Presenters/News readers

[Lat-Literal]

He would come under "Tangy", I guess.

With reference to several recent posts, I am extremely keen on the matter of how a radio station is "furnished". The BBC is still more right in this regard than wrong, at least in radio. Continuity announcers are as important to the way a station works - or not - as the presenters. If not more so. Those on Radio 3 are an acquired taste. Breathy in bow tie and anorak, that is the station's sound. And that's the sort of thing I would be choosing from any new pool of candidates. It is ok to have a Petroc Trelawney here and a public sector version of Marguerita Taylor there but let's not bring too many of the smooth or emollient into the idiosyncrasy of intermittent linkages. News? Well, it shouldn't be on Radio 3 at all. An obvious point to anyone who has sense. Do I want to be helpful and categorise Piazzolla? Yes - Latin America where all categories are in a slightly different language.

[oddoneout]

It remains the case, though, that it is unclear how much of any given presenter's script is written by him/her and how much by his/her producer and, whilst I would not be surprised to find that this varies considerably from case to case, the fact is that whoever writes the script ought to have done his/her research beforehand; that said, one would also hope that each presenter would be equipped with sufficient interest in and knowledge of what it is that they're presenting to be able to keep gaffes to the barest minimum whoever's written the script -

How much of the script is the work of the presenters? Earlier this year I had occasion to email Rob Cowan regarding incorrect performer details, and the reply suggested to me that the mistake was the result of incorrect information provided to him( it appeared in incorrect form on the website as I later noticed). Is it not likely that quite a lot of the 'factoid' stuff will be the result of someone else looking at Wiki? Even assuming the presenter's knowledge is encyclopaedic how much time is available to check for obvious errors or query an item and correct it?

[ahinton]

How much of the script is the work of the presenters? Earlier this year I had occasion to email Rob Cowan regarding incorrect performer details, and the reply suggested to me that the mistake was the result of incorrect information provided to him( it appeared in incorrect form on the website as I later noticed). Is it not likely that quite a lot of the 'factoid' stuff will be the result of someone else looking at Wiki? Even assuming the presenter's knowledge is encyclopaedic how much time is available to check for obvious errors or query an item and correct it?

You have a point (which is why I raised the question of who writes the script - and I could perhaps usefully have added - "and how long bfore broadcast it is written?"), although some errors are more obvious and detectable than others. That said, the number of times that a particular presenter mentions having appeared on a TV show is a different matter except that it would be hard to imagine such bits of script all being written by a producer rather than a presenter...

[french frank]

Even assuming the presenter's knowledge is encyclopaedic how much time is available to check for obvious errors or query an item and correct it?

Well, if a presenter is presenting a three-hour programme every day, that could be a problem. But with so many good potential presenters knocking about in the corridors, why do we have the same presenter day after day for hours on end? - just like popular music radio stations (that means popular radio stations that broadcast music, not radio stations that broadcast popular music).

Share the work around a bit. Let's hear more of Shea/Guinery/C Young/Swain .

[zola]

I recently attended two of the Radio 3 lunchtime concerts from LSO St Luke's. Both were presented "as live" from the stage or stage area, though neither was broadcast live. For the concert by Ronald Brautigam, Katie Derham read from a prepared script that was more or less entirely taken from Harriet Smith's programme notes. Perfectly unobjectionable unless you are one who will take against anything involving KD on principle.

The concert by Ashot Khachatourian and Maria Joao Pires to be broadcast on Friday was presented by Fiona Talkington, generally one of the "good guys" I think most might accept. But she was saddled with an interview concept which was a bit of a shambles. Ashot has limited English it seems. Maria is delightful but rambles. And was not clear at which points in the recital interviews were to take place which can not have aided concentration, given she had to keep looking over frantically towards the desk at the end of a Chopin nocturne. FT admitted beforehand that the broadcast would contain edited versions of her interviews, which would be badly needed since in real time the concert ended at two fifteen which would cause a severe over run in the schedules on Friday.

However, I can still recommend the concert as well worth catching on Friday lunchtime. Interestingly, when I attended a couple of Radio 3 trio / string quartet concerts from St Luke's last season, there was no on site presenter. Just a producer begging us not to cough beforehand and the presentation stitched on at a later date from the studio.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Happy to accept that they enjoy sitting and chatting with each other in the BBC canteen, and they are good friends. But it seems unprofessional to me to be bringing those friendships into one's work.

Exactly! The more chummy they are on air, the more the listeners will feel excluded.

[oddoneout]

I recently attended two of the Radio 3 lunchtime concerts from LSO St Luke's. Both were presented "as live" from the stage or stage area, though neither was broadcast live. For the concert by Ronald Brautigam, Katie Derham read from a prepared script that was more or less entirely taken from Harriet Smith's programme notes. Perfectly unobjectionable unless you are one who will take against anything involving KD on principle..

The difference between the 'prepared' and the 'free-range' was very noticeable in the (I think) first of this series when she was so arch and Jackanoryish(now children I'm going to tell you a story) in the following programme it was more than a little nauseating.BTW has anyone else noticed the strange sniff she seems to have developed, almost as a punctuation to her pronouncements?

[oddoneout]

Exactly! The more chummy they are on air, the more the listeners will feel excluded.

Or further driven to switch off. If I wanted to listen to presenter chit chat on the sofa I wouldn't be tuned in to R3.

[ahinton]

I recently attended two of the Radio 3 lunchtime concerts from LSO St Luke's. Both were presented "as live" from the stage or stage area, though neither was broadcast live. For the concert by Ronald Brautigam, Katie Derham read from a prepared script that was more or less entirely taken from Harriet Smith's programme notes. Perfectly unobjectionable unless you are one who will take against anything involving KD on principle.

I'm not one of those, but the very fact that such a difference was noticeable seems to me to tell all, really...

[CallMePaul]

I recently attended two of the Radio 3 lunchtime concerts from LSO St Luke's. Both were presented "as live" from the stage or stage area, though neither was broadcast live. For the concert by Ronald Brautigam, Katie Derham read from a prepared script that was more or less entirely taken from Harriet Smith's programme notes. Perfectly unobjectionable unless you are one who will take against anything involving KD on principle.

The concert by Ashot Khachatourian and Maria Joao Pires to be broadcast on Friday was presented by Fiona Talkington, generally one of the "good guys" I think most might accept. But she was saddled with an interview concept which was a bit of a shambles. Ashot has limited English it seems. Maria is delightful but rambles. And was not clear at which points in the recital interviews were to take place which can not have aided concentration, given she had to keep looking over frantically towards the desk at the end of a Chopin nocturne. FT admitted beforehand that the broadcast would contain edited versions of her interviews, which would be badly needed since in real time the concert ended at two fifteen which would cause a severe over run in the schedules on Friday.

However, I can still recommend the concert as well worth catching on Friday lunchtime. Interestingly, when I attended a couple of Radio 3 trio / string quartet concerts from St Luke's last season, there was no on site presenter. Just a producer begging us not to cough beforehand and the presentation stitched on at a later date from the studio.

A time there was when an overrun would not have been a problem; the time would have been lost later in the day. However, R3 now seems to operate to a split-second timetable and any overrun is considered unacceptable. Perhaps if those stupid trailers were dropped occasional overruns of concerts would be acceptable. This morning I heard a trailer for 2 concerts that have already taken place (no mention of catch-up) as well as this evening's concert. Do producers not check for this type of thing? Another issue arising from this is whether performers with litle or no English should be asked to give interviews, especially ion the middle of a recital/ concert? Maria Joao Pires does speak fluent English so perhaps she alone should have been interviewed?

On another matter but relevant to the thread, whatever happened to Louise Fryer, who seems to have disappeared from the airwaves?

[french frank]

A time there was when an overrun would not have been a problem

I thought that was the point of having live studio programmes - like In Tune: they could be cut if another programme, such as a recital or concert overran.

On another matter but relevant to the thread, whatever happened to Louise Fryer, who seems to have disappeared from the airwaves?

I was checking on that only yesterday. Verity Sharp seems to have been drafted in to Ao3. Not sure why the 'equal opportunities' policy doesn't operate here with men/women alternating. KD pushed Jonathan Swain out because she was Katie Derham and a real coup for Radio 3

[oddoneout]

whether performers with litle or no English should be asked to give interviews

especially when the interviewer is Mr Rafferty.... My toes curl at such episodes on IT, and I can't see that it is of any value to either performer or listener.

[subcontrabass]

On another matter but relevant to the thread, whatever happened to Louise Fryer, who seems to have disappeared from the airwaves?

She completed a PhD in 2014 and works as a teaching fellow at University College, London (see http://iris.ucl.ac.uk/iris/browse/profile?upi=LFRYE50 ), as well as other part-time jobs.

[french frank]

She completed a PhD in 2014 and works as a teaching fellow at University College, London (see http://iris.ucl.ac.uk/iris/browse/profile?upi=LFRYE50 ), as well as other part-time jobs.

But well done and good luck to her. I suspect that presenting for Radio 3 was always in the nature of moonlighting (albeit in the afternoon) and that her real focus was elsewhere.

But like Penny Gore, she was an example of a good broadcaster with no ego who did well without being musically qualified.

[ahinton]

But well done and good luck to her. I suspect that presenting for Radio 3 was always in the nature of moonlighting (albeit in the afternoon) and that her real focus was elsewhere.

But like Penny Gore, she was an example of a good broadcaster with no ego who did well without being musically qualified.

And, again like Louise Fryer (and some others), she has never (at least in my hearing) sought to put herself forward as an example of that much-abused term "personality" - à propos which one might well hope that another presenter who might almost be said to have elevated the personality cult aspect of her presentational work to an art-form were that not a gross insult to real art-forms of all kinds actually wins a certain contest in which she has lately been featured on television to the extent that such "success", ironically like Louise Fryer's PhD, might take her away from exercising her verbal "skills" on R3 and towards "better" things elsewhere...