Editor's Note: You can listen to Feedback online or download it here.
Do you know what a pop-up studio is?
Well if you can get down to the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank of the Thames before Sunday you can see one in action. Radio 3 has built such a studio next to the Riverside café on the first floor.
It can be put up in a few hours, is made of perspex and is sound-proof, although much of the network’s musical output is transmitted from the area just outside it. When I visited the café the Gypsy Orchestra of Budapest were in full flow, watched over by a grinning Sean Rafferty.
Most presenters love performing in front of audiences rather than being confined in a lonely windowless studio and Sean had his own fan club in the front row of the audience, knitting furiously. Were they making pullovers for him or, like Madam Desfarges in Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, waiting for an execution, or at least a cock-up?
When I was there, there weren’t any that I could see. Everyone was very relaxed and enjoying themselves hugely.
Of course Radio 3 says its reason for having a pop up studio there is to get closer to its audience and to hear what they have to say about the station and its output.
I tried to find out if that was what was really happening. Here is our Feedback report
I went to the South Bank shortly after Roger Wright, the Controller of Radio 3 and also Director of the Proms had announced he was leaving the Corporation to run the Aldeburgh Festival. My namesake has been Controller for the last 15 years and for the last 7 years has run the Proms as well.
It requires a unique combination of talents, and extraordinary stamina, to do both. Mr Wright never missed a prom and was always back at the Royal Albert Hall early the following morning, as well as keeping an eye and ear on Radio 3 during the day. Of course, after 15 hour days he took taxis home, for which he was roundly criticised by some newspapers. They, of course, are much more scrupulous about expenses.
The two jobs have not always been combined. I can remember when a former Controller and a former Proms Director were not on speaking terms and hardly cooperated. This was extremely counter-productive, and also unpleasant for those who had to work for two quarrelling masters.
I do hope the BBC can find a person qualified to take on both jobs. The Corporation will undoubtedly miss Roger Wright. Although some Feedback listeners were very critical of what they saw as Radio 3’s dumbing down during his tenure, he was always prepared to come onto Feedback and face the flack, and he was always extremely courteous, even under fire. He has many fans.
ROGER BOLTON
PS Just a reminder that the Editor of Today, Jamie Angus, is soon to come onto Feedback. Do let me know what you would like me to ask him.
Roger Bolton presents Feedback on Radio 4.
