This concept went against the earlier methods laid out by the BBC's first Director General John Reith and caused controversy at the time, despite laying out the radio structure that is recognisable today.

[9]: 251  However, the Director-General, Charles Curran, publicly denied this as "quite contradictory to the aim of the BBC, which is to provide a comprehensive radio service".

"[9]: 251 As a result of Broadcasting in the Seventies, factual content, including documentaries and current affairs, were moved to BBC Radio 4 and the separate titled strands were abolished.

The document stated that Radio 3 was to have "a larger output of standard classical music" but with "some element in the evening of cultural speech programmes – poetry, plays".

These concerns also led to the composer Peter Maxwell Davies and the music critic Edward Greenfield to fear that "people would lose the mix of cultural experiences which expanded intellectual horizons".

[15] From the launch until 1987, the controllers of Radio 3 showed preferences towards speech and arts programming as opposed to focus on classical music and the Proms.

The first controller, Newby, made little contribution to the station, focusing on the transition from the Third programme to Radio 3 and as a result of the Broadcasting in the Seventies report.

[9]: 268  Hearst said he responded to the same question about this issue by commenting that as the station was financed by public money it needed to consider the size of its audience – there was a minimum viable figure but this could be increased with "a lively style of broadcasting".

At approximately the same time Aubrey Singer became managing director of Radio and began to make programming on the station more populist in a drive to retain listeners in face of possible competition from competitors using a "streamed format".

The same year an internal paper recommended the disbandment of several of the BBC's orchestras and of the Music Division, resulting in low morale and industrial action by musicians that delayed the start of the Proms.

[9]: 306–307  Senior management was also getting dissatisfied with listening figures leading to the Director-General Alasdair Milne to suggest that presentation style was "too stodgy and old-fashioned".

Drummond, like Hearst, believed that the music programmes' presentation was too stiff and formal[9]: 326 [18] and he therefore encouraged announcers to be more natural and enthusiastic.

[19] He also introduced features and celebrations of the anniversaries of famous figures including William Glock, Michael Tippett and Isaiah Berlin.

Drummond also introduced the show Mixing It which targeted the music genres that fell between Radios 1 and 3, often seen as a precursor to the programme Late Junction.

"[9]: 328–329 Drummond's successor was Nicholas Kenyon, previously chief music critic of The Observer, who took over in February 1992 and was immediately faced with the looming launch date for commercial competitor Classic FM who were, and still remain, Radio 3's biggest rivals.

Kenyon, similar to Singer a decade earlier, believed that Radio 3 had to make changes to its presentation before the new station began broadcasting rather than react later.

Kenyon's tenure was to meet with much controversy: in attempts to update the station's presentation, popular announcers Malcolm Ruthven, Peter Barker and Tony Scotland were axed as well as drama being cut by a quarter, resulting in a letter of protest to The Times signed by Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard and Fay Weldon among others;[9]: 342  new weekday programmes for breakfast time and drive time, entitled On Air and In Tune respectfully, were launched,[9]: 341  as was a new three-hour programme of popular classics on Sunday mornings fronted by Brian Kay.

[9]: 341  However, there was still "widespread disbelief"[9]: 357  when it was announced in the summer that a new morning programme would take the 9 am spot from the revered Composer of the Week and would be presented by a signing from Classic FM – the disc jockey Paul Gambaccini.

[26] By 2008, however, the station faced pressures to increase its audience by making programmes more accessible while loyal listeners began to complain about the tone of these new changes.

[34] The experiment was wildly successful, attracting 1.4 million downloads but was met with anger from the major classical record labels who considered it unfair competition and "devaluing the perceived value of music".

In October 2007, Radio 3 collaborated with the English National Opera in presenting a live video stream of a performance of Carmen, "the first time a UK opera house has offered a complete production online"[36] and in September 2008, Radio 3 launched a filmed series of concerts that was available to watch live and on demand for seven days "in high quality vision".

The introduction of family orientated concerts to the BBC Proms, which are broadcast live on Radio 3, helped the station to introduce itself to a younger audience.

[44] These particular concerts were introduced by Wright, who became Proms Director in addition to his duties at Radio 3 in October 2007,[45] and many were also televised for broadcast at a later date.

[47] The Trust did recognise, however, that "Radio 3 plays a vital role in the cultural and creative life of the UK"[47] and as a result, the report did agree to reinvest in the Proms,[47] to retain the long dramas found on the station[47] and to continue to broadcast a new concert live each evening.

In September 2010, for the final week of the Proms broadcasts, the BBC trialled XHQ (Extra High Quality), a live Internet stream transmitted at a rate of 320kbit/s, instead of Radio 3's usual 192 kbit/s, using its AAC-LC 'Coyopa' coding technology.

The programme is presented by Petroc Trelawny, Hannah French and Kate Molleson during the week and by Tom McKinney and Elizabeth Alker at the weekend.

[citation needed] Since 1997 the programme has been presented by Sean Rafferty and (since 2017) Katie Derham,[68] and features a mix of live and recorded classical and jazz music, interviews with musicians, and arts news.

Presenters of it on Radio 3 have included Ken Sykora, Steve Race, Peter Clayton, Charles Fox and Geoffrey Smith.

Broadcasting the Proms began in 1927, when the Third Programme transmitted the Thirty-Second Season of the Promenade Concerts live from the Queen's Hall, conducted by Sir Henry Wood.

Record Review is a Saturday morning programme (usually airing from 9 am to 11:45 am) dealing with recent classical music releases, topical issues and interviews.