The Eternal Breakfast Debate in a New Place

[Nick Armstrong]

Well, that was weird! I happened to be listening to the Vermont Public Radio stream when I read your post. I thought - Good to have another classical streaming source, and added KUSC to my favourites. Then I stopped Vermont to have a trial listen to KUSC, and it made no difference. It was the same work. In fact, if you play them together, there is just a slight time difference.

So they are both using the same source. All the announcements are word for word, though I think possibly read by different people, and I didn't hear a station ID for KUSC, which must differ from that for Vermont.

Very odd! KUSC have long idents sometimes, claiming to be funded by listeners etc etc and stressing the SoCal origins - plus sometimes traffic reports which are very LA-centred (some might find them annoying, personally it gets me California Dreamin'... )

Maybe they syndicate their music content... Interesting!

[Don Petter]

DP: << Well, that was weird! I happened to be listening to the Vermont Public Radio stream when I read your post. I thought - Good to have another classical streaming source, and added KUSC to my favourites. Then I stopped Vermont to have a trial listen to KUSC, and it made no difference. It was the same work. In fact, if you play them together, there is just a slight time difference.

So they are both using the same source. All the announcements are word for word, though I think possibly read by different people, and I didn't hear a station ID for KUSC, which must differ from that for Vermont. >>

Very odd! KUSC have long idents sometimes, claiming to be funded by listeners etc etc and stressing the SoCal origins - plus sometimes traffic reports which are very LA-centred (some might find them annoying, personally it gets me California Dreamin'... )

Maybe they syndicate their music content... Interesting!

It's just happened again! I was listening to WGBH in Boston when they started a plinky piece by Arvo Part. To find something more interesting, I switched to Vermont Radio, only to be still in the middle of the same piece.

There seems to be a lot of syndication among the US stations. Though one of my favourites from my last few visits, WCPE in Raleigh, NC, seems not to overlap others. (And the frequent amateur mispronunciations become quite endearing after a time.)

[Nick Armstrong]

I've been thinking about this and listening out for what you mention. Yes I think they syndicate slabs of broadcasting - the explicit example is the Alec Baldwin Sunday slot which is specifically made for the New York Phil and I imagine can be found on many stations. Certainly KUSC is based at the Uni of Southern California - I suppose you can't expect them to have the wherewithal (music archives, manpower, and maybe even money - they claim to be audience funded) to produce new programming 24/7, 365 days a year....

I just love the traffic reports and weather forecasts on KUSC - makes me want to slip the shades on and stroll over Ocean Boulevard to the Lobster for a cheeky cold beer looking west over the Pacific :cool2:

[Don Petter]

I just love the traffic reports and weather forecasts on KUSC - makes me want to slip the shades on and stroll over Ocean Boulevard to the Lobster for a cheeky cold beer :cool2:

I echo your sentiments! These stations can immediately bring back memories of locations and business trips where they were constant companions in lone hotel rooms.

[Sydney Grew]

. . . the frequent amateur mispronunciations become quite endearing after a time . . .

Not so much "amateur" as "ignorant." Childishly ignorant, uneducated, illiterate, and aggressively "low-brow" - not endearing at all but all quite monstrous we find.

[Don Petter]

It does seem to imply that, rather like CFM presenters to a certain extent, these people live in a bubble and never encounter the real world of classical music, otherwise they would slowly come into line? Still, I am grateful to the US stations for giving me classical music while I have been there, and now something other than the usual play lists over here.

[Norfolk Born]

In an attempt to avoid Radio 4's blanket coverage of the death of Osama bin Laden, I somewhat reluctantly tuned to 'Breakfast' on Sunday and Monday. My reluctance proved to be justified - the playlist seems to have become more fragmented and populist than ever. It was with relief that I returned to 'Today' today, where something like the usual balanced mixture of stories and reports had managed to re-establish itself.

[Bax-of-Delights]

I can't quite work out why or what the point of the Comedy Guest is. A bastard offspring of Desert Island Discs perhaps? While it was pleasing to have Gyles Brandreth give a welcome puff to Arnold Bax it would have been nice to hear something other than Tintagel once more.

And I don't understand the reasoning behind repeating the guests choices through the rest of the week. So we had the Wedding March from Midsummer Night's Dream yesterday - and we had it again today. Presumably we will get Tintagel once more this week.

I mean - just what is the point?

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

identification for and capture of the suckers for a brand BoD ..... put people they like on and they will like the station and the music etc .... it is all AUNTNIK Thompson's responsibility and his henchman AUNTNIK Wright 360 multichannel digital platform for pushing the ratings up and justifying the CORPOCAT GREED MACHINE for "people like us" ... it is not just Breakfast, not just R3, the whole of the BBC is dominated by this tosh ..... to its and our considerable detriment .. ... the amount of xreferencing alone drives me nuts ... 'and we will be broadcasting a live concert of Rossini's Stabat Mater in 2097, here is a taster part of the ninth section .... '

we can only hope that Patten sees it for the nonsense it is ....and chucks 'em out ....

[salymap]

Rob Cowan has justplayed Bunthorne's .Poppy or a Lily' song from 'Patience'. The singer was George Baker and Rob said he was 80 when he was playing this part. I am confused, is he the actor George Baker. In one of his detective programmes he sang some G&S while driving. Nice touch, there must be two GBs then.

[Don Petter]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_...(record_singer)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Baker_(actor)

[Quarky]

After a very long period away (listening to CDs instead), I have found myself listening again to Breakfast, and enjoying Rob's and SMP's selections.

But it does not take much to make me reach for the off button. "An English Country Garden" Percy Grainger made me cringe, and Entrance of the Gladiators was just too much - a bizarre choice for Breakfast. So I guess it's some extremely well-known pieces that are presumably included to keep the listener numbers up, that turn me away.

[Bax-of-Delights]

Roman Carnival, Enescu Romanian Rhapsody, Handel in the Strand, Slavonic Dance, Marche Slav and a second outing in four days for Bax's Tintagel - but strangely no mention of the fact that the music mirrors Bax's sexual liason with Harriet Cohen who was staying with him at Tintagel. It's always "the sea pounding against the rocks on a bright day". Oh really?

[Nick Armstrong]

Roman Carnival, Enescu Romanian Rhapsody, Handel in the Strand and a second outing in four days for Bax's Tintagel - but strangely no mention of the fact that the music mirrors Bax's sexual liason with Harriet Cohen who was staying with him at Tintagel. It's always "the sea pounding against the rocks on a bright day". Oh really?

[Suffolkcoastal]

We reached the 40th Slavonic Dance of the year this morning, they account for nearly 25% of the Dvorak works played on R3 this year!