The Eternal Breakfast Debate in a New Place

[LMcD]

SK - Radio 3's equivalent of the Harry Potter character one must not name - has just referred, when trailing today's Essential Classics, to the 'electric debut' of Dudamel and co. at the Proms. Personally, I thought it was a real gas, man.

[Bryn]

The Squire was, IIRC, under the impression Béla was a lady .....

Oh dear, The Impostor!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

On Tuesday, I decided to face my demons and submit myself to the ordeal of listening to the full 3 hours of a Susie Essential Classics, as I drove from Scarborough to Brixham. Apart from a call of nature stop at Gloucester Services, I managed to get through it. It was the Speshull Gesst who really hit rock bottom. Clearly she knew zilch about music, other than that she knew the music that ALL her friends liked at school. She went on and on about what they ALL liked, and the singers they ALL liked. Either the nincompoops at her school were under the rule of the school bully, or ALL her friends wore woolly fleeces.

Just when I thought Radio 3 couldn’t sink any lower.

[seabright]

A quick technical question: does anyone else find the volume level of the 'Breakfast' music rather too low when compared with the presenter's voice? Maybe it's my bedside alarm radio that's at fault but although Suzy Klein's voice was perfectly audible at a normal setting this morning, and on other days too, the music she'd just been playing was transmitted several decibels lower. On my radio at any rate, it could barely be heard. However, if I'm alone in this respect, I'll invest in a new one!

[LMcD]

Erm … Suzy Klein doesn't present 'Breakfast' - it's currently Georgia Mann. SK takes over with 'Essential Classics' at 10.00 a.m.

[Old Grumpy]

Erm … Suzy Klein doesn't present 'Breakfast' - it's currently Georgia Mann. SK takes over with 'Essential Classics' at 10.00 a.m.

Erm, nine am, actually. I did note that it was a bedside radio though!

OG

[LMcD]

Erm, nine am, actually. I did note that it was a bedside radio though!

OG

To be fair, SK is let loose a few minutes early so that she can chat with the 'Breakfast' presenter and trail 'Essential Classics'. I tend to tune out until she's said her piece.

[oddoneout]

Grr, another crass trailer moment. Martin Handley had just started to relay some information and it was suddenly interrupted by a noisy Proms trailer. It's 7-30 on Sunday morning, I was enjoying the music and MH's mellow voice as I ease my creaky self into another day, I do not need to be hit over the head like that - best way to stop me listening to the concert in question.
Apart from anything else it's so discourteous to the presenter - or was it a slip on the part of MH?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Grr, another crass trailer moment. Martin Handley had just started to relay some information and it was suddenly interrupted by a noisy Proms trailer. It's 7-30 on Sunday morning, I was enjoying the music and MH's mellow voice as I ease my creaky self into another day, I do not need to be hit over the head like that - best way to stop me listening to the concert in question.
Apart from anything else it's so discourteous to the presenter - or was it a slip on the part of MH?

The sickly Proms trailers are dreadful. They all seem to be a bout the BBC contemplating its own navel. They even have the gall to claim that this is the 125th season of the BBC Proms. Really? the BBC is only 96 years old.
It's the 93rd season with the BBC, and it was much more recently that they actually rebranded the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts in this way. Even that's not true, as the BBC withdrew support at the beginning of WWII - I'm not sure when they recanted on this.

[oddoneout]

The sickly Proms trailers are dreadful. They all seem to be a bout the BBC contemplating its own navel. They even have the gall to claim that this is the 125th season of the BBC Proms. Really? the BBC is only 96 years old.
It's the 93rd season with the BBC, and it was much more recently that they actually rebranded the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts in this way. Even that's not true, as the BBC withdrew support at the beginning of WWII - I'm not sure when they recanted on this.

Yes, I had to laugh when Petroc announced the beginning of the '125th BBC proms' one morning.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Yes, I had to laugh when Petroc announced the beginning of the '125th BBC proms' one morning.

I think it's deliberate brainwashing.

[LMcD]

I think it's deliberate brainwashing.

Perhaps the BBC has rebranded itself as the Big Brother Controller but not bothered to inform any of its listeners and/or viewers. There is an increasingly annoying air of self-congratulation around these 'promos'.

[kernelbogey]

...not to mention all the ghastly gushing by Proms presenters - especially on television. The R3 announcers are clearly obliged to say that the Hall is packed to capacity or some such, and it's now routine to praise the performers. One KD on television is particularly lavish with praise of... err.... colleagues performing.

[antongould]

“Radio 3 Breakfast is largely speech nowadays, the wittering, texting, tweeting, emailing, simpering, giggling, gasping all taking precedence over the music. “

This was posted on another thread a while back and I remember thinking at the time that I hadn’t noticed much if any difference in the amount of speech recently.

So I did one of my analysis exercises that I used to do at the request of ff in bygone years. I did the analysis on the Breakfast programme of 11 July 2019 presented by the Gasper.

I then compared the overall findings with the last exercise undertaken in September 2017.



Music 2019 131 minutes 25 seconds
Music 2017 127 minutes 20 seconds

Trailers etc. 2019 7 minutes 17 seconds
Trailers etc. 2017 10 minutes 17 seconds

News and Weather 2019 11 minutes 26 seconds
News and Weather 2017 11 minutes 25 seconds

Pieces played 2019 21
Pieces played 2017 23

[Old Grumpy]

Interesting, thanks Anton

OG