3 Is A Magic Number

The power of three. Why is so much of life wrapped around the number three?

Radio 3

Why is it a magic number? The holy trinity, the three jewels in Buddhism and don't forget the three wise men. In biology Genetic information is encoded in DNA and RNA using a triplet codon system. A human middle ear has three ossicles. So lets give three cheers for the number 3, but what does the number 3 have to do with radio? Here are three of my rules of three for radio:

1. One is good radio, two is company and three a crowd; More than three voices on the radio and it becomes hard for your listener to work who they are listening to. I include those ghastly round table discussions that the BBC and Public Radio love so much.

2. Three is just the right amount of items to plug at the start of a show, more and the listener gets lost in a sea of information.

3. Tell em you are going to tell them, tell them and then tell them you told them. three things to remember when writing a cue. You need to warn people of a subject, tell them about the subject and then finally remind them they have just heard about the subject.

Have three more:

1. Three in a row, always seems to me to be the perfect number of tunes to play before you come back and back-sell.

2. Three people involved in a show. The Host, The Producer and the Programme Assistant. My best radio shows only had 3 people involved in the output.

3. Great sonic logos for imaging are often composed around just three notes.