The BBC - Public Sector Radio, Jazz Policy and Structure in the Digital Age

The BBC – Public Sector Radio, Jazz Policy and Structure in the Digital Age Presented by: Professor Stuart Nicholson Emma Kendon Chris Hodgkins Jazz Services Ltd 132 Southwark Street London SE1 0SW 020 7928 9089 education@jazzservices.org.uk www.Jazzservices.org.uk September 2009 Table of Contents Preface 4 Foreword 5 1 Summary and Recommendations 7 2 Introduction 10 3 Jazz in the UK – A Vibrant National Jazz Scene 11 4 Radio 13 5 The Market for Jazz in the UK 15 6 Comparison of BBC’s Audience for Jazz to the Jazz Attender and the General Population 21 7 BBC Policy in Relation to the Broadcasting of Jazz 23 8 BBC Radio 2 40 9 BBC Jazz Awards and Service Reviews 41 10 Jazz and Public Sector Broadcasting in Europe 42 11 BBC Radio and Value for Money 45 12 Options and Actions for Change 47 Endnotes 53 Appendix Regional structure – national perspective The role of public radio in the German Jazz Scene 54 3 Preface The authors of this report are Professor Stuart Nicholson – lecturer, broadcaster, journalist and author of six books on jazz, including Is Jazz Dead: or Has It Moved to a New Address, Emma Kendon – trustee of Jazz Services Ltd and Chris Hodgkins – Director of Jazz Services Ltd. The foreword is by the Guardian jazz critic John Fordham. The authors acknowledge the research support of Paul Wilson of the British Library and the support of the Association of British Jazz Musicians. 4 Foreword In 2008’s ‘The Future of Jazz in Public Radio’ report, author Michael Rüsenberg wrote: “Jazz in radio has always had to deal with a bad image - too late, too short, too little, threatened by the next programme reform.” Rüsenberg was dealing with jazz presentation on public radio stations in Germany. But while the ‘bad image’ for jazz broadcasting reflects a common exasperation among jazz listeners everywhere – that a much-acclaimed and highly influential element in contemporary music is being unfairly neglected – comparisons between continental Europe and Britain strikingly reveal the real depths of that neglect in the UK today. This illuminating report, presented by Professor Stuart Nicholson, and by Emma Kendon and Chris Hodgkins of Jazz Services, includes an examination of the disparity between jazz representation on the BBC’s public radio services and those elsewhere in Europe. It asks why British jazz exposure on the BBC should have declined so significantly in recent years, at a time when the skills, formal training, diversity and international status of UK jazz musicians has never been higher. It also asks why the Corporation does not appear to extend its public service remit to jazz in the way that its continental equivalents do, despite commitments to the broadest possible range of social and cultural diversity enshrined in the BBC charter. The report also proposes some ways forward, in the challenging context of a budding digital-radio environment potentially offering more channels and niche-audience resources than ever. Revealingly, this investigation considers the history of jazz on the BBC radio schedules, from the period in the 1970s when well over 90% of the material played on the now-defunct Sounds of Jazz, Jazz Club and Jazz In Britain shows was performed by local players, compared to an overwhelming bias toward American jazz today – oddly enough, at a time when the American jazz influence is far less dominant than formerly. In earlier periods, the BBC also helped to fund bands created specifically for broadcasts – with such high- profile bandleaders as John Dankworth, Stan Tracey and Mike Gibbs among those benefiting. This state of affairs, the report notes, continues in Europe, where the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) funds a tour by a young, pan-European big band each year. No British players were in the 2008 lineup, a reflection of the BBC’s lack of initiative in recording the country’s promising newcomers, and offering such material for re-broadcast through the EBU as other countries do. A telling comparison also made here, is that between BBC jazz programming and that of the shortlived independent station theJazz. That newcomer’s corporate owners, in restructuring their operations, pulled the plug on theJazz before it was a year old – but not before it had shown in 2007 that it could win a bigger jazz audience than Radio 3’s on a digital-only platform, and with none of the BBC’s promotional aids and stature. The comparison confirmed, among other things, that daytime audiences for jazz music were there to be developed – a very different approach to the one in which over 60% of Radio 3 jazz broadcasting goes out after 11.15pm, with Radio 2’s ‘BBC Big Band’ shows also being transmitted in ‘the graveyard slot’. Professor Stuart Nicholson also writes of the “shocking imbalance” between London-based and regional jazz coverage: “...in stark contrast to European public sector broadcasters in the airtime they give to their own local jazz scenes, which has significantly assisted in audience building, with local musicians enjoying a healthy following from local audiences as a result”. Nicholson specifically points to the German public networks, where every region has its own public radio station (each one with a jazz producer), three stations have their own big bands, and there is generally more broadcasting of European than American jazz. The report makes comparable links to Austria, Sweden, Finland and Switzerland, with the German case extensively documented in a fascinating Appendix. 5 In its conclusions, the report advocates closer links between the BBC and the local jazz resources provided by Jazz Services and the National Jazz Archive (helping, among other things, to put the British jazz scene into historical context), more extensive BBC live-recording of British bands across the regions, closer attention to the corporation’s jazz obligations in terms of its public-service charter, and recognition of British jazz’s significant audience profile in the shaping of new BBC policies for the coming digital switchover. The fragmenting media of the early 21st century present consumers with an ever more bewildering range of apparent choices – but for the most part, as run by the entrepreneurial private sector, they have to be choices between commercially profitable options. As a public broadcaster committed to all the diverse enthusiasms of the tax-paying license-holders, the BBC has a unique obligation – to those dynamic contemporary art-forms that nourish other human aspirations and satisfactions than the performance of shareholders’ dividends. As Peter Burli, Swiss Radio Head of Jazz, pungently remarks in this report: “Who else could do this? Private radio stations? Mostly they do not even have jazz programmes.” John Fordham Jazz critic, The Guardian September 2009 6 1 Summary and Recommendations 1.1 Summary 1.1.1 Jazz in the UK – A Vibrant National Jazz Scene There is a vibrancy about the British jazz scene that has not been felt since the popularity of Courtney Pine and the Jazz Warriors. The media has been forced to take notice of bands such as Polar Bear and Soweto Kinch who have emerged as nominees to the annual Mercury Prize. Older generations of British jazz musicians such as Chris Barber, Norma Winstone and Peter King are continuing to attract interest. The upsurge of interest being felt in UK jazz is not limited to London. A scene has developed around students, graduates and teachers in music colleges in Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff and Newcastle. The success of jazz education programmes from youth bands to further and higher education has contributed to a revitalised jazz scene. However the public sSector broadcaster the BBC is not, in the eyes of many, engaged in the British Jazz economy supporting British jazz to the extent that it could, and many feel, should. 1.1.2 Radio BBC Radio’s jazz output is focused around Radios 2 and 3. Radio 3 broadcasts 6 hours a week of regular jazz programming and Radio 2 broadcasts 3.5 hours of jazz per week. Outside these stations, jazz broadcasts are much more infrequent. Commercial broadcasting has seen the transformation of Jazz FM into Smooth Radio, the rise and fall of theJazz and the re-emergence of Jazz FM as a digital station. The BBC’s jazz output on local stations in December 2007 and January 2008 was 1120 minutes per week divided between a number of local stations. 1.1.3 The Market for Jazz in the UK The audience for jazz is 6.6 million adults. Jazz, like opera, has a market share of 1 in 8 arts attendees. Jazz is increasing its audience numbers. There is a ratio of 11 females to 14 males attending jazz events and jazz has a higher attendance in the 15 – 24 age range than classical music or opera. Jazz, like all other art forms, has a propensity to attract above average audiences from the social grades AB and C. There is a lower than average attendance for jazz amongst Asian communities and above average for Black and mixed ethnicity audience. 1.1.4 Comparison of BBC’s Audience for Jazz to the Jazz Attender and the General Population Of the BBC’s national music radio stations BBC1, 2 and 3, Radio 3 is the least favourable in terms of reaching female listeners for its jazz programmes, a ratio of 19:31 compared to the ratio for jazz attendees generally of 11:14. Radio 1 does very well in reaching the 15 – 24 age group (52%) as compared to Radio 3 with an average of 1.54% of 15 – 24 year old listeners. 1.1.5 BBC Policy in Relation to the Broadcasting of Jazz In the past the BBC not only provided a broadcast outlet for jazz but also had an active and influential role in the development of jazz music. The lack of such opportunities today has a negative effect which is detrimental to jazz as a whole. In terms of public purpose to represent the UK, its nations, regions and communities, the BBC is not representing the jazz listening audience. The share of airtime on Radio 3 shows classical music with the lions’ share of 88% as compared to jazz with 3%. The number of listeners to jazz between the ages of 15 – 24 for four programmes on 7 Radio 3 was 10,000 as compared to theJazz which cited 53,000, albeit under 15 years of age, and 61,000 for the Gilles Peterson jazz show on Radio 1. There is a bias towards London with 63% of broadcasts of jazz made in London compared to 37% broadcasts outside of London. Furthermore 15% of jazz broadcasts were from the USA, with little or no reciprocity between featuring US musicians in the UK and broadcasting UK musicians in the USA. 1.1.6 BBC Radio 2 It could be argued that jazz is being ghettoised, in that by removing jazz programmes from a ‘popular slot’ on a popular radio station (Radio 2) to specialised slots on Radio 3, jazz is removed from chance encounters with a broad audience, producing in turn a ‘self fulfilling’ prophecy that jazz is not popular. 1.1.7 BBC Jazz Awards and Service Reviews The BBC Jazz Awards have been axed with no explanation given to the jazz constituency. The BBC states that service reviews of Radio 2 and 6 Music will follow on from reviews of Radio 1 and 1 Extra. The BBC expected the review to be launched with a full public consultation in May and to conclude at the end of 2009. Jazz Services and the jazz community look forward to being invited to take part. 1.1.8 Jazz and Public Sector Broadcasting in Europe Public broadcasting in Europe has both a policy and a strategy in place for the support of their national jazz scene. European broadcasters are surprised at how low the percentage of British jazz is on the UK’s publicly funded broadcaster, the BBC. One symptom of this is the small number of *‘pink offers’ to the EBU. This denies UK musicians the opportunity of valuable European exposure and valuable work opportunities, and crucially representing UK culture abroad (a Charter requirement). 1.1.9 BBC Radio and Value for Money BBC Radios 2 and 4 have increased their share of radio listening whilst at Radio 3, hours and reach are down and its share remains at 1.3%. Radio 2 with 13 million listeners has the lowest cost per listener at £3.81; Radio 3 the highest cost with 2 million listeners at £24.93 per head. Jazz Music as a percentage of total music output is 1.74% on Radio 2 and 3.62% on Radio 3. 1.1.10 Options and Actions for Change The BBC is in a strong position to help create a greater awareness of British jazz’s rich heritage, by reformulating its policy around British jazz and interacting more with jazz organisations such as the National Jazz Archive on complimentary content and Jazz Services on promoting its jazz programming. The UK jazz economy could easily be supported at no extra cost by switching the emphasis to exclusive UK content which would allow UK bands greater national exposure. Live broadcasts from ‘local’ venues around the country would give a sense of empowerment to local jazz scenes. The BBC is in an ideal position to affect a seismic shift in presenting music in the UK 8 through the establishment of a digital multiplex with dedicated stations for jazz, folk, world, roots and early music, also including Radio 6 and Radio 1 Extra. *’pink offers’ are concert recordings offered for re-broadcast in Europe by other public broadcasters in the EBU 1.2 Recommendations 1.2.1 Creating Greater Awareness of Jazz in Britain and Interacting with Jazz Organisations The BBC should help to create a greater awareness of British jazz’s rich heritage by reformulating its policy around British jazz and interacting with jazz organisations such as the National jazz Archive on complimentary content. The BBC should assist with the jazz development organisations (Jazz Services, Jazz Works NorthWest, Jazz Action, Yorkshire Jazz) in promoting and creating awareness of jazz in the UK. 1.2.2 More Live Broadcasts from Jazz Venues around the UK The BBC should deliver and promote more live broadcasts from local jazz venues around the country. The BBC should reflect the diversity of jazz festivals in the UK in its jazz programming and live broadcasts. 1.2.3 A Digital Multiplex for Diverse Musics The BBC establishes a digital multiplex with dedicated stations for jazz, folk, world, roots and early music that would also include Radio 6 and Radio 1 Extra 9 2 Introduction Jazz has always been the Oliver Twist of Music at the BBC; its cry for more has always been greeted with the Mr Bumble-like phrase “... More? Certainly not! We have got it about right.” This paper, the BBC – Jazz, Policy and Structure in the Digital Age, examines the needs of jazz with its emphasis on live performance which has a commensurate impact on the policy and structure in the digital age for folk, world and roots music, indie music and early music. 10 3 Jazz in the UK – A Vibrant National Jazz Scene 3.1 Summary There is a vibrancy about the British jazz scene that has not been felt since the popularity of Courtney Pine and the Jazz Warriors. The media has been forced to take notice of bands such as Polar Bear and Soweto Kinch who have emerged as nominees to the annual Mercury Prize. Older generations of British jazz musicians such as Chris Barber, Norma Winstone and Peter King are continuing to attract interest. The upsurge of interest being felt in UK jazz is not limited to London. A scene has developed around students, graduates and teachers in music colleges in Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff and Newcastle. The success of jazz education programmes from youth bands to further and higher education has contributed to a revitalised jazz scene. However the Public Sector broadcaster the BBC is not, in the eyes of many, engaged in the British Jazz economy supporting British jazz to the extent that it could, and many feel, should. 3.2 The UK Jazz Scene Today there is a buzz about the British jazz scene that has not been felt since the popularity of Courtney Pine, the Jazz Warriors and Loose Tubes in the 1980s. While few would claim working in the UK jazz economy was easy, there is currently an optimism and feel-good factor in UK jazz that has not been felt in decades. New bands with rock-style names like Dog Soup, Led Bib, Fraud and Outhouse are playing in London clubs and pubs to audiences of their peers. The scene around inspirational father figure Gary Crosby with Tomorrow’s Warriors and rising stars Empirical as well as successful musicians’ collectives such as F-ire and Loop are creating diversity in UK jazz never seen before, “Some people want to play in rock venues that have a different energy about them, where everyone is standing bunched up close together,” says Barak Schmool, Godfather of the F-ire Collective. “Other people want concert halls, that’s what their music needs; other people need the street; some people need a more relaxed jazz club, so people are creating music for different environments and this has never happened before.” In recent years, albums by bands such as Polar Bear and the Basquiat Strings, Portico Quartet and Led Bib and musicians like Soweto Kinch have emerged as nominees in the UK’s premier pop showcase, the annual Barclaycard Mercury Prize and have forced a jazz-shy media to sit up and take notice. Older generations of British jazz musicians are also enjoying increasing curiosity in their work from younger generations of fans. Musicians such as Chris Barber, a key figure in the history of Traditional Jazz in the United Kingdom, is enjoying a renaissance for his music nationally, as is mainstream saxophonist Alan Barnes or bebop master Peter King. “The UK scene is as exciting as I can remember it,” says 50 year-old trumpeter Guy Barker, famous for the dazzling trumpet solo in the hit movie ‘The Talented Mr. Ripley’. “There are some wonderful new young musicians coming through.” The sophisticated and highly original Acoustic Triangle with Malcolm Creese on bass, Tim Garland on saxes and woodwinds and Gwilym Simcock on piano and french horn have taken their music into the community and, by playing in churches and cathedrals up and down the country, have found an audience for jazz where none existed before. In 2005, they embarked on a tour of the UK, playing over 120 dates in the course of the year to standing-room-only crowds and this year they have undertaken a tour of fourteen cathedrals with an enlarged ensemble. Call into Dalston’s Vortex jazz club, one of the key venues in the vibrant London scene, and you’ll find it full to bursting most nights of the week. “There’s been a distinct broadening of the audience 11 into more diverse and younger fans as well as a plethora of young musicians,” says Oliver Weindling, venue director and proprietor of Babel Records, the highly successful UK independent jazz label. “They don’t seem intimidated by the risk-taking nature of the music and this has not been the case for the past 15 years or so.” A buoyant picture of the UK jazz scene was underlined by the first ever British Jazz Expo at the annual International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE) meeting held in Toronto in January 2008. Here a strong contingent of UK jazz musicians took the event by storm, stunning a predominantly American and Canadian audience of delegates and fans, “The British showcase at IAJE made a great impression on the largely North American audience,” said Dr Catherine Parsonage, a lecturer in jazz studies at the Open University and a panel moderator at the event. “The strength of British jazz education was clearly demonstrated by the performances of young musicians studying at UK institutions. The showcase highlighted the depth and quality of the current scene.” The buzz being felt in UK jazz is not limited to events in the nation’s capital. In the north of England, for example, a whole scene has developed around students, graduates and teachers from Leeds College of Music, where musicians such as pianist Matthew Bourne are now beginning to attract European attention. Similar scenes that owe much to jazz programmes in conservatories and universities around the country have also grown up in cities such as Manchester, Newcastle, Cardiff and Birmingham in recent years. Indeed, one of the contributing factors to a revitalised National jazz scene can in part be ascribed to the success of jazz education programmes in universities, colleges and conservatories throughout the country. Today, the majority of contemporary jazz musicians under the age of thirty are likely to have been exposed to some form of jazz education, usually at conservatory level. The day of the autodidact is largely over, replaced by a new era of university educated jazz musicians, with the consequent raising of musical standards nationally. More and more young musicians are now finding a pathway into jazz that often follows the Associated Board’s jazz curriculum of graded examinations culminating in a conservatory education. Today, all the London jazz conservatories are over subscribed annually, with some 200 students graduating nationally with jazz-related degrees, a number that is set to rise as more music departments add jazz studies to their curriculum. Yet while the welcome exposure jazz receives through BBC Radio 3’s association with the London Jazz Festival – with broadcasts of several festival concerts, often featuring big American stars on both Radio 2 and 3 – you would struggle to find the breadth and vitality of the home-grown scene reflected on the programming of BBC radio. The public service broadcaster whose Royal Charter commits it to “stimulating creativity and cultural excellence” and “representing the UK, its nations, regions and communities” is not, in the eyes of many engaged in the British jazz economy, supporting British jazz to the extent it could, and many feel should. 12 4 Radio 4.1 Summary BBC Radio’s jazz output is focused around Radios 2 and 3. Radio 3 broadcasts 6 hours a week of regular jazz programming and Radio 2 broadcasts 3.5 hours of jazz per week. Outside these stations, jazz broadcasts are much more infrequent. Commercial broadcasting has seen the transformation of Jazz FM into Smooth Radio, the rise and fall of thejazz and the re-emergence of Jazz FM as a digital and online station only. The BBC’s jazz output on local stations in December 2007 and January 2008 was 1040 minutes per week divided between a number of local stations. Table 1 Source: Jazz in the Media: A Comparative Review of Media Coverage of Jazz, Classical and World Music. December 2007 and January 2008 by Dave Laing and Mykaell Riley 4.2 National Radio Set out below is the research on the coverage of jazz on radio from the ‘Jazz in the Media’ report, which was conducted by Dave Laing and Mykaell Riley for Jazz Services as part of the organisation’s ‘The Value of Jazz in Great Britain’ research. “For the most part BBC radio's jazz output is focused around Radio 2 and Radio 3. The latter has become vigorous in recent years in sponsoring live events for which it can obtain broadcast rights and apart from jazz events – it was a partner for the London Jazz Festival (LJF) – has supported folk and world music festivals, as well as classical seasons. Nevertheless, while Radio 3's expanding repertoire of genres is welcome, it remains at heart a classical music station. Both stations have four regular jazz based strands and across these eight shows feature a comprehensive mix of jazz styles both from the archives and new releases, along with a certain amount of live performance. Radio 3 currently transmits nearly 6 hours a week of regular jazz programming, although this can be augmented – as it was during the LJF period – with jazz sessions being placed in its ‘Performance On 3’ and Lunchtime concert slots. Radio 3's coverage tends towards the more contemporary and eclectic, particularly on the late-night show Late Junction that has a very wideranging brief embracing jazz, world, new classical and electronica. 13 By contrast, Radio 2, with a more modest 3.5 hours a week, tried to satisfy the more 'traditional' jazz fan, with three of its then regular shows, Best of Jazz, Big Band Special and Malcolm Laycock geared towards music from so-called classic periods. Only Courtney Pine's programme focuses on contemporary music. Outside of these two stations, jazz broadcasts are much more infrequent. Gilles Peterson's two hour weekly late night show on Radio 1, occasionally throws a jazz track into its mix of hip hop, funk, soul and Latin music. But the BBC includes Peterson's show in its own online guide to jazz programming across the radio network. In fact it is arguable that several shows listed in this do not qualify as jazz programmes. Among these, Michael Parkinson's Sunday morning show on Radio 2 (since discontinued), and, on 1Xtra, both Deviation with Benji B (an underground soul show) and ‘The Basement’ (a more eclectic vintage music show) are claimed as jazz. On 6 Music ‘Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone’, another eclectic selection of music, is similarly defined. Most baffling of all, Tony Blackburn's show on BBC London is also slotted into the jazz output. 4.3 Commercial Stations “With the demise of Jazz FM, or rather its transformation into Smooth FM, no commercial national AM or FM station remains geared towards jazz music. This is unlike the classical world, where Classic FM continues to thrive. Smooth FM betrays no evidence whatsoever of being once a jazz station. Its playlist is dominated by 'easy listening' – mainstream pop drawn from the last 50 years. As such it is trying to fit into the Radio 2 mould but without any of that station's forays into non-mainstream music. Our research survey did not extend to new digital stations (on DAB) but it should be mentioned that these included theJazz where it is significant that this limited platform very quickly increased its reach to 338k+ and growing within three months. Sadly, at the time of writing this too has gone the way of Jazz FM and its owner had announced its closure at the end of March 2008. 4.4 Local Radio “The jazz output of the BBC's local stations adds up to an impressive 1040 minutes a week. However, that is divided up between a number of stations, namely: Hereford & Worcester (2hrs); Derby (2hrs); Leeds (2hrs); Norfolk (2hrs weekly is shared and broadcast by Essex, Suffolk, Kent, Cambridgeshire, Northampton and Three Counties – Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire); Nottingham (2hrs); Scotland (2hrs); Stoke (2hrs) and Ulster (2hrs). We have omitted the BBC's claim for Radio Foyle, as the show clearly has no jazz output at all. Of the stations listed only the following monitor jazz performance in their own locality – Derby, Norfolk, Nottingham, Scotland and Ulster.” 14 5 The Market for Jazz in the UK 5.1 Summary The audience for jazz is 6.6 million adults. Jazz, like opera, has a market share of 1 in 8 arts attendees. Jazz is increasing its audience numbers. There is a ratio of 11 females to 14 males attending jazz events and jazz has a higher attendance in the 15 – 24 age range than classical music or opera. Jazz, like all other art forms, has a propensity to attract above average audiences from the social grades AB and C. There is a lower than average attendance for jazz amongst Asian communities and above average for Black and mixed ethnicity audience. 5.2 Market Size Target Group Index (TGI) figures for the year 2002/2003 show the audience for jazz who attended live jazz events at least once a year of 6.4% of the sample, with 1.8% attending at least once every 3 months. 1 The audience for jazz at live events in England, Wales and Scotland extrapolated from the 2002/2003 TGI figures is 3 million adults, of which 2.2 million are ABC1 social groupings. 2 The TGI Survey for 2004/2005 showed an increase to 7.5% of the audience for jazz which is 3.5 million in England, Wales and Scotland. It should be noted that the question posed had changed from previous years. The TGI audience data 2004/2005 defined the audience for jazz as those who “ever go to jazz concerts or watch them on TV or read about them in papers or magazines.” This combination of attendance, viewing and reading produced an audience for jazz of 14% of the sample which gave an audience for jazz in England, Scotland and Wales of 6.6 million adults of which 4.5 million are ABC1 social groupings. 3 5.3 Market Share The TGI figures for 2002/2003 show that 23.5 million adults currently attend the live arts. Jazz, like opera, has a 13% market share of 1 in 8 arts attenders.4 15 5.4 Attendances at jazz and other art forms in Great Britain 1994/5 + 1995/6 % 1996/7 + 1997/8 % 1997/8 + 1998/9 % 1998/9 + 1999/2000 % 2001/2 + 2002/3 % 2005 % Plays 23.6 23.0 21.9 22.4 23.8 - Ballet 6.9 6.4 6.3 6.3 6.7 - Contemporary Dance 3.8 4.4 4.4 4.2 4.9 - Opera 6.5 6.4 6.2 6.4 6.7 7.7 Classical Music 12.1 11.9 11.6 11.5 12.4 13.6 Jazz 6.3 5.8 5.7 5.9 6.4 7.5 Art Galleries/ Exhibitions 21.6 21.7 21.0 21.3 23.0 - Cinema 51.5 54.0 55.7 56.4 59.2 - Pop/Rock 22.2 22.1 21.5 21.9 23.2 - Year Currently Attend: Table 2: Attendances at jazz and other art events in Great Britain Source: Peter Verney, Target Group Index 1994/2003, Summary of Results for England, the English Regions, Scotland and Wales, Publisher Arts Council England, The Value of Jazz in Britain. Note: The percentages show the number of adults who attend currently and more than once a year. In Table 2 above, the attendance figures are a bi-annual aggregate with the exception of 2005. Some art forms such as plays, classical music, cinema, pop and rock have shown a steady growth in attendance. Jazz, like opera and ballet, has recovered a bit of lost ground. The increase to 7.5% in 2005 may have been due in part to change in the question to “whether you attend any of these art forms these days”. 5 5.5 Attendances at jazz events 1994/2003 1994/95 1995/96 1996/97 1997/98 1998/99 1999/2000 Currently Attend 6.4 6.2 5.9 5.7 5.8 6.0 Attend more than once a year 1.7 1.8 1.7 1.6 1.5 1.6 2000/01 2001/02 2002/03 2003/04 2004/05 2005/06 6.0 6.4 6.4 6.8 7.3 9.4 Currently Attend Attend more than once a year 1.8 Table3: Attendances at jazz events 1994/2003 Source: Peter Verney, Target Group Index 1994/2003, Summary of Results for Great Britain. Publisher Arts Council England and BMRB Target Group Index 2003/06 The numbers of people currently attending a jazz event has fluctuated over the nine year period 1994/2003. However, the core audience, defined as those people who attend more than once a year, remains between 1.8% and 1.5% in terms of reliable statistical data. However, TGI for 04/05 of 7.3% and 05/06 of 9.4% indicate that jazz is increasing its audience numbers. 16 5.6 Profile of Gender in Great Britain in 2003 Population 000’s 57.851 % 48.8 51.2 100 Sample Gender Men Women Total Jazz 1,598 % 56 44 100 Table 4: Profile of Gender Source: Peter Verney, Target Group Index 2002/2003, Summary of Results for Great Britain. Marketing Pocket Book 2005 There are 11 females to 14 males attending jazz events 5.7 Age distribution of the population in Great Britain compared to age distribution of people who attend jazz, opera and classical music events 2002/2003. 6 Age Age distribution of UK population 2002 Age distribution of people who attend a jazz event at least once a year Age distribution of people who attend a classical music event at least once a year Age distribution of people who attend an opera event at least once a year 0-14 % 19 15-24 % 12 25-34 % 14 35-44 15 45-54 % 13 55-65 % 11 65+ % 16 Total % 100 - 7 13 20 22 20 18 100 - 6 9 16 21 23 25 100 - 6 13 18 17 23 23 100 Table 5: Age distribution. Marketing Pocket Book 2003 Table 5 above shows the distribution of the population in England Scotland and Wales as compared to the age distribution of the audience for jazz, opera and classical music. Jazz has a higher attendance in the 15-24 age range than classical music or opera. 5.8 Social Grade Social Grade AB C1 C2 DE Total Great Britain Population All Adults 2002/2003 % 25.1 28.5 20.7 25.7 100 Jazz 2002/2003 % 31 43 12 14 100 2004/2005 % 36 32 17 15 100 Table 6: Social Grade Source: Peter Verney, Target Group Index 2001/2002 and 2002/2003, summary of Results for England, the English regions, Scotland and Wales. Publisher Arts Council England, October 2003. Marketing Pocket Book 2004. Target Group Index BMRB International 2004/2005 Table 6 above compares the social grade of the audience for jazz with the distribution of social grades of Great Britain generally. Jazz, as all the other art forms, has a propensity to attract above average audiences from social grades AB and C1. 17 5.9 Terminal Education Age 2003 Great Britain Population All Adults % 5.1 15.9 16.5 62.5 100 Education Still Studying 19 or over 17/18 16 or younger Total Jazz % 5.4 36.4 17.5 40 100 Table 7: Terminal Education Age Source: Peter Verney, Target Group Index 2001/2002 and 2002/2003, Summary of Results for England, the English regions, Scotland and Wales. Publisher Arts Council England, October 2003. Table 7 above highlights the fact that there are above average audiences from people who continued their education beyond the age of 16 and below average from people who finished education at 16 years or younger. 5.10 Percentage attending music events in the UK in the last 12 months, ending December 2003, by ethnic group Event White Asian or British Indian Pakistani, Bangladeshi Asian All+ Black or British Black Black Black Black Caribbean African All Jazz Concert 6 4 3 9 1 Percentage 6 7 Mixed Ethnicity Chinese & other ethnic groups All 8 3 5 Table 8: Percentage attending by ethnic group + Including other Asian groups not shown separately. ** Including other Black groups not shown separately Respondents could mention more than one event. Source: Research Report, 31 December 2003. Focus on Cultural Diversity: the arts in England attendance participation and attitudes. 7 Table 8 above shows the levels of attendance for jazz concerts were lowest amongst the Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Chinese communities. They were above the average of 5% for Black and Mixed Ethnicity audiences. 18 5.11 BBC Radio jazz content 2005 8 Jazz on 3 Jazz LineUp Jazz Record Requests Jazz File Mean Gilles Peterson World Life The Best of Jazz Live from the Stables/ Jazz Crusade Big Band Special Jazz Legends Day Sun Mon Mon Mon Fri Fri Sat Sat Sat Time Station 23000100 1 20002100 2 21002200 2 22002300 2 16001700 3 23000100 3 16001700 3 17001800 3 18001830 3 Duration (hrs) 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 0.5 Weekly reach (000’s) 118 576 425 374 112 49 150 180 120 221.6 Market Share % 2.70 8.60 8.20 8.00 1.20 1.70 1.90 2.40 2.20 4.1 Average age of listeners (yrs) 31 53 55 54 59 60 60 61 62 55.0 Composition based on weekly reach Male % 66.50 63.50 60.80 64.90 74.40 69.30 55.40 56.70 54.50 62.9 Female % 33.50 36.50 39.20 35.10 25.60 30.70 44.60 43.30 45.50 37.1 15-24 % 52.10 6.70 4.70 3.50 3.30 N/A 2.70 1.30 0.40 8.3 25-34 % 16.60 8.20 6.80 9.90 2.50 4.60 1.10 0.90 1.40 5.8 35-44 % 13.00 18.40 16.90 17.40 11.30 10.90 5.00 8.20 7.90 12.1 45-54 % 11.00 16.90 15.00 14.80 16.50 17.20 23.00 18.10 23.90 17.4 55-65 % 4.20 21.70 26.90 23.10 26.30 8.90 24.10 28.20 15.90 20.0 65+ % 3.20 28.10 29.70 31.30 40.20 58.50 44.10 43.20 50.50 36.5 AB 17.40 21.70 18.00 14.70 38.70 29.40 50.90 48.20 51.80 32.3 C1 41.70 36.10 39.30 37.90 31.30 62.60 28.80 27.90 26.20 36.9 C2 20.80 19.80 21.20 27.10 14.80 4.10 12.10 13.20 11.10 16.0 DE 20.10 22.40 21.50 20.30 15.30 3.80 8.20 10.70 10.80 14.8 Programme Age Groups Social grade Table 9: Figures for BBC Jazz Content Notes: The area is England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Channel Islands & Isle of Man. Weekly reach is defined as the number in thousands or as a percentage of the UK for adult population who listen to a station for at least 5 minutes in the course of an average working week. 19 5.12 People accessing arts through radio by ethnic group Art form White Asian or British Asian Indian Pakistani, Asian Bangladeshi All+ Black or British Black Black Black Black Caribbean African All ** Rock/pop 66 54 40 46 53 Percentage 49 Classical Music Jazz 33 25 14 21 29 13 13 5 10 7 2 1 - 28 - Opera /operetta Soul and dance music ++ World Music ++ Asian radio stations Black radio stations++ Base Mixed Ethnicity Chinese & Other ethnic groups All 52 69 62 62 35 31 36 37 31 28 30 29 21 15 14 2 3 3 3 6 6 6 15 22 49 38 44 36 14 - 17 14 16 18 21 19 11 15 - - 57 54 53 2 3 2 3 9 - - 8 5 6 36 29 34 15 2 - 5,619 444 394 958 346 310 706 192 192 7,667 Table 10: Percentage accessing arts through radio by ethnic group: + including other Asian groups not shown separately ** including other Black groups not shown separately ++ An ‘all’ percentage for those accessing soul and dance music and world music through CD, mini disc, tape or record is not possible as it was not asked of 2001 respondents. Source: Focus on Cultural Diversity and the Arts in England, attendance, participation and attitudes. Between 77% and 92% of respondents from each ethnic group had listened to arts programmes on the radio. Rock and pop was listened to by the highest proportion of respondents from each of the groups, except those describing themselves as Indian, or Pakistani and Bangladeshi, who were as likely or more likely to listen to Asian radio stations. 20 6 Comparison of BBC’s Audience for Jazz to the Jazz Attender and the General Population 6.1 Summary Of the radio stations BBC1, 2 and 3, Radio 3 is the least favourable in terms of reaching female listeners for its jazz programmes, a ratio of 19:31 compared to the ratio for jazz attendees generally of 11:14. Radio 1 does very well in reaching the 15 – 24 age group (52%) as compared to Radio 3 with an average of 1.54% of 15 – 24 year old listeners. 6.2 BBC jazz content compared to the jazz attender and the general population Radio Station Duration (hrs) Weekly reach (000’s) Market Share % Average age of listeners (yrs) Composition based on weekly reach Male % Female % Age Groups 15-24 % 25-34 % 35-44 % 45-54 % 55-65 % 65+ % Social grade AB C1 C2 DE Average Average Audience for jazz at live events Great Britain Population All Adults 1 2 118 2 1 458 3 1.1 122.20 - - 2.70% 8.26% 1.88% - - 31 54 60.4 - - % % % % % 66.5 33.5 63.06 36.93 62.06 37.94 56 44 48.8 51.2 52.1 16.5 13 11 4.2 3.2 4.96 8.32 17.56 15.56 23.9 29.7 1.54 2.1 8.64 19.74 20.68 47.3 7 13 20 22 20 18 12 14 15 13 11 16 17.4 41.7 20.8 20.1 18.14 37.76 22.7 21.4 43.8 37.38 9.06 9.76 36 32 17 15 25.1 28.5 20.7 25.7 th Table 11: Radio Joint Audience Research for BBC Jazz Content, Fourth Quarter Period ending 18 December 2005. The BBC figures are for the Gilles Peterson World Life Programme on Radio 1 and the average figures for three jazz shows on Radio 2 and five jazz programmes on Radio 3. The figures are based on the RAJAR statistics for 2005. 21 6.3 Gender Balance The gender balance of the listeners can be compared below. Radio 3 is the least favourable in terms of reaching female listeners for its jazz programmes. Female: Male Ratio Radio 1 Radio 2 Radio 3 1:2 4:7 19:31 Jazz Attendees 11:14 General Population 13:12 Table 12: Female: Male Ratios. Source –Radio Joint Audience Research for BBC Jazz Content, Fourth Quarter period ending 18th December 2005 6.4 Jazz Listeners and Attendance by Age Group Radio 1 does extremely well in reaching the 15-24 age group (52%) as compared to the age distribution of the general population in the 15-24 age group of 12%. Radios 2 and 3 do less well, although Radio 2 at 5% reach of 15-24 year olds is nearer to the 7% of the 15-24 age group who attend jazz events. Radio 3, across its five jazz programmes, has an average 1.54% of 15-24 year old listeners. 22 7 BBC Policy in Relation to the Broadcasting of Jazz 7.1 Summary In the past the BBC not only provided a broadcast outlet for jazz but also had an active and influential role in the development of jazz music. The lack of such opportunities today has a negative effect which is detrimental to jazz as a whole. In terms of public purpose to represent the UK, its nations, regions and communities, the BBC is not representing the jazz listening audience. The share of airtime on Radio 3 shows classical music with the lions’ share of 88% as compared to jazz with 3%. The number of listeners to jazz between the ages of 15 – 24 for four programmes on Radio 3 was 10,000 as compared to theJazz which cited 53,000, albeit under 15 years of age, and 61,000 for the Gilles Peterson jazz show on Radio 1. There is a bias towards London with 63% of broadcasts of jazz made in London compared to 37% made outside of London. Furthermore 15% of jazz broadcasts were from the USA, with little or no reciprocity between featuring US musicians in the UK and broadcasting UK musicians in the USA. 7.2 Jazz on BBC Radio: A Brief Historical Perspective Historically, jazz has contributed so much more than mere entertainment to the development of our musical culture over the last 86 years, and this brief historical survey, while making no claims for completeness, is intended to provide both backdrop and context to the very vital role the BBC has played in the past in the development of UK jazz in order to illustrate in sharp relief how their role within the UK jazz economy has virtually disappeared today. It is perhaps ironic to reflect that since the mid-1930s until the 1960s the BBC wanted to invite American stars onto their programmes but was unable to do so because of Musician’s Union restrictions in order to protect the jobs of UK musicians. Although this was criticised at the time, it actually brought many benefits to the British jazz scene and allowed many artists to flourish, make a name for themselves, and develop a distinctive British musical identity. In these more relaxed times, we find that our national talent is being marginalised in favour of something often mistakenly considered more “authentic,” simply because it is American. This represents a shallow interpretation of the jazz tradition and of our place in it. The BBC once had a host of articulate commentators (Charles Fox, Peter Clayton, Humphrey Lyttelton and many others) who understood the importance of the British and European contributions, not just to the development of the music internationally but to our own sense of national cultural identity, something Dave Gelly of the Observer illustrates, “Pianist Mike Taylor died in January 1969. Nowadays it would mean a brief mention and a track or part of one from an album. In May that same year, Jack Bruce and I did a half-hour Jazz Workshop programme playing Mike’s music with a sextet of other musicians who had worked with him – Ian Carr, Barbara Thompson and so on. It was introduced by Charles Fox. In October 1970, a further programme, this time of Mike’s songs was broadcast in the Jazz in Britain slot by Norma Winstone with the New Jazz Orchestra, directed by Neil Ardley.” In sharp contrast, the BBC have now outsourced a key area of jazz programming, the value of which, many would argue, is some distance from current public broadcasting practise in Europe towards their “local” jazz scene. British people still have a particular interest in the British contribution to the arts. This seems to be borne out by the fact that the British pop charts look significantly different to the American charts. If the audience perspective really was converging around American-centric values, one would perhaps expect it to be most strongly reflected in the most populist branch of the musical arts: pop and rock. But that does not appear to be the case. 23 In the past the BBC did not just provide a broadcast outlet for British jazz, but actually had a much more active and influential role in the development of the music and there are many examples of this which might be cited. For example, many bands were created specifically for broadcasting purposes, such as the Harry South Big Band, Stan Tracey’s (late 1960s) Big Band, while the Johnny Dankworth Orchestra relied heavily on its national exposure on the BBC airwaves for its popularity. There were also countless small groups assembled by musicians who had been offered a broadcasting opportunity. Such arrangements allowed many talented musicians, in an age when big bands, for example, had become economically unviable on the road, to nevertheless rise to the challenge of writing and arranging for large ensembles and for instrumental combinations that they probably would not encounter in their everyday lives as working jazz musicians. As Dave Gelly of The Observer notes, “There was an agreement with the MU that a fixed amount of music output would be specifically recorded for broadcast by the BBC and the use of recorded music would be strictly rationed – the so-called needle-time agreement. This meant that British musicians, including jazz musicians, got employed, not just in specialist jazz shows but in general programming.” Musicians with a talent for band leading, composing and arranging were identified and nurtured. Even Ted Heath’s famous band was formed in the 1940s essentially for BBC radio broadcasting. Another example might be the New Jazz Orchestra, which formed in 1963 as a rehearsal band but performed rarely. Because the BBC offered Neil Ardley the opportunity to broadcast on Jazz Club (transmitted on 17 July 1968) he, along with Mike Taylor, Howard Riley and Mike Gibbs assembled a raft of new material and produced a critically acclaimed programme, a recording of which persuaded Verve to give the group a one-album contract which resulted in Le Dejeuner sur l’Herbe, now considered a classic of British jazz. Similarly, Mike Gibbs formed a 13-piece band for a BBC Radio broadcast in February 1969 (‘Weekend in Lancaster’), the success of which led to his first album for Deram at the end of that year with an expanded line-up. Today this album is generally regarded as a classic not only of UK jazz but of European jazz in general and gave him the opportunity to be heard by the people with the power to award Arts Council grants, which in turn led to further opportunities. Other large groups which existed primarily for broadcasting purposes included those led by Kenny Wheeler. Some, like the Alan Cohen Big Band, made almost no albums at all, but they were nevertheless known to the initiated audience, secured fairly regular broadcasts from the late 1960s onwards and had a significant influence on the development of British music. It is interesting to reflect on the dearth of larger groups on the British jazz scene today and perhaps this may be attributed to a lack of broadcasting opportunities. A dearth of large ensembles will inevitably prevent young people from developing the particular skills to perform in larger ensembles so vital for rounding their musical abilities (intonation, dynamics, and internal balance, developing sight reading abilities in pressure situations and so on) or those needed to write and arrange for large groups. As broadcasting opportunities provided a beneficial knock-on effect when they were available, the lack of such opportunities today has a negative effect which is to the detriment of UK jazz as a whole. It is perhaps significant in this regard the importance the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) place on the larger ensemble, annually funding a tour by the cream of Europe’s young jazz musicians from EBU participating countries. The 2008 European Jazz Orchestra tour, directed by the young German saxophonist and composer Niels Klein, did not include one UK musician, reflecting the BBC’s poor participation in offering jazz programmes (pink offers) for rebroadcast to the EBU and lack of interest in supporting such a prestigious venture that supports and encourages young talent. See http://www.nrcu.gov.ua/index.php?id=739 7.3 Jazz and Public Sector Broadcasting in the United Kingdom – an overview As a public broadcaster the BBC is crucial to the cultural and artistic life of this country. Funded entirely by licence fees paid by UK citizens, it is freed from the pressure of the marketplace yet Sir Michael Lyons, chairman of the BBC Trust, has warned of an over reliance on “ratings chasers” that 24 are swamping quality and crowding out fresh and innovative programming. Far from using the freedom the licence fee brings with programming that supports British art and culture, commercial rivals claim it has become a ruthless, publicly subsidised competitor that has lost sight of its public broadcasting tradition which was once the envy of the world. These changes can be traced back to the infrastructure changes initiated during the tenure of Director General John Birt, in particular introducing the internal market and opening up the BBC to independent programme producers. Some critics say the latter are detached and/or insulated from the public broadcasting ethos, exemplified by the controversy over a trailer produced by RDF Media for a fly-on-the-wall documentary of a year-in-the-life of Her Majesty the Queen in 2007 and a series of scandals including the infamous Blue Peter phone-in incident which was punished by an unprecedented £50,000 fine from Ofcom. As a result of the changes implemented by Birt, the BBC made a voluntary commitment to 10% of eligible hours of radio programming being produced by independent producers. In the financial year 2005/2006, they exceeded this quota by 42%. In the financial year 2005/2006, the BBC spent £16 million of licence payers’ money on external programme production. 7.4 Current Policy This paper questions the BBC Trust, which in accordance with the Agreement approved in Parliament in July 2006, “must represent the interests of license fee payers and exercise rigorous stewardship of public money”. On the 15th August 2008 Jazz Services wrote to Mark Thompson, BBC Director-General, regarding the BBC’s policy towards jazz. On the 25th September 2008 Mark Thomson replied: “The Service Licence for BBC Radio 3 specifically mentions jazz music. The same qualities apply to Radio 3’s jazz output as to other programmes, namely that it “should appeal to listeners of any age seeking to expand their cultural horizons through engagement with the world of music and the arts”. In addition, “programmes should exhibit some or all of the following characteristics: high quality, original, challenging, innovative and engaging, and it should nurture UK talent. Radio 3 should place a special emphasis on live and specially recorded music”. The section below examines BBC radio broadcasting of jazz in practice and Mark Thompson’s claims, in particular that Radio 3’s jazz output should: “appeal to listeners of any age” “nurture UK talent” “place a special emphasis on live and specially recorded music” It also examines the BBC’s Public Purposes as expressed in the Charter, which are: To sustain citizenship and civil society To promote education and learning To stimulate creativity and cultural excellence To represent the UK, its nations, regions and communities To bring the UK to the world and the world to the UK To take a leading role in digital switchover Sir Michael Lyons in a speech in November 2007 stated: “The BBC, and the license fee that supports it, can only be justified if the BBC delivers something of real value to everyone in the UK, and is valued by them in return, both for its programmes, and its wider contribution to the UK.” (Royal Television Society Fleming Memorial Lecture 1st November 2007) 25 In the annual report and accounts for the BBC for 2007 it was stated: “The BBC is committed to making its programmes as accessible as possible to all audience groups.” 7.5 BBC Public Purpose The stated aim of the BBC Public Purpose is to represent the UK, its nations, regions and communities. The overall BBC Radio audience for people aged 15 and over in September 2007 was 1.9 million adults. 9 In September 2007 the audience for the digital radio station theJazz was 388k 10 and the BBC Radio 3 jazz audience 15+ in June 2007 was 291k. 11 In addition to the 388k of 15+ listeners thejazz had 53k people under the age of 15 listening in each week. theJazz reached a total of 441k of adults and young people each week. 15% of BBC Radio 3’s audience was listening to jazz programmes; however the theJazz audience was equivalent to 20% of the total BBC Radio 3 audience figures and greater than the Radio 3 jazz audience, according to the Independent. Many media commentators felt this was an indictment of the BBC’s jazz policy when on a limited digital platform and without the obvious advantages unique to a public broadcaster, theJazz was able to produce such audience figures in a relatively short time span. The establishment and subsequent demise of the digital radio station theJazz has offered the chance to examine the potential audience for jazz on national radio. This audience currently is not represented by a station where they can tune into a programme dedicated to jazz except predominantly very late into the night. As theJazz figures show, there is clearly substantial demand for a station playing jazz during the day and early evening. In the summer of 2007, the difference between the growing theJazz audience and the BBC’s Radio 3 jazz audience was 43k, equivalent to an additional 14.7% of the BBC’s jazz audience at that time. Comparison of the Radio Audience for theJazz and BBC Radio 3 in Sept 2007 450,000 400,000 350,000 300,000 250,000 200,000 150,000 100,000 50,000 0 theJazz audience BBC Radio 3 jazz audience Table 13: Source: RAJAR The 388,000 listeners that theJazz reached was after just nine months from commencement of operations and was rapidly increasing in number. It had increased by 16% since the earlier quarter’s listening figures of 334,000 in June 2007. 26 RAJAR listening figures for theJazz at time of closure at the end of March 2008 were 407,000. Clearly, by comparison with theJazz, the BBC is not representing the jazz listening audience, indeed, it appears remote and detached from it, to the extent of delegating its flagship Radio 3 jazz programme to independent producers. 7.6 Fair shares – airtime allowed to jazz 7.6.1 Share of BBC Radio 3 airtime based on a week from the 9-15 March 2009 for jazz, world, classical and other: Table 14: Source – BBC Radio 3 listings 9 – 15th March 2009 In one week, 3.13% of Radio 3 airtime or 315 minutes out of 10,080 was dedicated to jazz (i.e. you can turn on your radio and hear a dedicated jazz programme). Of this time, 195 minutes (or 61.9% of jazz dedicated programming) takes place when most people – and certainly 15s and under – are asleep, after 11.15pm For example, Jazz Library is on at 4pm on a Saturday which clashes with football for a large proportion of the population, and with outdoor activities for another large proportion of the population. In spite of this, BBC Radio 3 experiences a peak in its listening figures during the jazz programmes. (See table 9) There is no BBC Radio jazz programming on any stations at the popular listening hours in spite of the evidence that existing jazz audiences would tune in then and importantly, that exposure to jazz through the radio has consistently had an audience building effect. Indeed, it is the role of a public sector broadcaster not to duplicate or compete with the private sector as Sir Michael Lyons of the BBC Trust points out the BBC is doing, but provide programmes of an artistic and cultural nature that would be otherwise financially unattractive to private sector broadcasters. 7.6.2 Share of airtime for world music (including folk) 4.76% of Radio 3 airtime or 480 minutes out of 10,080 are dedicated to world (and folk) (i.e. you can turn on your radio and hear a dedicated world/folk programme). Of this time, 420 minutes (or 87.5% of world music dedicated programming) takes place when most people – and certainly 15s and under – are asleep, after 11.15pm. 27 World Routes is on at 3pm on a Saturday which clashes with football for a large proportion of the population, and with outdoor activities for another large proportion of the population. 7.6.3 Share of airtime for classical music 88.1% of Radio 3 airtime or 8,880 minutes out of 10,080 are dedicated to classical music (i.e. you can turn on your radio and hear a dedicated classical music programme on the BBC, which you can also do at any time on Classic FM). Of this time, the programmes are scheduled during the most popular listening times for music audiences, including drive time and are not scheduled during the graveyard shift. When there is a long piece such as Wagner’s Ring Cycle, other programming, including jazz, is moved or cancelled to accommodate the piece (as illustrated in the Guardian Leader 2 April 2009). 7.6.4 Share of airtime for other arts/cultural programming (e.g. speech) 4.02% of Radio 3 airtime or 405 minutes out of 10,080, are given to a variety of cultural programmes, taking in speech, art, architecture, drama, sometimes featuring musical parallels, which are usually classical. 7.6.5 Case Study 1 – A Comparison between the hours of jazz broadcast by ARD in Germany and BBC Radio 3 Radio Station BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 4 BBC Local Radio BBC Total ARD Hours per month 20-25 10-12.5 4-5 75-94 109-136.5 300 Date as at: 28.3.2009 28.3.2009 28.3.2009 28.3.2009 28.3.2009 February 2007 Table 15: Source Note: ARD is the Association of Public Broadcasting Stations in Germany. Please see Appendix 1 For a model of a working structure that supports jazz at national and local levels, see Regional Structure – National Perspective – the role of public radio in German jazz scenes - Bernd Hoffman At the BBC, each national station has its own individual Service Licence, under the umbrella of the Charter but beyond this structure, there is not a published written structure for cross-collaboration between regional stations or between regional and national stations. 7.7 Reaching young people on Radio 3 BBC Radio 3’s Public Service Remit is that “the service aims to appeal to listeners of any age seeking to expand their cultural horizons through engagement with the world of music and the arts”. In terms of audience reach, generally the breakfast hours are important times of day for a normal music station, with another smaller peak at drive time, from 5 until 7pm. On Jazz FM, in its early days, this was very different; the biggest peak was in the evening, and another smaller one in the morning for the breakfast show. 28 Overnight listening figures are extremely small as a rule, almost nothing, compared to daytime. Furthermore, RAJAR listening figures clearly demonstrate that the Saturday afternoon peak for listening to Radio 3 is to the jazz programmes 12. At 11pm, the timing of Jazz on 3 and Jazz Line-up at 11.30pm on Radio 3 makes it almost impossible for anyone but the retired to listen in at their radio broadcast time. Where theJazz cited around 53k listeners under the age of 15 and Gilles Peterson Jazz show on Radio 1 has 61,000 listeners, RAJAR figures for the 4th quarter of 2005 for BBC Radio 3 show that the number of listeners aged 15-25 for four programmes broadcast between 1600 and 1830 hours was 10,088 listeners 13. It is worth noting that the BBC Controllers felt unable to provide this information. In response to letters sent by Jazz Services on 5th February 2009, BBC Radio 3 Controller Roger Wright replied in his letter of 2nd April 2009: “information regarding the performance of individual programmes is confidential” – a statement that appears at odds with the Freedom of Information Act, whereby this information could otherwise be obtained. However, the timing of jazz programmes is clearly hostile to jazz listeners, and as Roger Wright also says in his letter of the 2nd April 2009: “As far as policy is concerned, you can see the outcome of the policy in the schedule. The authors of this report therefore query whether it is the policy of BBC Radio 3 to make these two programmes (Jazz on 3 and Jazz Line Up) inaccessible to the majority jazz audience by distancing them from the mainstream. 7.8 Regional spread of live music on Radio 3 The BBC Radio 3 Public Service Remit states that: “Radio 3 is committed to presenting music from across the UK from a broad range of venues and festivals”. The section below examines this assertion. A common complaint about BBC broadcasting is that live performances are heavily biased towards London. This is highlighted in the BBC’s Annual Report for 2007 – 2008.14 Sir Michael Lyons, speaking in November 2007, said: “One of the most worrying findings from the consultations we've done with the public is that people's loyalty to the BBC drops noticeably the further away they live from London. The figures are really striking. Compare 83% in the South East agreeing with the statement that they would "miss the BBC if it wasn't there", to 63% of those in Scotland and 64% of those in the north of England. “Audiences are telling us that the BBC is still too London-centric – and that has to change. The BBC has to deliver value to all its license fee payers, wherever they live. “I think the BBC has sometimes been too slow to recognise its out-of-London responsibilities. And this issue of the BBC delivering value to all its license fee payers, wherever they live, will be a subject of continuing challenge from the Trust.” (Source: Royal Television Society Fleming Memorial Lecture 1st Nov 2007) Jazz Services, the National Organisation for jazz funded by Arts Council England, feels that an explicit policy with regard to greater regional spread of recording of live jazz performance “would give an enormous fillip to, say, the Newcastle scene featuring their 'local heroes', the Cardiff scene, the Bristol scene and so on. It would give valuable profile to jazz in each area, help in audience building (musicians can make a press release to local newspapers in advance etc), enable promoters in various parts of the country to hear jazz they might never otherwise hear and hopefully encourage a Manchester promoter to book a Cardiff band and so on. The benefits would be enormous”. 29 It is significant that while the autonomy of a number of the regions is acknowledged in classical music, such as in regional orchestras, and supported by broadcasts from venues around the country, this is not mirrored in its provision of airtime for jazz. Radio 3’s specific Service Licence also states a commitment to “ensure that at least 40% of relevant spend is incurred outside the M25 area each year”, but in Jazz on 3 the representation of the current UK scene outside London is very much lacking, as the following chart reveals, with 63% of the UK live recordings being made in London: Jazz on 3 January 2007 to August 2008 Live recordings by geographical area 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 63% 37% London Outside London Table 16 Source: Jazz Line-Up Listings, BBC Website Jan 2007 to Aug 2008 30 Jazz on 3 January 2007 to August 2008 UK Venues 16% 14% 15 % 12 % 12% 11 % 10% 9% 8% 7 % 5% 5% 5% 4% 4% 3 % 2% 3% 3% 1% Huddersfield 4% Bath 4% Seven Arts, Leeds 7% 6% 1% 1% Green Room Manchester CBSO Sage Wardrobe, Leeds Glastonbury Cheltenham Wigmore Hall Jazz Cafe BBC Electric proms, Camden Ronnie Scott’s Red Rose Club Vortex South Bank Centre Pizza Express Barbican 0% Table 17: Source: Jazz Line-Up Listings, BBC Website Jan 2007 to Aug 2008 Table 17 shows the break down by venue of the live recordings from London and outside London. 31 Jazz UK magazine lists all the performances in the UK submitted to it. On average its proportion of London listings is 11.7% with 37% of listings coming from the North of England alone: Table 18: Source Jazz UK magazine Issue number 84 Dec/Jan 2008 By comparison, Cheltenham Festival took 12% of January 2007 to August 2008’s overall Jazz on 3 broadcast time, and was, after the London Jazz Festival, the only UK festival out of over 50 to be given such a heavy focus in this period. 7.8.1 Jazz on 3 Venues by Nations 15% of the live performances featured in BBC’s Jazz on 3 in this period – January 2007 to August 2008 – came from the US, predominantly the Vision Festival featuring only US artists. Had the BBC broadcast any of January 2008’s Toronto IAJE conference, they could have featured well-received performances of UK artists abroad, as aimed for in the BBC licence commitment: “the station should reflect UK culture to the world.” As matters presently stand, there has been little or no reciprocity between US musicians featuring on UK radio and UK musicians in turn featuring on US radio. 32 Jazz on 3: 2007 – Aug 2008 – Venues by Nations 90% 80% 80% 29.6% UK regions 70% 60% 50% 50.4% London 40% 30% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% Venue US % Table 19 Venue UK % Venue Europe % Source: Jazz Line-Up Listings, BBC Website Jan 2007 to Aug 2008 It is interesting to note that of jazz output from venues 70.4% come from London, USA and Europe and only 29.6% from the UK regions. 7.9 Representing jazz and the jazz audience – UK artists and events The Director General’s reply of the 25th September 2009 to a letter from Jazz Services states “programmes should exhibit some or all of the following characteristics: high quality, original, challenging, innovative and engaging, and it should nurture UK talent.” Section 7.8 examines the disparity between the BBC’s aims to nurture UK talent across the regions and its’ jazz broadcast output. While jazz audiences are growing, UK bands have been squeezed out of the BBC’s national radio broadcasting to the detriment of the jazz economy. Put quite simply, UK jazz musicians are not receiving adequate support from the UK’s publicly funded broadcaster so national audiences are being deprived of discovering the wealth and breadth of UK jazz talent unless it is on their own doorstep where they can see musicians in person. Listings from 1978 Radio 3 jazz broadcasts are available for comparison. For example: In 1978, 97% of Sounds of Jazz/Jazz Club’s broadcasts and 99% of Jazz in Britain’s broadcasts were from UK artists. However, in 2007-2008, only 53% of Jazz Line Up’s broadcasts and 26% of Jazz on Three’s broadcasts were from UK artists (see tables 20 and 21 overleaf). Of Jazz Library’s broadcasts just 4% were from UK artists. As Professor Stuart Nicholson notes, “This shocking imbalance is in stark contrast to European public sector broadcasters in the airtime they give to their own local jazz scenes which has significantly assisted in audience building, with local musicians enjoying a healthy following from local audiences as a result. One only has to look at the provision of jazz on German Public Radio for evidence of this.” 33 7.9.1 Strong negative effect on UK jazz economy In the July 2008 BBC Trust Report, ‘The economic impact of the BBC on the UK creative and broadcasting sector’ states “the BBC’s industry leadership role underpins its economic impacts in other businesses in the creative economy” and “The overall positive economic impact of the BBC’s expenditure on creative activities including expenditure on overheads and infrastructures was estimated to be approximately £6.5bn per annum or more than £5bn on the creative sector alone”. 15 The absence of UK jazz in the main broadcasting hours of BBC Radio has the cumulative effect that jazz in the UK is engaged in an economic struggle as a result, and cannot compete on a level playing-field with other music genres the BBC champions, such as pop and rock. Instead of fulfilling its Public Sector broadcasting remit of providing airtime for arts and culture uneconomically viable for commercial broadcasters, the BBC seems intent on going head to head with commercial broadcasters by competing with similar programmes, described by Sir Michael Lyons, Chairman of the BBC Trust, as “Ratings chasers.” Unlike classical music and pop and rock, jazz has not successfully been sustained by a commercial channel, and as illustrated above, there is a substantial audience being neglected by the BBC in spite of its Statement of Public Purpose and its agreement with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. 7.10 Case Study I 7.10.1 Jazz on 3 and Jazz Line-up Jazz on 3 is currently broadcast on Monday nights at 11.15pm, and real accessibility for much of its audience is only through its online broadcast. It is presented by Jez Nelson and aims to present the pick of today's jazz recorded live in concert, talk to the leading players, review new CDs and revisit the tradition through in-depth features. Jazz Line-Up is also broadcast late on a ‘school night’ (Sundays at 11.30pm). It is presented by jazz musicians Julian Joseph and Claire Martin, and purports to focus “on the established generation, playing mainstream, straight-ahead jazz, as well as the new generation of young players”. The programme also lists a selection of up-and-coming gigs around the UK. If Radio 3 is aiming to “nurture UK talent”, as the licence states, this is not helped by the current output. In the case of Jazz on 3, US talent is presented over and above the UK’s and does not encourage, reflect or record the wealth of UK jazz talent for audiences to hear live in their locality. To illustrate this disparity, the following diagrams compare the nationality of artists presented on Jazz on 3 and Jazz Line-up between January 2007 and August 2008 with those at one of the UK’s successful and typical jazz clubs: 34 Jazz Line Up January 2007 – August 2008 60% 53% 50% 40% 35% 30% 20% 12% 10% 0% Bands US % Bands UK % Bands Europe plus % Table 20: Source: Jazz Line-Up Listings, BBC Website Jan 2007 to Aug 2008 Jazz on 3 January 2007 – August 2008 60% 55% 50% 40% 30% 26% 18% Bands UK % Bands Europe plus % 20% 10% 0% Bands US % Table 21: Source: Jazz on 3, BBC Website Jan 2007 to Aug 2008 Wakefield Jazz January 2007 – August 2008 100% 93% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 5% 3% 0% Bands US % Bands UK % Bands Europe plus % Table 22: Source: Wakefield Jazz Listings, Wakefield Jazz Website Jan 2007 to Aug 2008 35 Closer examination of what Jazz on 3 claims is a “reasonable balance between the USA, UK and Europe” (Jazz UK April/May Issue 80) reveals that Jazz on 3 was set to transmit nine programmes between 4 April to 30 May. According to the details in Jazz UK, 44.4% of the programmes were devoted to American musicians (John Scofield, Dave Douglas, Bill Frisell, Ralph Alessi/Ravi Coltrane), 33.3% of programmes were devoted to bands from countries other than the UK (one programme each on a Japanese, Scandinavian and Dutch band), 11.1% (one programme) devoted to the Cheltenham Jazz Festival that presented a mix of American, European and UK artists while just 11.1% (one programme) was devoted to UK jazz. Airing weekly on Friday nights, Jazz on 3 is 90 minutes in length and has a reach of some 60,000 listeners which, when the potential audience for jazz in the UK is taken into account of some 3m (Target Group Index), represents not only a poor outcome for UK jazz followers but also raises “value for money” issues. Considering the remarkable recorded legacy of British jazz and the fact that today UK jazz is on a creative high, it is perhaps surprising the signature tune of the BBC’s flagship jazz radio programme, funded by UK licence payers for a UK audience, is performed by an American band. In the past, BBC jazz programmes often took the opportunity to draw attention to the homegrown product by means of a signature tune. Sounds of Jazz used the opening of Laurie Johnson’s “Synthesis,” for example, and is remembered by fans to this day. In the early 1970s, Jazz Record Requests used Ray Russell’s “Give Me My Paperback Back” and later (by 1975) Harry Beckett’s “Glowing” while Jazz Today used Mike Gibbs' "And on the Third Day" and later "Country Roads." Students of body language might conclude that just as subtle movements of the body constitute a series of non-verbal signals that indicate what we are really feeling, then the nonverbal signal gained from Jazz on 3 is that American jazz is preferred to British jazz on the UK’s flagship jazz radio show. Many musicians, educators and critics have checked through the weekly programme schedules (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/jazzon3/pip/archive/) and have concluded very much the same, that the proportion of UK content aired on the programme is not sufficient to adequately serve the interests of the UK jazz scene. It is not a question of whether Jazz on 3 broadcasts UK jazz, it does, but just taking a representative sample of programmes for the first three months of 2007, for example, from 5th January to 30th March (inclusive) there were twelve programmes, representing 18 hours of broadcasting. During that time one CD track by a British band was played on the 12 January programme (Led Bib), there was one programme featuring Tom Cawley and Ingrid Laubrock on 2nd February, one programme featuring Graham Collier and Finn Peters on 23 February, and five compositions performed by the Julian Siegel Trio (with an American bassist and drummer) worked into the programme on 2 March. This represented the entire UK jazz content for first quarter of 2007. The remaining eight programmes on the 5 January, 19 January, 26 January, 9 February, 9 March, 16 March, 23 March and 30 March, were given over to American jazz with the exception of 9 March which featured Swedish jazz. 36 7.11 Case Study II – BBC Broadcasts from the London Jazz Festival Artists The Festival itself covered jazz and non-jazz, so for the purpose of this case study, World Music and jazz influenced pop music has been excluded. London Jazz Festival 2008 BBC Radio 3 Radio Coverage 60% 54% 50% 40% 30% 20% 19% 21% 10% 0% Bands US % Bands UK % Bands Europe plus % Table 23: Source: London Jazz Festival Programme 2008 London Jazz Festival 2008 70% 60% 65% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 22% 11% 0% Bands US % Bands UK % Bands Europe plus % Table 24: Source: London Jazz Festival Programme 2008 The jazz output included celebrated American musicians Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea, but curiously not Courtney Pine and Alan Barnes who have both been awarded BBC Jazz Instrumentalist of the Year. The BBC’s recordings during the London Jazz Festival 2008 were from 7 venues. 40% of the output was recorded at the Southbank. See table 25 below. 37 7.11.2 Venues London Jazz Festival 2008 Venues – BBC Coverage 45% 40% 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 20% 15% 7% 7% Guildhall School of Music BBC Radio Theatre 7% Pizza Express, Soho 7% King’s Place 7% Ronnie Scott’s 10% 5% Barbican Southbank Live venue 0% Table 25: Source: London Jazz Festival Programme 2008 38 The use of these venues in the actual live programming looks as follows: London Jazz Festival 2008 Events by Venue 70 % 58 % 60 % 50 % 40 % 30 % 20 % 20 % 10 % 5% 6% 5% 5% 1% Not used by BBC Guildhall School of Music Pizza Express, Soho King’s Place Barbican Southbank BBC Radio Theatre Ronnie Scott’s 0% Table 26: Source: London Jazz Festival Programme 2008 Of the 43 venues used during the London Jazz Festival 2008 only 7 venues were used for broadcasts: 42% of the live events came from the 7 venues used for broadcasts. 58% of the live events came from the 36 venues not used for broadcasts. 39 8 BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 programmes (the late Malcolm Laycock celebrating swing and the BBC Big Band) are broadcast at 10pm or 11pm on Sundays and Mondays, again late for school the next day. Best of Jazz went out at 10.30pm on a Monday and, since Humphrey Lyttleton’s demise, has now been replaced by a Latin music programme. There are arguments to be made here in that jazz is being ghettoised in that by removing it from a ‘popular’ slot on a ‘popular’ station (Radio 2) to specialist music slots on a specialist music station (Radio 3), jazz is removed from chance encounters with a broad audience, producing in turn a ‘self fulfilling’ prophecy that jazz is not popular. It simply serves to confirm, as Stephen Barnard points out in On the Radio, that “jazz [is] the property of a cultured elite and exemplifies another familiar BBC tactic: to appear to accommodate the tastes of a minority community (in effect to grant ‘rights’ to it) while at the same time deliberately distancing those tastes from the mainstream” As Barnard points out, these were precisely the same arguments that saw jazz given Third Programme (the forerunner of Radio 3) slots late at night in the late 1940s and early 1950s when jazz was “seen at best by [BBC] personnel as a minority music worthy of a ‘specialist’ spot… thought by some to warrant inclusion (or, looking at it negatively, exclusion to) the Third Programme.” Both quotes from On the Radio by Stephen Barnard (Open University Press, Milton Keynes, 1989) pp 30. These arguments neatly dovetail with what follows: 40 9 BBC Jazz Awards and Service Reviews In the July 2008 BBC Trust Report, ‘The economic impact of the BBC on the UK creative and broadcasting sector states’: “The BBC organises many events each year which seek to extend their public service offering. Many of these events are musical in nature, thus fitting with live music quotas the BBC’s radio stations must fulfil.” The examples listed include the BBC Jazz awards. 16 However, the BBC Jazz Awards have been axed from 2009’s programming and to date there has been no explanation to the printed media nor to Jazz Services or individuals when they have asked why. In response to the question, "Why has the BBC decided to axe its BBC Jazz Awards in 2009 and what are the plans and timings for the BBC to revise its radio jazz broadcasting?" asked on 21 March 2009, the reply came on 25th March, “BBC Radios 2 and 3 wish to develop new plans for their coverage of jazz and are looking to see how the stations can more effectively bring the widest range of jazz concerts and coverage to UK audiences in the future.” 17 Although this could potentially be good news, this does not explain why the Awards have been cancelled. According to the BBC Trust, “Service reviews of Radio 2 and 6 Music will follow on from the reviews of Radio 1 and 1Xtra that are currently underway (and reporting in the spring), so that the Trust will have reviewed all of the BBC's contemporary music radio stations. We expect this review to launch, with a full public consultation, in May and to conclude at the end of 2009” 18 Jazz Services and the jazz community look forward to being invited to take part in this full public consultation. 41 10 Jazz and Public Sector Broadcasting in Europe 10.1 Summary Public broadcasting in Europe has both a policy and a strategy in place for the support of their national jazz scene. European broadcasters are surprised at how low the percentage of British jazz is on the UK’s publicly funded broadcaster, the BBC. One symptom of this is the small number of ‘pink offers’ to the EBU (recordings by UK jazz musicians offered for re-broadcast in Europe by other public broadcasters in the EBU). This denies UK musicians the opportunity of valuable European exposure and valuable work opportunities, and crucially representing UK culture abroad (a Charter requirement). 10.2 Broadcasting in Europe While this study makes no claims for completeness, indeed a survey of all twenty-five EEU member’s policies towards jazz in Public Sector broadcasting is beyond the scope of this paper, a representative cross-section of five EEU countries – Germany, Sweden, Finland, Austria, Switzerland – is included here. In Germany, Dr. Bernd Hoffmann, Head of Jazz for radio WDR in Germany points out in his 2008 paper Regional Structure – National Perspective: The Role of Public Radio in the German Jazz Scene that “Jazz in Germany is closely connected with public radio which is a supporting pillar for the German jazz scene.” (Please see Appendix 1 Case Study 3) German National Public Radio has two tiers, national and regional, as Karsten Mützelfeldt, radio host and co-producer of three jazz programmes on both national and regional German radio, points out, “Germany’s federal states are mirrored by a system where more or less every region has its own public radio station, and every public radio station has its own jazz producer. And as such, it is part of their cultural policy to document the regional jazz scene through concert and studio broadcasts, playing CDs and so on (emphasis added by the authors of this report). Some radio stations (WDR and SWR) acknowledge the regional scene with jazz awards. Three stations have their own big bands, orchestras exclusively dedicated to jazz: NDR in Hamburg, HR in Frankfurt and WDR in Cologne which have international reputations. Add to this national radio, Deutschlandfunk (DLF), which since 1997 it has been media partner of Jugend jazzt, a nationwide youth competition offering the winning band a studio recording at Deutschlandfunk. A look at the play lists of most of these public radio stations would show that European jazz now has more exposure than American jazz. Things are starting to change, mainly as a result of a greater awareness of the significance of European jazz” (emphasis again added by the authors of this report). What seems clear is that Public Broadcasting in Europe has both a policy and strategy in place for the support of their “local” or national jazz scene. For example, Dr. Bernd Hoffmann points to the Bundeskonferenz Jazz Concept Paper which was presented to the Deutscher Bundestag (German Parliament) in February 2007 that speaks of the “important role” the nine Public Broadcasting stations plus DLF and DKultur, each with their own jazz department, have in producing and presenting jazz “whose programmes have secure slots in the programming and each broadcast about 300 hours of jazz per month.” 42 As Dr. Wolfram Knauer, Director of the Jazz Institute of Darmstadt points out, “Public sector broadcasting is one reason the German jazz scene is thriving the way it is.” In Austria, Austrian Radio ORF plays an equally important role in its own “local” jazz scene, “I think it is very important for our own young musicians to be recorded and broadcast, I see it as a very important part of my job to support such ‘young lions” says Herbert Uhlir, Head of the Jazz for Ö1, the cultural division of Austrian Radio (ORF). “There are a lot of young musicians emerging in Austria from places like the Jazzwerkstatt Wien and the famous Music University in Graz and we broadcast a lot of the music by musicians living and working in Austria.” This situation is replicated in Sweden, where Christer Eklund, Senior Producer at Sveriges Radio (Swedish Radio) says, “Jazz on Swedish National Radio includes some 5 hours of live output per week alone, the majority of which comes from our own productions, and the rest from cooperation with the EBU.” Equally, in Finland radio presenter and producer Markus Partanen of the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE says, “The Finnish Broadcasting Company does put emphasis on Finnish jazz, both young and old players. Since the beginning of 1960's we've recorded studio-sessions that were in the 1970's a crucial effort in documenting Finnish jazz, since there were not many companies releasing Finnish jazz albums in Finland at that time. My own Jatzofrenia programme, which started in 1995, has been very crucial to the young Finnish jazz scene, both in terms of musicians and listeners. From the beginning I started to boost Finnish bands, and a lot of them have emerged since the mid-1990s. You can see the results now: plenty of open-minded, serious music fans in the younger generations listening to jazz.” The importance of supporting the “local” jazz scene is repeated in Switzerland, “I am convinced that it is vital for Public Service radio stations like the BBC, or DRS here in Switzerland, to support local and national jazz musicians,” says Peter Bürli, Head of Jazz for Schweizer Radio (Swiss Radio) DRS 2, “Who else could do this? Private radio stations? Mostly they do not even have jazz programmes.” The point Peter Bürli makes about Public Service Radio supporting their own local or national jazz scenes is well made, and is a consistent theme of the national Public Radio stations featured in this study. Freedom from commercial imperatives allows public broadcasters to play a clear and well defined role in the cultural and artistic jazz life of their respective country’s jazz scenes. What emerges when speaking to European broadcasters is a clear commitment to supporting their “local” jazz scene first, with international jazz (America, Europe) developments fitting in around it, which contrasts the BBC’s philosophy in this respect, with many feeling it has abdicated its responsibility to its local jazz scene. Indeed, when invited to look at the programming schedules of BBC Radio 2 and 3 for the nature and scope of their cover of the British jazz scene, many European broadcasters were shocked. “I scanned through the Jazz on 3 info [on the BBC website], and was amazed to find that the percentage of British jazz on the programme was so low,” says Christer Eklund, Senior Producer at Sveriges Radio (Swedish Radio). “I am sure that there is no lack of talented jazz musicians in Britain – as in Sweden – so it strikes me as very odd that the BBC is neglecting its national talent to such remarkable extent.” With European audiences looking more and more to European jazz, the BBC could, and should, be helping expose the United Kingdom jazz scene to both its national audience as well as European audiences and jazz animators who monitor jazz radio by recording far more concerts by British bands than they currently do and offering them for re-broadcast by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). In all, 341 jazz concerts were offered by European 43 broadcasters to the EBU in 2007 (Pink Offers), with each concert being taken by an average of 10 EBU members with an audience of around 1.2 million listeners. It would mean British jazz musicians, like their European counterparts, receive exposure on European radio stations, increasing their name awareness to European audiences and crucially to promoters and animators as well, so helping increase their potential income stream with work in Europe. “I would like to see more British jazz offered to the EBU,” continues Markus Partanen. “Last couple of years I recall a concert from the London Jazz Festival and the Cheltenham Jazz Festival, but from memory not much else. There must be more festivals than that in the UK!” In fact, the BBC’s participation in the EBU’s jazz programme is so poor, he says, “We don’t really know what is happening in the UK jazz scene.” It is a view echoed by Karsten Mützelfeldt, “It’s a shame that a lot of UK artists are still more or less unknown on the continent. Believe it or not, Continental Europe seems to be ready for sounds from the West that are not coming from the USA. That the BBC seems still to ignore their own national creative potential and improvising forces, is simply surprising to me.” This apparent withdrawal from the EBU by the BBC in respect of providing “local” jazz content for re-broadcast in Europe was reflected in the composition of the European Jazz Orchestra this year. The European Jazz Orchestra is an orchestra composed of young musicians from European countries, touring the Continent for three weeks and presenting a series of concerts under the aegis of the Danish-based organization Swinging Europe and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Each year the band has a completely new line-up, with new young musicians, new composers and a new conductor. In 2008, under the direction of the young composer and conductor Niels Klein from Germany, the band comprised musicians from Norway, Latvia, Finland, Canada, Czech Republic, Sweden, Slovenia, Denmark, France, Switzerland, Greece, Austria, Belgium, Romania, Germany and Ireland – all countries who contributed jazz programmes for re-broadcast on the EBU. The United Kingdom was conspicuous by its absence through its poor participation in the EBU programming for jazz. This denies young UK musicians the opportunity of valuable experience, exchanging ideas with other young musicians in Europe and creating networking opportunities in Europe. 44 11 BBC Radio and Value for Money 11.1 Summary BBC Radios 2 and 4 have increased their share of radio listening whilst Radio 3 hours and reach are down and its share remains at 1.3%. Radio 2 with 13 million listeners has the lowest cost per listener at £3.81; Radio 3 the highest cost with 2 million listeners at £24.93 per head. Jazz Music as a percentage of total music output is 1.74% on Radio 2 and 3.62% on Radio 3. 11.2 Comparison of audience data for BBC Radio stations 1, 2, 3, 4, 1 extra and BBC6 Radio Station Date from BBC Radio 1 December 1999 Hours 109 704 000 Reach 11 291 000 Share % 10.9% BBC Radio 2 December 1999 Hours 128 554 000 Reach 9 901 000 Share % 12.8% BBC Radio 3 December 1999 Hours 13 209 000 Reach 2 018 000 Share % 1.3% BBC Radio 4 December 1999 Hours 111 097 000 Reach 8 915 000 Share % 11% BBC Radio 1 extra September 2003 Hours 1 512 000 Reach 331 000 Share % 0.1% BBC Radio 6 September 2003 Hours 773 000 Reach 154 000 Share % 0.1% Table 27: Source www.mediauk.com 4/05/2009 Date to December 2008 101 865 000 10 576 000 10.1% December 2008 160 113 000 13 465 000 15.8% December 2008 12 695 000 1 981 000 1.3% December 2008 125 197 000 9 812 000 12.4% December 2008 2 514 000 533 000 0.2% December 2008 3 178 000 619 000 0.3% Percentage increase on (decrease) (7.1%) (6.3%) (7.3%) 24.5% 36.0% 23.4% (3.9%) (1.8%) 12.7% 10.1% 12.7% 66.3% 61.0% 100% 311% 301.9% 200% The two digital music stations Radio 1 extra and BBC6 have increased their share of radio listening by 100% and 200% respectively. BBC Radio 2 and Radio 4 have also increased their share of radio listening. Radio 1 has lost share and Radio 3 hours and reach are down and its share remains at 1.3%. 45 11.3 Comparison of Expenditure on BBC Radio Stations BBC Radio Station Radio 1 Year Content Distribution £m £m 2007 30.8 3.9 2008 31.5 4.2 Radio 2 2007 38.1 4.2 2008 39.5 4.5 Radio 3 2007 33.9 4.2 2008 37.4 4.7 Radio 4 2007 81.0 9.3 2008 81.2 10.0 Radio 1 2007 6.4 0.5 extra 2008 6.7 0.6 Radio 6 2007 5.4 0.5 2008 5.6 0.5 Table 28: Source: BBC Report and Accounts 2008 Infrastructure Support £m 8.1 7.4 7.8 7.3 6.6 7.3 14.7 14.3 2.1 2.0 1.4 1.4 Total Cost per listener £ 4.85 3.81 24.93 10.75 17.44 12.11 £m 42.8 51.3 50.1 51.3 44.7 49.4 105.0 105.5 9.0 9.3 7.3 7.5 Radio 2 with 13 million listeners has the lowest cost per listener at £3.81. Radio 3 with just under 2 million listeners has a cost per listener of £24.93. If there were more listeners to Radio 3 then the cost per listener would fall. 11.4 Jazz programming as compared to total cost of music output on Radios 2 and 3 BBC Radio Station Hours of Jazz Programming Cost of Jazz Programming Cost per hour Total Cost of Music Output Radio 2 50 £ 330 000 £ 6 600 £m 18.9 Jazz as a percentage of Total Music Output 1.74% Radio 3 260 900 000 3 461 24.8 3.62% Table 29 Source: letter from Tim Dobie, Director BBC Audio and Music 27th March 2008 These figures highlight the disparity in the hours and cost that Radio 3 and Radio 2 allocate to jazz as compared with other musics. 46 12 Options and Actions for Change 12.1 Summary The BBC is in a strong position to help create a greater awareness of British jazz’s rich heritage, by reformulating its policy around British jazz and interacting more with jazz organisations such as the National Jazz Archive on complimentary content and Jazz Services on promoting its jazz programming. The UK jazz economy could easily be supported at no extra cost by switching the emphasis to exclusive UK content which would allow UK bands greater national exposure. Live broadcasts from ‘local’ venues around the country would give a sense of empowerment to local jazz scenes. The BBC is in an ideal position to affect a quantum leap in presenting music in the UK by the establishment of a digital multiplex with dedicated stations for jazz, folk, world, roots and early music, also including Radio 6 and Radio 1 Extra. 12.2 Creating More Awareness of British Jazz’s Rich Heritage Now, more than ever, it is time for a strategic re-think about formulating programme policy around UK jazz. “While jazz students arrive at college better informed than ever about chords and scales, they are generally ill-informed about their own local musical heritage,” says Simon Purcell, Head of Jazz at Trinity College of Music, “Since the demise of British jazz on BBC radio, young musicians are now generally unaware of musicians of the stature of Norma Winstone, Stan Sulzmann, Pete Saberton, Pete Hurt or Phil Lee, let alone the pioneering contributions of John Dankworth, Joe Harriott, Ronnie Scott or Tubby Hayes.” This lack of knowledge of UK jazz is in sharp contrast to countries like Norway, Sweden, Holland or France where young musicians are immensely proud of their local tradition. “A change of emphasis in BBC programming might help remedy this,” continues Simon Purcell. “Jazz Library, for example, broadcast 41 programmes in 2007 but included just one on English born musician, Dave Holland, but he moved to the USA in 1969. A much greater emphasis on our own distinguished jazz musicians, past and present would benefit the UK scene.” There certainly is an eagerness to know more about British jazz history which the DJ Gilles Peterson discovered when he launched his Impressed series on Universal records with two best selling compilations of long neglected classics of British jazz in 2002. It lead to re-issues of long unavailable masterpieces such as Mike Garrick’s Troppo, Mike Taylor’s Trio and Neil Ardley, Ian Carr and Don Rendell’s Greek Variations. The success of the Impressed series led to Jazz Britannia, a three part television history of British jazz produced by Somethin’ Else, and a Barbican concert of the same name (also televised) which resulted in many musicians and fans under the age of 30 discovering for the first time that British jazz had an exciting and vibrant history. The BBC should interact more with the jazz community, working with the National Jazz Archive on complimentary jazz content for its programmes, with Jazz Services to provide and promote an online portal for all its jazz programmes both nationally and locally. 12.3 Supporting the UK Jazz Economy through Public Broadcasting with the Existing Service at no Extra Cost There is no reason why the BBC cannot support its local jazz scene to the same extent European public broadcasters do, which has resulted in vibrant jazz scenes throughout Europe with their own distinctive local characteristics. As Dr. Bernd Hoffmann points out, “A 47 public [radio] station offers a great range of possibilities especially when it comes to positioning jazz within cultural politics.” If the BBC gave more support to its local scene, it would, as Simon Purcell has pointed out, help musicians to develop artistically as well as providing a source of income, “Otherwise they face a lifetime entirely dependent upon competitive self-promotion.” Simply by changing the emphasis to exclusive UK content would allow UK bands broadcasting live concerts to gain valuable national exposure, increasing their name awareness to potential UK audiences while the prestige – yes, it still exists but is not being exploited in favour of UK jazz musicians sufficiently – of being heard live every now and again on a flagship BBC jazz programme from their “local” venues would give confidence to festival producers, venue managers and animators up and down the country to book artists they may not have otherwise known about. Instead of funding trips to New York at the licence payers’ expense to record sessions with American jazz musicians – “A complete waste of licence payers’ money,” says Dave Gelly, a view shared by countless musicians, animators and fans in the UK jazz economy – programmes could be broadcast live from jazz venues up and down the country helping stimulate interest in “local” jazz scenes. As Dr. Hoffmann says in relation to practices in German Public Radio, “Live recordings direct attention to the different regional German jazz scenes,” adding “there is a strong regional relation[ship] between regional music scenes and public radio,” something that is very obviously absent on BBC airwaves. Equally, these live broadcasts (properly paid for in accordance with existing agreements regarding payment of musicians) could be purchased by local bands for subsequent release on CD or via their internet. Today, there is a high level of jazz in all stylistic genres to be found throughout the United Kingdom. A weekly flagship jazz programme on the BBC should be seeking out these bands, and ensuring they get national exposure and adding to the vitality of the UK jazz scene. Surely, if European Public Broadcasters see this as part of their function in cultural life – as Dr. Bernd Hoffmann says of German Public Radio, “[we offer] a platform for the respective regional jazz scenes” – hard questions must be asked of the BBC about why they appear to be abrogating their responsibility in such matters. The exceptionally high standard of jazz being achieved throughout the country can easily be discerned in the bands represented by Jazz Services’ Promoter’s Choice. In a brief telephone survey of ten promoters and animators (often poorly paid or volunteering their services) throughout the UK, there was unanimity that local audiences would be “thrilled” if live jazz from the regions was broadcast nationally, and the fillip it would give to local scenes such as Wakefield Jazz, the Vortex, the 606 Club, Birmingham Jazz, Derby Jazz, Newcastle’s Jazz North East, Manchester Jazz Festival, and the local scenes in places such as Cardiff, Swansea, Bristol, Glasgow and Exeter would be considerable in aiding audience development – both for local live gigs and national radio audiences. One significant way in which the UK jazz scene has changed in recent years is the emergence of local jazz scenes around the country in cities with a music conservatory offering jazz education such as a Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham or Cardiff. Significantly, young graduate musicians see no reason to move to London to establish their reputation, but are content to develop their careers within their own local scenes. The Cardiff based pianist Dave Stapleton, a graduate of the jazz course at Cardiff College of Music and Drama and a young musician invited to participate in the Take 5 initiative says, “On this Take 5 thing they said, come to London, you’ll make it much quicker, but I’m still determined not to move to London. I have this big thing, ‘You don’t have to move to London to be successful!’ I’m working hard to prove I’m right.” 48 This viewpoint is by no means unusual. Musicians all over the country share this philosophy, such as Matthew Bourne in Leeds or Jon Thorne in Manchester. It represents a significant shift in the hitherto London-centric jazz economy, and it is vital to the UK jazz scene that the interests of these musicians are proportionately represented on the BBC radio, introducing their work to a national audience in line with the BBC’s own Charter of “representing the UK, its nations, regions and communities.” It is within this context the whole sweep of British jazz could be featured, from top class traditional jazz, big bands (the BBC sadly ended the national big band competition which had become a focal point of national big band activity), mainstream, bebop and hard bop, vocal jazz, experimental jazz – in short the very best of the whole British jazz landscape. It is stressed that emphasis should be given to live broadcasts from local venues around the country to give a sense of empowerment to local jazz scenes and musicians and prompt interest in local jazz scenes and well as showcasing to a national audience the breadth and vitality of the whole UK jazz scene, whatever the genre. This would have significant impact in audience building at a local and national level. It represents an important strategic shift which is not impossible to achieve, as Dave Gelly of The Observer notes, “There is so little live music recorded nowadays that’s to the detriment of UK jazz. Time was when, in a three-hour session, a BBC producer like Robin Sedgley could get results it would take a commercial recording studio two days to achieve.” The Jazz Club programme that existed from 1947 to 1982 that was axed for no good reason provided an excellent model for BBC jazz programming. Here a wide range of UK jazz was featured weekly, from New Orleans to the hearty mainstream of, say, Alex Welsh, to fascinating but almost unknown groups like the Danny Thompson Trio with a very young John McLaughlin on guitar. Many Jazz Club concerts have subsequently appeared on CD, which says much for the programme’s historical importance in documenting British jazz as well as giving valuable exposure to both established and upcoming UK musicians of all genres. The role that a programme like this played in British jazz is sadly absent from current broadcasting schedules, but is a regular feature of European Public Broadcasting schedules. As a publicly funded broadcaster, freed from the commercial broadcasting sector’s pressure of maximising shareholder value, the BBC should be much more active in supporting the arts in general and the UK jazz scene in particular. One only has to look at the kind of support it has historically given to the UK classical scene, including maintaining five classical orchestras and the BBC Singers (the UK’s only full-time professional choir), to get some idea of how a change of balance supporting UK jazz (it is, after all the British Broadcasting Corporation) within existing programming budgets, would secure the long term health of British jazz. All that is required is that the BBC follows the example of European Public Service broadcasters, who are more aware of the importance of supporting their own local cultural and artistic heritage than the BBC, despite its charter. 12.4 Objectives Can Be Met Within Existing Budgets It is important to stress these objectives can be managed within the existing budgets and airtime afforded jazz. If, and hopefully when, jazz gets more airtime on the BBC, then yes, expand the cover to include a more detailed reflection of international developments as the existing format for Jazz on 3 is currently doing. But surely it is wrong for a British public service broadcaster to cover developments in America and elsewhere at the expense of its local scene within the airtime currently allocated to jazz? 49 The way BBC programming continually looks over its shoulder to the USA is at odds with the growing awareness in Europe of the importance of European jazz. “Jazzwise recently spoke of a ‘resurgence of the UK scene,” says Karsten Mützelfeldt, “This is a resurgence that can also be witnessed in other European countries as well, such as Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Finland, Estonia, Poland, Italy, Switzerland, Austria and Germany to name just a few, supported by Public Broadcasting.” The BBC should also engage more with the jazz community, working with the National Jazz Archive on complimentary jazz content, with Jazz Services to provide and promote an online portal for all BBC jazz programmes both nationally and locally. 12.5 Transforming Digital Radio 12.5.1 What is Digital Radio? The Digital Radio Development Bureau provides a useful synopsis of the DAB digital radio: “DAB digital radio is not satellite radio. DAB digital radio is not internet radio. DAB digital radio is a new way of broadcasting radio via a network of terrestrial transmitters. It provides listeners with more choice, better sound quality and more information. DAB digital radio is like analogue radio, only better. Listeners in most major towns and cities in the UK can receive between 30 and 50 radio stations with a digital radio, in many cases that's more than double what's available on analogue. And it's not just more of the same - the content within that choice of stations is unique and exciting, delivering station formats that just don't exist on analogue. The FM spectrum is so clogged right now that there's no room for new stations that would expand listeners' choice with, for example, soul music, or country music, or big band swing, or any of the other 100+ brands that are available uniquely to DAB. Because digital radio uses the spectrum more efficiently than analogue, it is possible to broadcast more channels using the same frequency, making room for broadcasters to expand their station portfolios. DAB digital radio delivers improved sound quality. The technology allows the receiver to lock on to the strongest signal it can find and ignore everything else. This eliminates the hiss, crackle and fade so familiar on analogue radio. With DAB digital radio there are no frequencies to remember and sets are tuned by station name. National stations stay put, so there's no retuning on the move. Each DAB broadcaster (multiplex operator) has 20% of its capacity reserved for data services. Digital radio receivers have a screen on which stations can transmit information via Dynamic Label Segments (DLS). Some stations already transmit the latest news, travel, and weather, what's on now and next, website addresses and phone numbers. The latest DAB digital radios come with a built-in EPG (Electronic Programme Guide) letting you select and plan your listening up to a week in advance. The potential for advertisers to use the DLS facility on DAB for targeted advertising is an exciting prospect, and in the future, advertisers can use DAB to deliver web-type commercials.” www.drdb.org/whats.php 50 12.5.2 The Digital Future The Digital Working Radio Group (DWRG) final report noted inter alia that Digital Audio Broadcasting is the most appropriate replacement for analogue radio in the UK. Furthermore a digital platform frees radio to a significant extent from the constraints of analogue, to offer greater choice and variety for consumers and allow for greater competition and innovation. 19 Digital Britain made a recommendation that the Government will, in line with the DWRG’s recommendations, set out a Digital Migration Plan to take the majority of listening from FM to DAB as soon as possible. Also the Government will work with the BBC on how they can extend their digital radio coverage at least to replicate FM analogue coverage. 20 In March 2004, 1.8 million people (3.9% of adults 15+) claimed to have a DAB radio set; by May 2009 the figure had rocketed to 16.2 million people (32.1% of the adult population) claiming to own a DAB set at home. In May 2009 DAB radio listening amounted to 130 million hours per week. Listening to digital-only radio stations has climbed from 905, 000 listeners in 2003, to 6.09 million listeners in 2007 and 10.09 million listeners in May 2009. 21 It is clear that the BBC has played a significant role in the development of the digital radio sector, from the original technical innovation to promoting uptake of the medium amongst audiences. The launch of digital radio has also provided additional spectrum capacity which commercial companies have the opportunity to use for commercial services. However, some stakeholders argued that the BBC should have not led the market towards DAB, arguing that it might be a transition technology, and others have criticised the BBC’s digital services for attracting audiences away from commercial services. The BBC more realistically is damned if it does and damned if it does not. On this occasion – to use the platitudinous phrase much used by BBC controllers over the years – “we have got it about right”. Lord Carter’s final report ‘Digital Britain’, published on the 16th June 2009, made a number of recommendations that will impact on the BBC: • • • • • £200 million of the so called digital switchover surplus to fund the reported plans to roll out unused broadband at 2mbps to UK households by 2012. The balance of the £200 million switchover fund to fund pilots of a new regional news service to be delivered by independent commercial consortia which could replace ITV after it withdraws in 2012. The next license fee settlement in 2012/13 could see the entire fund of £130 million per annum being used to fund the new independent news network. The £130 million fund could also be used to boost children’s’ television with Channel 4 being seen as one of the chief beneficiaries of the funding. This will however not address the minimum £30 million a year funding gap identified by Ofcom. All the UK’s national stations and many of its local stations will stop broadcasting on analogue by the end of 2015. Clearly the proposed ‘top slicing’ of BBC’s license fee has crucial implications for the financing of the BBC operations and networks. 12.5.3 Where could the BBC put jazz? BBC Radio 3’s audience demographic reflects the jazz audience demographic (broadly ABC 1, predominantly broadsheet readers), but many of the Radio 3 core classical audience would object to an increase in jazz programming, while their core jazz audience want something to fill the gap of short-lived award-winning commercial stations – theJazz for example. 51 Meanwhile, BBC Radio 2’s licence content fits the needs of the jazz industry more snugly, but the station does not programme much jazz and does not have a strong reputation amongst the UK jazz audience. However, the jazz audience is out there without a station to tune to, except by having to go online, while for the non-core audience, as Sir Michael Lyons noted in November 2007: “One of the clearest messages BBC audiences give us is that they want the BBC to produce more that is fresh and new, more content that surprises and delights them and they cannot get from any other source.” (Royal Television Society Fleming Memorial Lectures 1st November 2009) As stated in the Independent on 11th August 2007 “one of digital radio’s biggest success stories was the three month old station theJazz, which posted its first set of figures at 334,000 listeners, beating Radio 3’s jazz audience of 291,000.” Again, it must be emphasised how poorly the BBC is serving the UK jazz audience if a private sector broadcaster on a limited digital platform can, in a short space of time, deliver an audience larger than that of the BBC for jazz, bearing in mind the huge resources available to the public sector broadcaster whose budget exceeds the GDP of several EEU countries. The BBC has invested in Radio 1 Extra with a remit of “the best in contemporary black music, with a strong emphasis on supporting live music and new UK artists”. The BBC has invested in Radio 6 whose remit "is to provide context for the music it plays (popular music from the 60s to the present day) and support live music and new artists”. The station’s priority in 2008 was “live music, especially of UK origin”. The BBC’s charter is: • • • • • • To sustain citizenship and civil society To promote education and learning To stimulate creativity and cultural excellence To represent the UK, its nations, regions and communities To bring the UK to the world and the world to the UK To take a leading role in digital switchover The way forward for the BBC in terms of under represented music in the UK is to establish a digital multiplex that contains dedicated stations for jazz, opera and classical, folk, world and roots and should include Radio 6 and Radio 1 Extra in the number of stations. Radio 3 could then devote itself to building an audience for opera, classical, speech etc. The BBC would tick every box in its charter and crucially help and support live music of and from the United Kingdom. The notion that this cannot be achieved is made nonsense by the speed with which Radio 1 was established in answer to a commercial radio station operating off the shores of the UK – Radio Caroline. In these straitened times the BBC should act with all speed and determination to assist live music making in the UK. 52 Endnotes: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. Verney P. 2002/2003 Target Group Index – summary of results. Arts Council of England Ibid 1 Target Group Index July 2004 – June 2005 BRMB International Ibid 1 The Value of Jazz in Britain – Riley, Mykaell and Laing, Dave. Jazz Services Ltd. Published December 2006 p3 Ibid 1 Research Report 34. Dec 2003. Focus on Cultural Diversity: the arts in England, attendance, participation and attitudes. Office of National Statistics, Bridgewood/Fern/Dust/Hutton/Skelton/Skinner Radio Joint Audience Research Limited for BBC Jazz Content. Fourth quarter period ending 18th December 2005 Radio Joint Audience Research, September 2007 Ibid 9 Radio Joint Audience Research, June 2007 Ibid 8 Ibid 8 BBC Annual Report 2007/2008 pp 18, 19 The Economic Impact of the BBC on the UK Creative and Broadcasting Sector. BBC Trust Report July 2008 p3 Ibid 15 p53 Email correspondence between Emma Kendon and the BBC 21 & 25 March 2009 www.bbbc.co.uk/bbctrust/news/press_releases/2009/radio2_6.music.html Digital Radio Working Group, final report December 2008 p 11 Digital Britain, the interim report January 2009 p10 Radio Joint Audience Research Limited for 2003, 2007 and 2009 53 APPENDIX Case Study 3 Regional Structures – a national perspective of jazz broadcasting in Germany Bernd Hoffmann (Köln) Regional Structure – National Perspective The role of public radio in the German jazz scene 1. Summary Jazz has taken a key position in the landscape of public radio in the Federal Republic of Germany. While private radio stations radically ignore jazz as programme content, public radio – united by the ARD (Association of public broadcasting in Germany) – offers wide ranging forms of production and presentation for the different regional scenes in Germany. This essay illustrates the current status of radio jazz programmes, describes the work of the eleven jazz editorial departments of the ARD and specifies next to the productions (such as transmissions and festivals), initiatives in cultural politics like Jazz awards and the active support for venues that gives essential impulse to German jazz scenes. Due to the structure of public broadcasting stations the regional jazz scenes are supported through festivals in the different federal states or those organised by public radio itself. The capacity of jazz programmes on public radio has undergone a steady development and today accounts for about 370 hours of jazz programmes every month. Additionally, programmes have moved from their night-time positions to timeslots before 8pm. Venues and their programmes as well as young jazz musicians are supported through projects like the “Venue Association” or WDR 3 Campus:Jazz. 2. Introduction “Jazz in radio always has had to deal with a bad image – too late, too short, too little, threatened by the next programme reform. Those clichés always hold true – or they don’t hold true, they can neither be proven nor can they be disproven.” [Rüsenberg 2008] It is the extremes and contradictions that shape this vital music scene in Germany and the country’s perception of this music scene – a perception influenced by the mass media. Jazz and improvised music on public radio draw a complex picture: programmes about historical styles or the newest concepts in improvisation; live recordings of musicians in a certain region; concerts featuring international groups and festivals organised by public broadcasting stations themselves. This diversity is shaped by the perspective work of public radio supporting this music scene. Radio transmission, music productions or activities in the field of cultural and educational policy: the abundance of tasks displays how complex the system is within public broadcasting corporations in Germany, which was created after World War II and historically grew together with the developing jazz scene. Since the beginning of the federal public broadcasting system jazz editors have played an important role in coining the German jazz scene, an influence still recognizable today: Joachim Ernst Behrendt, Karlheinz Drechsel, Joe Kienemann, Michael Naura, Bert Noglik, Ulrich Olshausen or Dietrich Schulz-Köhn. The characters of this group may reflect how jazz traditionally has been perceived by public broadcasting stations, but also stand for a great 54 measure of consistency in their ongoing support of jazz music. While keeping in mind the history and tradition of the public broadcasting stations in Germany, it is important to look at different programme and production formats and how these different kinds of shows support a music scene that has certified itself an “insecure existence in Germany” [Bundeskonferenz Jazz 2007]. Jazz in Germany is closely connected with public radio which is a supporting pillar for the German Jazz scene and its regional characteristics. This view is supported by the results of research conducted by radio journalist Ekkehard Jost in 1988: “While I surely admit that the position of jazz in the print media and especially in the daily press is a very sad one, on television even a disconcerting one, I think it to be quite good on radio.” (Jost 1988.8). Only very few journalistic or musicologist works have dealt with the work of the editorial jazz department of public radio stations in Germany, which is the reason why the results of Jost’s analysis of the late 1980s will have to serve as a basis of comparison for an evaluation of today’s situation. As the editor-in-chief of the jazz department, I have been working for the WDR (West German Public Broadcasting / Westdeutscher Rundfunk) since 2002, a public station that offers a great range of possibilities especially when it comes to the positioning of jazz music in cultural politics. In dealing with North Rhine-Westphalia’s specific jazz scene, the regional characteristics of other federal states and their respective public broadcasting stations become clear. Thereby the role of public radio in the different regional jazz scenes is characterised by its complexity which can make it hard to qualify. But there is one factor that all the public broadcasting stations of the ARD, the Association of Public Broadcasting Stations in Germany (Bayerischer Rundfunk, Deutsche Welle, Hessischer Rundfunk, Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, Norddeutscher Rundfunk, Radio Bremen, Rundfunk BerlinBrandenburg, Saarländischer Rundfunk, Südwest Rundfunk, Westdeutscher Rundfunk) as well as the Deutschlandfunk and Deutschlandradio Kultur have in common: the permanent feedback within a regional and yet federal concept guarantees the cooperation between musicians, festivals and editorial departments. Radio concerts and festivals organised by the stations offer – alongside other activities – a platform for the respective regional jazz scene. Furthermore, these festivals and concerts allow internal communication about artists or groups within the network, even if stations are located further away. At first sight this leads to a mosaic-like picture of the radio jazz departments, which only becomes apparent as a creative surrounding for jazz music when regarded in the medial context. Pointing out the complexity of the editorial offices’ work and activities is a highly rewarding task which I will be devoted to in this paper. Along with a quantitative overview about the broadcasting volume of the different stations there will also be thematic focuses on festivals and decisions in the sector of cultural policy such as jazz awards, the support for venues and young musicians. Critical claims of the work of public radio are usually reduced to aspects of quantity with regard to the number of jazz programmes that are broadcast at night – when everybody sleeps. Most of the time, this kind of criticism lacks a broader view of the activities of the public broadcasting stations, such as their own productions and live recordings and also the organisation of jazz festivals. Most notably through initiatives of cultural policy and the cooperation with venues that again influence such radio jazz programmes often remain unmentioned in those critical publications. The following current scenario is based on websites of the public broadcasting stations named above1 and on surveys in which editors from the different stations were interviewed about the emphasis in their productions and programmes. This survey was conducted between 2005 and 2007 and of course underlies structural dynamics within the jazz programmes. Referring to the section about public broadcasting in the Bundeskonferenz Jazz concept paper ‘On the situation of Jazz and Improvised Music in Germany’ which was presented to the Deutscher Bundestag (German Parliament) in February of 2007, I will illustrate in-depth the work of the editorial offices. “Here special mention should be made of 55 the public broadcasting stations that have an important role in producing and presenting jazz. Nine of the stations as well as DLF and DKultur have their own jazz department, whose programmes have secure slots in the programming. The ARD (DKultur, DLF included) broadcasts about 300 hours of jazz per month. This makes the ARD the medium which does the most to distribute jazz music within the media landscape of Germany. Furthermore, public broadcasting has initiated a number of jazz festivals, jazz awards (e.g. WDR Jazz Award, SWR-Jazz Award) and associations of cultural policy (Association of Independent Venues / Gemeinschaft unabhängiger Spielstätten), that support regional and national jazz scenes as well. The bigger public stations such as the WDR, NDR and HR have excellent Big Bands of their own, which present their programmes on numerous German stages and festivals.” [Bundeskonferenz Jazz 2007.3] 3. Jazz programmes on public radio: A review The historical dimension of today’s jazz radio has its roots in the ruins of World War II. The development of local and regional jazz scenes was supported by radio that broadcasted this music in the four zones of occupation. Historically proven are jazz programmes on Radio Munich, Radio Stuttgart, Radio Frankfurt. [Willett 1989.95]. In 1948, the NWDR Köln broadcast with the ‘Jazz Almanach’ the first jazz series consisting of more than 90 issues, whose manuscripts remain available to this day. [Hoffmann 2008b] The first phase of institutionalisation of editorial work in public broadcasting was characterised by an obvious professionalisation of employees and the dissociation from ‘Naïve Music’. The creation of the jazz departments at the SWF, [Friedrich 1991.148] NDR and SDR during the early 1950s represented the beginning of the development of organisational structures, which led to the creation of further jazz departments in the ARD during the second half of the 1960s (HR, BR, RB, RIAS, WDR). This organisational revaluation of a music genre and the admission to the programme group “music” may appear to the outsider to be of marginal relevance, but such an internal positioning of new content usually leads to regular programmes and adequate financing, resulting in institutional expansion and consolidation of jazz as content matter in its own right. This does not necessarily become apparent by means of broadcasting time, but reaches a new quality level by employing a jazz editor who serves as a contact for musicians and festivals. A third phase of editorial change within the ARD was reached with the German Unity and the merging of some public broadcasting stations in Eastern Germany (ORB+SFB=RBB, MDR) and in Southern Germany (SDR+SWF=SWR). Often the evaluation of the jazz departments and their work capacity is based on the number of programmes labelled ‘jazz programmes’ and the amount of time these programmes are given. Only very few studies or surveys have systematically collected data about those capacities over a period of several years. Those that exist have accounted for the immense problems caused by the subject matter itself. The data on which Schreiner [1968], Fark [1971] and Jost [1988] based their studies, illustrates how difficult it is to make a precise statement on the amount of broadcasting time used for jazz programmes between 1948 and 2008. Different methods of data collection – such as counting the jazz programmes in programme prints (Fark) or surveying the editorial offices (Jost, Schreiner) – produced different results, demanding the combination of both approaches. Further problems result from the difficulty of evaluating regular and irregular jazz programmes with regard to their quantity in broadcasting time, as irregular programmes have to be identified as additional broadcasting volume. Also numerous “Klangkörper” programmes have to be included into the evaluation of such capacities, therefore altering the proportion of the different programmes like live-transmissions of information programmes. In Reinhard Fark’s study the selection of radio stations is the factor which makes this study incomparable with those of Schreiner and Jost.2 Overall though, his findings for the period from 1948 to1966 are as significant as the snapshots of the years 1968 and 1988. Fark’s study relates to the 56 following stations: NWDR I, SWF I, Frankfurt I, München I, Stuttgart I and the army radio station BFN. For this period of time beginning before the currency reform and lasting until the mid-1960s, Fark makes a number of observations, which become apparent “in the rising number of broadcasting minutes, in the abolishment of positioning margins within the total broadcasting time, and next to this the limitation of jazz programmes to certain weekdays.” [Fark 1971.174] His judgement is mostly based on quantitative considerations and leaves little room for research regarding the content or topical focuses chosen by the editorial offices. In the foreground stands only the statistical census of the volume of jazz programmes broadcast. Using a similar approach, Klaus Schreiner came up with the following monthly broadcasting times used for jazz programmes: BR: 11.30 hours, HR: 11.40 hours, NDR: 23 hours, RB: 22 hours, SDR: 14.30 hours, SWF: 16 hours und WDR: 10.30 hours [Schreiner 1968.222f.]. Given that irregular jazz programmes are included in these 120 hours of broadcasting volume, it accurately accounts for about 10 percent less. In Ekkehard Jost’s study which was conducted exactly 20 years later, for the first time content was also used as criteria along with quantity. Jost also rejected the deficit hypothesis of a reduction of jazz programmes as his statistic surveys referring to the stations listed above showed an increase of 100 hours, thus 220 hours of jazz on public radio per month [Jost 1988.H4.8-13]. Furthermore, Jost questions the criteria catalogue of jazz programmes that only deal with a specific style of jazz – a specialisation which already existed in the early 1950s. [Hoffmann 2008b] His preference for contemporary approaches of improvised music becomes apparent just like his preference for moderating jazz musicians as– according to Jost – they provided a better basis for analysis due to their handcraft experience. As he compares broadcasting times of different radio programmes, Jost also notices that jazz programmes move in their broadcasting time slots to the early evening and thereby continues Fark’s diagnosis. This trend is continued as shown by the actual survey of 2008: radio waves like BR 4, HR 2, RBB Kulturradio, SWR 2 and MDR Figaro transmit their jazz programmes before 8 pm, WDR 3, DLF, DKultur, NDR and SR 2 before 10 pm. This shows that 70 percent of all ‘regular jazz programmes’ begin before 10 pm. Comparing the findings of the 1968 and 1988 studies to the actual situation at the stations BR, HR, NDR, RB, SWR and WDR it is noticeable that despite the merging of SDR and SWF, the share of jazz programmes has increased since 1988 and now accounts for 250 hours of ‘regular jazz programmes’ per month. This is a clear expansion compared with the calculated amount in Jost’s survey. 3 4. On the amount of broadcasting time provided for jazz programmes: the years 2006-2007 Presenting the manifold fields of work in an editorial office for jazz was the original intention of the questionnaire I had developed, which next to a differentiated survey on the portion of jazz programmes (in 2006 and 2007) also covered the topics of studio-productions, the structure of jazz festivals and the internal communication in the ARD. Especially notable is here the diversity of programmes dealing with jazz and also the extensive interplay between public radio stations and the regional jazz scenes. In this context especially the support of local musicians is an important factor which is achieved through radio-portraits, technical support for record productions, financial support for jazz festivals as well as the stabilization of local venues. Those aspects outline the complexity of the radio work, which is different for every radio station due to historical, regional and internal factors and which therefore hardly offers any criteria useful for substantial comparison. The works of Fark, Schreiner and Jost have already illustrated the differences between the stations concerning the quantity of jazz coverage. This 57 tendency can also be clearly seen in the following line-up, which shows the outline of those programmes that the stations label ‘jazz programme’ [FOLIE 1]. The regularity of a constant timeslot means planning reliability for the editorial offices and further secures that a programme can easily be found on a channels agenda. This is an important contribution to the position of jazz in the ARD. With a total of 377 hours of regular jazz programmes, which are broadcasted by the public stations BR, HR, MDR, NDR, RB, RBB, SR, SWR, WDR as well as DKultur and DLF, it amounts to 4524 hours of jazz a year that are distributed via cable or internet and therefore can be listened to even across the borders of the respective federal state. Additional jazz programmes which are included because of actual jazz festivals, concert transmission or the appreciation of historical personalities mount up to an additional broadcasting volume of about 800 hours per year. With regard to the distribution of jazz it is also important not to underestimate the educational factor of numerous cultural magazines. This also appears to be a relevant way of transporting jazz as a music genre, but will not be included in the considerations of this paper. The more detailed classification of the category “regular jazz programme” allows a more precise view on the broadcasting schemes and illustrates the diversity of jazz programme types.4 The categorisation in portraits, information programmes, news magazines, jazz magazine programmes and mixed-formats allow for focus on different formats and aspects that are consistent with the daily journalistic work at a radio station [FOLIE 2]. In this context several aspects can be emphasised: • The near constant provision of portrait programmes as used by BR, MDR, SWR and WDR shows that there is still a strong tendency for canonisation in jazz programmes: jazz radio broadcasts of historical recordings, not only by influential American jazz musicians like Jelly Roll Morton, Ella Fitzgerald or Miles Davis, but also the recorded repertoire of early German Jazz Orchestras and Ensembles (Orchester Kurt Edelhagen, jazz ensemble of the HR). • Information on jazz with references to concerts and festivals, book reviews or the evaluation of different “jazz cities” with regard to their activities in the field of cultural politics, show the service character of those jazz programmes • Programmes dealing with specific topics across the spectrum of jazz into stylistic, historical, or musical aspects. Also the demand for the presentation of new records can be regarded as a thematic bridge, though this is also one aspect of providing information. • The magazine-type programmes present the developments in jazz in Germany and abroad in a concise matter and offer a wide range of information. These programme formats usually fall back on produced records from the music industry, while the live recordings that editorial offices produce allow a view on current developments at concerts and festivals. Here the jazz editor becomes a producer, who has to decide if he wants to portray the regional scene or the (expensive) American star before he decides to make a live recording. Looking at the volume of live recordings in the years 2005 and 2006 it also has to be considered that the live recordings also affect international groups on tour and also direct attention to the different regional German jazz scenes, whereby the stylistically more historical oriented groups are not quite as much accounted for [FOLIE 3]. The jazz departments of the ARD support more than 30 jazz festivals per year which can be regarded as an indication of the strong regional relationship between the music scene and public radio, which has been strengthened still further since 2005. However, there is only rarely any ‘take-up’ of materials from other broadcasting stations. This is especially the case for the corporate event Jazzfest Berlin and the exchange of material for the EBU, the European Broadcasting Union. In order to illustrate the yearly output and the historical 58 dimension of this work, examples of the WDR and SWR are referred to here. When reviewing the live recordings of the WDR, more than 1200 jazz concerts from the time between 1950 and late 1972 could be documented, which are currently being checked for their quality and copyright. The SWR already has detailed documentation on more than 440 concerts between 1946 and 1960, also containing recordings from the Donaueschinger Musiktagen. In this way the ARD has over decades collected a significant historical resource, which provides the field of jazz research with valuable material, as this field of study still has to deal mostly with produced studio recordings of the record industry. This extensive collection of live recordings could potentially be used by ‘Jazz-Web-Channels’ of public broadcasting stations. 5. In the region: festivals, studio productions and cultural policy initiatives The term ’Jazz landscapes’ (‘Jazzlandschaften’) implies that there are different regional jazz scenes that present different dynamics. The strength of one region can be demonstrated through a number of site-related factors – for example the number of venues, festivals, and concert series. More difficult is estimating the number of musicians and groups working in the field of improvised music as well as their qualitative classification and their assignment to an active scene. Further institutions like conservatoires or radio stations strongly influence a jazz scene, change its appearance, and function with their own dynamics and activities. As East and West German cities and federal states are generally characterised by the lack of funding for jazz projects [Bundeskonferenz Jazz 2007], the support of public radio stations for festivals and concerts series has almost gained an institutionalised character. In this context the function of jazz radio is to reevaluate the festivals as an aspect of cultural politics rather than using these events just for presentation or as a media platform. Because of the strong link between jazz radio and jazz festivals, in 2006, 28 festivals from across Germany showed this kind of cooperation structure.5 This regional diversity is complemented by monthly concerts series in the broadcasting centres like ‘Bühne frei im Studio 2’ (Open stage in studio 2), ‘New Jazz Meeting’ [SWR 2004, 2005, 2006], ‘Jazzclub Quasimodo’ (DKultur) or the radio festivals in the radio transmission halls of RBB, RB and DR. Finally it is the radio festivals that along with the Jazzfest Berlin – which is attended by the ARD – offer ambitious programmes. With the Deutschen Jazzfestival Frankfurt (HR) [HR 2003, 2004, 2005], the Donaueschinger Musiktagen (SWR), the Leipziger Jazztagen (MDR) [MDR 2005, 2006, 2007], the Hamburger Jazztagen (NDR) and the WDR 3 Jazz.Cologne [WDR 2006, 2007a, 2007b] public radio is the medium that presents the diversity of the national and international art of improvisation. While festivals allow the presentation of a regional scene live to a broader public, the studio productions take place behind closed doors. Because of the technical infrastructure, public broadcasting stations offer the best premises for extensive studio productions, which is a successful way of supporting young jazz musicians in their artistic development. This form of support is hardly recognised at all in publications about jazz although this appears to be the most direct investment in the future of jazz. The actual survey points out that those productions exist in all stations of the ARD, the added list6 only offers an extract of this activity. Also the positioning, by means of cultural politics, of the jazz editorial offices had a wide spectrum of activities: • • • The Jazz awards7 of the MDR, SWR or WDR also reach international recognition for the German Jazz scene. The sustainability of programmes approaching themes of cultural politics (WDR: Jazz cities in Northrhine-Westphalia8) should not be underestimated; The national meeting ‘Jugend jazzt’ (‘Jazzin’ Youth’) is managed by the DLF according to its supra-regional character. Groups that participate in this national meeting are not 59 • only represented in the jazz programme of the DLF, but also is the group that wins the competition is awarded a studio recording produced at the DLF. In regular WDR programmes concerts of the Youth Jazz Orchestra of the Federal Republic of Germany (Jugendjazztorchester der Bundesrepublik Deutschland ‘BuJazzo’) are presented, as well as the project phases are supported financially [Deutscher Musikrat 2008]. On the basis of two projects that are related to the aspect of venue support and professional music training, the focus on cultural politics is supposed to be illustrated in more detail: With the “Association of Independent Venues” (Gemeinschaft der unabhängigen Spielstätten), a cooperation between the three venues in North-Rhine Westphalia Bunker Ulmenwall in Bielefeld, Domicil Dortmund and the Stadtgarten in Cologne, was formed in 2004 in an initiative led by the WDR. The initial point of this idea was to support the jazz programmes of those venues, with live recordings of a number of concerts of national and international bands. This idea of institutionalised cooperation heightens the communication between the venues – an exchange which has already led to several concerts series. In 2007, this cooperation was celebrated virtually with a radio concert, in which musicians from all three locations simultaneously played and improvised with each other. Only on WDR 3 as the ‘fourth venue’ could one listen to the ‘complete’ concert as a mixture of the music played at all three venues. This engagement in the field of cultural politics was continued by the Bundeskonferenz Jazz that presented a paper called “Spielstättenprogrammpreis Jazz: Zur Förderung freier Spielstätten des Jazz in Deutschland” [Bundeskonferenz Jazz 2008] in April 2008. The project ‘WDR 3 campus jazz’ on the other hand stimulates the work of the North RhineWestphalian conservatories, more precisely the jazz departments of the respective conservatoires in Cologne and Essen. Each semester two groups are selected by the conservatory and WDR makes a live recording of a concert which will later be broadcast on WDR 3. These forms of presentation allow an insight into current approaches to improvisation or interesting line-ups amongst the students and provide interesting information that can be passed on to the colleagues of the ARD. 6. On the perception in jazz journalism Critical notes on the amount of editorial work in the field of jazz referred to in this paper are usually bound to quantitative listings of jazz programmes without considering the capacities in the area of production and live recordings or the festivals organised by the radio stations. Most of all, initiatives in cultural policy and impulses from the ARD such as jazz awards or other kinds of cooperation that have a supportive impact on the respective jazz scenes often remain unnamed. Except for in the works of Fark and Jost, exposure on the structure and position of jazz in German public broadcasting is non-existent. Instead, individual instances are cited as criticism of the ARD and its distribution of jazz. Nevertheless, the ARD could benefit from a rethink of its presentation of its activities to the public. The fear that jazz could suffer a downfall is a recurring motif of brochures produced by the Jazz Institut Darmstadt. Its ‘Jazz Directory’ (‘Wegweiser Jazz’) outlines – starting with its 1999 issue – a progressively darkening picture in its reports and partly repeats statements from past issues. Here the term ‘programme reform’ becomes the key term for the systematic reduction of jazz in all ARD programmes. A concrete basis of data that would support this allegation is missing in all issues between 2004 and 2008 [Jazzinstitut Darmstadt 2004, 2006; Knauer 2002.77f.]. Unfortunately, only the contact information of the public stations is listed in the directory. Information on programmes, productions, festivals or cultural policy initiatives is completely missing. From a cooperation between the Jazzinstitut Darmstadt and the Goethe Institut Munich on the worldwide exhibition ‘Deutscher Jazz: German Jazz’ the work of all the 60 jazz departments in public radio were covered in rudimentary fashion: “In 1945 Joachim Ernst Berendt founded the first editorial office for jazz of a German broadcasting station in BadenBaden. The public broadcasting corporations soon followed the example of the SWF: In the 1960s editorial offices for jazz existed in almost every public station. Until today they offer more than merely reports about new productions and activities in the scene. They are catalysts for projects, commission new works, and are co-organisers of concerts and festivals. The Berliner Jazztage have been organised by the ARD since 1964, the Deutsche Jazzfestival in Frankfurt is organised by the HR” [Jazzinstitut Darmstadt /Goethe Institut 2007, 47]. That the Jazzinstitut Darmstadt is not willing to inform extensively and in a well-balanced fashion about Jazz and jazz formats of public broadcasting corporations and their stations has been discussed before [Hoffmann 2008a]. The Jazzinstitut’s criticism could be based on the continuing claim that jazz is reduced to bad timeslots on radio channels. This may have been the reality in the 1950s, but have been proved to be matters of the past by Fark and Jost. However, this clichéd criticism is still used today, most recently by Ralf Dombrowksi, who is still talking about “night time slots” [Dombrowski 2008] in his latest report on the situation of current German jazz published on the website of the Goethe Institut in Munich. More problematic though, is the presentation of the WDR programme reform since 2004. The “Guide to Music of the 20th Century, Tome 9” presents in its 4th chapter economic, social and technical conditions for jazz. The short outline of public radio in Germany opens with the arbitrary allegation: “The WDR had cancelled its jazz programmes on the third and fifth channels almost completely by January 1st 2004, but includes more jazz more in the cultural magazine programme ‘Resonanzen’ and at night in concert series alongside classical music.” [Kurth 2004.195] Here the programme reform again is used as a symbol for the decline of jazz while ignoring the actual volume of jazz programmes on WDR3 and WDR5. Unfortunately, there is missing historical as well as current research on the problem of structural changes in the programme that are related to consumer development. Only such an analysis could provide the term ‘programme reform’ with the requisite transparency. The effect of these publications already show up in the works of students that have chosen the jazz scene in Germany for their Masters thesis. When asked about his presentation of public radio in his thesis at the Freie Universität Berlin, one author refused the publication of his name as well as the citation of his text for this publication. His statements were along the same lines as the Deutscher Bundestag (German Parliament)’s proposition of “strengthening popular music as an element of cultural life”. The parliamentary party of the CDU and SPD assert in this paper, that “Jazz doesn’t occur on radio, which causes low sales” [Deutscher Bundestag 2007]. This erroneous statement paradoxically serves as an important argument in favour of the development of structures that will support jazz venues. 7. The future of jazz radio Without doubt, jazz radio will remain as programme content within the ARD, as the demand for the programmes is too strong to be denied. The trend back to a specialised editorial department is reaffirmed by the desire of the listener for expert guidance. Only editorial offices with sufficient expertise can evaluate the historical heritage that has been collected in 60 years of public broadcasting. At the same time, the history of the editorial offices needs clarifying, and so far only few works exist on this topic [Röhrig 1980, Mützelfeldt 1999, Hottmann 2004] that are able to provide an insight into the facets of the public broadcasting stations. The ARD’s big bands need to be treated at another time [Kunert 1980], as the history of those jazz orchestras needs its own extensive research. With the hr Big Band [HR 2007], NDR Big Band [NDR 2008], WDR Big Band [WDR 2007c] and SWR Big Band, the ARD holds big bands of international status. The technical innovations of the digitalised world will soon bring changes to public radio and therefore also to jazz radio. New techniques and approaches like streaming, podcasting, or the use of web channels will essentially change 61 editorial working procedures in the near future. The monitoring of jazz programmes through the internet is already beyond the orientation phase. In contrast to the usage and behaviour of radio consumers, the usage of a website can be easily measured. The internet intensifies the communication between listener and editorial office. In fact, there is huge potential for jazz radio to learn from its experiences with the structures presented above, and develop along with these new technologies. Notes: 1) See the following websites: Bayerischer Rundfunk [BR]: www.br-online.de/bayern4klassik/jazz-und-co/index.xml www.br-online.de/bayern4klassik/jazztime/index.xml Deutschlandfunk [DLF]: Flyer: Jazz im Deutschlandfunk www.dradio.de/dlf/playlist/dlf_jazzlive www.dradio.de/dlf/playlist/dlf_jazzfacts Deutschlandradio Kultur [D Kultur]: www.dradio.de/dkultur/sendungen/jazz-dkultur Hessischer Rundfunk [HR]:www.hr-online.de/website/radio/hr2/index.jsp?rubri5 Kulturradio RBB [RBB]: Flyer: Jazz & Mehr im Kulturradio / www.kulturradio.de/programm/programmdaten Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk [MDR]: www.mdr.de/mdr-figaro/musik/ Norddeutscher Rundfunk [NDR]: www.ndrinfo.de/kultur/jazz Radio Bremen [RB]: Flyer: Konzertvorschau Jazz & Pop / www.radiobremen.de/nordwestradio/sendungen Saarländischer Rundfunk [SR]: www.sr-online.de/sr2/1959 Südwest Rundfunk [SWR]: Flyer: Jazzprogramm www.swr2.de/jazz Westdeutscher Rundfunk [WDR]: Flyer: Jazz www.jazz.wdr.de Also see the printed programme documentations that can be accessed under the respective public broadcasting station in the bibliography. The station “Deutschlandradio Kultur” uses the abbreviation DKultur today. Forerunners of DKultur are parts of the station RIAS Berlin, Voice of the DDR and Radio DDR2, which were in 1994 consolidated to form DeutschlandRadio Berlin, which again was renamed into Deutschlandradio Kultur in 2005. 2) Because of the linking of data from public broadcasters and British Army radio stations, a precise classification is impossible. Fark’s material therefore may provide a relative trend, but it lacks the direct connection to individual stations. 3) Detailed analysis on the broadcasting behavior of Eastern German stations in the time frame given is unknown according to Bert Noglik. 4) The numbers used here specifically relate to the year 2006. 5) List of festivals supported by public broadcasting: 62 ARD: Jazzfest Berlin; BR: Internationale Jazzwoche Burghausen, DLF: Jazzbaltica; DKultur / MDR: Leipziger Jazztage; HR: Jazzfestival Frankfurt; MDR: Bundesweites Jazz Nachwuchsfestival Leipzig, Festival Woman in Jazz Halle, Jazz in der Oper Halle, Jazzmeile Thüringen, Sonnenberger Jazztage, Jazz in der Semperoper Dresden; NDR: Hamburger Jazztage, Hamburger Jazz Open; RBB: Jazz Units, Jazz Focus, Jazz in E., Preisträgerkonzert des „Karl-Hofer-Performance-Preises“; SR: Jazz live with friends, Internationales Jazz Festival St.Ingbert, Jazz Festival St.Wendel; SWR: Donaueschinger Musiktage; WDR: Internationales Jazz Festival Münster, Duisburger Traumzeit-Festival, Moers Festival, Nozart Festival, Internationales Jazzfestival Viersen, Internationale Jazztage Hilden, Dortmunder Europhonics Festival, Leverkusener Jazztage, WDR3 Jazz.Cologne. 6) List of studio productions conducted by public broadcasting (selection): BR: ICI Ensemble München, „Wisdom Of Pearls“; Alejandro Sachez Nonett + 1, „Schärfe einer Sekunde“; Norbert Gabra, „Tango Jazz Trio“. DLF: Florian Ross Septett; Jochen Feucht Quartett; 3 Preisträger „Jugend jazzt“. MDR: Leipziger Big Band, "Kontraste"; David Timm& Reiko Brockelt, "Inner Circle"; Leipziger Big Band mit Allan Vizzutti, "Live In Concert". RBB: Efrat Alony, „Unarmed And Dazed“ (ENJA); Maria Baptist, „Music For My Trio“ (Maria Baptist Music); Ekkehard Wölk, „Reflections On Mozart“ (NABEL). SR: Helmut Eisel & Band, "Klezmer At The Cotton Club"; Zabriskie Point, "Weepsleepdream". SWR: Alexander von Schlippenbach, „Twelve Tone Tales“ Vol 1 und Vol 2 (Intakt). WDR: Vince Mendoza, "Blauklang" (ACT); Markus Stockhausen, "Synopsis" (Aktivraum); Ekkehard Jost Ensemble, "Cantos de libertad". 7) The winners of the yearly awarded SWR-Jazzaward (1981-2008) and the WDR Jazzaward (2004-2007): SWR: Bernd Konrad, Kölner Jazzhaus Initiative, Brüninghaus-Stockhausen-Studer, Herbert Joos, Gabriele Hasler, Christof Lauer, Duo Gebhard Ullmann-Andreas Willers, Sybille Pomorin, Gruppe „Serene“, Thomas Heberer, Klaus König, Michael Riessler, Karl Berger, Ralf Hübner, Matthias Schubert, Peter Weniger, Joachim Kühn, Nils Wogram, Kölner Saxophon Mafia, Jens Thomas, Achim Kaufmann, Aki Takase, Johannes Enders, Conny Bauer, Frank Gratkowski, Axel Dörner, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Duo Heinz Sauer & Michael Wollny. WDR: Frank Reinshagen, Claudio Puntin, Peter Niklas Wilson; Marko Lackner, Markus Stockhausen, Florian Ross, FSG Big Band (Arnsberg), Cold Fusion, Matthias Schriefl, Florian Roos, Lutz Voigtländer, Big Band Brühl, Jesse Milliner, Sebastian Sternal, Charlie Mariano. 8) The locations of the programme "Jazzcities in NRW – a report of cultural and educational policy" (2005-2008) / "Jazzstädte in NRW – eine kulturpolitische Reportage" (2005-2008): Bielefeld, Dortmund, Leverkusen, Köln, Essen, Düsseldorf, Hilden, Viersen, Wuppertal, Bonn, Krefeld, Gütersloh, Iserlohn, Moers Duisburg, Hamm, Dinslaken, Gelsenkirchen, Minden, Aachen, Bochum und Coesfeld. 63 Bibliography: Bundeskonferenz Jazz 2007 Zur Situation des Jazz und der aktuellen improvisierten Musik in Deutschland. Eckpunktepapier. Vorgelegt von der Bundeskonferenz Jazz im Februar 2007, auf: http:/www.bkjazz.de/index.php?id=90. Zugriff: 3. Mai 2008. 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