The Radio 4 Blog Feed

Feedback: Radio Science

2013-06-21T13:34:38+00:00

Editor's note: Listen to this week's Feedback or download the podcast

The appliance of science - Radio 4 is changing it's science programmes soon.

Next month a new science series begins on Radio 4, which should be the cue for rejoicing amongst those who enjoy such programmes.

However judging by the Feedback postbag there is a lot of mourning going on as well, because the new programme is replacing the much-loved Material World. Also dematerialising, at least for the moment, is the long running series presenter, Quentin Cooper. This week on Feedback I talked to the BBC executive responsible for these changes, Deborah Cohen, Editor of the radio Science Unit.

Deborah Cohen, Editor of the radio Science Unit discusses changes to her programmes.

It’s not for me to comment on whether Deborah Cohen has made the right decision, but perhaps I can add a couple of thoughts.

First, unlike some of her colleagues, Ms Cohen never ducks an interview and will always come on Feedback even when she knows she’ll have to face a lot of criticism.

Second, I suspect that she would have liked to have kept both programmes, but given the shortage of space on Radio 4 doesn’t have that option.

That shortage is due in no small part to the dominance of news and current affairs. Just have a look at the Radio Times and see how much of the network is given over to news programmes. Add other mainstays such as Womans Hour, You and Yours and The Archers, and there isn’t much airtime left.

Then there is the problem of creative competition. In science radio there is hardly any.

This network is unique, but there is a downside. Some good shows have to come to a premature end to make space for new formats. Yet those new shows have to succeed almost immediately. There are few if any other places to experiment. It alright talking about the “right to fail”, but if you exercise that option too frequently you will likely be defenestrated along with your programmes.

A few years ago it was hoped that Channel 4 might develop a thriving radio arm, but that came to nothing. Then it was hoped there would be money available for significant original productions on Radio 4’s digital sister station 4 Extra. There isn’t.

So if you cancel a long running popular series and dispense with its much loved presenter you are certainly taking a brave decision, with no guarantee the new show will be a success. Good Luck Deborah Cohen! I look forward to your next appearance on Feedback.

Finally just a reminder that you set the agenda on Feedback, and that you can write to us about anything to do with BBC radio, network or local. That includes policy as well as programmes.

Listen to this week's Feedback or download it as a podcast

Read all of Roger's Feedback blog posts

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites.

Feedback: Roger Bolton interviews Radio 4's controller Gwyneth Williams

2011-11-18T16:20:00+00:00

BBC Radio Theatre in Broadcasting House, London

There is an expression floating around the internet at the moment, plucked from a number of American magazines. It's "pulling a Gwyneth" and refers to that somewhat eccentric actress Gwyneth Paltrow.

Well on Feedback this week we pulled our own Gwyneth - Gwyneth Williams - who as Controller of Radio 4 has introduced the most significant changes to the network's schedule since James Boyle, well over a decade ago.

In private his successors will tell you that they were grateful for many of the changes he made, but at the time there was a huge uproar and shortly afterwards the man, nicknamed McBirt, retired to the quieter waters of Leith and the world of Scottish arts.

His next two successors, Helen Boaden and Mark Damazer concentrated on the programmes and those who make them.

Now Gwyneth Williams, driven in part, some suspect, by the need to make economies, but also by a genuine belief that The World at One needs more time, and that her network needs more science and less Americana, has refashioned the schedule she has inherited.

Quite a number of those who have contacted Feedback approve of what she has done, but a larger number worry that Radio 4 is now too dominated by news. They point out that between 6am and midnight over a third of the Radio 4 output is news or news related.

"We already have 5live", one wrote. "We don't need another rolling news station". I put the concerns to Gwyneth Williams when we met this week. (By the way the name Gwyneth, Welsh of course, means "white, fair, blessed". Well I can confirm that she is white and fair. You can decide on the third attribute.)

Here is our discussion.

Please let us know what you want Feedback to look into, and remember, the BBC Trust's consultation on Delivering Quality First ends on 21 December.

Make sure your voice is heard.

Roger Bolton presents Feedback

Earlier in the week the Telegraph's Gillian Reynolds asked Radio 4's controller about the changes and more in a wide ranging interview. You can read about it and watch a video on the blog.
More on the changes to the schedule on the Radio 4 blog
Gwyneth Williams, Radio 4's controller, announces the schedule changes
Listen again to this week's Feedback, produced by Karen Pirie, get in touch with the programme, find out how to join the listener panel or subscribe to the podcast on the Feedback web page.
Read all of Roger's Feedback blog posts.
Feedback is on Twitter. Follow @BBCR4Feedback.

The Telegraph's Gillian Reynolds in conversation with Radio 4's Gwyneth Williams

2011-11-16T21:01:00+00:00

Gillian Reynolds and Gwyn Williams at the Media Society organised event

I mentioned in Monday's round up of what the critics were saying about Radio 4's schedule change that the Telegraph's radio reviewer Gillian Reynolds would be meeting Radio 4's controller at an event to talk about her first year in the job.

Gillian Reynolds is a classy interviewer who knows what she's talking about and while charm might be her main means to getting an answer, she isn't shy in saying when she disagrees.

Gwyneth Williams talked about her previous role at the World Service and the importance of radio to her growing up in apartheid era South Africa: "We would listen to the radio to find out the truth."

Williams also revealed that previous controller of Radio 4 Mark Damazer still phones her up regularly - but not as much as he used to.

The interview was recorded and will be available as a video in the next day or two on the College of Journalism website (Ed's update: The video of the interview is on CoJo's YouTube channel.) You'll be able to see Gillian Reynolds expand on her view of what's wrong with TV news ("Picture first, sense last") and Gwyneth Williams on how she feels the Sunday night comedy slot is going.

In the meantime I'll leave you with Williams recalling one of the first letters she got from a listener welcoming her to the Radio 4 role:

"Dear Controller of Radio 4,
Now that the last controller has left (to, I hope, the innermost of Dante's circles of Hell) is there any chance of getting the UK theme back?"

Paul Murphy is the editor of the Radio 4 blog

Gwyneth Williams is on Feedback this Friday (at the new time of 4.30pm) answering questions about the schedule change. (Ed's update: You can hear Gwyneth's piece on Feedback here)
Watch the video of the interview on CoJo's YouTube channel
Read Paul Prentice's report on this event for the Media Society

Feedback and the Radio 4 schedule changes

2011-11-14T17:30:00+00:00

In the Observer radio critic Miranda Sawyer has written about the recent schedule changes at Radio 4. While she isn't happy about some of the afternoon switches:

Oh, and I don't like The Media Show being on at 4.30pm. Just so you know.

she is more complimentary about the reason the reshuffle came about in the first place:

"...The biggest change, which is that World at One has been given an extra 15 minutes, has proved very successful. It was a newsy week, and the programme has used this wisely...

Somehow World at One's extra 15 minutes has turned it into a far more rigorous, surprising, entertaining programme, and Radio 4 now has its news studded successfully throughout the day: Today, World at One, PM, each with a distinct personality, as well as good journalism. No more news, though, please. We already have 5 Live."

At the start of last week Gillian Reynolds, the Telegraph's radio reviewer, wasn't impressed by the new changes, writing under the headline Why it was a mistake to extend The World at One:

"When, for instance, Martha Kearney's trailer for the new World at One told me the programme's extra time would give them the chance to 'unpick' the story of Greek debt my switch went directly to 'off'. Unpick? Penelope at her Homeric loom, keeping off her suitors all those years Odysseus was away, could not have done more unpicking than the endless reports I have heard on this story."

Radio 4's controller Gwyneth Williams is appearing on Feedback soon and Roger Bolton, Feedback's presenter, has asked for your questions so he can put them to her. You can find contact details for Feedback on his regular weekly blog posts on the Radio 4 blog. Gwyneth Williams is in conversation this Wednesday night with "doyenne of radio columnists Gillian Reynolds" at a Media Society event:

"Gwyneth Williams has just completed her first year as Controller of Radio 4, the station with the most vocal and critical audience of any on the airwaves. How easy is it to innovate without upsetting the traditionalists? How can the station attract younger people without alienating older ones? What is the future for the flagship Today programme? Are there enough women on the air?"

More details here.

Paul Murphy is the editor of the Radio 4 blog

Read more about the schedule changes and listeners comments on the blog
Gwyneth Williams on the blog: Schedule changes on Radio 4
Tony Pilgrim, head of Radio 4 scheduling, on Rescheduling Radio 4

The World at One: Extra time

2011-11-06T20:00:00+00:00

The World at One radio news studio gallery, 2002

A small bit of radio history was made on Friday lunchtime when Edward Stourton became the last presenter of The World at One to say, "that's the World at One Thirty".

From Monday, the programme will be extended to 45 minutes - and as a result the presenter's payoff will change. Of course, it's not the first time that the duration has been altered. In 1998, the then Radio 4 controller, James Boyle, cut the duration of The World at One - or WATO as we call it - from 40 minutes to 30 minutes and moved the Archers from 1.40pm to 2.00pm.

Some people complain that there is too much news already on Radio 4, but our audience is at record levels with a weekly reach of 3.3m and around 1.4m listening to WATO each day. There seems to be a real appetite to find out what's happening in the world and for us to explain it.

As Gwyn Williams has said, the faster development of stories following Today (especially now that Parliament sits in the morning) means there simply isn't enough time in 30 minutes to cover the full news agenda, both foreign and domestic.

The programme was extended to an hour throughout the general election campaign and in what has been an incredibly dramatic year - with the economic troubles at home and in the eurozone; the Arab uprising; and the summer riots - we've extended WATO a number of times on an ad hoc basis.

My intention is that the programme will continue to be the home for strong, news-making interviews, analysis and discussion. However, too often at the moment, the programme feels boxed in by its duration. I've lost count of the number of times I or my colleagues have had to talk into Martha Kearney's ear telling her to wrap up an interview or move on to the next item, even though we know there are questions we'd like to have asked our guests. I understand how frustrating listeners find this and the extension to 45 minutes will allow the interviews and discussions time to breathe just a bit more.

I'm hoping we'll also be able to use the extra time to do a slightly broader range of stories. Audience research suggests that you really appreciate what we do at the moment - comprehensive, in-depth coverage of domestic, political and international news - and would welcome more of the same. But that there's also demand from our listeners for greater reporting of technology issues, business and economics news, and arts and culture.

I would also like to experiment with using different formats on the programme - being creative in our production and treatment, with more outside broadcasts and more reporting (by Martha, Shaun Ley and Edward; by the dedicated reporters we have on news programmes; and by the great team of BBC correspondents in the UK and around the world).

Do let us know what you think.

Nick Sutton is the editor of The World at One

Rescheduling Radio 4

2011-11-04T16:30:00+00:00

The Film Programme moves to Thursdays starting next week when one of the guests is the writer and
director of film classic Withnail and I, Bruce Robinson, director of new release The Rum Diary.

As Paul Murphy posted earlier this week, next Monday sees the start of The World At One's extension to 45 minutes. Gwyn has set out the editorial rationale behind this 15 minute extension.

I will try to explain here some of the issues and opportunities we face when working through a reschedule of this kind.

The challenges set by this change include:

A total of one hour 15 minutes added across Monday-Friday, one hour 15 minutes needs to come out
The cost of the schedule needs to be balanced
The shape of the schedule changes - different sized holes in different places
New homes need to be found for displaced programmes
An opportunity to make the schedule work best for contemporary afternoon audiences

Adding 15 minutes Monday to Friday adds up to one hour 15 minutes that needs to come out of the schedule, so something had to give.

We explored various options, all of them difficult as there are no programmes in our schedule that are without merit, and every one has its fans among our loyal audience.

We wanted to keep the reduction in originations (as opposed to repeats) to a minimum, just to balance the schedule cost and no more.

Our decision, reluctantly, was to drop the repeat of the Archive on 4, to drop one short story per week from the Radio 4 schedule, and to displace one per week to Sunday at 7.45 pm.

The extension meant that a 15 minute space opened up from 1.45pm to 2.00 pm. We had been thinking for some time about how we could get the highly acclaimed Narrative History and 15 minute feature series available to a higher audience than its current 3.45 pm slot, and this was the natural move.

This changed the shape of the afternoons, as there would no longer be the 15 minute gaps Tuesday to Thursdays at 3.30 pm where the short stories currently sit.

Also, if we were to keep to a minimum the number of programmes dropped, we needed the space for displaced half hour programmes. It does mean that some other programmes are inevitably moving to lower audience slots, but in many cases the move results in a fairly neutral change in size.

Whilst grappling with this logistical jigsaw puzzle, we also wanted to keep trying to make an afternoon schedule that works for today's afternoon audiences. I say audiences plural, because we have a diverse audience with diverse lifestyles.

For example, we have listeners for whom 3-4 pm is a time to relax and be gently entertained or diverted. At the same time we have others who are racing around to finish one task and moving on to the next, but still wanting to dip into our programmes.

With Radio 4's broad mix of genres and variety of formats this is not a perfect science. But we hope that this next iteration of the schedule is coherent and attractive - a bit clearer in terms of what kind of thing to expect in different parts of the afternoon.

One of the questions raised so far concerns how some programmes have moved to different days as well as times.

Let's take the case of The Film Programme, which moves from 4.30 on Friday to 4.00 on Thursday. We had the half hour of Feedback / More Or Less (these series share the same slot across the year) being displaced from 1.30 pm on Friday. We wanted to keep the 45 minute Gardeners' Question Time in its current 3.00 pm Friday slot. So we had only two half-hour slots between 4.00 and 5.00 on Fridays to play with, currently occupied by Last Word and The Film Programme.

We decided that Last Word and Feedback / More Or Less should stay on Fridays, and that we would move The Film Programme to Thursday afternoons at 4.00-4.30. This has the added advantage of moving Radio 4's main film programme away from being scheduled on the same afternoon as 5 live's main film programme, Kermode and Mayo's Film Review. This was not a key driver of our decision, but is an improvement in terms of providing more choice for audiences who listen across BBC networks, where we try to avoid having the same genre of programmes at the same time in the schedule, apart from obvious peak news times.

We do not make these changes lightly.

We now have the great advantage that all of these programmes can be listened to on-demand, so that if people have access to a computer or enabled mobile device, they will still be able to listen to their favourite programmes at a time to suit them.

But we know that for the vast majority of listeners it is the live schedule that is their companion at different times of the day. We will continue to review and evolve the schedule, taking on board the various views we gain from audience research, Feedback, comments on the blogs and elsewhere, and try to please everyone at least some of the time!

Thanks for the feedback so far.

Tony Pilgrim is Head of Planning and Scheduling at BBC Radio 4

Other blog posts about the schedule change:

Feedback: Local Radio and Radio 4's schedule changes

2011-11-04T13:33:00+00:00

Bill Oddie, John Cleese, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Jo Kendall, Graeme Garden and David Hatch (Producer)
from "I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again", 1968

Controllers of Radio 4 do not change their schedules lightly.

Their listeners tend to want to keep what they have and are doubtful whether any change will be for the better.

David Hatch was a much loved and successful controller 30 years ago but when he died he had "Rollercoaster" engraved on his heart. He had introduced a rolling schedule that soon steam-rollered over him.

His successor Michael Green had the temerity to move Woman's Hour to the morning and faced strident rebellions both inside and outside Broadcasting House.

He held his nerve and in the end won through, though he has scars to show for it.

However, after 25 years, even some of the producers and Jenni Murray herself now acknowledge that he was right to make the move.

In Feedback this week I talked to the Head of Planning and Scheduling at Radio 4 Tony Pilgrim about the changes.

What will audiences make of the latest changes which see the World at One extended by 15 minutes to 1.45pm and several half hour programmes, such as Feedback, moved elsewhere?

I am sure we will soon find out. You can find more details of the changes elsewhere on the Radio 4 blog.

Also this week I went to Salford to meet the BBC's boss of local radio, David Holdsworth. We discussed the planned cuts in his output which have resulted from the Delivering Quality First process.

Already there have been protests online, it's been raised in Westminster and at Broadcasting House in London.

St Paul's is not the only august institution under siege.

I took with me a passionate fan of Radio Shropshire, Andy Boddington.

Please let us know what you want Feedback to look into, and remember, the BBC Trust's consultation on Delivering Quality First ends on December 21st.

Make sure your voice is heard.

Roger Bolton presents Feedback

More on the changes to the schedule on the Radio 4 blog
Gwyneth Williams, Radio 4's controller, announces the schedule changes
Listen again to this week's Feedback, produced by Karen Pirie, get in touch with the programme, find out how to join the listener panel or subscribe to the podcast on the Feedback web page.
Read all of Roger's Feedback blog posts.
Feedback is on Twitter. Follow @BBCR4Feedback.

The Radio 4 schedule changes on Monday 7 November

2011-10-31T12:30:00+00:00

Martha Kearney, presenter of The World at One

Next Monday 7 November the much talked about schedule changes take place.

The big change is that The World at One will have an extra 15 minutes. As a result the weekday afternoon schedule has been changed and some programmes have also moved day. For example, The Film Programme is now on Thursday afternoons rather than Friday.

Radio 4's scheduling guru Tony Pilgrim is going to blog at the end of the week about the changes and also answer any of your questions about the new schedule. So do leave you questions at the end of this post.

Gwyn has blogged previously about the changes and in particular her desire to extend the World at One. You can read Gwyn's posts here and here.

In the meantime I've compiled a list of the Monday to Friday afternoons so you can see the programmes that have moved and the changes that have been made.

Monday:

1.00pm World at One
1.45pm 15 minute weekly series (previously 3.45pm)
2.00pm The Archers
2.15pm Afternoon Play
3.00pm Quiz (previously 1.30pm)
3.30pm Food Programme repeat (previously 4pm)
4.00pm Popular arts (previously 11.30am Tuesdays)
4.30pm Beyond Belief/The Infinite Monkey Cage

Tuesday:

11.30am Music documentary (previously 1.30pm)
12.04pm Call You and Yours
1.00pm World at One
1.45pm 15 minute weekly series (previously 3.45pm)
2.00pm The Archers
2.15pm Afternoon Play
3.00pm Making History/Home Planet
3.30pm Off The Page (previously 1.30pm Thursday) or Costing the Earth (previously 9pm Wednesday)

Wednesday:

1.00pm World at One
1.45pm 15 minute weekly series (previously 3.45pm)
2.00pm The Archers
2.15pm Afternoon Play
3.00pm Money Box Live
3.30pm Science/Health repeat (previously 4.30pm)
4.00pm Thinking Allowed
4.30pm Media Show (previously 1.30pm)

Thursday:

1.00pm World at One
1.45pm 15 minute weekly series (previously 3.45pm)
2.00pm The Archers
2.15pm Afternoon Play
3.00pm Open Country/Ramblings
3.30pm Book club/Open book (previously 4.00pm)
4.00pm The Film Programme (previously 4.30pm Friday)
4.30pm Material World (previously 4.30pm)

Friday:

1.00pm World at One
1.45pm 15 minute weekly series (previously 3.45pm)
2.00pm The Archers
2.15pm Afternoon Play
3.00pm Gardeners' Question Time
3.45pm Short story (the other short story slot is now Sunday at 7.45pm)
4.00pm Last Word
4.30pm Feedback/More or Less (previously 1.30pm)

Other things to note: The Monday afternoon repeat of Archive on 4 has been dropped.

Paul Murphy is the editor of the Radio 4 blog

Have a look at the first day of the new schedule here.

Moving the furniture at Radio 4

2011-07-29T12:45:00+00:00

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012lls5

You change Radio 4 at your peril, for the slightest alteration to the schedule is likely to produce a rebellion, and not just in the Home Counties. David Hatch, Controller from 1983 to 1986, learned that the hard way when he introduced Rollercoaster, which almost ran him over.

His successor Michael Green, (1986-1996) had to summon up all his courage when he decided to move Woman's Hour from the early afternoon to the morning. He was attacked from without and within, won through, but still has the scars to show for it.

The Controller who made the most significant changes to the Radio 4 schedule in the last 30 years, and arguably ever, was James Boyle (1996-2000). Widely reviled at the time, many of his changes have stood the test of time and he is held in considerable respect by his successors, but he soon retired hurt to Scotland.

His successor, Helen Boaden, (2000 - 2004) now Director of News, was told not to make waves and instead go round hugging and reassuring the staff, which she did to great effect. Mark Damazer (2004 - 2010) a history graduate and Americophile, changed the content to suit his interests and cleared the decks for The History of the World in 100 Objects, but it is his successor, the present Controller who has proposed making the most radical changes since Mac Birt (James Boyle).

Gwyneth Williams is proposing, among other things, to extend the World at One by 15 minutes, and moving programmes like Feedback to 4.30pm. She is cancelling series like The Choice, Taking a Stand and Americana, introducing a new science show and trimming the number of short stories, much to the disgust of celebrities like Stephen Fry and Joanna Lumley.

All this, of course, before she has to implement any cuts which may result from Delivering Quality First initiative which has to save 20 per cent of the BBC's budget. This week Ms Williams came into the Feedback studio to answer listeners' questions.

Feedback is now off the air until September 16th - but please don't stop writing to us.

Roger Bolton is presenter of Feedback

Listen again to this week's Feedback, produced by Karen Pirie, get in touch with the programme, find out how to join the listener panel or subscribe to the podcast on the Feedback web page.
Read all of Roger's Feedback blog posts.
Feedback is on Twitter. Follow @BBCR4Feedback.
Gwyneth WIlliams announced the new schedule on 10 July and wrote an update on short stories for the blog yesterday.
Delivering Quality First explained on the About the BBC web site.
The picture shows Roger Bolton and Gwyneth Williams in Studio 70B, Broadcasting House. More pictures from their encounter on Flickr.

More on the Radio 4 schedule changes: Short stories

2011-07-20T17:08:35+00:00

From 1949, archive caption reads: "Miss Stevie Smith, poet, one of the finalists in the BBC Third Programme Short Story Competition, reading her story Sunday at Home"

Some concern has been expressed about the reduction in the number of short stories on Radio 4 from next April; we will broadcast 100 rather than 150. I wanted to explain my thinking behind this decision - taken very much in the context of the overall schedule changes for the Autumn which I announced last week.

Above all I want to make it clear that Radio 4 is committed to broadcasting new writing and new writers and my plans for the network very much reflect this reality.

Radio 4 aims to broadcast more of "the best that has been thought and said in the world", in the words of Matthew Arnold. This brilliant analysis of culture as an active force is very much the text that inspires me as controller. Culture and Anarchy was written in the most turbulent times of the nineteenth century as science displaced certainty so the echoes of Arnold's thesis ring particuarly true now.

And this aspiration lies behind our choices in the annual Radio 4 commissioning round which is just drawing to a close. We will soon have commissioned 500 out of 1,365 ideas for broadcast next year. Many more will be commissioned on a rolling basis throughout the year.

Each year Radio 4 broadcasts 13,000 programmes. We have just signed off on 22 plays by first or second time writers to radio in the Afternoon Play slot and over 60 pieces of new writing for 2012/13 across all our drama slots - and there will be more to follow as we have an ongoing commitment to commission nearly 150 original single plays in the afternoon drama slot alone.

We will commission 100 short stories each year, some of which will also be broadcast on Radio 4 Extra. In the autumn on Radio 4 Extra we will introduce a new short story slot each day Monday to Friday for archive stories and a limited number of new commissions.

We have just announced the Alfred Bradley Bursary for new writing in the North and we will broadcast the winner on Radio 4. We plan to join up with the World Service and support the International playwriting competition, again broadcasting winners on Radio 4.

We will continue to support the BBC National Short Story Award and broadcast winners across the week on the network - look out for the judging line-up which will be announced next week.

I hope that my Autumn schedule changes will inspire and engage listeners.

There will be a new prime-time science programme at nine in the morning presented by the physicist Jim Al-Khalili, a new interview programme called One to One designed around the passions and interests of presenters, new comedy for Sunday night, including new programming from some of the most talented writers and comedians working today like John Finnemore, Rory Bremner (repeated from Thursday night with new satire), Sue Perkins and others.

The World At One, presented by the formidable Martha Kearney, will be extended to forty-five minutes to take account of the extraordinary news agenda, both national and international. WATO, as we call it, has felt increasingly hemmed in at thirty minutes. Stories now develop faster and need a fresh eye by lunchtime. Parliament sits in the morning now and WATO needs to cover emerging issues. This leaves too little time, in my judgement, for other stories.

One of the results of extending the World At One, as I mentioned in my blog when I made the announcement last week, is that the number of short stories on Radio 4 has been reduced. We will still broadcast around 100 short stories on Radio 4 from April 2012 rather than 150, which is the current number. Some of these will also be broadcast on the new Radio 4 Extra short story strand.

My plan is to showcase the Short Story on Radio 4 and Radio 4 Extra as much as I can.

Other programmes have also been affected by the schedule changes on the network such as, for instance Americana, which has been decommissioned. In essence, I have made the editorial decision to add an hour and a quarter of programming each week and thus need to make space in the schedule.

I do want to make it clear that my commitment to writing, new writing and the BBC National Short Story Competition on Radio 4 remains. I am proud that Radio 4 is the place where most new writing is commissioned and broadcast and I fully intend to keep it that way.

Gwyneth Williams is Controller of BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 4 Extra

Telegraph: Why radio is the ideal home for short stories
Guardian: Please, BBC, don't cut short your short stories
BBC Press Office - Autumn changes to Radio 4 schedule
The Radio 4 schedule
The full caption for the picture from teh archive reads: "BBC Third Programme Story Competition: Stevie Smith : Sunday at Home 20/04/1949 © BBC Picture shows Miss Stevie Smith, poet, one of the finalists in the BBC Third Programme Short Story Competition, reading her story Sunday at Home, broadcast on Wednesday, April 20th 1949."

Schedule changes on Radio 4

2011-07-10T11:10:00+00:00

Presenter Martha Kearney. The World at One will be extended as part of a range of Autumn schedule changes.

Rather a busy week here at Radio 4. It was ten to five on Thursday when we heard about The News of the World closing down. I am in the middle of our annual commissioning round and so was in close conversation with Jeremy Howe, drama commissioner, and Tony Pilgrim, maestro scheduler. We stopped our discussion of Ulysses and thought instead (with sympathy) of Eddie Mair drafting his opening sentence. I could count on him not to say 'hacked to death'.

I wandered upstairs to the Media Show to suggest a special the next day - noon we agreed if Steve were up for it. He was of course (Steve Hewlett that is, the guru for this and other media tales). I was back in time to hear Eddie introduce what has to have been one of the best PM programmes (or any programme) on a breaking story for quite a while. And yes, Steve was with Eddie, to add his sixpence. Then back to, where were we, oh yes ... moving on to Trollope.

This blog is really about Radio 4 this Autumn. We have some new programmes and a schedule change coming up. I have decided to extend The World At One. With the faster development of stories following Today (especially now that Parliament sits in the morning) there simply is not enough time to cover the full news agenda, both foreign and domestic. The excellent Martha Kearney runs out of time when she is just getting going - and besides I have got tired of extending WATO every time a story breaks. This has happened too often since I have been here and listeners get fed up if they are looking forward to other planned programmes.

All these programmes remain, by the way, in the new schedule; they are simply (for the most part) put into the afternoon after the play at three o'clock (details are below). We are also launching new comedy on Sunday night: John Finnemore in his first solo show. I am thrilled to have new political satire from Rory Bremner on Radio 4, Tonight, which starts Thursday nights and will repeat into the Sunday slot, and Sue Perkins with a new panel game, Dilemma - and there's more to come.

We will have a new science programme on Tuesday mornings at nine o clock presented by the physicist, Jim al-Khalili, with the aim of getting us up to speed on the science and scientists that are changing the world we live in - who knows, I might even be able to understand the introduction to my daughter's PhD by the end of the first series. A new 15-minute interview programme called One to One will (some have said, alarmingly) let presenters follow their passions. Americana is closing. It is a terrific programme and has done well, taking us deeper into some of that vast country's untold stories. I will certainly continue to commission programmes about the US - it is after all the world's superpower and has huge impact on us here in the UK - as well as on other parts of the world, including building up our European coverage. Readings will diminish but we will add some on to Radio 4Extra and we will continue to brag about our brilliant Radio 4 short stories and back the BBC National Short Story Award to the hilt.

This job is about choices. I have made some. I hope they keep Radio 4 listeners happy and listening.

Gwyneth Williams is Controller of BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 4 Extra

Details of the Radio 4 schedule changes.

The last time The World At One duration was changed was in 1998 when it was reduced from 40 minutes to half an hour.
The Life Scientific will be broadcast on Tuesday mornings from 9-9.30am, after which One to One will run for 15 minutes.
The narrative history series will move from its 3.45pm slot to 1.45pm, following on from The World At One. The first series at the new time will be A History of the Brain, presented by Professor Geoff Bunn.
Rory Bremner's show Tonight will be broadcast from Sunday 16th October at 7.45pm (originated Thursday before at 11pm).
From November, the short stories (currently running at 3.30pm, Tuesday-Thursday) will be rescheduled with some broadcast at 3.45pm on Friday and some at 7.45pm on Sunday.
From next spring, the number of short stories will be reduced from three to one a week on Radio 4. There will also be readings on Radio 4 Extra.

Those programmes that followed The World At One at 1.30pm will, on the whole, be broadcast between 3-5pm, from 7th November. The reorganisation of the afternoon schedule will be run along the following lines:

3-3.30pm - programmes of an interactive nature (Money Box Live/GQT)
3.30-4pm - factual programmes (the Food Programme/Costing the Earth)
4-4.30pm - arts related programming (A Good Read/popular arts documentaries)
4.30-5pm - topical programming (The Media Show/The Film Programme)
BBC Press Office - Autumn changes to Radio 4 schedule
The Radio 4 schedule

Radio 4 Extra - the first week

2011-04-08T16:37:49+00:00

Radio 4 Extra is almost one week old - and we've all been delighted to read far more publicity for the network than we ever expected. Our notice boards are groaning with press cuttings of previews and reviews from a wide variety of newspapers across the UK. We also made a number of feature pages too - which has all helped to raise awareness of the rebranded network.

On our launch day. Russell Davies took us on fascinating journey through the history of radio panel games. Let's Get Quizzical was very well-received, and those of you who enjoyed it can look forward to the second part of this entertaining series on Saturday.

The Chitty Chitty Bang Bang dramatisation also proved to be popular, and I notice that our next new children's drama commission, Elidor, is one of next week's Radio Choices in the Radio Times. Alan Garner's magical novel and the dark world of Elidor is a definite pick of the week for me...

Old favourites - like Hancock and Garrison Keillor's Radio Show - got favourable mentions in the press too.

So now it's on to our second week of broadcasting, when lovers of radio drama can look forward to My Cousin Rachel (Daphne Du Maurier), Howard's End and Torchwood.

Amongst the 10 hours-plus of comedy per day you can enjoy Ed Reardon's Week, Arthur Smith's Balham Bash, up and coming comedy group The Penny Dreadfuls, Hancock's War - and for fans of I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue there's a treat from 1982 - a programme which includes the late and much-missed Willie Rushton in the panel.

Mary Kalemkerian is Head of Programmes at BBC Radio 4 Extra

The photograph is from the BBC picture library. The caption reads: "Picture shows (front) Hugh Lloyd, Jack Watling, Tony Hancock. (back) Jose Read, John Le Mesurier, Noel Howlett, Diana King and Charles Lloyd Pack Tony Hanock suffers his indignity of being stuck for rather along time in a lift at the BBC Televsion Centre. Stuck with him are a number of visitors to the Centre and one or two employees including of course, the lift attendant plyed by Hugh Lloyd."
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A new schedule, The Archers and cuts

2011-01-28T13:55:10+00:00

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006slnx

Editor's note - Feedback is back. And highlights of the first episode of the new series are a wide-ranging interview with Controller Gwyneth Williams and an encounter with Archers editor Vanessa Whitburn for two of her listeners - SB.

Hardly had Feedback gone off the air before Christmas then James Naughtie and Andrew Marr struggled to say "Jeremy Hunt the Culture Secretary" without lapsing into language more usually associated with Mellors, Lady Chatterley's lover. Trebles all round and the inevitable puns about Naughty Naughtie and Marred reporting.

Not much humour, intentional or otherwise in the first Feedback of the new run. Instead we travel with lovers of The Archers on their journey to Ambridge, still livid at the death of Nigel Pargetter and intent on resurrection or revenge. There is an emotional confrontation with Nigel's killer, Archers editor Vanessa Whitburn. Does she regret pushing him off the roof?

We also hear from the newish controller of Radio 4, Gwyneth Williams, who after four month in the job is now ready to announce some initial changes. Good news for fans of science and foreign affairs. Bad news for those of you who enjoy series like The Choice or On The Ropes.

Gwyneth's previous role was at the BBC World Service and I'll be talking to the director of the World Service, Peter Horrocks on next week's programme so if you have a question you want me to ask, do let me know.

So this week, there are two extracts from Feedback for you.

The first is that visit to Ambridge, the second the interview with Gwyneth Williams (by the way, rumours that she walks everywhere in bare feet as an economy measure are not true - in her office maybe but not in the Feedback studio when I interviewed her. And you'll be glad to know that biscuits and croissants she mentions in her blog post were not provided. Only water... from the tap.

Roger Bolton is presenter of Feedback

Listen again to this week's Feedback, produced by Karen Pirie, get in touch with Feedback, find out how to join the listener panel or subscribe to the podcast on the Feedback web page.
Feedback is on Twitter. Follow @BBCR4Feedback.
Gwyneth Williams blogged about her planned schedule changes earlier this week and Vanessa wrote about reactions to the 60th anniversary episode on the Archers blog.
Finding pictures to illustrate blog posts about The Archers is getting harder. This one shows the visit of DJ John Peel and his producer John Walters to the programme in 1984. On the left is Graham Seed playing Nigel and on the right, Trevor Harrison as Eddie Grundy.

Some changes to the Radio 4 schedule

2011-01-24T06:55:00+00:00

I was promised freshly-brewed coffee and croissants at the end of their last run but when I went to Feedback to talk to R4 listeners - alas - I got a lovely welcome but just the usual BBC water... I did, however, get a chance to answer some listeners' questions and to put some of my early thoughts about Radio 4 to Roger Bolton. I was also interviewed by Ben Dowell from Media Guardian and his article is published today.

In my first three months as Controller of Radio 4 I have been travelling around meeting producers - and I have still to meet many, both in-house and in the independent sector. I have been overwhelmed by the commitment and quality that I encounter from programme-makers everywhere so I am determined to try and simplify our commissioning processes. Radio 4 has good audience figures and rings with intellectual rigour so if we cannot take a few creative risks now, when can we? In terms of strategic direction, I want to emphasise Radio 4's more forward-looking, modern side to complement our deserved reputation for history coverage and I am keen to encourage a more international sensibility across all programmes- I don't mean more foreign programmes but a subtle understanding that what happens in the world affects our local decisions and everyday lives, in culture, economics, health and most things.

From October I plan to launch a new 9 a.m. science programme - not about the ideas of science which Melvyn Bragg covers regularly in the brilliant In Our Time - but about science and working scientists, about the scientific method, across a range of subjects: physics, biology, engineering, technology, natural history. The Science Department will lead the work on developing this and I have been talking to various people, among them Jim Al-Khalili, a scientist and an experienced broadcaster, about possibly presenting it. I also want to broadcast a fifteen-minute interview strand in which some of our best journalists can be led by their passions and interests in choosing subject matter and interviewees. I hope to entice Lyse Doucet, Robert Peston, Bridget Kendall, John Humphrys, Lucy Kellaway and others to give it a try. I have been talking to the poet Ruth Padel about the possibility of presiding over a series of poetry masterclasses that will travel around Britain to tap into the current explosion of interest in poetry. And there will be new comedy on Sunday evening to cheer us at the end of the weekend and build on Radio 4's record of championing talent. Look out too for new satire from Rory Bremner.

This does not come without some sadness: Taking a Stand, On the Ropes, The Choice and Between Ourselves will go from October to make way for science. I launched Taking a Stand myself some twelve years ago with its talented producer. The programme was award-winning; I have one, for an interview Fergal Keane did with Rufus May, that I have kept with me and is now hanging on the wall of my new office in Broadcasting House. I have not made this change without a lot of thought and I can assure you that, in different ways, these much-loved presenters will still grace the airwaves of Radio 4.

Gwyneth Williams is Controller of BBC Radio 4 and Radio 7

Radio 4's press release on the schedule changes will be published this morning on the BBC Press Office web site. Ben Dowell's news story about the changes and his interview with Gwyneth in The Guardian.
The picture shows noctilucent clouds photographed by John Rowlands, a finalist in Radio 4's 'So You Want to be a Scientist' project. John continues to track noctilucent clouds here.

Schedule busting for election 2010

2010-05-13T08:19:51+00:00

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/programmes/schedules/fm

When to stay with the story and when to leave it and get back to business as usual? This is the question we have been asking quite a lot at Radio 4 over the past few days. And as many of you will know, on a number of occasions we have stayed with the story, extending news coverage and displacing scheduled programmes.

We do not do this lightly. Part of Radio 4's appeal is that, while complex, its schedule does not change shape very often. If you want to you can plan your listening for just those slots or programmes that you know will be there, according to the radio listings or as part of your regular habits. So finding that a news programme has been extended and what you thought you were about to hear has disappeared can be an upsetting experience.

But providing quality, distinctive news and current affairs coverage is a key part of what Radio 4 does. If the 'current affair' is as historic and unique as that which has evolved in Westminster since last Friday, it's expected that Radio 4 will be sharing and examining it with its listeners.

Yes there are rolling live news services available, and it is right that they stay with the big stories continuously. And yes we have a number of news sequences and other programmes on Radio 4 where we can look back at what happened an hour or two prior to coming on-air. Sometimes this is not quite enough.

We do our best to keep the key planks in place - though even The Archers might one day have to be delayed if there is something seismic launching at 1400 or 1900!

It won't happen very often, and we hope that most of the election-linked disruption to the schedule is behind us for the time being. Much of what we have displaced in the past weeks has had an airing elsewhere in the schedule, and is available on the iPlayer.

But we are a UK-wide, mass audience station. Just occasionally it will be right to bust the schedule, to help our listeners to remember "the moment I heard the news that...", and to help them do that together as one.

Tony Pilgrim is Head of Planning and Scheduling at BBC Radio 4

The Radio 4 schedules for FM and LW are on the Radio 4 web site. Changes to the schedule are always highlighted on the web site.
You'll also find a useful online radio schedule on the Radio Times web site.