Radio 3’s Long Evolution

Earlier this week, BBC Radio 3, the Beeb’s classical station, announced changes to its schedule which may (or may not) result in far fewer live performances being broadcast. The changes are causing no small amount of consternation in Britain’s classical music world: “The station has ventured quite far from its traditional ground. In 1992, Radio 3 was described in the BBC’s annual report as ‘the UK’s leading patron and broadcaster of classical music’. In the same document, in 2004, it was described as providing ‘a broad spectrum of classical music, jazz, world music, drama and arts discussions’. That is quite a shift.”