Three cheers

The new controller of Radio Three, Alan Davey, was on Feedback this week (Radio Four) talking to listeners about his plans for the network. Roger Bolton, who presents, wondered if Davey was worried about ratings — Radio Three hovers around two million listeners compared with the 5.5 million boasted by its commercial rival Classic FM, or perhaps more alarmingly the two million lured to BBC upstart 6 Music. ‘Ratings aren’t a pressure for me,’ said an ebullient Davey, while admitting that he does want to find more listeners, and then to ensure they stay tuned. But how? Without going down the Classic FM route of more audience participation, more gimmicks, more cheesy competitions?

‘We have to get better at explaining what Radio Three is about …that it’s more than just classical music,’ Davey suggested. ‘We have to offer more explanation and context.’

As a start he’s abolished the phone-in on Breakfast and cut down the number of news bulletins, to give Petroc, Clemency and co. more time to talk about the music. ‘I want music to have more space to speak for itself,’ he explained. Davey wants ‘to add to the richness of the station’, to delve into different kinds of music, a greater variety of composers, more ‘cultural commentary’. He wants his Radio Three to be ‘informal but informed’.

You can tell Davey used to work in government as a civil servant, spending the last eight years at the Arts Council. He loves a soundbite. We just have to hope his past experience has also taught him how to fight for his department, his station, against those who think Radio Three is too niche, too much of a minority interest to be funded by taxpayers, most of whom will never listen to it.