1,000 signatures reached
To: Alan Davey, controller BBC Radio 3
Save Late Junction
Restore Late Junction to at least 4.5 hrs broadcast a week.
Why is this important?
In March 2018, Alan Davey wrote "Our listeners are, we know, up for adventure, discovering new things and getting new angles and depths of knowledge on the familiar." (http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/aboutthebbc/entries/9b05cdcd-5c23-4275-893a-9caf3ffd6dde accessed 16/03/2019) The reduction in broadcast time for the one BBC programme that fulfils this remit is a retrograde step, impacting on the pleasure of listeners, the work of artists (often in the most precarious endeavours) and the cultural status of the country.
It would be hugely disappointing to lose such a broad, open and exploratory curated programme, and would be difficult to recapture its spirit in the changes proposed. Its reach cannot be replicated, its influence cannot be over-estimated. It is not just background radio to those who listen, but an essential part of their ongoing understanding of the cultural landscape and a connexion to the wider cultural community that is often in this area disparate and isolated, and as Luke Turner points out "Crucially, this has a huge impact on the diversity of the show’s programming"(https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/mar/15/bbc-radio-3-late-junction-carries-john-peel-spirit-into-digital-age accessed 16/03/2019).
Although there are cost-saving to be acknowledged, the return on investment from this programme must outweigh any potential savings. The support of small local music venues, upcoming artists, avant-garde labels all benefit from the way this programme is curated and presented; to have that reduced so drastically will have a profound effect on those communities.
It is also clear that BBC Radio 3 is the natural home of this programme. Re-iterating Peter Maxwell-Davies' warning at the introduction of Radio 3 that we might 'lose whole realms of experience' (Humphrey Carpenter 'Envy of the World' 1996:262), Late Junction has proved itself a bastion and for it to be shrunk so dramatically would be a sorry retreat.
Please reconsider this decision.
