Strategy v Tactics
Aug 1, 2013 5:29:22 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2013 5:29:22 GMT -5
Greetings from kleines c. The BBC is unlikely to outlast the terrible 'teens, let alone the twenty-first century, in its present form. As it happens, I made an all too rare sojourn on to the Friends of Radio 3 (FoR3) website this morning, and I noticed that french frank had addressed one of my many points about BBC Radio 3 and the FoR3's unsuccessful decade-long campaign:
The FoR3 Blog - Strategy v Tactics
As I am sure that it will interest both Neil and Sydney, it is worth copying out french frank's posting in full:
Of course, kleines c's comment is, as ever, awaiting moderation, I am french frank's nemesis, after all, but for the record, here is my brief comment to the Friends of Radio 3 (August 1, 2013 at 9:01 am):
A simpler formula, french frank: to be human! All the best!
The FoR3 Blog - Strategy v Tactics
As I am sure that it will interest both Neil and Sydney, it is worth copying out french frank's posting in full:
"If this is to be a serious exchange of ideas on the ‘future of broadcasting’ perhaps it should focus here on the BBC, Radio 3 and classical music?
Factually, we might agree that nowadays core classical music has been removed substantially from the nation’s everyday life; and from the BBC mainstream services compared with the days when the popular Home Service and Light Programme carried orchestral concerts (even Proms!); BBC television back in 1978 showed the complete Young Musician of the Year competition, yet by last year even reporting was so low key as to be invisible.
We might also agree that it would be a desirable thing for such music to become more widely integrated into mainstream culture so that it isn’t almost completely absent from the experience of younger generations.
But how?
Radio 3 managers, in announcing their ‘intention’ to reach out to the ‘broader audience’, effectively placed the major responsibility on Radio 3. Yet the BBC Trust, while endorsing this strategy, agreed that there were other, mainstream, services better placed to do this than Radio 3. They said:
“Radio 3’s ambition to increase accessibility and encourage lighter listeners will go some way towards achieving this. However, other services within the BBC portfolio should also play a role in meeting this requirement, and are potentially better placed to do so, given their size, scale and broader audience.”
Yet these services lag behind in presenting such programming (the few selected televised Proms tend to focus on Doctor Who, Hooray for Hollywood &c), and it is still largely left to the ghettoes of BBC Four and Radio 3 to somehow lure in this audience instead of taking the broadcasts to where the audiences are. But where is the sense in this? It is the BBC that has segregated audiences: children’s television, youth television, youth radio, popular culture, the arts … If you wanted to develop a children’s introduction to classical music, for example, wouldn’t you broadcast it on a children’s service which the children are watching rather than attempting to coax them to listen to some out-of-the-way radio service (which presupposes that the children have parents likely to value such a programme and push them in the right direction: the television audience has a much wider range)? The world does move on and we’re not in the glory days of Pied Piper any more. But that can just mean altering tactics, not giving up.
This is standard marketing/advertising nous. First locate your desired audience, then take your product to them. They don’t advertise Stannah stairlifts on Kiss FM in the hope that pensioners will flock there and listen to their commercials.
The additional downside of the Radio 3 strategy is that it wipes out vast segments of more serious broadcasting and loses the audience that wants it. Indeed, the BBC doesn’t even seem to recognise that such a service is needed. Many Radio 3 listeners are ‘serious’ about classical music. That doesn’t make them ‘experts’, ‘specialists’, or ‘connoisseurs’ (as the BBC would have it – definition: they’ve heard of Beethoven). But they still don’t need to have their music made palatable by being introduced by TV chefs; nor made interesting by being introduced by a fellow listener; nor truncated to fit their supposed limited attention span; nor lightened with trivial chat to provide regular respite from the music.
A simple formula: an experienced broadcaster accurately and informatively introducing a range of interesting music, well selected by knowledgeable producers. If there’s something that’s unfamiliar or above our heads, so much the better: we’ll cope."
Factually, we might agree that nowadays core classical music has been removed substantially from the nation’s everyday life; and from the BBC mainstream services compared with the days when the popular Home Service and Light Programme carried orchestral concerts (even Proms!); BBC television back in 1978 showed the complete Young Musician of the Year competition, yet by last year even reporting was so low key as to be invisible.
We might also agree that it would be a desirable thing for such music to become more widely integrated into mainstream culture so that it isn’t almost completely absent from the experience of younger generations.
But how?
Radio 3 managers, in announcing their ‘intention’ to reach out to the ‘broader audience’, effectively placed the major responsibility on Radio 3. Yet the BBC Trust, while endorsing this strategy, agreed that there were other, mainstream, services better placed to do this than Radio 3. They said:
“Radio 3’s ambition to increase accessibility and encourage lighter listeners will go some way towards achieving this. However, other services within the BBC portfolio should also play a role in meeting this requirement, and are potentially better placed to do so, given their size, scale and broader audience.”
Yet these services lag behind in presenting such programming (the few selected televised Proms tend to focus on Doctor Who, Hooray for Hollywood &c), and it is still largely left to the ghettoes of BBC Four and Radio 3 to somehow lure in this audience instead of taking the broadcasts to where the audiences are. But where is the sense in this? It is the BBC that has segregated audiences: children’s television, youth television, youth radio, popular culture, the arts … If you wanted to develop a children’s introduction to classical music, for example, wouldn’t you broadcast it on a children’s service which the children are watching rather than attempting to coax them to listen to some out-of-the-way radio service (which presupposes that the children have parents likely to value such a programme and push them in the right direction: the television audience has a much wider range)? The world does move on and we’re not in the glory days of Pied Piper any more. But that can just mean altering tactics, not giving up.
This is standard marketing/advertising nous. First locate your desired audience, then take your product to them. They don’t advertise Stannah stairlifts on Kiss FM in the hope that pensioners will flock there and listen to their commercials.
The additional downside of the Radio 3 strategy is that it wipes out vast segments of more serious broadcasting and loses the audience that wants it. Indeed, the BBC doesn’t even seem to recognise that such a service is needed. Many Radio 3 listeners are ‘serious’ about classical music. That doesn’t make them ‘experts’, ‘specialists’, or ‘connoisseurs’ (as the BBC would have it – definition: they’ve heard of Beethoven). But they still don’t need to have their music made palatable by being introduced by TV chefs; nor made interesting by being introduced by a fellow listener; nor truncated to fit their supposed limited attention span; nor lightened with trivial chat to provide regular respite from the music.
A simple formula: an experienced broadcaster accurately and informatively introducing a range of interesting music, well selected by knowledgeable producers. If there’s something that’s unfamiliar or above our heads, so much the better: we’ll cope."
Of course, kleines c's comment is, as ever, awaiting moderation, I am french frank's nemesis, after all, but for the record, here is my brief comment to the Friends of Radio 3 (August 1, 2013 at 9:01 am):
A simpler formula, french frank: to be human! All the best!