'Slow Radio' and other changes afoot at R3

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

So was Wogan!

Wogan was a consummate presenter for the station and programmes he presented, understanding and responding to the needs of his audience(s) - a R3 equivalent of Wogan would be very welcome. (Even more welcome for me would be a R3 equivalent of John Peel!)

...but then who gets it all right all the time, even Mrs C has on very rare occasions been wrong!

Good heavens. cloughie! I'd no idea you were married to Suzy Klein!

[eighthobstruction]

You may well be, yet again, right cloughers ...... but to a half-wit like me he seems rather knowledgeable ...... ????

....

[Serial_Apologist]

....

(Hath the man gained nothing from contributing for the whole duration of this forum? I asked myself?)

[eighthobstruction]

....it's just inate modesty....

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

We appear to be playing the BBC's game here, by overemphasising the role of presenters. For introducing music, all we need is an announcer, who can then allow the music to speak for itself. For increasing the knowledge of listeners, we need knowledgeable communicators, who don't gasp, gabble, patronise,smirk or try to be chummy. Such people do exist, but are an endangered species on Radio 3.

[antongould]

(Hath the man gained nothing from contributing for the whole duration of this forum? I asked myself?)

Before this I was a quarter wit ......

[Serial_Apologist]

Before this I was a quarter wit ......

Not 'arf?!

[antongould]

Not 'arf?!

Excellent, as always S_A

[underthecountertenor]

We appear to be playing the BBC's game here, by overemphasising the role of presenters. For introducing music, all we need is an announcer, who can then allow the music to speak for itself. For increasing the knowledge of listeners, we need knowledgeable communicators, who don't gasp, gabble, patronise,smirk or try to be chummy. Such people do exist, but are an endangered species on Radio 3.

Tricky. A lot of what this forum appears to be about is discussing particular presenters, or presentation in general, and how they match up to the desiderata that you nicely summarise. If we say ‘X is beginning to let him (or her) self get in the way of the music, and at the same time Y is becoming pleasingly less gushy - oh and by the way Z made a total hash of announcing a snippet of an opera,’ are we really playing the BBC’s game? Aren’t we in fact discussing the very question you raise, namely what we want in a presenter and how the existing presenters live up to our ideal?

[french frank]

Aren’t we in fact discussing the very question you raise, namely what we want in a presenter and how the existing presenters live up to our ideal?

I think that's right. Tricky because what most people appear to want is less from the presenter than they're getting. The BBC considers that presenter+personal style is the 'attraction'. R3 listeners don't want the presenter to be the attraction: they want the presenter input vis-à-vis the music to be concisely informative/informed, and presenters who are neither informative nor informed are the ones who rely on 'being themselves' as a substitute. Not 'an attraction': they're a turn-off.

When we carried out a survey a few years ago and asked whether presenters were 'important', we had people saying 'yes' and 'no'. But both took the same view: presenters are important when they get their role 'right' they are just as 'important' when they get it wrong, but with the opposite effect

I also think that if a presenter's calculated image appeals to an individual listener, they probably don't hear enough of that presenter, whereas another listener 'can't stand' that presenter … This is where the BBC view wins: "you can't please all the people all the time" At this point they can get away with whatever serves their purpose.

[Pulcinella]

Whenever I can be bothered responding to the feedback option that occasionally appears on the R3 website, I complain about the emphasis given there to the presenter not the music (or other) content of the programme.
Anyone would think that we switched on just to have the pleasure of hearing the presenter in all his/her effusion.

[DracoM]

It's the R2 model. Names /station platform every fifteen minutes.
SMP seems to do it about every 30 seconds and pretty well between every 'track' she plays, and it drives me to teeth-grinding.

[antongould]

It's the R2 model. Names /station platform every fifteen minutes.
SMP seems to do it about every 30 seconds and pretty well between every 'track' she plays, and it drives me to teeth-grinding.

It may seem that way, but I have just listened again to Sunday's Choir and Organ and to my tinnitus battered ears she never did it once .......

[DracoM]

Are you suggesting that she has reformed, or I am deaf, or terminally prejudiced or only hear what I want to hear, or.........I'm a liar, or what a predictable trivial First World Problem to get ludicrously overworked-up I am in the midst of?



Because very probably I am guilty on all counts.

[antongould]

Are you suggesting that she has reformed, or I am deaf, or terminally prejudiced or only hear what I want to hear, or.........I'm a liar, or what a predictable trivial First World Problem to get ludicrously overworked-up I am in the midst of?



Because very probably I am guilty on all counts.

Sir .... you are innocent on all counts whilst I am guilty of being an evidence based half wit .....