The Eternal Breakfast Debate in a New Place

[DublinJimbo]

It is trying to be all things to all people and is, in the attempt, failing. Miserably.

Hear, hear!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Having been wed to R3 for nigh on 50 years it takes a hell of a lot to break the link/habit and many have hung on because we knew no different. However things have changed. Utterly. With the widespread availability of music from a myriad of sources - classical or jazz (I'm listening to the Danish Jazz8 right now on-line) - the need for R3 in the form into which it has transformed itself becomes less than imperative. While there may be gems among the mundane it is clear that the dross is beginning to encroach on the oases like sands creeping inexorably in from the desert. Breakfast and Essential Classics are hardly beacons of light in this murky netherland and very rarely throw out shards of light. Afternoon on 3 all too often replicates the morning fare, regurgitating familiar - over familiar - pieces in the guise of "live", i.e. recorded, concerts. Add into this equation the gigglefest that is the "merry" - but squirming- banter between Katie Derham and Sean Rafferty at some pre-ordained interval and suddenly the blinkers fall away from the eyes - or ears in this case. I don't need R3 any more because it has signally removed itself from the cultural and intellectual high ground. It is trying to be all things to all people and is, in the attempt, failing. Miserably.

This is increasingly the way I feel about R3, too, BoD. Rather than a "Friend of R3", I increasingly feel like an "ex" - we share custody of the kids (CotW, Music Matters, CDReview, some concerts) but I feel ever-increasing despair at the way my ex flings himself at the younger models (who are all embarrasssed by him and express no interest in him at all) in such an undignified way. And that toupee ... !

[teamsaint]

I am a real newcomer, only been listening seriously to R 3 for 4 or 5 years tops. I also feel that quite large chunks of the output have little to say to me, or that I can listen o music better in some other way. Sadly , presentation style , something that actually helped draw me to R3 (have you HEARD some of the other stations?) is increasingly a barrier to enjoyment.
For all that, there is still lots of great "content"(), but as others have said, the warning signs for deterioration are all too clear.

Edit, Sorry, meant to say, great post BofD

[EdgeleyRob]

This is increasingly the way I feel about R3, too, BoD. Rather than a "Friend of R3", I increasingly feel like an "ex" - we share custody of the kids (CotW, Music Matters, CDReview, some concerts) but I feel ever-increasing despair at the way my ex flings himself at the younger models (who are all embarrasssed by him and express no interest in him at all) in such an undignified way. And that toupee ... !

Brilliantly put Ferny.
It's nothing like the quality radio station I started listening to 40 years ago.
TTN,BAL,some lunchtime and evening concerts on i player,that's about it nowadays.

[french frank]

Speaking personally as someone who has been listening to R3 for just over 10 years, I still think it's a marvellously educational and entertaining radio station, and musically speaking, second to none.

That's how I felt when I first started listening - last century. I don't think I looked upon it as principally 'educational' as unfailingly rewarding and interesting. Since the beginning of this last decade it seems to have had the 'ambition' of becoming "just another radio station"*, in the words of the current controller, happily, part of a seamless BBC music radio brand, with DJ shows and chatter.

It may be 'second to none', musically speaking, in the UK. But I can't be bothered to navigate my way through Radio 2-style DJs, the tiresome listener interactivity, the truncated pieces I want to hear in full, with the increasing suspicion that R3 does indeed have a 'playlist' - pieces that must be played at frequent intervals for the benefit of all the 'new' listeners. If that's 'glass half empty' when I should be considering it 'glass half full', that's not my problem - it's R3 that's lost a listener.

*'Wright must, in any case, be doing something right - the Sony award [in 2008/9] certainly suggests so. The win was, he says, helpful in "reminding our audience that we are just another radio station...'

[JFLL]

That's how I felt when I first started listening - last century. I don't think I looked upon it as principally 'educational' as unfailingly rewarding and interesting. Since the beginning of this last decade it seems to have had the 'ambition' of becoming "just another radio station"*, in the words of the current controller, happily, part of a seamless BBC music radio brand, with DJ shows and chatter.

It may be 'second to none', musically speaking, in the UK. But I can't be bothered to navigate my way through Radio 2-style DJs, the tiresome listener interactivity, the truncated pieces I want to hear in full, with the increasing suspicion that R3 does indeed have a 'playlist' - pieces that must be played at frequent intervals for the benefit of all the 'new' listeners. If that's 'glass half empty' when I should be considering it 'glass half full', that's not my problem - it's R3 that's lost a listener.

*'Wright must, in any case, be doing something right - the Sony award [in 2008/9] certainly suggests so. The win was, he says, helpful in "reminding our audience that we are just another radio station...'

So ambitious and challenging, isn’t he?

Of course, DJs and chatter aren’t traditional BBC fare – they only came in from commercial stations like Radio Luxembourg and Radio Caroline when the BBC introduced them on its pop stations in an earlier fit of populist panic forty odd years ago. A cynic could see the recent fundamental changes in R3 as part of one long story of imitating one’s inferior competitors after first holding out against them and saying that the BBC is/should be different or special.

[Resurrection Man]

..... Add into this equation the gigglefest that is the "merry" - but squirming- banter between Katie Derham and Sean Rafferty at some pre-ordained interval and suddenly the blinkers fall away from the eyes - or ears in this case. ...

You know how to spoil a man's Sunday breakfast - reminding me of this banality !!

Spot on comment and post.

[amateur51]

This is increasingly the way I feel about R3, too, BoD. Rather than a "Friend of R3", I increasingly feel like an "ex" - we share custody of the kids (CotW, Music Matters, CDReview, some concerts) but I feel ever-increasing despair at the way my ex flings himself at the younger models (who are all embarrasssed by him and express no interest in him at all) in such an undignified way. And that toupee ... !

Lovely stuff, ferney

I wonder, would you care to name that aspect which you regard as 'that toupee'?

[Ferretfancy]

I've been listening regularly to the old Third Programme and then Radio 3 since the 1950s, sometimes finding it tough stuff, after all I was just in my teens at the outset, but reaping huge benefits.
Leaving all the arguments about presentation aside, surely the point is that until relatively recently Radio 3 helped to set the agenda for the arts, extending outwards from broadcasting into the world at large. Ideas first promoted on the old Third Programme became part of the artistic discourse.

We have lost so much by sacrificing serious thought for popularity. I'm not actually a deeply intellectual person, I'm probably too lazy, but I was enriched by R3, and was proud to work for the BBC, now I'm not so sure.

[salymap]

I've been listening regularly to the old Third Programme and then Radio 3 since the 1950s, sometimes finding it tough stuff, after all I was just in my teens at the outset, but reaping huge benefits.
Leaving all the arguments about presentation aside, surely the point is that until relatively recently Radio 3 helped to set the agenda for the arts, extending outwards from broadcasting into the world at large. Ideas first promoted on the old Third Programme became part of the artistic discourse.

We have lost so much by sacrificing serious thought for popularity. I'm not actually a deeply intellectual person, I'm probably too lazy, but I was enriched by R3, and was proud to work for the BBC, now I'm not so sure.

I'm a few years older than you Ferret but I agee with every word. It is really sad......

[Wallace]

I've been listening regularly to the old Third Programme and then Radio 3 since the 1950s, sometimes finding it tough stuff, after all I was just in my teens at the outset, but reaping huge benefits.

How do the teenagers of today who listen to Radio 3 regard it? Does it stretch their minds and are they reaping huge benefits? I do hope so.

There is much to dislike in what is transmitted on 90 to 93 FM but still much to love and cherish. If you set aside 0630-1200 (Saturdays excepted) and anything involving KD, is there sufficient in the rest of the output to nourish and sustain an enquiring mind? I feel the answer is yes - providing you are selective. I now rarely listen to the radio as it is transmitted. Most of my listening is via the iplayer. Likewise TV and I can usually find enough quality broadcasting to fill my listening and viewing hours (although do I struggle sometimes with the TV). Is it fair to compare today's radio output which has the iplayer linked to it with the output of a time when the only option was to listen to broadcasts as they were transmitted? Are we trying to compare apples to oranges?

And the toupee? RC?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

And the toupee? RC?

- No!! This particular Syrup of fhg's was meant to be entirely metaphorical - the various requests for tweets and twitters and the "Mind Twisting Teasers" that dangle unconvincingly from what used to be the crown of BBC radio broadcasting!

[Wallace]

One man's metaphor is another's allegory.........

[Deckerd]

One man's metaphor is another's allegory.........

Whenever I see the word 'metaphor' now I immediately see The Mask saying "metaphorically speaking". I realise many of you won't have a clue what I'm talking about. But it makes me laugh, so I can live with it.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Whenever I see the word 'metaphor' now I immediately see The Mask saying "metaphorically speaking". I realise many of you won't have a clue what I'm talking about. But it makes me laugh, so I can live with it.

Smokin'!