BBC Third Programme: Difference between revisions

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The '''BBC Third Programme''' was the third national radio network broadcast by the [[BBC]], has since become '''[[BBC Radio 3|Radio 3]]''', but was originally known (at least within the BBC) as '''C'''. The other two were the [[Home Service]] (mainly speech based) and the [[BBC Light Programme|Light Programme]], dedicated to light music, usually cover versions of popular music of the day played by the "in-house" BBC orchestras. The Home Service is now known as [[BBC Radio 4|Radio 4]] and the [[Light Programme]] is [[BBC Radio 2|Radio 2]]. After the death of [[Henry Wood (conductor)|Sir Henry Wood]] the BBC stepped in to sponsor his [[The Proms|Promenade concerts]], carrying them live every night on the Third Programme.

InitiallyWhen it started on 29 September 1946 it broadcast for 5 hours a night from 7pm to midnight, but wereits actuallyduration was cut byfrom an40 hours a week to 24 hours a hourweek in [[1957]] for a few years, until the launch of the Music Programme, then from 7am to midnight (although with only the evening output branded as "Third Programme"). The Third Programme continued as a separate evening service on the same frequency after the inception of Radio 3 in 1967, but was absorbedreduced intoto eight hours a week and largely merged with Radio 34 in April 1970. It was the first station to multifrequency on 909 kHz ([[Medium frequency|MF]]) and 90.0 to 92.5 MHz ([[FM radio|FM]]).

Its existence was controversial from the start, partly because of perceived "elitism" - it was sometimes criticised for programmes of "two [[Academia|dons]] talking" and also for the costs of output relative to a small listener [[Reach|reach]]. In actuality its existence went against Reithian principles, as [[John Reith, 1st Baron Reith|Reith]] himself had, during his time at the BBC, been againtagainst segmenting audiences by splitting programming genres across different networks. From the first it did have some prominent supporters; the [[Secretary of State for Education and Skills|Education Secretary]] in the [[Clement Attlee|Attlee]] government, [[Ellen Wilkinson]], spoke rather optimistically of creating a "third programme nation." When it faced cuts in 1957, The Third Programme Defense Society was formed and its leaders included [[T. S. Eliot|TS_Eliot]], [[Albert Camus|Albert_Camus]], and [[Sir Laurence Olivier|Laurence_Olivier]].

The network was dedicated to the discerning or "high-brow" listener providing serious classical music, concerts and plays as well as room for modern composers, and jazz. Speech formed a much higher proportion of output than the later Radio 3. Particularly notable in its drama productions were the radio plays of [[Samuel Beckett]] and the [[Hilda Tablet]] plays by [[Henry Reed]]. [[Martin Esslin]] was particularly associated with the networks productions of european drama.

The Third Programme is still much missed by older listeners, who often assert that its replacement by Radio 3 was a retrograde step. Some of its high-minded mission has arguably been taken up on television by [[BBC Four|BBC_4]], which fittingly commissioned and broadcast a documentary about the programme's rise and fall.

==Some of its Announcers==

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==See also==

*[[List of BBC related topics]]

*[[BBC Third Programme Scripts catalogue http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/findaids/bbc.htm]]

[[Category:Defunct BBC national radio stations]]

*[http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0753802503/ The Envy of the World: Fifty Years of the Third Programme and Radio Three] by Humphrey Carpenter