The Eternal Breakfast Debate in a New Place

[hmvman]

Ahhhhh...


...here we dream of 3G, or even a phone signal!

Best we can manage is a couple of yoghurt pots and a piece of string....

[alycidon]

This week is likely to have a higher folk element as Petroc is doing an Irish odyssey.

My radio turns on just before seven and I am baffled by the amount of dialogue going on in the Irish visit. Surely listeners need music at that time in the morning when they presumably are unable to sit glued to the radio because of everything else going on. Personally, I can’t engage with speech at that time in the morning and I find it incomprehensible that the BBC considers it OK to include so much dialogue between 7 and 8 every day.

[oddoneout]

My radio turns on just before seven and I am baffled by the amount of dialogue going on in the Irish visit. Surely listeners need music at that time in the morning when they presumably are unable to sit glued to the radio because of everything else going on. Personally, I can’t engage with speech at that time in the morning and I find it incomprehensible that the BBC considers it OK to include so much dialogue between 7 and 8 every day.

I found myself listening to the speech more than usual because it was something different - although the accents were sometimes a bit of a challenge as my hearing is not too good currently thanks to a virus.
Different folk have different views on the desirability or otherwise of dialogue in morning programmes, same as they have different morning routines.

[Serial_Apologist]

My radio turns on just before seven and I am baffled by the amount of dialogue going on in the Irish visit. Surely listeners need music at that time in the morning when they presumably are unable to sit glued to the radio because of everything else going on. Personally, I can’t engage with speech at that time in the morning and I find it incomprehensible that the BBC considers it OK to include so much dialogue between 7 and 8 every day.

That aspect of abundant dialogue hadn't occurred to me as one of the many unacceptable things about R3 morning schedules. Someone talking elicits a different set of listener responses than casual music - or music that has been rendered casual by decimation, decontextualisation etc - since it tends to stop one doing whatever one was doing, or does so in my case.

[french frank]

That aspect of abundant dialogue hadn't occurred to me as one of the many unacceptable things about R3 morning schedules. Someone talking elicits a different set of listener responses than casual music - or music that has been rendered casual by decimation, decontextualisation etc - since it tends to stop one doing whatever one was doing, or does so in my case.

I said a couple of days ago: "From what people say (and also enjoy, apparently) it gets to be more like a magazine programme than a music programme. Correct me if I'm wrong someone." No one did 'correct' me on that, but some people just do enjoy the dialogue, and find it reelly, reelly intrestin'. It's not what I want. It can't be anything other than superficial.

[antongould]

I said a couple of days ago: "From what people say (and also enjoy, apparently) it gets to be more like a magazine programme than a music programme. Correct me if I'm wrong someone." No one did 'correct' me on that, but some people just do enjoy the dialogue, and find it reelly, reelly intrestin'. It's not what I want. It can't be anything other than superficial.

Apologies missed your first post …. IMVVHO Breakfast is a music programme ……

[french frank]

Apologies missed your first post …. IMVVHO Breakfast is a music programme ……

I refer you to the posts below by alycidon and Serial. Too much talk, too many 'features'. That's the claim. Perhaps this doesn't resonate with you because you enjoy the talk and features?

[antongould]

I refer you to the posts below by alycidon and Serial. Too much talk, too many 'features'. That's the claim. Perhaps this doesn't resonate with you because you enjoy the talk and features?

I am not sure S_A listens and the last week hs tended towards a, IMVVHO, very good magazine programme ....... have a listen .....

[french frank]

I am not sure S_A listens and the last week hs tended towards a, IMVVHO, very good magazine programme ....... have a listen .....

I don't listen either. But I read what is said by people who do listen. They may be saying they enjoy an item, they may be saying they don't. But if I want a music programme which plays music, which adds insights about the music and plays pieces which last at least 20 minutes, preferably 30+ minutes, I know, without listening, that's not what I'm going to get from Breakfast. Nor am I going to get it from Essential Classics, and that's the morning gone. I won't get it from In Tune or much, if anything, from the post evening concert slots. There have also been adverse cmments about the way Afternoon Concert has gone. Now, when you consider the Proms, some concerts will appeal to you, others won't. Apply the same to the lunchtime recital and evening concert, namely that some will appeal and some won't, there are meagre pickings.

[hmvman]

Last week's programmes were different from the normal and, yes, it was more of a feature programme. It's become something of an annual event for Petroc to go on a journey (usually with a water theme) over the five days. It does, as a result, have more dialogue than usual because of Petroc's descriptions of the locations, the history behind them and the interviews with people associated with them.

I've found that I listen to these programmes differently. I only caught bits in the mornings when they were live so I've been listening to each of them in their entirety via Sounds (something I wouldn't do with the normal Breakfast programmes). I have to admit that I have enjoyed this series very much (as I did in previous years) because they are different and I think Petroc is excellent in them because of his powers of description. The live music elements have been good too IMO.

I accept, though, that this is purely a personal opinion and that some people don't think this is the sort of thing that R3 should be broadcasting in the mornings.

[french frank]

I accept, though, that this is purely a personal opinion and that some people don't think this is the sort of thing that R3 should be broadcasting in the mornings.

I'm not sure that it's even as simple as that. I wouldn't go as far as to say 'it shouldn't be on R3'. It doesn't really matter to me personally that it's on Breakfast since I don't listen to the programme, but I do wonder whether it might be done better, in more depth, in a dedicated slot. However, I even know that an erstwhile forumite, who would generally think like me about R3, happened to hear a recent Breakfast and actually wrote in to find out the details of a recording not in the playlist and subsequently bought the CD. So nothing is cut and dried.

[kernelbogey]

I just managed to retrieve what Martin Handley said this morning on Sunday Breakfast by going to the repeat on Sounds: that he has only six months left on the programme 'before it heads off to Salford'. (We all know what that might mean...! ). I feel sad and cross that he is being taken off the programme, and hope that he will be found a programme where his musical expertise can inform what is broadcast and the scripts he writes. But I fear that may not happen. Another nail in the coffin of my R3 listening.

[Nick Armstrong]

I just managed to retrieve what Martin Handley said this morning on Sunday Breakfast by going to the repeat on Sounds: that he has only six months left on the programme 'before it heads off to Salford'. (We all know what that might mean...! ). I feel sad and cross that he is being taken off the programme, and hope that he will be found a programme where his musical expertise can inform what is broadcast and the scripts he writes. But I fear that may not happen. Another nail in the coffin of my R3 listening.

Yes, mine too.

[french frank]

Yes, mine too.

I have been under a misapprehension for several years, it seems. I thought it already came from Salford (just during the week?) and that was the sole reason why the resident of that locality was drafted in on a Saturday (saving on train fares?). Trawling through the programme until almost the end to catch the announcement crystallised why it is I find the programme format unlistenable. And yes, I do understand that what I dislike is precisely what others enjoy. Such is life.

[kernelbogey]

I have been under a misapprehension for several years, it seems. I thought it already came from Salford (just during the week?) and that was the sole reason why the resident of that locality was drafted in on a Saturday (saving on train fares?). Trawling through the programme until almost the end to catch the announcement crystallised why it is I find the programme format unlistenable. And yes, I do understand that what I dislike is precisely what others enjoy. Such is life.

Martin Handley is the only regular presenter of Breakfast who puts the music unequivocally first. Stand-ins Kate Molleson and Hannah French come very close. Petroc is a good steady pair of hands but he presides - occasionally from Truro, BTW - over a kind of magazine programme. This move is bad news!