Over the past year or so, I have noticed an increasing number of the Twitterati saying they were giving up on the Today programme and switching to the soothing charms of Radio 3 in the morning. A few swallows do not make a summer, I thought, even for birdsong-obsessed Radio 3, but according to figures released today it looks as though the drift away from John Humphrys et al and towards Petroc Trelawny is real: research group Rajar reported that Today had lost 65,000 listeners in the past 12 months, while Radio 3’s breakfast show had gained 64,000. The missing 1,000 were not accounted for.
The switchover will not have been quite so straightforward, of course: commercial radio also reported a rise, while Heart overtook Radio 1 for the first time. Moreover, 65,000 listeners makes only a small dent in Today’s reach of more than 7 million. But it will still be a welcome fillip for Radio 3, which has fewer than 2 million listeners across the station, accounts for only 1.2% of total radio listenership and is forever plagued by accusations that its cost per listener is absurdly high (its £50m-plus budget is the same as Radio 1’s, which has five times the number of listeners). That 64,000 increase represents a rise of 11% for Radio 3’s breakfast show. Expect a bit of civilised crowing by Trelawny and fellow presenter Georgia Mann.
Does the change reflect the Today programme’s weaknesses or the Radio 3 breakfast show’s strengths? That is the 65,000-listener question. As someone who tends to commute between the two, I would argue that it is more about Today’s failings than new inspiration at Radio 3 (although Trelawny and Mann are capable broadcasters).
Blame for the failings at Today tends to be placed at the door of Sarah Sands, who took over as editor last year. I have moaned about her myself, especially when great tracts of one programme were devoted to London fashion week and tediously self-promoting interviews with clothes designers. But these early excesses have now been curbed; on a day with a big breaking-news story, Today can still be very good.
The central problem is the presenting team that Sands largely inherited. They are too dull. Who would willingly share a lift with the charisma-free rugby bore Justin Webb, let alone three hours in the morning? Elsewhere on Radio 4, Eddie Mair and Paddy O’Connell demonstrate what can be done with wit, imagination and a strong news sense. But the Today programme lacks any personality, with the exception of Humphrys, who has descended into self-parody and whose attempts at humorous sallies are routinely embarrassing.
The whole thing feels like a chore for the presenters and, inevitably, it has become a routine for the listeners, too, in a good way and a bad way. We listen because we always have and because we need to know who is being grilled at 8.10am, but we also resent the tedium. Surely even God switches off for Thought for the Day, which should have been killed off once and for all by Canon Angela Tilby’s recent comparison of knife crime and cooking.
Radio 3’s breakfast show is reaping the benefits of Today’s failings without having to do very much. The choice of music is broad, although I could do with fewer choral pieces – bored with Webb’s reports from Aberystwyth this morning, I had the misfortune to turn over to Herbert Howells’ motet The Heart of the Mind. Suddenly agricultural practices in west Wales seemed attractive.
One thing I do like about the breakfast show on Radio 3 is that it plays the odd bit of jazz, numbers from musicals, French chanson – a splendid burst of Jacques Brel this morning – and popular song. We even had some George Formby last week. The more variety, the merrier.
But the station should not celebrate the modest rise in its breakfast listening too much. Radio 3 still has many problems. I am a devotee and listen to almost every live concert it broadcasts. But I listen on catchup, often cutting out the banalities of the presenters, who react to every piece – even the second-rate performances that elicit a tepid response from the audience – with euphoria that would be over the top if accorded to the second coming. I wish the presenters would limit opinions to those of conductors and performers prior to the concerts: those interviews are genuinely useful.
Much of the rest of the schedule is lacklustre. Essential Classics, between 9am and noon, is dire: terrible, cliched little featurettes; mindless broadcasting of listeners’ emails and tweets; a predictable roster of music. Ditto Composer of the Week, which generally packages Wikipedia-level info about dead composers.
Record Review, which occupies close to four energised hours on Saturday mornings, should be the template for all Radio 3 programmes: intelligent, incisive commentary with no talking down to listeners. Too much of the schedule feels as though it is going through the motions.
Radio 3, with infinite time and so few listeners, can be anything it wants to be. Chuck out all the tired formulas and dare to be different. Beethoven, Brel, Formby, world music, new music, more shows like Words and Music, which allows listeners to make up their own minds about what they are hearing. Do not marginalise the more offbeat shows. Give jazz a prime slot; give contemporary music a prime slot; shake listeners out of their routine. Broadcast it and they will come.
I am pleased more people are listening to Radio 3 in the morning. Now convert them into Radio 3 aficionados and start to build an audience that wants to listen differently.
