This may be rather long piece from The Times (3 FEB) but it is a fascinating Credo from the new BBC R3 Controller and signals a major change of direction for the station. This treasure will, it seems, be saved for the nation! Roger Wright, Radio 3's new Controller, tells Richard Morrison that he wants his network to open a window on to the wider arts and music world < Live and lively at the new Radio 3 > Roger Wright doesn't look like a man prone to bouts of gloom. But if he does succumb he might take comfort from the words of his predecessor, Nicholas Kenyon: "Always remember, the great thing about being Controller of Radio 3 is that you can't win." That's true. Depending on which epistle he plucks from his postbag, Wright will be told that his network is too elitist or too populist, too chatty or too stuffy, indigestibly high-brow or slithering dumbly into the gutter. As for his BBC bosses, they may nod benignly now when he tells them that Radio 3 is all about quality, quality and quality, and not about such trivial matters as a ratings war with Classic FM. But a year down the line, when the audience gap between Radio 3 and its soaraway commercial competitor may have grown from an irritant into an embarrassment, will they still be supportive? I hope so, because Mr Wright is probably as close to being Mr Right for this impossible job as they will ever find. His musical credentials are impeccable - he is the first Radio 3 Controller ever to possess a music degree - and as a former BBC producer he knows the Corporation's funny little ways well enough. But he has also spent time in the much tougher music business outside, working with the Cleveland Orchestra in America and then with Deutsche Grammophon. So when he returned to the BBC as head of classical music, and engaged the hard men of the Musicians Union in an epic negotiation to drag the working practices of BBC orchestras into the late 20th century, he had a secret weapon: he knew where all the small print was buried. The result was an agreement that actually made it economically feasible for BBC TV producers to use the BBC's own orchestras. Revolutionary! "If the BBC had to jump through contractual hoops in order to put a camera in front of its own Symphony Orchestra, or if the natural history unit found it cheaper to go to Munich or Prague to record a soundtrack than to book the BBC Concert Orchestra, then clearly something was not quite right," says Wright, with wry understatement. Indeed. Particularly as the Concert Orchestra, left with free time on its hands, could then use its subsidised advantages to outbid the independent London orchestras for commercial engagements - and, in Wright's words, "destabilise the external market". Wright's deal not only convinced the BBC's governors to continue picking up the hefty tab for five house orchestras and a full-time professional chorus. It also probably tipped the scales in his favour when Radio 3's top job fell vacant last summer. Wright's main challenge came from an unashamed populist, the Decca record executive Roger Lewis, and the choice between them seemed to epitomise an ideological tussle within the BBC between quality and ratings, public-broadcasting obligations and global ambitions. Was that how Wright saw it? "All I can say is that I stated a view about the sort of network I would feel comfortable running, and that I have not had to compromise on any of the things I said then. The fact that I got the job means, I suppose, that these were the things that the BBC top management wanted for Radio 3 too." Bizarrely, this turned out to be only the first skirmish in the "Battle of the Rogers". For on the very day that Wright's appointment was announced, Lewis accepted the job of running Classic FM. So is it hand-to-hand combat now? Not according to Wright. Following the usual Radio 3 line, he won't admit that the two stations are even on the same battlefield. His network is "not in the business of competing with Classic FM", he claims. "And I am certainly not looking over my shoulder and asking myself: 'If we were more like them, would we get their audience?' The first priority is to get our own music policy right, and the right balance of speech and music that will draw listeners into a world of ideas in an entertaining way. Once we have done that we can think about getting it to as many people as possible. If we do it the other way round we are on a downward spiral." Yesterday he offered a glimpse of what those fine words mean in practice, unveiling a new look to the morning schedule that dumps such unlamented slots as Artist of the Week and Sound Stories to make space for a daily 90-minute transmission of live or specially recorded performance at 11.30am. "Yes, people might cough, there might be split notes, or the programme might overrun," he says. "But the message we have to get across is that live broadcasts are so much more interesting than simply playing CDs." If Wright has a big idea for Radio 3, this is it. He perceives that for much of the time Classic FM does little except play CDs, and he wants Radio 3 to differentiate itself by relaying the most exciting events from the wider arts world. He promises far more broadcasts from Edinburgh, Cheltenham and the big European festivals this summer, and more BBC mini-festivals ("we must utilise the musical resources that only we have"), in addition to the immensely popular Proms. Nor will the outside links only be musical. Wright is "doing deals with places like the Almeida" to bring the most talked-about London theatre productions to Radio 3. "I really want to get the message across about drama," he says. "When I tell people that I run the network that broadcasts Hare's Via Dolorosa, Harriet Walter in Hedda Gabler, Peter Hall's Major Barbara, Shakespeare plays and the Troy trilogy, they usually say: 'Goodness, when is that festival coming on?' I reply: 'That was the past six weeks on Radio 3'. It's not so much the fact that people aren't listening that worries me; it's the realisation that they don't even know it's there." He has already saved the useful magazine programme Music Matters from the chop. Elsewhere, he promises less banter and more music on the breakfast programme On Air, and yet another tinkering with the Saturday morning CD Review, revamped to general dismay last year. "Hardly a day goes by when my postbag does not remind me of these issues," he says. Ah, the famous postbag! Its contradictory, bad-tempered contents may come to infuriate Wright, but they should thrill him as well. Radio 3's listeners may not be legion, but they care passionately about their station - and they will defend to their last breath the old-fashioned notion of a music network that repays serious listening. Good for them. In Wright they may have a kindred spirit and a doughty champion. John G. Deacon Home page: http://www.ctv.es/USERS/j.deacon