Radio 3 controller's blog

[Alyn_Shipton]

You might not all have read this today, concerning changes to the schedule in September:

On Fridays, Late Junction, a programme that explores the experimental boundaries of music, will move to a single two hour programme in a key slot on Friday evening, to kick start BBC Radio 3’s weekend for listeners. It will run from 11pm-1am. Jazz will continue to be well represented through Jazz Record Requests, J to Z, and on BBC Sounds which will bring together the best of Jazz performances and programmes from across the BBC. We will be resting Jazz Now and Geoffrey Smith’s Jazz. Music Planet will move from its Friday evening slot in turn, to Saturday nights from midnight-1am. We will also be making use of our unique partnership with The European Broadcasting Union to expand the Sunday night In Concert programme by 30 minutes, bringing listeners more of the very best of European music-making.

[Old Grumpy]

Thanks for drawing this to our attention, Alyn. A retrograde step, effectively reducing by 50% the dedicated jazz programming on Radio 3.

OG

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

"Resting" as "in Peace"?

[Serial_Apologist]

Thanks for drawing this to our attention, Alyn. A retrograde step, effectively reducing by 50% the dedicated jazz programming on Radio 3.

OG

And ditching two programmes - one of them much-loved, the other establishing itself well under Soweto and his "fellow" presenters.

[Serial_Apologist]

"Resting" as "in Peace"?

Typical piece of euphemistic managementspeak.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

"they make a desert, and they call it peace" - Tacitus.

I rarely listened to it, the hour, forgetfulness, etc. except some times on replay. I can understand Alyn's irritation expressed on here recently. Mea culpa.

BN.

[Jazzrook]

Very bad news.
Could this drastic reduction of jazz programming on Radio 3 have anything to do with the new classical digital station Scala Radio?

JR

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Very bad news.
Could this drastic reduction of jazz programming on Radio 3 have anything to do with the new classical digital station Scala Radio?

JR

That's a good possibility. I saw yesterday that in Wales they are dumping their traditional morning news show "Good Morning Wales" and switching to a more "user friendly" breakfast show fronted by a former TV presenter. To take account of changes in the commercial "sector". The skids is on...

[Jazzrook]

When the powers-that-be at Radio 3 unjustly axed the long-running 'Jazz Today' in 1988 Charles Fox responded by playing Charles Mingus's great protest piece 'II B.S.'(aka 'Haitian Fight Song') as the final track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWmE8T09-G4

JR

[cloughie]

Very bad news.
Could this drastic reduction of jazz programming on Radio 3 have anything to do with the new classical digital station Scala Radio?

JR

Very foolish if they feel the need to dumb down further. Scala hardly poses a threat!

[Serial_Apologist]

When the powers-that-be at Radio 3 unjustly axed the long-running 'Jazz Today' in 1988 Charles Fox responded by playing Charles Mingus's great protest piece 'II B.S.'(aka 'Haitian Fight Song') as the final track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWmE8T09-G4

JR

I've got that b/cast on cassette - must dig it out for Foxie's wonderful quote summarising the occasion's significance!

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Luke Turner, the Guardian this evening:

"Late Junction, and the similarly threatened Jazz Now, are also vital programmes for the outer reaches of jazz – given that the form is currently in rude health, it seems counter-intuitive to reduce the outlets for it to thrive on the airwaves.

Whether the decision to marginalise one of the programmes that, for me, justifies paying the BBC’s licence fee will result in the kind of petition that saved BBC 6 Music in 2010 remains to be seen; the immediate cries of disappointment on social media suggest that the decision is a vastly unpopular one. The BBC’s responsibility to the public should make it a bastion of diversity and experimentation against the homogenisation of a culture dictated by the algorithms of the big tech firms..."

BN.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Luke Turner, the Guardian this evening:

"Late Junction, and the similarly threatened Jazz Now, are also vital programmes for the outer reaches of jazz – given that the form is currently in rude health, it seems counter-intuitive to reduce the outlets for it to thrive on the airwaves.

Whether the decision to marginalise one of the programmes that, for me, justifies paying the BBC’s licence fee will result in the kind of petition that saved BBC 6 Music in 2010 remains to be seen; the immediate cries of disappointment on social media suggest that the decision is a vastly unpopular one. The BBC’s responsibility to the public should make it a bastion of diversity and experimentation against the homogenisation of a culture dictated by the algorithms of the big tech firms..."

BN.

[Globaltruth]

We’ve got a similar thread down below...

At the end of the blog Alan Davey makes a commitment to a wide diversity of genres which is frankly nonsense given that he is actually reducing those very genres air time. Very specifically so with the jazz programmes.

[LMcD]

Very foolish if they feel the need to dumb down further. Scala hardly poses a threat!

Radio Scala might be seen as a threat because it aims to attract young(er) listeners who might otherwise possibly find their way to 'classical' music via Radio 3.

As a regular listener to JRR, I gain the impression that many or even most of the requests are from what one might term 'more mature' listeners, who seem to be increasingly of less interest to the BBC - witness the shortening of the 2200 BBC1 national and local news to accommodate the 5-days-a-week 'youth' slot at 2235.