The Eternal Breakfast Debate in a New Place

[Radio64]

<+irony>...</irony> ?

Nay, just a tad confused by the grammar...sorry occupational hazard.

[Bax-of-Delights]

What is striking is the shift to the presenter as the more important component of any " show". Thus this morning we had a trailer for Opera on 3 which concluded with the words "So, its Opera on 3 with me Sarah Mohr-Petsch" followed very quickly with "you're listening to Breakfast with me Clemmy Burton-Hill" and a little later "Essential Classics with Sarah Walker".
Yesterday EC had the usual "a piece played backwards" buffoonery and today's Breakfast was replete with god-awful tweeting playing on composers and digestion.

What a sack of ....


(And before anyone mentions that I profess not to listen to these programmes I only leave the raio on in the downstairs loo as a feeble deterrent to any would-be burglars. I find R3 in its morning guise suitable accompaniment for the necessities. And if KD is a-garbling in the afternoon I just have to use the upstairs loo. )

[Radio64]

....

(And before anyone mentions that I profess not to listen to these programmes I only leave the raio on in the downstairs loo as a feeble deterrent to any would-be burglars. I find R3 in its morning guise suitable accompaniment for the necessities. ...

Ha ha! I think you should tweet that to @clemencybh !!

[Don Petter]

(And before anyone mentions that I profess not to listen to these programmes I only leave the radio on in the downstairs loo as a feeble deterrent to any would-be burglars.

Well, that will never work. Burglars often ask for Clemency.

[french frank]

What is striking is the shift to the presenter as the more important component of any " show". Thus this morning we had a trailer for Opera on 3 which concluded with the words "So, its Opera on 3 with me Sarah Mohr-Petsch" followed very quickly with "you're listening to Breakfast with me Clemmy Burton-Hill" and a little later "Essential Classics with Sarah Walker".

Whereas, listening to CFM in the local tratt yesterday evening, I didn't hear the presenter announce his name at all ...

As far as Essential Classics goes, the first commissioning brief said:

"It will be a live presenter-led CD-based programme – and the choice of presenter is key to appeal to the above audiences." The above audiences being 'as much of the Breakfast audience as possible', plus new listeners switching over from the Today programme at 9am.

So pretty comprehensive proof that Radio 3's second most popular listening slot of the day (the most popular being the breakfast slot) goes to the 'new listeners' and other audiences can go to hell. I stress, it's the time of day, not the programmes, that's a popular time to listen. Such figures as I have seen (and is the BBC secretive!) indicate that Classical Collection was getting fewer listeners than CD Masters. And if anyone suggests that Essential Classics gets more - the figures aren't comparable because Essential Classics is an hour longer, and starts, incidentally, at just about the peak listening time for Radio 3 - around 9am. It's like giving out free sweeties to attract new listeners and telling those they already have to listen in the afternoons (which descend to a daytime trough at 3pm-4pm, for most BBC radio stations, not just Radio 3).

[mercia]

haven't BBC people always announced themselves ?

"here is the news and this is Alvar Lidell reading it "

[french frank]

haven't BBC people always announced themselves ?

"here is the news and this is Alvar Lidell reading it "

Once, at the beginning, is surely acceptable - for radio, where there are no visuals. I don't think they kept repeating it every time there was a new story, did they?

[cloughie]

Whereas, listening to CFM in the local tratt yesterday evening, I didn't hear the presenter announce his name at all ...

As far as Essential Classics goes, the first commissioning brief said:

"It will be a live presenter-led CD-based programme – and the choice of presenter is key to appeal to the above audiences." The above audiences being 'as much of the Breakfast audience as possible', plus new listeners switching over from the Today programme at 9am.

So pretty comprehensive proof that Radio 3's second most popular listening slot of the day (the most popular being the breakfast slot) goes to the 'new listeners' and other audiences can go to hell. I stress, it's the time of day, not the programmes, that's a popular time to listen. Such figures as I have seen (and is the BBC secretive!) indicate that Classical Collection was getting fewer listeners than CD Masters. And if anyone suggests that Essential Classics gets more - the figures aren't comparable because Essential Classics is an hour longer, and starts, incidentally, at just about the peak listening time for Radio 3 - around 9am. It's like giving out free sweeties to attract new listeners and telling those they already have to listen in the afternoons (which descend to a daytime trough at 3pm-4pm, for most BBC radio stations, not just Radio 3).

Perhaps what is needed is a petition to bring back CDM!

Just an aside but did anyone see the level of knowledge of Classical Music on Pointless - asked to match composers to pieces of music the first round yielded 2 out of 3 '100s' - there was the suggestion that Chopin wrote 1812 and Dukas and Barber raised single-figure scores. Radio 3 Breakfast has obviously not attracted these entrants!

[french frank]

Radio 3 Breakfast has obviously not attracted these entrants!

How do you know?

[mercia]

I must admit I do find the "me" redundant in "you're listening to Essential Classics with me Sarah Walker" - I think we can take it for granted that she is you and that there are no imposters or ventriloquists in the studio

[cloughie]

How do you know?

Maybe, just maybe as it is played once or twice then Dukas and Sorcerer's apprentice might have stuck or perhaps Tchaikovsky and 1812 or even Dvorak and New World Symphony.....but then again perhaps not and they're only there for the tweets and C!emmy's alluring tones!

[french frank]

Maybe, just maybe as it is played once or twice then Dukas and Sorcerer's apprentice might have stuck or perhaps Tchaikovsky and 1812 or even Dvorak and New World Symphony.....but then again perhaps not and they're only there for the tweets and C!emmy's alluring tones!

That is what I meant, yes If they'd mentioned the Hovis Symphony, that might have clicked.

My hunch is - and it is just a hunch - that if they use the kind of presentation techniques that people are accustomed to hear on popular radio (music) stations, they will attract the kind of people who don't ask to be informally educated, just pleasantly diverted.

[Quarky]

May be I am in a minority of one here, but listening as an exception to Breakfast this morning, and to CB-H for the first time, I was quite impressed with the play list. Starting with Stravinsky's Jeu de Cartes, it managed to hold my interest right through until about 8.30, when I had to make a move.

[cloughie]

May be I am in a minority of one here, but listening as an exception to Breakfast this morning, and to CB-H for the first time, I was quite impressed with the play list. Starting with Stravinsky's Jeu de Cartes, it managed to hold my interest right through until about 8.30, when I had to make a move.

But I bet Jeu de Cartes wasn't the full rubber!

And ff I think that Radios 1 or 2 or maybe 4 would be the RAJAH boostings of the Pointless contestants.

[Wallace]

haven't BBC people always announced themselves ?

"here is the news and this is Alvar Lidell reading it "

It didn't always happen. The practice began in the Second World War so listeners could become more familiar with the announcers' voices and link them to the names. The idea being to make it easier to recognise an attempt by the enemy to take over the airwaves. Nowadays it seems it's an attempt to create minor celebrities who are famous for nothing other than being on the radio.