Radio blues: Classic FM’s slide deepens, Radio 3 looks up
NewsThe quarterly Rajar figures are out and they show a further dip for Classic FM to 4.47 million listeners, a million fewer than they had before the pandemic. Could be the relaxant formula with BBC retiree presenters is looking a bit tired by now.
Better news for Radio 3 which, under new management, returned for the first time in years to just over 2 million.
Scala Radio is in trouble., attracting barely 200,000 listeners in the third quarter of 2023.
Read David Taylor’s analysis here.
Some good news to brighten my day.
We just don’t want endless ‘smooth’ music for relaxation with unctuous tones of fake reverence from radio ‘personalities’.
Yeah. Many years ago I remember Radio 3 playing the Schoenberg Orchestral Variations at around 8 am…………….Charles Ives must’ve been doing the schedule that day………….
A good Scheidt fanfare would be welcome.
It’s the ads that get me. Every 20 minutes, what feels like 10 minutes worth of promos, “news” and endlessly repetitive ads!
I agree entirely!
….who too often don’t tell you which recording you’ve been given
…of a single bleeding movement with the composer’s and the performer’s names likely grossly mispronounced.
Well said !
Classical music should not be Smooth to Relax to.
And why do we have to have those unspeakable insufferable buffoons Ian Skelly and Alexander Armstrong with their childish cringeworthy styles ?
I was visiting the UK recently and have complaints about both stations. Agree that Classic FM hosts were annoying and the ads were completely out of context, tonally – loud, crass, over-compressed.
BBC Radio 3 didn’t always impress me either. Saturday mornings were devoted to long, dull, technical conversations (mostly by older men) about the minutiae of tempo choices in Bruckner symphonies or the bowing techniques in Bach partitas. I just wanted to hear some music on my drive but this went on…forever.
Record Review is a welcome programme for collectors. And it involves dedicated critics. If you are a visitor, don’t knock it!
Streaming via the internet signalled the death knell of ‘the radio network’. (Remember, too, that ‘video killed the radio star’!!!)
Research does not actually reflect that. Gen Z are some of the most avid listsners BECAUSE it is not visual. They don’t want to be looking at their devices..
Streaming radio. Lots of choices now, lots of competition, and those of us who want more sophisticated choices can go to places like Concertzender.
Could it be the repetitive, patronising, irritating commercials broadcast every 20 minutes? I understand perfectly that it’s a commercial station and replies on advertising for its revenue, but there’s a limit to how many times you can tolerate the silly voices uttering the same scripts. Certainly has me reaching for the off switch!
Perhaps now they will look at the repetitive nature of both the programmes – SMOOTH CLASSICS -here, there and everywhere. The HALL of FAME has run its course after 30 years . Even the tunes played are the same day in and day out. Dvorak 9th, The Lark Ascending, etc etc. On Bank Holidays they are stuck what to present as happens on Sunday evening and so we have yet another chart or another filler. Come on Classic FM get your act together, after 30 years you need an overhaul and something more dynamic, play something different. have an opera evening or bring back the full works concert. Your presenters also need to be upgraded, some of them take frequent holidays and we get people who are obviously not versed in Classics – often shown by their pronunciation of composers and tunes. We have listened since the start but now frequently move to something else.
Classic FM is the musical equivalent of a diet with no fibre leading to constipation .Imagine Haydn being told to produce a smooth symphony.
No wonder . Listeners now need a wider music choice on Classic F M
I suggested an introduction to classical Indian music not log after FM start up. As an ex violinist RLPO FM orchestra in the North ,I’d like to present an hour’s show . Leave it to me I’d get the ratings up! Come on,just try me . Talk about other things as well connecting music with classic cars ,sailing ,brass bands ,electronics ,
Buildings ,travel ,make music fun .
Late night with KEN JOHNSON ! FIDDLE THE NIGHT AWAY
Radio 3 helped by the Proms! Be interesting to see if it dips again. Proms success a pointer in the direction Classical music needs to go to gain a new audience?
Who cares about these either inept or mediocre local UK dab/fm classical music stations. For most of us a simple Internet portable radio using wifi broadband gives one access to a myriad of stations. Many in hi-res and without inane dj’s. Similarly a good hifi system and streamer provides excellent streamed music and Internet radio.
Many presenters fail to announce the conductor of a piece of music. The interpretation by the conductor is a vital piece of information. And hey, don’t be afraid to refer to musicians as Sir or Dame etc.
Or ‘the late ….’
I can do without the “sir” and “dame” business. The last thing we need is the monarchy being pushed onto classic music, which already has an unfortunate reputation for elitism.
Hello Carl, you wrote “I can do without the “sir” and “dame” business”. Please withdraw that comment. I have made it clear to all venues that I will not appear unless my title is correctly stated on all publicity.
I have also informed my record company that as soon as my (imminent) beatification is confirmed, I will require all my recordings to be repackaged with my new title.
No surprise at Classic FM slide, having listened for 20+ years I am tired of the “celebrity ” presenters ie Armstrong, Marr, Humphreys etc. We miss the John Suchet, John Brunning et al easy listening style and the music knowledge of Catherine Bott and Rob Cowan. Will someone have the courage to rescue this station ( and yes, the Hall of Fame is past its sell by date!)??
Classic FM has become too bland and repetitive in the music it plays. Too much Smooth Classics and overplaying of the same pieces by the same composers. Needs a new formula
ClassicFM was bland and dumbed-down from the start. They knew that the Ode to Joy was a popular piece, but at twenty minutes plus, it was WAY too long. So they commissioned a new recording which cut out all the boring bits and just left the tunes. All over in ten minutes, sorted.
As for dumbing down, I remember the charming but erratic Natalie Wheen once saying on-air, “that was the Andante from Mozart’s Piano Concerto number 21, Köchel four…….oops, sorry, we’re not allowed to mention Köchel numbers on this station”.
I have to agree that the Hall of Fame is, and always has been, a bit of a joke, with composers like Einaudi, Carl Jenkins and John Williams regularly finding themselves scarcely less well represented than Haydn, Monteverdi and Schubert.
If Classic FM had John Shuttleworth as a presenter, I’d listen.
or Count Arthur Strong?????
I’ve switched from Classic FM to Radio 3 because I was bored with the predictable & repetitive choices of music and recordings. I was learning nothing new nor finding different composers to enrich my enjoyment. Such a pity. The programme that had once provided a great portal into Classical music failed to develop my knowledge of this wonderful genre.
Classic FM could be done under the Trades Description Act – they’re not home to the world’s greatest music, merely the most popular (and only Western art music at that)!!
I am new to the UK, moved from the US permanently 2 u years ago. These comments echoed all my sentiments exactly particularly about classic FM
I scream at the radio sometimes! Helen in Streatham
R3 plays some bizarre awful noises in truth. They need to concentrate on full classical music but they are drifting away. Classic FM on the other hand plays the same main pieces over and over again. A balance between the 2 stations is the answer.