BBC Radio 3

BBC Radio 3 is a BBC radio station, launched as The BBC Third Programme in 1946. The name was changed on September 30, 1967; when BBC Radio 1 was launched, the other three national radio channels were also given numbers to match, and so it was logical to rename the Third Programme as Radio 3.

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 music on programmes such as Mixing It) and world music (World Routes and Andy Kershaw'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.

Further Reading

• Humphrey Carpenter, The Envy of the World: Fifty Years of the BBC Third Programme and Radio 3 1946-1996, Weidenfeld and Nicholson 1996

External Links

• BBC Radio 3
• BBC Radio 3 -Live Streaming