Conclusions: Engaging on Equal Terms?

Abstract

This chapter draws conclusions from the 50-year history and considers how successful classical music radio efforts have been in seeking to engage with the widest range of potential listeners ‘on equal terms’. It summarises the pattern of classical music radio provision between 1945 and 1995 in programme content and audiences, and then looks at how the interplay between elite and mass culture, mediated through the influence of class, is relevant to any overall social and political history of the UK during this period. The chapter offers observations on the nature of listening to classical music radio, the impact of approaches to its presentation, the relevance of biography and finally the changing nature of public service radio broadcasting.

The pattern of classical music radio provision 1945–1995: content; audiences–elite and mass culture–the nature of listening to classical music radio–presentation–the relevance of biography–the changing nature of public service radio broadcasting–a story worth the telling.