Hi nick, welcome.

I think that in some ways you've already answered the question; that the issue of rights and performance fees is likely to be a stumbling block for the time being, certainly with EMS, which uses commercial CDs as part of its material, and wasn't there an archive CE fairly recently which was taken from CD, too? Bearing in mind that R3's archives in general have created something of an issue regarding the plans for programme on demand, I'd guess it's likely that until that whole question is sorted out, podcasts of the majority of R3's music-based broadcasts will remain a dream.

Just in passing, I wonder if you've reached this board believing it to be the official BBC R3 board? The reason why it has r3 in the title is a tad long-winded, but just in case that was what you wanted, you'll need to visit this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/

(though we very much hope that you'll become dual-domiciled, as are many of us here....)

Ron

In which case I'm even happier that you found us, Nick, and decided to join.

 Recording from the radio for personal use is not illegal, and there are to my certain knowledge several posters here who have been doing so selectively with R3's output for years if not decades. It is quite likely that much of that material no longer exists in the official archives, and in exactly the same way that calls went out for missing episodes of comedy series, it is not altogether impossible that some of the material held privately may, in the future, help to fill the gaps that now exist.