BBC Radio 3 live

BBC Radio 3 is the BBC’s classical music and arts network, broadcasting nationally on 90-93 FM, on DAB and online. It is the direct descendant of the Third Programme, launched in 1946, and it still carries that remit: music and ideas presented without concession to the ratings. The backbone of the schedule is classical music, from early music to contemporary composition, much of it broadcast as complete works rather than extracts. Radio 3 also broadcasts more live music than any other station in the country, including the entire BBC Proms season each summer from the Royal Albert Hall, and it commissions new work outright. Beyond the classical repertoire, the network gives regular hours to jazz, to world and traditional music, and to spoken-word programming on philosophy, literature and the arts. Late evenings turn towards experimental and ambient sound in a way that has no equivalent elsewhere on British radio. For listeners used to commercial classical formats built around familiar extracts, Radio 3 asks for more attention and rewards it: works are introduced, given context and played through.