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3BBC Radio 3 is a domestic UK BBC radio station, launched as The BBC Third Programme in 1946. Its name was changed on 30 September 1967 when, with the launch of BBC Radio 1, the three other national radio channels were also given numbers and, logically enough, Radio 3 was launched. It incorporated a service on the Third Programme's wavelength which had previously been known successively as Network Three, the Third Network and the Music Programme, which tended to play less challenging music than the Third Programme and did not include the Third Programme's speech output. Radio 3 also absorbed the adult education material previously carried on the frequency under the name "Study Session", and the Saturday afternoon sports coverage which was known as "Sports Service", although this was moved to Radio 2 in April 1970.
The Third Programme, however, retained its separate identity until April 1970, when it was absorbed into Radio 3. Until 1992 Radio 3 broadcast on FM and medium wave, but since 1992 it has been FM only, with the cricket commentary which was formerly on Radio 3 medium wave now broadcast on Radio 4 long wave.
The station has for its entire life mainly broadcast classical music, opera, "highbrow" drama, including most BBC Radio Shakespeare productions, and jazz. The complete Proms are broadcast annually on Radio 3. More recently the station has tackled a wide range of new music (including electronic music and experimental musicExperimental music is any music that challenges the commonly accepted notions of what music is. There is an overlap with avant-garde music. John Cage was a pioneer in experimental music and defined and gave credibility to the form. As with other edge form on programmes such as Mixing It) and world musicWorld music is a term that covers all music that is not part of mainstream popular music or classical music and has some kind of " ethnic" component. The connotation of the term is popular and folk music from the third world, European popular and folk mus (World Routes and Andy KershawAndy Kershaw (born Rochdale, Lancashire, 1959) is a British broadcaster, known predominantly as a champion of world music. The brother of fellow presenter Liz Kershaw, he organised the entertainment at Leeds University and began his career in broadcasting's programme).
The calm and informed style adopted by the majority of the station's presenters is to many of its listeners a welcome contrast to the frenetic delivery found elsewhere on the airwaves.
See also: List of BBC radio stations
1 References
- Humphrey Carpenter, The Envy of the World: Fifty Years of the BBC Third Programme and Radio 3 1946-1996, Weidenfeld and Nicholson 1996
2 External links
