BBC Radio 3 decision is ‘imminent’

BBC Radio 3 decision is ‘imminent’

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norman lebrecht

September 24, 2014

We’re hearing there will be no second-round interviews for head of Radio 3. A decision has been made. Candidates have not yet been notified.

The winner is, in all likelihood, the least impressive , accomplished and in broadcasting terms least qualified of the candidates interviewed.

Requiems to the ready.

bbc radio 3

Comments

  • Peter says:

    If it’s who you think it is, I hope the heads of all the BBC orchestras will have some guts and resign en masse.

  • 18mebrumaire says:

    Those so-called ‘Friends of Radio 3’ who so shamefully traduced the wonderful and broad-minded Roger Wright, may shortly regret their unseemly celebration at his recent departure from the BBC.

  • Sarah Spilsbury says:

    Hello, Neil. Long time no speak! Yes, the ‘Fiends’ are still in business, though where Mr 18mebrumaire got the idea that there were ‘unseemly celebrations’ over Roger Wright’s departure, I don’t know: we exchanged letters of mutual good wishes when he left, which reflected 10 years of cordial relations. He took one line, we took another – and he was in charge. That’s all.

    As for his approach, we did point out some inconvenient facts: that the audience during the first quarter of his appointment was a stable 2.277m, and during the last it was 1.884m; that ten years ago the BBC reported the average listener age as 57 and last quarter it was 59. So his efforts appear to have reduced the audience size and left it older than it was which was the opposite of his intention. We believe that was because he had – demonstrably – the wrong policies, not that it would have been EVEN WORSE with different ones.

    In short, we believe that if the BBC thinks ‘classical music is for all’ – it has the ability to take the music to the audiences on mainstream services (as it has started to do on a small scale with its ‘Ten Pieces’ scheme for young schoolchildren). This must be expanded on, not dropped at the end of the season. The BBC must invest in that future audience, not cut back. Trying to lure younger listeners into a lonely back alley with a gramophone playing quietly at the end is not an attraction, even if they are playing ‘Baroque Bieber’ rather than baroque Biber.

    Shall we regret the appointment of Mr Davey? No. Why? If he has been appointed to cut costs, that will be what the BBC wants done. Indeed, a criticism we had of Roger was that, although he became the senior controller in the entire BBC, and therefore, we supposed, wielded some influence, he failed to protect Radio 3’s budget, so that in the end Radio 1 was spending more on its content than Radio 3 and getting substantial increases while Radio 3 marked time. We found this astonishing, but blame a purblind BBC more than Roger.

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