The new controller to take over the reins later this year at BBC Radio 3 - the only BBC network radio station to show any sort of real if very small commitment to jazz - is ex-Universal Records suit Sam Jackson. He's to also run the Proms. Will he be able to support indie label output as well as listen to what the majors want is a fair question. Jackson has also run Classic FM, Smooth and Gold. Will Radio 3 become more like Classic or any other commercial smashy nicey station is another question worth asking. Jackson is also on the board at Trinity Laban which currently under Hans Koller has proved the front runner jazz studies programme in London in terms of faculty and progressive outlook even better than what Nick Smart is doing at the Royal Academy of Music. Will and indeed can Jackson partner more with less establishment music colleges like Leeds and indeed beyond conflict-of-interest Trinity? Jackson begins as controller in the spring replacing Alan Davey who has not been as much of a friend to jazz as Roger Wright was when Wright was controller. But of course let's be real, classical fans (who mainly tune into Radio 3) aren't necessarily jazz fans. Squaring that circle is mission impossible as Wright discovered when he championed jazz and made room for both musics within the output of the network.
Sam Jackson, photo: Carsten Windhorst/BBC
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