An open letter to James Purnell, BBC Director of Radio & Education
Dear Mr Purnell
We write regarding the recent decisions at BBC Radio to cancel many of the regional folk music shows across England and move the Radio 2 Folk Show from its long held early evening slot to a later and much less visible slot. These changes come barely a year after the decision was made to cut Radio 3’s Late Junction, its only programme which specialised in folk, world and experimental music, from three nights a week to one. We are very concerned that the BBC is marginalising specialist music forms which will serve to diminish the opportunities for both listeners and artists. At a time when live performance has been brought to a standstill and appears unlikely to return to our venues until 2021, our public broadcaster has chosen to reduce opportunities for folk musicians even further.
The BBC has argued for several years that it spreads the different music genres across its programming and therefore provides specialist music forms with a wider audience. We applaud such a policy as it does have the power to introduce listeners to new music genres. But we strongly feel that this policy needs to go hand in hand with the broadcast of specialist music programmes with knowledgeable and creative presenters who are able to delve deeper into their particular genre – not just playing one or two folk tunes in a two or three hour popular music programme.
The regional folk shows also do a great service in giving air time to artists from their own areas. They help to develop careers by inviting artists into the studio as well as by playing their recordings. In normal circumstances this support provides a fabulous opportunity to artists to develop their fan-base, album sales and concert bookings, and royalties from radio play. But at this time of closed venues, such support is even more crucial.
The BBC has been a stalwart of specialist music broadcast for decades and it is so disappointing to witness a withdrawal of this support. We are not asking for a whole dedicated radio channel. We are simply asking for genre specific music programmes on both national and local radio stations to be maintained, reinstated and not marginalised with time slots that will invariably see falling listener figures and so then provide the BBC with the “evidence” that such music is insufficiently popular to warrant its own programmes.
Please Mr Purnell, do not allow the BBC to lose its status as a champion of all music genres and further decrease artists’ opportunities.
Yours sincerely
Katy Spicer
Chief Executive & Artistic Director, English Folk Dance and Song Society
