The Eternal Breakfast Debate in a New Place

[Crowcatcher]

You may be interested in this letter which appeared in the 25th of November Private Eye :-

Mozza's Requiem
Sir
Concerning your accusations of "dumbing down " and falling audiences on Radio 3 (Eye 1301), I wonderif any of your readers were lucky enough to catch Petroc Trelawny (I think it was he) on 'Breakfast 'a couple of weeks ago conducting a discussion about whether or not it was acceptable for him to abbreviate Rachmaninov to "Rach ". The general consensus of listeners, responding via Twitter was that "Rach " was okay, but abbreviating Mozart to "Mo " was unacceptable. All far too highbrow for me, I'm listening to CDs in the morning now,
Yours,
J PA MMENT,
Keighley.

For my sins I had a quick look at Petroc's latest Twitter offering on the same day and all he could contibute was a complaint abou porridge not being available in the canteen that morning - poor dear!!

Thank goodness for my recordings of Through The Night - not a single item to complain about

Happy New Year to you all.

[cloughie]

I had the misfortune to undertake a long journey today as a passenger with someone who had her car radio tuned to Classic FM. It is a radio station I have never listened to for more than a few minutes as it is commercial radio I cannot stomach the adverts (it's the same with TV). The last time I listened to commercial radio was Radio Luxembourg under the blanket over 50 years ago. Anyway, back to Classic FM. I had not realised how dire it is, mind numbingly so. The choice of music, the prattle between the pieces of music, the trails, and of course the adverts which seem to go on forever. Cornish peaches at their very worst don't get anywhere near it. On getting out of the car at our destination I felt need for a long period of solitude and silence to recuperate. I view the return journey with trepidation. What should I do? Make my excuses and travel by train?

If there's one thing I cannot stand it's intolerance. How old are you?

[kernelbogey]

I happened to hear a little of Breakfast today. CBH played the second movement of Mozart's Clarinet Concerto without any reference to having broadcast just one movement. Perhaps a slip - but we're also a little further down a slippery slope.

[Osborn]

CBH played the second movement of Mozart's Clarinet Concerto without any reference to having broadcast just one movement. Perhaps a slip - but we're also a little further down a slippery slope.

A typical FoR3 sneering, supercilious, spiteful comment. They've got 168 hours of weekly transmission to worry about but email the programme if you want. There's no point in telling me.

[french frank]

A typical FoR3 sneering, supercilious, spiteful comment. They've got 168 hours of weekly transmission to worry about but email the programme if you want. There's no point in telling me.

kernelbogey is not, as far as I am aware, connected with FoR3 other than in that he - like you - makes use of this forum.

So stop making your sneering, spiteful comments, or at least get your facts right.

Thank you.

[french frank]

There's no point in telling me.

What makes you think the comment was addressed at you, anyway? What one might point out (and you can accuse FoR3 of anything you like here) is that she was busy tweeting just before she announced the piece, and tweeting again shortly after. Perhaps it would do R3 people good to remember the audience that they're broadcasting to.

[Frances_iom]

I happened to hear a little of Breakfast today. CBH played the second movement of Mozart's Clarinet Concerto without any reference to having broadcast just one movement. ....

I caught the same bit - I thought as it was the holiday season the usual excuse of busy mums getting kids ready for school + need to think about drivers in morning rush hour wouldn't apply - however Roger's dumbing down applied - she jumped straight in at the 'end' (I think before last bar finished) - I suspect there was an advert she had to set going - anyway I turned it off at that point - over the Xmas period I suspect I've only listened to 15 hours and most of those were the Brahms Proms + organ recitals plus Question of Belief (and even one of these was a repeat) - why is it necessary to assume that all give up all rationality during these 2 weeks ?

[cloughie]

A typical FoR3 sneering, supercilious, spiteful comment. They've got 168 hours of weekly transmission to worry about but email the programme if you want. There's no point in telling me.

If you want another supercilious, sneering, sniping comment, but you don't want anymore try suggesting that more of the 168 hours is spent playing full works. Did I not tune in today to the third movement of Rachmaninov Sym 2, where were the other 3 movements?

[Norfolk Born]

BEHIND YOU!
(Well, it IS the pantomime season)

[cloughie]

BEHIND YOU!
(Well, it IS the pantomime season)

It's been pantomime season on Breakfast for a while. Oh yes it has!

[french frank]

A coincidence: this morning I received a letter from the Trust, yet again disagreeing with the view I put to them that the standards and quality of Radio 3 had been falling. No, they had carried out research which showed that Radio 3 was 'exemplary and high quality'. This afternoon, lo! a ring at the bell and it was a market research interviewer. It took me about 60 secs to realise that the survey was being carried out for the BBC (identical questions to those in various Trust consultations; I know them by heart).

And now I understand. The propositions were always expressed positively in such a way that I either had to agree with them or say 'Don't Know' (i.e. I don't know how to answer that question in a way that allows me to give a satisfactory reply). And some were very general: 'Do you approve of the BBC?' Saying 'No' gives a totally false impression, but saying 'Yes' is having words put into your mouth. I ended up saying 'Don't Know' to several questions, so effectively I wasn't able to express an opinion.

I was talking with the interviewer when he confirmed at the end that it was a BBC survey and he agreed that questions were biased, e.g. 'Has your opinion changed in the past month?' He said he'd only had one person ever say 'Yes' because it was too short a time. If it had been in the past 6 months, the past year, the past 5 years, the answers would be very different. But they don't ask that. Other organisations have asked: 'Do you think the BBC is dumbing down/going down market?' Two surveys have shown that over 50% of those questioned say 'Yes'. But the BBC doesn't ask the question because it's negative.

[cloughie]

A coincidence: this morning I received a letter from the Trust, yet again disagreeing with the view I put to them that the standards and quality of Radio 3 had been falling. No, they had carried out research which showed that Radio 3 was 'exemplary and high quality'. This afternoon, lo! a ring at the bell and it was a market research interviewer. It took me about 60 secs to realise that the survey was being carried out for the BBC (identical questions to those in various Trust consultations; I know them by heart).

And now I understand. The propositions were always expressed positively in such a way that I either had to agree with them or say 'Don't Know' (i.e. I don't know how to answer that question in a way that allows me to give a satisfactory reply). And some were very general: 'Do you approve of the BBC?' Saying 'No' gives a totally false impression, but saying 'Yes' is having words put into your mouth. I ended up saying 'Don't Know' to several questions, so effectively I wasn't able to express an opinion.

I was talking with the interviewer when he confirmed at the end that it was a BBC survey and he agreed that questions were biased, e.g. 'Has your opinion changed in the past month?' He said he'd only had one person ever say 'Yes' because it was too short a time. If it had been in the past 6 months, the past year, the past 5 years, the answers would be very different. But they don't ask that. Other organisations have asked: 'Do you think the BBC is dumbing down/going down market?' Two surveys have shown that over 50% of those questioned say 'Yes'. But the BBC doesn't ask the question because it's negative.

You mean they don't ask
DO YOU THINK THAT BBC3 BREAKFAST IS A) A JOKE
B) A BAD DREAM
C) THE BEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD

[french frank]

You mean they don't ask
DO YOU THINK THAT BBC3 BREAKFAST IS A) A JOKE
B) A BAD DREAM
C) THE BEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD

No, no multiple choice questions. In some cases you have the chance to do the Strongly Agree - Strongly Disagree, on a scale of 1-10, but if they ask (as they did) do you think the BBC makes great programmes? you only have to be able to think of, say, Frozen Planet, Doctor Who (assuming you happen to like it ), the Proms, and the answer is 'Yes' (interviewer marks down: 'the BBC makes great programmes '). What does a 5 mean? Fairly good programmes? Some very good, some very bad?

[doversoul1]

That’s a blatant manipulation. Isn’t there any way you can point that out?

[cloughie]

No, no multiple choice questions. In some cases you have the chance to do the Strongly Agree - Strongly Disagree, on a scale of 1-10, but if they ask (as they did) do you think the BBC makes great programmes? you only have to be able to think of, say, Frozen Planet, Doctor Who (assuming you happen to like it ), the Proms, and the answer is 'Yes' (interviewer marks down: 'the BBC makes great programmes '). What does a 5 mean? Fairly good programmes? Some very good, some very bad?

I suspect that they do not ask DO YOU THINK THAT THE BBC MAKES A LOT OF VERY MEDIOCRE OR EVEN RATHER BAD PROGRAMMES?
Well anyone who has ever listened to Feedback will know that the BBC never does that or at least will never own up to it. Why can't the BBC suits realise that in an era of austerity they can save money by getting back to basics, play music, all of it not bleeding chunks and odd movements, cut out the gimmicks, celebrity guests, celebrity presenters, bring back jazz on Saturday afternoons, play decent stuff on Radio 2, discontine Radio 6, sell off Radio 1 and give Radio 5 an FM wavelength ( AM reception is a disgrace to the 21st Century) and Roger Wright please listen to listeners not marketing gurus!
This could be my last rant of 2011!
2012? Watch this space.