The two Doctors: Sylvester McCoy and David Tennant

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

Rosie Cavaliero, Ron Cook and David Tennant

On the 5 live blog station controller Adrian Van-Klaveren has written a post detailing 5 live's coverage of the tenth anniversary of 9/11. He recalls where he was at the time (as I'm sure we've all done in the last few days):

At the time I was Head of BBC Newsgathering. I remember catching up with the breakfast news and then setting off for some meetings at the BBC's Washington office. It seemed an entirely unremarkable news day. After 15 minutes walk, I arrived in the office to find an extraordinary amount of activity for that time of the morning. The first plane had struck the Twin Towers.

Within the coverage Peter Allen and Stephen Nolan will be reporting and presenting from the United States, including special programmes from Florida where President Bush heard the news and Victoria Derbyshire will have rare access to Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp, presenting her Friday programme from there. You can find more details and leave a comment on the 5 live blog.

On Monday night Radio 1's Mike Davies presented a musical history of 9/11 and its aftermath, featuring interviews, archive and the sounds of the likes of Moby, My Chemical Romance and the Beastie Boys.

Radio 2 marks the anniversary with Faith and 9/11. Journalist and Pause For Thought contributor, Abdul-Rehman Malik guides listeners through a reflective anthology combining personal reflections - past and present - with news archive including an interview given to the BBC by the Archbishop Of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, shortly after the terrorist attacks.

A Guernica for Gotham on Radio 3 investigates how New York artists have responded to the destruction of the Twin Towers. Interviewees include composer Steve Reich and writer Meg Wolitzer.

Radio 4 is currently broadcasting the second half of this year's Reith Lectures under the title Securing Freedom and you can download the first of Eliza Manningham-Buller's lectures, Terror, from the website.

There are details of Radio 4's other coverage on this page 9/11 - Ten Years On including The Saturday Play Washington, 9/11 and The Day before 9/11, a portrait of New York, America and the wider world as it was - the day before.

Gwyneth Williams, the controller of Radio 4, has written about Radio 4's coverage of 9/11 on the blog, where you can find out more and leave a comment.

Paul Murphy is editor of the Radio blog

One of my recent joys working on our interactive services for BBC Radio has been receiving our monthly figures for downloads and podcasts from our site. Last month listeners successfully put 14.8 million downloads on their PCs or mobile devices.

That's up from 9.8 million in July last year. One of the reasons for the increase is the boost in the number of speech programmes we can now offer. The recent release of 500 editions of Desert Island Discs and the archive of the Reith Lectures has proved very popular. Podcasting is a great way to build up your own collection of programmes to enjoy whenever and wherever you want!

And although we have done great things with speech content, it's not been so straightforward with music in podcasts. So I'm really pleased to say that, as of today, we're bringing back a podcast which should appeal especially to classical music fans.

Although to date we've released many podcasts containing the speech content of classical music programmes, such as Composer of the Week, we've not been able to include longer extracts of classical music. That's because we don't have the rights or the permission to do this, and the BBC has been wary of doing anything that might adversely affect the commercial classical music industry.

But now, something has changed. Working with the BPI (British Recorded Music Industry) earlier this year we tested a podcast of the segment of Radio 3 Breakfast that covers the Specialist Classical Music Chart every Tuesday morning. This includes a number of excerpts of music from the chart, each of which can be up to 9 minutes long.

The audience seemed to like the offer.

What's more, any fears that it might discourage people from buying classical music or listening to live radio proved unfounded. In fact nearly 25% of those who listened to the podcast said they were inspired to listen to more live radio, whilst 70% said they were listening to the same amount (eDigital Research for the BBC). 80% of listeners said the podcast had introduced them to music they had not heard before. Good news for the music industry came with the finding that 25% of listeners to the chart podcast had purchased classical music as a result. The BPI's classical committee is pleased with the outcome, saying the podcast supports the work to "...obtain a wider audience for the specialist classical chart and for serious classical music in general". So, all in all the trial was a success.

Now the BBC Trust has agreed to a change in the Radio 3 service licence to allow the Specialist Classical Music Chart to become a permanent offer from the BBC. The podcast is back from today, and you can download it here. As a distinctly average guitarist, I'm delighted that a classical guitar release is top of the chart at the moment, so I hope an extract of the number one is included.

Andrew Caspari is BBC Head of Speech Radio and Classical Music, Interactive

• The picture (from 1970) shows "Otto Klemperer who celebrated the bi-centenary of Beethoven's birth by conducting his nine symphonies in sequence with the New Philharmonic Orchestra".

18:00 update. The About the BBC blog has just published a post rounding up discussion of the new Proms programme.

On the Radio 3 blog Roger Wright, the Controller of BBC Radio 3 and Director of BBC Proms, has blogged about this year's Prom's season:

It's the morning of the BBC Proms launch. I have a real sense of anticipation and excitement because, at last, it's possible to tell everyone about the 2011 plans.

I always feel rather unfriendly keeping the plans as secret as possible until now.
We need as much publicity as possible on launch day as we have hundreds of thousands of tickets to sell and therefore want to spread the word as widely as we can. Leaks beforehand would simply drip the news out and potentially undermine the launch day splash.

Of course, in these days of social networking, rumours spread very quickly - and some of them were really wide of the mark! The first Proms performance of Havergal Brian's Gothic Symphony, however, has been one of the worst kept secrets in recent history!  It's been fun to read the message boards full of 'will they, won't they?' comments. So now it's clear - we will! I'm not, by the way, one of those who, in order to make the case for a neglected work, overstates its importance. I don't claim the Gothic as a masterpiece, any more than I do the Second Symphony of Arnold Bax (also receiving its Proms premiere this year),  but I do think they are important pieces, worth hearing in good performances and then letting audiences make up their own mind, rather than being influenced by second- or third-hand opinions.

Read the rest of Launching the 2011 BBC Proms... on the Radio 3 blog.

Paul Murphy is the acting editor of the Radio blog

• Visit the BBC Proms 2011 website
• Follow the BBC Proms on Twitter @bbcproms
• BBC Proms 2011 press pack
• Go to the Radio 3 website

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists/7bd92ac9-6b2e-4e88-812a-60499ec60a9d#p009x32j

It is rare that passionate radio listeners overwhelmingly and immediately support the scheduling changes that we make to a well-loved BBC radio station. However, having just announced that Radio 3 will broadcast live concerts every weekday at 7.30 p.m. for 46 weeks of the year, the reaction has been almost universally positive. It is welcome news for UK performing groups and listeners who will enjoy an invitation to so many outstanding classical performances. What is perhaps less apparent is that it represents a deliberate move across BBC radio to keep building the percentage of live output that we air on our stations. For some, this approach may well seem counter-cultural as it comes at a time when digital evangelists continue to predict the media will move inexorably to time-shifted, on-demand content. This is true but, paradoxically, this very trend is driving the value of live experience.

Of course, on-demand does offer benefits, such as making available valuable archives like the In Our Time back catalogue, or a chance to catch-up on recent programmes, but surely it is time to declare that the appeal of live radio is not only here to stay but is going to grow. Even beyond radio, live seems to be where the action is. Whether we are watching an X-Factor final, the One Show or attending a concert, live seems to be a common factor in so many recent triumphs in areas that have been consigned by many to a future of inevitable decline. Radio is particularly advantaged by this trend as so much of what makes it successful is the drama and immediacy of live broadcast.

In what some see as a gravity-defying performance, radio listening remains buoyant and in the latest listening figures, it was 5 live that hit new record numbers. The thrill of England keeping the Ashes combined with a busy news agenda provided a steady flow of compelling live stories. Also, over Christmas we deliberately focused on ensuring many of our broadcasts remained live rather than playing pre-recorded programming while the nation indulged itself.

Behind these successes, there may lie a deeper and more enduring need for wider communal experiences. The explosive growth of computers, tablets and smartphones has lead to a huge amount of solo activity with either no interaction, or communication being restricted to a small group of friends. Live broadcast experiences, although not offering the visceral experience of a live event, still offer a chance to be connected to something much bigger than a social network.

You may be listening alone but you know that thousands of people are connected together in one story. This is nothing new. I remember hearing my neighbours screaming with joy when Dennis Taylor sank that black in 1985, or looking into another car as I saw someone as emotionally moved as I was by the story of the collapse of the Berlin Wall on the radio news. For programme makers and presenters, live tends to bring out the very best.

It is interesting that while BBC executives like myself are often thought to be intent on limiting risk and prefer the control of pre-recorded output, the truth tends to be the opposite. This is not to say that the art of pre-built radio in genres such as current affairs and drama is not to be nurtured as a precious skill, but even in these areas, live output can play an exciting and growing part. So while you will see the radio industry ensuring that it is part of the on-demand revolution, we remain champions of the wonders of live. On May 3rd, we begin our Radio 3 broadcasts. As the musicians begin to play, I hope that you will be there, at home, next to them.

Tim Davie is Director of Audio & Music at the BBC

• The picture shows I AM KLOOT performing live on Steve Lamacq's 6 Music show at the Lowry Centre in Salford in October 2010.
• Edward Blakeman, an Editor at Radio 3, wrote about the station's new committment to live performance on the Radio 3 blog.
• BBC media correspondent Torin Douglas interviewed 5 live Controller Adrian Van Klaveren about his station's improved RAJAR figures on the 5 live blog.
• Tim responded to the public reaction to the BBC Trust's recent report about Radio 3, Radio 4 and Radio 7 in The Radio Times yesterday.

BBC Radio 3 has just announced that its rich schedule of concerts, operas and recitals will be further enhanced from May 3, 2011 when listeners will be able to hear LIVE broadcasts direct from venues across the UK every weekday evening in Performance on 3. Here, Radio 3 Editor Edward Blakeman offers a look behind the scenes. 

I just love the prospect of live evening concerts on Radio 3! My colleagues and I have thought about it and planned it for months - since the end of last season's Proms in fact, and that was what gave us the idea. There is such a buzz during the Proms - 8 weeks of concerts all broadcast live on Radio 3 - so wouldn't it be great if you could carry that sense of really 'being there' on into the rest of the year? if you could offer Radio 3 listeners a live concert each weekday night - something that had never been done before.

Continue reading this blog post and leave a comment on the BBC Radio 3 blog...

• The picture shows Finnish quartet Meta4 rehearshing for a live Radio 3 performance at the Wigmore Hall in 2009.

As the leading players in the radio industry gather today in Salford for their annual get-together, much of the conversation will be about the topic of innovation. Listeners are currently very satisfied with radio services but digital technology does bring opportunities to keep improving what we offer. This summer, BBC Radio 3 completed a trial of a higher quality online audio stream at the Proms. A positive listener response led us to look at a permanent launch. Therefore, from the beginning of December, we will offer "HD Sound" (as we are calling it) on Radio 3 when you visit the station website and listen online. We will quickly assess the performance of this before making the higher quality stream available on iPlayer and the proposed radio industry player (called Radioplayer). Radio 3 listeners will get the benefit of the highest quality broadcast available anywhere. Interestingly, it was Radio 3 that led the charge in 1971 as radio moved to stereo, and once again it is excellent to see it at the forefront of innovation.

As with Stereo, I would expect to see further roll-outs of HD Sound over time and we have already announced that we will be trialling it for Radio 2 at the Electric Proms. I am expecting that the performances by Elton John,Robert Plant and Neil Diamond will all be available.

Tim Davie is the Director of Audio and Music at the BBC.

• BBC Audio & Music's head of technology Rupert Brun, wrote about HD Sound on the BBC Internet blog this morning.
• The photo above is of the BBC Symphony Orchestra rehearsing at the Barbican (c) BBC / Lara Platman.
• "BBC Launches HD Sound for Radio" - press release, Oct 18 2010.

I was staggered recently when a colleague (in this case Andrew Connolly, who runs the BBC Concert Orchestra) told me what his orchestra was undertaking in a matter of days - the range of its output was breathtaking and the information itself made an impact on me.

Sometimes I think we do so much that it is hard to get any clear message out about what we are doing and when.

So it led me to think that the simplicity of merely communicating the details of our programmes can be a powerful tool to use in the promotion of Radio 3. This thought hit me again when I looked at week 40. I have always had difficulty in understanding BBC weeks. Many of my colleagues have amazing powers - not least to match a week number to particular dates. So for those like me who have no clue about week number except 1 and 52 (and they can be trickier than you might imagine!), I was looking at the plans for this week.

Just look at today's schedule:

A concert from the York Early Music Festival, a performance from the Darbar Festival in World Routes, Rigoletto from Welsh National Opera with Simon Keenleyside in the title role and a fascinating new play The First Day Of The Rest Of My Life by Martin Jameson in The Wire, That's all between just 1300 and 2200 on one day.

Later in the week you can hear Ugandan journalist Joel Kibazo visiting Kenya on the 50th anniversary of the liberation of 17 African nations, Wagner is Composer of the Week, there is a series of five talks exploring aspects of the Stewart dynasty, Rana Mitter talks to primatologist Frans de Waal and Matthew Sweet talks to the American novelist Jonathan Franzen (both on Night Waves), concerts from the Ulster Orchestra and the Halle (amongst others) and a live broadcast of Sir Andrew Davis conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in music by Elgar, Delius and the world premiere of a new work by Edwin Roxburgh, followed by The Verb in which Ian McMillan introduces a new commission written for the programme by novelist Louise Walsh. Please excuse the long list - but I hope you get the point.

I suppose if I were looking for a definition of broadcasting as opposed to narrowcasting just reading the list of programmes speaks more powerfully than a strategy document!

Roger Wright is Controller of BBC Radio 3

• See the whole of week 40's schedule on the Radio 3 web site.
• Read posts by Roger and other Radio 3 managers and editors on the Radio 3 blog.
• Follow @BBCRadio3live on Twitter and on Facebook.
• The picture shows Richard Wagner, Composer of the Week in Radio 3's week 40.