Editing BBC Radio 3 (section)

=== The "arts" controllers ===
[[File:Royal Albert Hall, BBC Proms 2017.jpg|thumb|Radio 3 broadcasts the [[BBC Proms]] live every year from the [[Royal Albert Hall]] and other venues]]
From the launch until 1987, the controllers of Radio 3 showed preferences towards speech and arts programming as opposed to focus on classical music and the Proms. The first controller, Newby, made little contribution to the station, focusing on the transition from the Third programme to Radio 3 and as a result of the ''Broadcasting in the Seventies'' report.

The second controller, [[Stephen Hearst]] who assumed the role in 1972, was different. As Hearst had previously been head of television arts features<ref>{{cite news|last=Purser|first=Philip|title=Stephen Hearst obituary|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/mar/30/stephen-hearst-obituary|access-date=7 July 2012|newspaper=The Guardian|date=30 March 2010}}</ref> his appointment was seen with scepticism among the staff who viewed him as a populariser.<ref name="Envy1996"/>{{rp|269}} According to Hearst when interviewed for [[Humphrey Carpenter]]'s book, the main rival candidate for controller [[Martin Esslin]], head of Radio Drama, had said to the interviewing panel that audience figures should play no part in the decision making process over programming.<ref name="Envy1996"/>{{rp|268}} Hearst said he responded to the same question about this issue by commenting that as the station was financed by public money it needed to consider the size of its audience – there was a minimum viable figure but this could be increased with "a lively style of broadcasting".<ref name="Envy1996"/>{{rp|268}}

Hearst attempted to make the content of the channel more accessible to a wider audience, but his efforts, which included the evening drivetime programme ''Homeward Bound'' and Sunday phone-in request programme ''Your Concert Choice'' (the former an uninterrupted sequence of musical items identified only at the end of the programme; the latter a resurrection from the old [[BBC Home Service|Home Service]]), were criticised.<ref name="Envy1996"/>{{rp|289, 296}} However, during this time the long running arts discussion programme ''Critics' Forum'' was launched<ref name="Envy1996"/>{{rp|290}} as well as themed evenings and programmes of miscellaneous music including ''Sounds Interesting''.<ref>''Radio Times'', Saturday 1 April 1978, BBC Magazines.</ref>

In 1978, [[Ian McIntyre]] took over as controller of Radio 3 but quickly faced uncomfortable relationships between departments. At approximately the same time [[Aubrey Singer]] became managing director of Radio and began to make programming on the station more populist in a drive to retain listeners in face of possible competition from competitors using a "streamed format".<ref name="Envy1996"/>{{rp|304}} An example of this is the replacement of ''Homeward Bound'' in 1980 with an extended, presenter-driven programme called ''Mainly for Pleasure''. The same year an internal paper recommended the disbandment of several of the BBC's orchestras and of the Music Division, resulting in low morale and [[Strike action|industrial action]] by musicians that delayed the start of the Proms.<ref name="Envy1996"/>{{rp|306–307}} Senior management was also getting dissatisfied with listening figures leading to the Director-General [[Alasdair Milne]] to suggest that presentation style was "too stodgy and old-fashioned".<ref name="Envy1996"/>{{rp|313}}