Radio 3 is the successor station to the
Third Programme which began broadcasting on 29 September 1946. The name Radio 3 was adopted on 30 September 1967 when the BBC launched its first pop music station,
Radio 1 and rebranded its national radio channels as
Radio 1,
Radio 2 (formerly the
Light Programme), Radio 3, and
Radio 4 (formerly the
Home Service). Radio 3 was the overall label applied to the collection of services which had until then gone under the umbrella title of the Third Network, namely: • the Third Programme proper (as launched in 1946, an evenings-only offering of demanding cultural fare, both musical and spoken) • the Music Programme (a daytime service of classical music) • sports coverage (chiefly on Saturday afternoons) and adult educational programming in the early part of weekday evenings (known as Network Three). All these strands, including the Third Programme, kept their separate identities within Radio 3 until 4 April 1970, when there was a further reorganisation following the introduction of the structural changes which had been outlined the previous year in the BBC document
Broadcasting in the Seventies.
Broadcasting in the Seventies On 10 July 1969 the BBC published its plans for radio and television in a policy document entitled
Broadcasting in the Seventies. Later described in 2002 by
Jenny Abramsky, Head of Radio and Music, as "the most controversial document ever produced by radio", the document outlined each station's target audience and what content should be broadcast on each channel. This concept went against the earlier methods laid out by the BBC's first Director General
John Reith and caused controversy at the time, despite laying out the radio structure that is recognisable today. At the time of the review, Radio 3 faced several problems. An early option to cut costs, required under the proposals, was to reduce the number of networks from four to three, so that Radio 3 would not broadcast during the day and would use the frequencies of either Radio 1 or 2 as the two stations would merge content. However "Day-time serious music would be the casualty" of these proposals and caused some controversy. However, Radio 3 controller
Howard Newby reassured these concerns by replying that only the coverage of political and economic affairs would be passed to Radio 4, and Radio 3 would keep drama, poetry, and talks by scientists, philosophers and historians. The campaign objected to "the dismantling of the Third Programme by cutting down its spoken word content from fourteen hours a week to six" and "segregating programmes into classes". Mention of the campaign even reached debate in the House of Commons.
The "arts" controllers live every year from the
Royal Albert Hall and other venues From the launch until 1987, the controllers of Radio 3 showed preferences towards speech and arts programming as opposed to focus on classical music and the Proms. The first controller, Newby, made little contribution to the station, focusing on the transition from the Third programme to Radio 3 and as a result of the
Broadcasting in the Seventies report. The second controller,
Stephen Hearst who assumed the role in 1972, was different. As Hearst had previously been head of television arts features his appointment was seen with scepticism among the staff who viewed him as a populariser. In 1978,
Ian McIntyre took over as controller of Radio 3 but quickly faced uncomfortable relationships between departments. At approximately the same time
Aubrey Singer became managing director of Radio and began to make programming on the station more populist in a drive to retain listeners in face of possible competition from competitors using a "streamed format". and he therefore encouraged announcers to be more natural and enthusiastic. Repeats of classic drama performances by the likes of
John Gielgud and
Paul Scofield were also included because, in his view, newer drama was "gloomy and pretentious". He also introduced features and celebrations of the anniversaries of famous figures including
William Glock,
Michael Tippett and
Isaiah Berlin. Drummond also introduced the show
Mixing It which targeted the music genres that fell between Radios 1 and 3, often seen as a precursor to the programme
Late Junction. During Drummond's time, Radio 3 also began to experiment with outside broadcasts, including an ambitious Berlin Weekend to mark the
reunification of Germany in 1990, and a much praised weekend of programming that was broadcast from London and
Minneapolis-St Paul – creating broadcasting history by being the first time a whole weekend had been transmitted "live from another continent". He also introduced a number of well received specialist programmes including children's programme
The Music Machine, early music programme
Spirit of the Age, jazz showcase
Impressions, vocal music programme
Voices and the arts programme
Night Waves. BBC Radio 3 began nighttime transmissions in May 1996 with the introduction of
Through the Night, consisting of radio recordings from members of the
European Broadcasting Union and distributed to some of these other stations under the title
Euroclassic Notturno since 1998. The introduction of 24-hour broadcasting resulted in the introduction of a fixed programming point at 22:00 so that if live programme overran, later programming could be cancelled to allow
Through the Night to begin promptly. , former presenter of
Late Junction In 1998,
Roger Wright took over as controller of the station. Soon after his appointment some changes were made to showcase a wider variety of music; a new, relaxed, late-night music programme
Late Junction featured a wide variety of genres; programmes focusing on jazz and world music were given a higher profile as were programmes presented by
Brian Kay, focusing on light music, and
Andy Kershaw, whose show was previously dropped by Radio 1. In these changes, Wright believed that, in the case of the former, he was addressing "this feeling people had that they didn't want to put Radio 3 on unless they were going to listen carefully" and by the government: the
Secretary of State's foreword to the government's
Green Paper in 2005 made special mention of "the sort of commitment to new talent that has made Radio 3 the largest commissioner of new music in the world" as a model for what the BBC should be about. By 2008, however, the station faced pressures to increase its audience by making programmes more accessible while loyal listeners began to complain about the tone of these new changes. Presentation was described as "gruesome in tone and level" and global music output was mocked as "street-smart fusions" and "global pop". At the same time
RAJAR began to record lower listening figures and decisions on policy were being changed resulting in the children's programme
Making Tracks, experimental music programme
Mixing It, theatre and film programme
Stage and Screen and ''Brian Kay's Light Programme'' all being dropped, a reduction in the number of concerts and format changes to several other programmes. In spite of the changes, figures still continued to fall. The mid- to late 2000s did, however, offer new projects undertaken on the station:
The Beethoven Experience in June 2005 saw the broadcast of his works broadcast non-stop for six days. A similar project occurred six months later when
A Bach Christmas was run for ten days in the lead to Christmas and in February 2007 when a week was similarly given over to the works of
Tchaikovsky &
Stravinsky, and
Schubert in March 2012. As part of the original Beethoven Experience, the BBC trialled its first music downloads over the internet by offering free music downloads of all nine symphonies as played by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra under
Gianandrea Noseda. The stated aim was "to gauge audiences' appetite for music downloads and their preferred content, and will inform the development of the BBC strategy for audio downloads and on demand content". The experiment was wildly successful, attracting 1.4 million downloads but was met with anger from the major classical record labels who considered it unfair competition and "devaluing the perceived value of music". As a result, no further free downloads have been offered, including as part of the
BBC iPlayer service, and the BBC Trust has ruled out any classical music podcasts with extracts longer than one minute. In 2007, Radio 3 also began to experiment with a visual broadcast as well as the audio transmissions. In October 2007, Radio 3 collaborated with the
English National Opera in presenting a live video stream of a performance of
Carmen, "the first time a UK opera house has offered a complete production online" and in September 2008, Radio 3 launched a filmed series of concerts that was available to watch live and on demand for seven days "in high quality vision". This strategy was also introduced to some of the BBC Proms concerts. in 2016 By the latter years of the 2000s, Radio 3's prospects were improving. The year 2008/9 saw the introduction of more concerts and other innovations had introduced Radio 3's largest event to a wider audience. The introduction of family orientated concerts to the
BBC Proms, which are broadcast live on Radio 3, helped the station to introduce itself to a younger audience. Innovations of this type began in 2008 with the introduction of a concert celebrating the music from the television programme
Doctor Who as composed by
Murray Gold and was later followed by a further
Doctor Who prom in 2010, a free family prom in 2009, another free
Horrible Histories prom in 2011 and a
Wallace and Gromit prom in 2012. These particular concerts were introduced by Wright, who became Proms Director in addition to his duties at Radio 3 in October 2007, and many were also televised for broadcast at a later date. The mix in these proms of classical music to combine with music of a classical nature from the programmes was hoped to introduce a much younger audience to the genres catered for by Radio 3. Soon after this verdict, the licence fee was capped and the BBC given more services to pay for with the same level of income. As a result, the corporation had to reduce its costs. In the proposal entitled
Delivering Quality First, the BBC proposed that Radio 3 contribute by broadcasting 25% fewer live or specially recorded lunchtime concerts and reducing the number of specially recorded evening concerts. The Trust did recognise, however, that "Radio 3 plays a vital role in the cultural and creative life of the UK" == Operation ==