From today's Times in London. Dramatic change as Radio 3 goes back upmarket BY ADAM SHERWIN A COMMITMENT to drama will be the key factor in a revamp of the Radio 3 schedules, the network's new Controller announced yesterday. Roger Wright, who took over as Controller three months ago, promised to broadcast the best of British drama, when he unveiled his first programme schedules, and said that there would be more broadcasts of live music and of recorded performances. By concentrating on drama and live music, Mr Wright hopes to differentiate Radio 3 from Classic FM. "Live broadcasts are so much more interesting than simply playing CDs," said Mr Wright. After complaints from established Radio 3 listeners that the station was being "dumbed down" in a search for new audiences, Mr Wright has introduced changes that have largely confirmed his reputation as a "highbrow". The offerings include a new production of Strindberg's The Father and Howard Barker's House of Correction with Juliet Stevenson. Mr Wright said: "I want to draw more attention to the long-form drama and new writing that we broadcast." The tenth anniversary of Samuel Beckett's death will be marked by a week of programmes; and a weekend marking the 250th anniversary of Goethe's birth, and a Pushkin night, are also scheduled. "The percentage of speech in relation to music will probably go up across the network," said Mr Wright. After listeners had expressed unhappiness about the changes to the morning schedule introduced by Mr Wright's predecessor, from August music performances will be broadcast between 11.30am and 1pm every weekday, replacing Artist of the Week and Sound Stories. Composer of the Week will return to the 9am slot from which it had controversially been shifted to noon. "That will bring joy to some quarters, who said Composer Of The Week should never have moved," he observed, "but I will get letters from some people who say: 'I can no longer have my lunch to Composer Of The Week.' Such are the problems of a Radio 3 Controller." Night Waves, the Radio 3 arts discussion and review programme, will be extended to four nights a week. Mr Wright is particularly pleased to be broadcasting WOMAD, the July festival of world music and dance in Reading. "I want people to hear more world music. We would have covered the whole thing live but there is this thing called the Proms at the same time," he said. Jocelyn Hay, chairman of the Voice of the Listener and Viewer group, who had accused BBC Radio of going downmarket, welcomed Mr Wright's schedule. "This sounds like a raising of standards and it makes a welcome departure. The change of emphasis is exciting." Classic FM has 5.2 million listeners a week compared with Radio 3's 2.5 million, recent figures show. Listening figures to be released by tomorrow are expected to show increases for both Radio 3 and Classic FM. A spokesman for Radio 3 added: "High culture is at the core of our broadcasting. We are not competing at all with Classic FM." John G. Deacon Home page: http://www.ctv.es/USERS/j.deacon