Stormy waters

Periodically, Radio Three sails into stormy waters, a section of its listeners taking a dislike to some new policy intiative and crying ‘dumbed down’. Off the top of my head, I can remember the phasing out of the old talks department; the threat to the regional BBC orchestras; the greater emphasis on jazz; the general move from informing people to entertaining them; the retirement of Patricia Hughes. Long gone are the days of 26-part series specialising in music written for the court of Cyprus. But hanging over almost all of these debates has been the question of how much of the music which is broadcast should be live, as opposed to prerecorded in one format or another. Those in favour of live events say that it is only these which distinguish Radio Three from Classic FM and which maintain standards and morale.

This is happening again. Roger Wright, the Controller, recently announced that from some time in the New Year there will effectively be no live concerts on his station apart from the Proms, which remain untouched.