BBC Radio 3 - Controversy

Controversy

Controller Nicholas Kenyon summed up the perennial problem of Radio 3 as "the tension between highbrow culture and popular appeal …the cost of what we do and the number of people who make use of it”: elitism versus populism (or ‘dumbing down’) and the question of cost per listener. This argument has included members of the BBC, listeners and several different protest groups.

In 1969, two hundred members of the BBC staff protested to the director general at changes which would ‘emasculate’ Radio 3, while managing director of radio Ian Trethowan described the station in a memorandum as "a private playground for elitists to indulge in cerebral masturbation". Later, former Radio 3 controller John Drummond complained that the senior ranks of the BBC took no interest in what he was doing.

The Gambaccini issue arose in 1995/6 as listeners and press critics protested the introduction into a slot formerly used for Composer of the Week of a program presented by Paul Gambaccini, a former Radio 1 and Classic FM presenter. This was seen as part of a wider move towards popularisation, to compete with Classic FM and to increase ratings. Gambaccini is quoted as saying: “I had a specific mission to invite Today listeners to stay with the BBC rather than go to Classic FM.”

Several groups have been formed in the past to protest against any changed to the station. These have included:

• The Third Programme Defence Society (1957) opposed cuts in broadcasting hours and the removal of what the BBC considered "too difficult and too highbrow". Supported by TS Eliot, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Laurence Olivier
• The Campaign for Better Broadcasting (1969) opposed proposed cuts in Radio 3’s speech output. Supported by Sir Adrian Boult, Jonathan Miller, Henry Moore, George Melly.
• Friends of Radio 3 (FoR3) (from 2003), a listeners’ campaign group set up to express concern at changes to the station's style and scheduling, including the shift to presenter-led programmes stripped through the week, as on Classic FM and other mass-audience music stations. Officially, the BBC stated that "the network's target audience has been redefined and broadened and the schedule began to be recast to move towards this during 1999." The group’s stated aim is "To engage with the BBC, to question the policies which depart from Radio 3's remit to deliver a high quality programme of classical music, spoken arts and thought, and to convey listener concerns to BBC management." Supported by Dame Gillian Weir, Robin Holloway, Andrew Motion, Dame Margaret Drabble.