The Eternal Breakfast Debate in a New Place

[antongould]

is Martin away? I missed most of the programme but heard Skellers saying he [Skellers] is back next Sunday.... It's all so disorienting....

no one seems to know what’s going off …….

[Old Grumpy]

We need a white rose, methinks.

Indeed!...

...Though I note from the weekend edition of Yorkshire's National Newspaper that the bard actually travels regularly to Salford to record his "Radio 3 Show" anyway.

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/opinion/my-exhilarating-evenings-watching-an-orchestra-in-full-flow-ian-mcmillan-4521504

It's really most disorientating!

[oddoneout]

no one seems to know what’s going off …….

The online schedule shows IS next week and MH the following 2weeks , after which it claims to have no information about R3 programmes.

[Serrano]

I could echo what countless others have said, about the trivialisation of R3, the constant interruptions with facile and generally superfluous trailers, the cult of presenters, etc. But on the latter point I find I am increasingly drawn to programmes with better presenting, just because some are now more or less unlistenable. I still like Breakfst - mostly. But E Alka's poor diction and gabbling speech puts me off.
The misleadingly named 'Essential Classics' I have avoided for some time, because of the hectoring about 'my' Playlister Challenge, and G Mann's bossy schoolmarm manner. I increasingly rely on 'Through The Night' for complete works with fewer introductions, less personality blather, and no one telling me what to do. Now I suppose that programme too will be degraded like the rest.

[LMcD]

Indeed!...

...Though I note from the weekend edition of Yorkshire's National Newspaper that the bard actually travels regularly to Salford to record his "Radio 3 Show" anyway.

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/opinion/my-exhilarating-evenings-watching-an-orchestra-in-full-flow-ian-mcmillan-4521504

It's really most disorientating!

He has also, on occasions, texted in to Breakfast while out on his early morning walk.

[Old Grumpy]

He has also, on occasions, texted in to Breakfast while out on his early morning walk.

That must be early then 'cos according to his musings in YP he's usually ot about 0500h

[smittims]

I endorse your views, Serrano. I do hope no-one tampers with TTN. I like it just as it is.

I think 'Breakfast' , Iike the Olympic Games and the Last Night of the Proms, needs reforming. I'd replace it with something called , er... 'Morning on 3' , and it would consist of only complete pieces of music with short, friendly but informative introductions: a sort of 'Through the Day'.

[oddoneout]

I endorse your views, Serrano. I do hope no-one tampers with TTN. I like it just as it is.

I think 'Breakfast' , Iike the Olympic Games and the Last Night of the Proms, needs reforming. I'd replace it with something called , er... 'Morning on 3' , and it would consist of only complete pieces of music with short, friendly but informative introductions: a sort of 'Through the Day'.

It would be better to reform Essential Classics, along the lines you suggest, in my view. I think that Breakfast does a good job of making the transition from/break between TTN and the daytime schedules, but that EC should then move on to something more fully formed and less bitty, rather than more of the same. That never happened and evidently never will, given that bittiness is very obviously the preferred format now - look at what has happened to Afternoon Concert.

[oddoneout]

I could echo what countless others have said, about the trivialisation of R3, the constant interruptions with facile and generally superfluous trailers, the cult of presenters, etc. But on the latter point I find I am increasingly drawn to programmes with better presenting, just because some are now more or less unlistenable. I still like Breakfst - mostly. But E Alka's poor diction and gabbling speech puts me off.
The misleadingly named 'Essential Classics' I have avoided for some time, because of the hectoring about 'my' Playlister Challenge, and G Mann's bossy schoolmarm manner. I increasingly rely on 'Through The Night' for complete works with fewer introductions, less personality blather, and no one telling me what to do. Now I suppose that programme too will be degraded like the rest.

Well arguably they've already tampered with it by introducing dumbtime.

[LMcD]

It would be better to reform Essential Classics, along the lines you suggest, in my view. I think that Breakfast does a good job of making the transition from/break between TTN and the daytime schedules, but that EC should then move on to something more fully formed and less bitty, rather than more of the same. That never happened and evidently never will, given that bittiness is very obviously the preferred format now - look at what has happened to Afternoon Concert.

I agree!

[french frank]

I think that Breakfast does a good job of making the transition from/break between TTN and the daytime schedules

One might question, however, whether Radio 3 needs to 'make a transition' between TTN and the daytime schedules. The fact that certain listeners enjoy it is no more an argument than that certain other listeners think it's awful.

Tell us about the music you're going to play, play the music, tell us what you've played, and move on to the next piece. The insertion of the odd whimsical comment or joke not excluded. Morning on 3 used to be the easiest listening programme on R3, but even that managed to get by with about 12 pieces, rather than anything between 20-30 pieces, plus half a dozen tweets, a stroll in the countryside, an interview with a French pastry cook and a recording of a whistling macaw.

[willietell]

If, as I believe I read somewhere, the programme is moving north, the young lady who hosts Saturday's Breakfast would seem a logical choice to some.

I sincerely hope not. Saturday Breakfast has been a no-go area for me for a long time because I struggle to understand what Ms Alker is saying most of the time. So I only listen on Saturdays when someone stands in for her (usually Martin until now). Otherwise the Saturday Breakfast slot is a chance to pull out an LP or CD until Record Review at 9.

[oddoneout]

One might question, however, whether Radio 3 needs to 'make a transition' between TTN and the daytime schedules. The fact that certain listeners enjoy it is no more an argument than that certain other listeners think it's awful.

Tell us about the music you're going to play, play the music, tell us what you've played, and move on to the next piece. The insertion of the odd whimsical comment or joke not excluded. Morning on 3 used to be the easiest listening programme on R3, but even that managed to get by with about 12 pieces, rather than anything between 20-30 pieces, plus half a dozen tweets, a stroll in the countryside, an interview with a French pastry cook and a recording of a whistling macaw.

Well I was short-changed this morning then. Only one listener input, no interviews, and no macaws or other animals. Instead we had to put up with celebration of world gaelic week, consideration of synaesthesia, the listener who wanted something from Dvorak Stabat Mater, and a complete Brandenburg in Bach before 7, all of which got in the way of the news summaries and the 3 ad slots of course.

[french frank]

all of which got in the way of the news summaries and the 3 ad slots of course.

And the pips? I was, of course, exaggerating a tiny bit about the add-ons. For me it's really the lack of full length works ("Where's the beef?") that makes most of R3 musically of nil interest to me now. I don't mind what the non-classical music programmes are like as I don't listen to them. The disappointment is that it's the classical programmes that are of no interest

[oddoneout]

And the pips? I was, of course, exaggerating a tiny bit about the add-ons. For me it's really the lack of full length works ("Where's the beef?") that makes most of R3 musically of nil interest to me now. I don't mind what the non-classical music programmes are like as I don't listen to them. The disappointment is that it's the classical programmes that are of no interest

I am getting to that stage now, certainly for weekday listening. For some time now EC is just something that comes after Breakfast if I don't turn the radio off; the Playlist challenge can turn up items of interest otherwise it's aural wallpaper much of the time. As for Afternoon Concert... Even if the 3pm slot might be of interest I often can't be bothered, or am too annoyed at the filleting of something to which I might otherwise have listened in the preceding hour, to have it on, which means 3 pm comes and goes unheard. The evening concert content has been of little interest to me for months now, with the classical, baroque and earlier being apparently not in favour anymore. Seems strange to exclude several centuries worth of music but there it is.
Bit of a sad state of affairs if weekday Breakfast becomes my most listened to programme, but it has changed, adapted and evolved into something that, as a short-form(so to speak) music based programme works well in my opinion. I hear things(music, news and info) on there that I don't hear on other programmes, and the occasional free-range segments are a delight. The adoption of the bitty format for following programmes is management blundering and ignorance as far as I'm concerned, not least as it isn't done well - just copy and paste without thought or structure. Yes there are external demands and constraints but is the current state of affairs really the way to meet those challenges?
As I think I've mused before it would be ironic, and very sad, if R3's deterioration ends up pushing me into getting the kit and knowhow to access the very forms of listening that are a threat to its raison d'etre and survival.