reggae."

Michael Flood

"It's my first choice programme but I have to switch it off regularly because the music is so awful much of the time. It's really sad to have to say this. I often switch to Classic FM but hate the ads. My classical CD collection is getting better and better and I listen to it more and more."

Jim Coghill, Newbury

"I am a great supporter of R3, but do despair of the so-called "dumbing down" that has gone on in the past few years. I have no idea why light music, jazz and World music have taken on such importance. Surely they should be on R2? R3 is so important to those of us who do listen, its vital to fight for quality."

JT, Truro

"I have been a regular listener for over 40 years and abhor the influx of all this world pop and dumbing down of such programmes as Morning on 3."


Paul Thompson, London

What I value about the arts in general and music in particular is the honesty, the complexity, the emotion and the intelligence they offer in response to this funny old thing we call "life". What I distrust most about commercialism is that advertising and selling are aimed at getting just one thing from me – money. I detest the dishonesty, exaggeration, poor quality and constant false smile that so often accompany the transaction. For the artist – be it composer, performer, poet, sculptor or dancer – the essential relationship is not one of trade but of sharing, of common experience in artistic form. Of course money is exchanged in this process because the artist must live but that is not the prime mover in the creative process.

What I want from Radio 3 then, as the public broadcasting channel of the arts, is for it to be a simple conduit, a medium for broadcasting a patchwork of all the very best that our culture has to offer. Yet what we have increasingly, no doubt due to the particular background of its Controller, is an increasing use of the commercial model:

• the selling of the channel through endless trailers and promotions:
  e.g. Joe McFadden's dry Scottish voice-overs for the Proms, celebrity promos along the lines of "I'm blankety blank, you can hear me on tonight's concert on Radio 3".
  
  
• the association of the channel and thereby its "product" with celebrity:
  e.g. Private Passions, Summer Selection or Sunday Live. This is in stark contrast to the reduction over the years in the participation of the knowledgeable expert who is seen by management as too intimidating for the "ordinary listener";
  
  
• the elevation of presentation and personality over content where the presenter's own opinions and presentational style are thought to be of equal worth alongside the creative content
  
  
• the compilation mentality:
  as in the popular classical CD market where the compilation album is the only one which sells in any numbers, so Radio 3 offers endless hours of miscellany, lucky bags and pots-pourris – Morning on 3, CD Masters, In Tune, Late Junction, Private Passions, Three for All etc. Apart from Composer of the Week and Discovering Music, there are no series with focus on musical content or which seek to explore the repertoire of a given composer, instrument or musical form in a systematic and comprehensive manner. Neither is there any consistent commitment to the exploration of philosophy, and the showcasing of contemporary and world literature and poetry (as opposed to discussion programmes about these things, which is not the same at all).
  
  
• diversification of the brand:
  just as Virgin now run trains, sell cola and mobile phones, so now Radio 3 broadcasts show music, light classics, world pop, cross-over rock and otherwise unclassifiable but nonetheless obviously not art music – Late Junction, Andy Kershaw, et al. Just as more customers mean more profit, so more listeners means – well, actually it doesn't mean anything other than more listeners. But the marketing model suggests more is better and that assumption is not questioned.
  
  
• ease of use:
  just as software should be user-friendly, so radio is stripped into predictable chunks every weekday so that the listener is never taken by surprise and knows what to expect. Of course another word for this is bland and boring but it is harder to sell the esoteric and the unusual. By definition these types of programming don't have mass-market appeal.
  
  
• As a member of that part of the audience which wants undiluted, high-quality music and arts broadcasting I know that, at bottom, I have no right to demand it of Radio 3 or the BBC. Yet if the public broadcasting ethos is to continue to exist, then surely out of all the now 18 digital outlets which the BBC has, one reasonably small and cheap channel could be devoted to maintaining the not-necessarily popular or saleable high ground of culture.
  France has three public networks which cover this area (France Musiques, France Culture and Hector) while Germany has six regional cultural radio networks (Bayern 4, hr-klassik, MDR Kultur, NDR Kultur, SWR2, WDR3). Surely British society would benefit from the rich, non-commercial mix of just one network that is prepared to aim high, let its content speak for itself and which doesn't see popularity as an end in itself?
  
  

Selling the Arts on Public Radio? Of course, it's a contradiction in terms.

Andrew Milne, Ayrshire, Scotland

John Berryman once remarked "I've only got eight readers – but they're awful bright." That should, with the appropriate changes, be a kind of motto for R3. Unfortunately it is not believed by those who run R3 or, if it is somewhere believed, it is neither trusted nor acted upon. What R3 lacks is the courage of its own convictions (to the extent that one wonders if it still has any) and a genuine commitment to excellence.

At the risk of being shocking, it should be pointed out that it is parents and teachers who have the responsibility of leading a new generation into an appreciation and understanding of music and the other arts; the BBC as a whole and R3 in particular may play a part in this, but has no duty or responsibility to increase its listenership or make itself superficially attractive, especially at the cost of intellectual rigour.

R3 is not an organisation for creating an audience but for serving one. There are those whose concentration span is more than a quarter of an hour, those who are adults in a sense never dreamed of by magazine publishers, those who do not admit that the Beach Boys are of equal value to Bach, those whose interests lie in a different sphere from novelettish hospital dramas, soaps, makeovers, celebrity-centred ephemera, money, pop-culture, holidays and cooking.

They have a right, if anyone anywhere has any rights at all, to a radio station that caters for their desires and, indeed, needs for the intellectually curious don't just want to be challenged and stretched, they need to be if their imaginations are not to atrophy, just as an athlete is less of an athlete after a week of carbohydrates and armchairs.

The proposition that a R3 which really did its job properly could still be popular and make for easy listening is not tenable. Surely, though, it is this kind of thinking that has led to the plethora of request programmes, phone-ins, e-mail opportunities, all those quasi-democratic innovations that come under the heading of accessibility; to the many presenters who cannot manage more than a couple of sentences without solecism or cliché to the interviewers who have nothing to ask and no intention of listening, the mess of world-music, crossover, show-tunes and pop that interlards such banalities, the slow creep of celebrity worship and to the Sunday supplement kind of culture-in-a-package approach to the arts world in general.

There is nothing more interesting and inspiring than to hear a knowledgeable and enthusiastic person talking about his or her own area of expertise; the most extraordinarily abstruse subjects can suddenly be opened up and rendered fascinating. Seriousness does not demand solemnity; wit, whether in the renaissance or the modern sense is to be welcomed; but R3 should be the place where the difficult things can be done and where those who are pointing us towards them know what they are talking about. Perhaps we should also remember that radio is an aural and an oral medium and that whatever egalitarian principles may apply to the employment of announcers and presenters, a voice (with whatever accent) that does not grate and a certain ease and felicity of expression should be prime requirements.

How often do we hear "You can't turn the clock back"? But of course, you can; and the government requires us to do so every year and, as far as I am concerned, the process brings its advantages. Bad old habits, naturally, should be shed; but habits are not, in themselves, bad; good old habits are not beyond recall; and if a man finds he is on the wrong road he turns back. If he is sensible. Otherwise whether his destination is a worthy or an unworthy one, he'll never get there.

Eldon Grief, The Yorkshire Wolds

Healthy broadcasting organizations in a healthy, pluralist, creative society have a duty to take risks. Some have argued that this is what BBC Radio 3 has been doing in recent years: 'pushing the envelope', becoming 'inclusive', broadening its horizons.

Hogwash.

Glock broadened the horizons. So did Drummond. So did the very founders of The Third in postwar Britain. They captured the mood of a nation sick of destruction yet conscious of its strengths and – mercifully – able not to take itself too seriously.

They took advantage of a public broadcasting corporation willing to underwrite the quirky and offbeat (Henry Reed's mock solemn pieces in the 1950s, some notable spoofs and, of course, Hilda Tablet) and to endorse 'single-minded' programming (eight hours of Indian rags, The Ring in its entirety each autumn, readings in 1946 over four days from Hersey's Hiroshima and Douglas Cleverdon's production of David Jones' In Parenthesis, and Paradise Lost etc).

The great architects of the Third made the most of well-informed and charismatic figures of stature in the world of culture and the arts. These musicians, scientists, dramatists and accomplished cultural figures were all willing – individually and collectively – to 'run with' what was at first an experiment.

A genuine experiment which celebrated the immeasurable breadth and depth of 'high' art. They did not allow themselves to be tripped up by any perception that a whole team who believed in 'classical' music and the serious arts would be perceived either as 'elitist' themselves or as catering to an 'elite' listenership.

Nor would they have made the mistake then of trying to kid discerning and informed listeners that the equivalents of Tom Jones, Bernard Cribbins, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Tim Rice or Otis Redding (typical of what can now be heard as part of R3's 'classical' output) were trying to achieve the same end effect as Bizet or Binchois.

Of course The Third took its share of wrong turnings; of course it didn't always get everything right; there were triumphs and disasters. And – significantly – it didn't always please everyone. Nor did its programmers and management aim to please all listeners all the time. The network could boast detractors from its inception. But such criticism was rarely that what it was doing was fundamentally misguided. Rather, that it wasn't doing well what was expected by informed opinion.

The official line at the BBC seems to be that those days have long gone and times have changed.

Yes. Times have indeed changed! Two trends have become apparent since the conception of the Third.

First, the grip and pervasiveness of profit-driven, mass-produced entertainment and popular culture have tightened and deepened. Aural fodder to what may well be a majority of consumers' minds means the likes of Disney, reality TV, predigested heart-on-sleeve 'soap operas' passing as drama, the monotony of crossover products, formulaic noise pollution emanating with suicide-inducing beat from radios, portable stereos, in lifts, airports and shops. The legitimacy of that grip is ever strengthened by public broadcasters who accept the relentless output from such an industry (whose purpose is to make money, any expression of artistic merit being a by-product) as 'normal' and 'harmless' and 'optional'.

Second, the confusing lie of postmodernism that all entertainment and art is equally deserving of the attention and plaudits of discerning, well-educated art-lovers grows in currency directly in proportion to the extent to which 'media' outlets feel obliged to compete for the drivel which such a deception spawns in order to be able to equate success with audience reach.

So, no, we cannot even think about 'setting the clock back'. And, yes, the need is indeed much greater now than it was even a generation ago for our tutelage and development of serious music, for the lively re-presentation of literary and dramatic 'classics' and for the exploration of core cultural ideals and ideas.

The need is greater than ever for a clearly-branded, properly-funded, broadcasting enterprise (R3) which unashamedly waves a whole sheaf of multi-coloured and multimedia flags for the greatest achievements of humanity. There is virtue in that. Even though on any one night, peer pressure, the limits imposed by a capitalist schooling system – and even by habit, and the routine of work and families, a minority of the population may choose to be listening to R3, which nevertheless is not the most expensive BBC radio station to run.

Instead of 'broadening our horizons', the BBC is narrowing them – by adjusting R3 to make it sound more 'with it' as it carries ever more pop and light material like a thousand other broadcast outlets. It is diluting Radio 3 with material widely available elsewhere – without the natural justice of reciprocal inclusion on Radios 1, 1Xtra, 2 and 6 Music etc of 'classical' music; with patronising presentational styles; with a straightjacket schedule; with spurious 'interactivity'; with expectations for the new listeners whom it claims to be attracting to the station so low as to make jumping over them childsplay; and with a sloppiness effectively besmirching the good name not only of R3 but the BBC globally.

Mark Sealey, California