Decline of BBC R3 etc

[semloh]

I hope the administrators will forgive me posting this, since it is not strictly about unsung composers, but I just wanted to draw attention to a report which relates to many comments we have been making in this forum regarding the strategy of BBC Radio 3, and what we have generally regarded as its "dumbing down" approach to programming.

Please have a look at this report, which notes that in one year, the UK has "lost" c. one million listeners to classical music radio.... 

http://www.overgrownpath.com/

[allison]

Believable, I check every week for something interesting to listen to with only disappointment, and even Hear and Now is rarely interesting, I wonder if it is designed to phase BBC3 out due to "lack of interest". God, I hope not, remembering so many wonderful broadcasts in the not too distant past and hoping for a trend of following the lead of this forum as concerns lost British musical treasures. And the schedule for Proms 2012 also presents very few premieres, or even unsung rediscoveries, nothing approaching the excitement of Brian's Gothic Symphony last year. That said, it is still better than so many of our American purportedly Classical stations. Another station that consistently saddens me is Radio Catalunya, which almost never offers any of the wonderful Catalonian music that is available in their concerts and recorded repertoire and immensely satisfying.

[eschiss1]

There's the occasional exception still fortunately- a studio recording of some Rubbra motets on BBC Radio 3 on Monday (hoping to catch that...) - it's still a relative thing.

[rbert12]

It seems that this 'dumbing' down or programming only the standard repertory, with exceptions that fall in the other side (extreme avant-garde) is not only BBC R3 problem, as far I check from time to time France Musique practically does not broadcasts anymore its impressive archive of french music, from the Radio Lyrique troupe or the concerts of the ORTF orchestras, for instance. The same is true of Radio Clásica or Catalunya Música.

[eschiss1]

Further on etc., while it's not an unrecorded work, they're playing Harty's "Ode to a Nightingale" tomorrow (from a February 2012 concert, not an older archive recording) (Ulster Orchestra broadcasts.) (Tynan/Bedford/Ulster.) Horatio Parker's organ concerto (2011 September 2 concert, Colm Carey, organ, Braithwaite conducting) will be on the Friday 22 June episode.  Radio stations and orchestras...

[MikeW]

I think that the market is simply moving on to using a mix of podcasts, streaming services (Spotify et al) and YouTube to get immediate access to this repertoire.

I frankly don't listen to classical radio except when I'm in the car with no alternatives, or I'm seeking explicit programming like the Proms, but I usually just get podcast downloads of what I want to listen to when I want.

[eschiss1]

and the BBC podcasts can only be heard by paying customers (UK residents) unlike the web-streamed broadcasts which can be heard by us international freeloaders. It works out...

[MikeW]

BBC podcasts can be heard anywhere in the world.

[eschiss1]

I should be more specific- the Radio 3 podcasts I'm interested in can only be heard in the UK One can play them in the US, but they turn off after one line as I recall of "not available outside the United Kingdom" or suchlike.

[MikeW]

The easy solution: Radio Downloader

I've been using it for about 5 years - makes all BBC podcasts and broadcasts available as one, irrespective of location.

[semloh]

The easy solution: Radio Downloader

I've been using it for about 5 years - makes all BBC podcasts and broadcasts available as one, irrespective of location.

Hmm ... I'll check this out, as most of the BBC's online classical music isn't available in Australia.

[MikeW]

Hmm ... I'll check this out, as most of the BBC's online classical music isn't available in Australia.

I used it quite happily in Australia for 3 years, including pulling down most of the Proms concerts at their original bit-rate.

The other option is to just to buy a cheap UK proxy and then you have full access to everything on iPlayer. It's only the prohibitive broadband costs in Australia that stopped me doing that for very long.

[Gareth Vaughan]

I think Roger Wright is doing his best to reverse the decline in programming quality which Radio 3 experienced under his predecessor, but I suspect the BBC is a bureaucratic Behemoth, so it will take time. Roger is a great supporter of British music, but I expect, even as Controller of Radio 3, he has to move slowly and carefully.

[hattoff]

Afraid I do not agree with that. Since Roger Wright took over, Radio 3 has become childish, banal, verbose, and repetitive. The historic information given is biased and disingenuous.
It seems that the government is wanting to privatise the BBC and it is being commercialised in preparation for the sell off.

Sorry to be so pessimistic.

[shamokin88]

Possibly I should keep out of this discussion because I live in the USA and benefit from Radio 3 and other "foreign" radio services while paying nothing to support them or their activities. My appreciation of this is enhanced by the constant diminution and dumbing down of "classical"music here - and I began listening to it on AM radio during the 1950s.

What we have left here in the US is a pitiful remainder of what there once was, and Radio 3 by these standards, is almost an oasis in the desert. Fifty some years ago we had regular weekly broadcasts of the orchestras in Philadelphia, Boston, New York and Cleveland, entire seasons. We heard the season of chamber music concerts from the Library of Congress, the American Music Festival concerts from the National Gallery, also from Washington, broadcasts from the Salzburg Festival and the Wiener Festwochen - plus whatever we might have locally, all on essentially two and a half classical stations. All of that is gone, as are the various transcribed programs from the BBC, Deutsche Welle, the ORTF and RAI.

Please, friends, struggle mightily to keep what you've got, imperfect as it is. I understand what the BBC used to be like - I had a subscription to The Listener once upon a time. As it is now, there seems to be a lot of fluff, of personality and empty chatter on Radio 3. But what remains, even as it is, is so far superior to what we have.

Best to all from Shamokin88