Radio Three and a half

Sixty five jobs are to be lost in BBC Radio, which will be restructured into two speech and pop music "hubs". The speech and classical music hub will cover Radio 4, 4 Extra, Radio 3 and BBC Proms, while the pop music hub will look after Radio 1, 1Xtra, Radio 2, Asian Network and 6 Music.

BBC News - Sixty-five jobs to go in BBC Radio

It is interesting that classical music is grouped with speech rather than pop music, and it suggests that Radio 3 and Radio 4 will, in future, be run together, hence Radio Three and a half. Unsurprisingly, french frank has been discussing the shape of things to come in the Radio 3 Forum.

The Radio 3 Forum - Announcements - The Shape of Things to Come?

Sir Simon Jenkins argues that Radios 3 and 4 are entitled to regard themselves as unique cultural institutions, but even this cannot justify an exclusive claim on public funds, least of all funds laundered throughout a compulsory household poll tax.

The Guardian - The BBC will never cut its cloth to suit any cloak but big

I suppose that it is an interesting question whether two unique cultural institutions can be run together. Any thoughts?