The BBC has launched one of its digital ‘offshoot’ channels this week. Announced (though not named explicitly) in February 2024, BBC Radio 3 Unwind is a mixture of genre-specific podcasts and playlists combined with one or two specifically produced shows, leaning more heavily on contemporary classical with a scattering of core repertoire. Wall-to-wall easy-on-the-ear sounds resolutely aligned with the wellbeing market in mind. The beats per minute are low, the voice overs whispered seductively in-between tracks, and the vibe very much dimly-lit heavily-scented spa.
This is not to do it down in any way. There is unquestionably an audience for this kind of stuff. Bauer Media’s relentless pursuit of mindfulness drove a lot of its Scala Radio output (Bauer recently rebranded the flailing Scala as Magic Classical), providing an outlet for a lot of contemplative sounds that didn’t scare the horses.
For die-hard listeners of the BBC’s specialist music radio station, Radio 3 Unwind could have easily been named Radio 3 Lite. Based on 48 hours listening it delivers exactly what it promises and, in all truth, that makes it a reliable offer. There have been times in the past couple of days when returning to it has been something Thoroughly Good has wanted to do. It is a good-enough curation of background music that doesn’t interject, or demand and maybe even focuses the mind on the task in hand. Sometimes the saccharin feel overpowers – something akin to be consumed by the heady scent when wandering absent-mindedly into an all-year Christmas store. The presenter inserts often lack depth. The combination of core classics with the sound of puddles or rainstorms feels a little earnest, and more often than not I’m yearning for a musical argument as a foil for all the vibe, aesthetic and mood music.
Whilst there are plenty who deride it (just read Ivan Hewitt’s predictable evisceration of the digital stream’s on the Torygraph for a more severe take on the endeavour), its important to see this as part of the BBC’s wider music policy. This is less about Radio 3 and more about how to create digital access points for potential BBC subscribers.
Radio 3 Unwind isn’t so much a new station so much as an amalgamation of the BBC’s podcast and playlists that fit loosely under the banner of mental health, good vibes, and inoffensive. It’s the same principle as its ‘Live News‘ channel on BBC Sounds drawing together all of its News output and pumping it down one digital channel – a resourceful pragmatic solution that meets the needs of some of its audience.
BBC Radio 3 Unwind will almost certainly last as long as other media organisations efforts to platform the contemporary classical scene, and as long as advocacy around mental health remains in vogue. Such efforts like these are to be applauded. It won’t meet everyone’s needs or wants all of the time, but the BBC will probably make the best fist of it.
