Playlist information

Thank you for replying so quickly.



No, I wasn't really referring to what I would positively AVOID, just that I would be looking for what positively interested me. If I'm just presented with the title of the programme and something like "Music for You: Albert Bloggs plays a selection of old, new and neglected music" it wouldn't strongly tempt me to switch on.



As to how I discover about new things, it's quite often these days from the messageboards but I've discovered most from listening to Radio 3 itself. And this makes my initial point more strongly: I would be curious if I saw that a composer or piece of music that I didn't know was going to be broadcast. Ideally, I'd look up any information beforehand (nice if it was there on the Radio 3 website too!). Discovering I've already missed it isn't much help. Listen Again somehow isn't as urgent and therefore you don't always get round to it.

I did used to look over the schedules when the extant versions were printed in the Radio Times (yes, I know this is going back some years) and dismiss large chunks of the repertoire solely on the basis I assumed I wouldn't like it.



Things are a little different now.



If I listen live and I want to find out what I'm listening to at that moment in time I'll go to the Radio 3 Live twitter account - I was cynical about it before but it's a really useful thing now. If I'm listening via iPlayer then I will make a judgement on whether its opera or choral works (or Handel) and then probably avoid it, but still I'm not too fussed about knowing what is going to played before I hear it.



Just so long as the majority of the stuff I hear is something new (or at least played only a small amount) I'm quite happy. And .. as it goes .. I'm quite a picky listener.

I like most stuff from early music to jazz via Bach, Beethoven, Berio, Boulez, etc., but I don't like the presentation. Radio 3 is not the place for the style of pop radio DJs - far too much chat. Serious music requires serious and knowledgable presentation. Please assume that you have intelligent listeners and not morons.



The Handel operas have been a revelation.



By the way, the Dave Douglas Quintet concert recording on Jazz on 3 was excellent.

Knowing what is to be broadcast in advance is very important to me, not necessarily so that I can tune in for 'favourites' or switch off to avoid 'pet hates'. I also look for unusual repertoire by composers both known and unknown to me. The listings for 'Through the Night' and 'Hear and Now' are especially useful in this respect. Also please do not assume that advance listings should be restricted to music programmes: there is a significant proportion of spoken word content on Radio 3, most of which is usually covered in advance well. However, the advance information for 'Night Waves' is sometimes patchy, but I understand that this is to some extent driven by the late planning of some editions.

Perhaps the following will illustrate the interest that exists generally for advanced detailed listings to be made available:

When the Radio Times abridged its listings for 'Through the Night' last year, I went to the trouble of regularly extracting a whole week's worth of listings from the (now defunct) BBC 'What's On' website and producing a printable listing. I made it available for download and it proved moderately popular. When the Radio Times reversed its abridgement, I continued with my listing because it provided more detail than the RT. I developed the listings further to cover the whole of Radio 3 and this later proved invaluable when the BBC withdrew the 'What's On' listings. These listings provided a fairly detailed listing of programming per day, seven days in advance. There was no need to click on each programme title individually to find out what was on - it was all there on one (long) page. Following the withdrawal of the 'What's On' listings, I developed an on-line listing in an attempt to replace it. This currently receives in excess of 200 hits per week. I realise that this is probably small when compared with the number of hits on the BBC schedule listings, but is not insignificant, and shows that there is some definite interest in detailed, complete listings.

A notable omission from the listings is detailed information for 'Breakfast' and 'In Tune', as no information is available in advance on the BBC website. To cover this I am producing retrospective printable listings to cover the previous week, which are of use in conjunction with the iPlayer - which is less than satisfactory (to me).

For an example of my on-line listings, go to https://radiolists.blogspot.com. (There is a link on the blog to the printable listings.)

Hi Roland

Having FINALLY found this blog entry again, I'd like to make a few comments!



Firstly, I'm no web designer so I can't unfortunately be more specific on how it should be done, but I'd love it if you could make much more of the fascinating R3 online interactivity easier to find and explore. For example I only found out by chance today about the Composer Blogs - I'm sure I heard them mentioned but nothing up to now had alerted/reminded me about taking a look at them on my regular visits to the R3 site. My feeling is that I'm so often in a rush - just wanting to check the time of a programme, or write on the messageboards, or find out who conducted the interesting piece I heard at breakfast time just as I leapt in the shower - so if it's not in big letters on the front page, I miss it!



Before the internet, (how did we ever survive?) this issue would never have arisen, as there was ONLY R3 for classical and one grabbed one's Radio Times each week to see what might be worth listening to. But now, well - I look down the "favourites" list on my browser and find more than a dozen internet classical music stations around the world that I frequently tune into for specific programmes/repertoire/artists or just to explore. R3 has tremendous resources at its fingertips and the website is IMHO the most detailed and informative around in this specialist category, but sometimes the info I want is not there when I need it,(programme details, music content etc) or else it takes a good half an hour of exploring to find something I wasn't even looking for but really enjoy discovering.



I wonder if there couldn't be a weekly or monthly R3 Interactive email newsletter that we could sign up for (apart from the Controller's missive) packed NOT with editorial text but more with links to full programme details and new links to all the various exciting projects as they come along. Obviously we all have different interests and tastes and it can't be easy choosing what to highlight on the R3 front page, but at the moment I have the feeling that a lot of R3 features I'd love to listen to or read about are just passing me by before I've even realised they were there. We don't all have hours and hours to search and plan our browsing and listening.



On a positive note - I love the layout of the Proms info, so much clearer and easier to navigate than last year.



Enough waffling for now! Looking forward to the Proms starting...

Cheers

"Maestrolover"

There is a misunderstanding about Radio3 shown quite clearly by the attempt to force the Channel into the 'presenter chat + music mode' of Radio 1 and 2 I am not hostile to the presenters but actually want to listen to the music, and I want to choose my music in effect by timing my listening to catch what I want to hear. So the second cup of coffee is for me currently at 0900 when the Haydn piano sonata is on, and if my work is going well the third cup can be linked to a work in Classical Collection. Lunch can be prepared and eaten to 'Composer of the Week'which is an illustrated talk. Usually I am not in in the afternoon, and tea may need a CD or MP3.

The schedules on the web are needed to support my life. Currently the 'Breakfast' ones have been withdrawn and replaced by HUGH pictures of the presenters bigger even than Radio 1's pictures of Chris Moyles

I am considering looking to France for my needs!