Essential Classics - The Continuing Debate

[DracoM]

It is getting closer and closer to a mix-tape but with some presenter input, and closer and closer to chopped up classics on Breakfast, and closer and closer to the 7-7.30 uninterrupted mix-tape......

..............see where I'm going with this?

IMO, from 7 a.m.- 7.30 p.m. [not including Lunchtime concert or COTW] those of us who love whole pieces are being cheated and betrayed. R3 is becoming a rag-tag-and bobtail of a service.

Wonder if record labels are happy about how truncated their carefully produced offerings are becoming? Or do they see this as a useful shop-window?

[zola]

IMO, from 7 a.m.- 7.30 p.m. [not including Lunchtime concert or COTW] those of us who love whole pieces are being cheated and betrayed. R3 is becoming a rag-tag-and bobtail of a service.

I've just posted on the lunchtime concert thread that there are recent indications this is going in the same direction. This week has included some fine music but instead of a coherent recital we have had a bit of Imogen Cooper, then a bit of the Takacs, then a bit of Steven Osborne, then a bit of Alban Gerhardt, scattered through the week.

[DracoM]

[french frank]

I've just posted on the lunchtime concert thread that there are recent indications this is going in the same direction. This week has included some fine music but instead of a coherent recital we have had a bit of Imogen Cooper, then a bit of the Takacs, then a bit of Steven Osborne, then a bit of Alban Gerhardt, scattered through the week.

Looks pretty much the same next week. And they're repeats.

[Richard Tarleton]

I know I've been away for a few days, but has anyone else spotted or commented on Lunchtime O'Boulez's latest column?

...Radio 3 lost 8% of its listeners across last year, with a 16% drop in average hours per listener....Though embarrassing, the figures are not surprising. There's a widespread feeling among devotees that Radio 3 has lost the plot, with feeble, ill-informed presenters and a misjudged policy of undemanding programmes that alienate established audiences and fail to win new ones. This needs to be addressed, and fast, before the figures fall to nothing.

Couldn't have put it better myself....

[LMcD]

While reading this message, I'm listening to the 'Today' programme on Radio 4. A couple of years ago - maybe less - I would have been listening to Radio 3's Breakfast programme. I doubt if I'm not alone in this respect.

[oddoneout]

I know I've been away for a few days, but has anyone else spotted or commented on Lunchtime O'Boulez's latest column?

Couldn't have put it better myself....

This came up on the Eternal Breakfast board, and French Frank put a bit of context on the figures, see posts #7204 from Daisydog and #7206 reply from FF.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Looks pretty much the same next week. And they're repeats.

Well, if they're going to have repeats, let's have Antony Hopkins Talking About Music, and lots of other excellent programmes.

[DracoM]

I know I've been away for a few days, but has anyone else spotted or commented on Lunchtime O'Boulez's latest column?



Couldn't have put it better myself....

Nail>hammer>whack.

[jean]

I know I've been away for a few days, but has anyone else spotted or commented on Lunchtime O'Boulez's latest column?

Yes, my post #2957 on this thread:

Lunchtime O'Boulez has a piece on the Radio 3 listening figures in the new Private Eye - '...feeble, ill-informed presenters and a misjudged policy of undemanding programmes that that alienate established audiences and fail to win new ones...'

[Richard Tarleton]

Thanks jean, oddoneout

[french frank]

This came up on the Eternal Breakfast board, and French Frank put a bit of context on the figures, see posts #7204 from Daisydog and #7206 reply from FF.

While not wishing to dissent from the general thrust of L O'B's piece, I did want to point out that quoting one of the highest ever Quarter 4's since comparable records began (in 1999) with one of the lowest, and then calculating that they represented an 8% drop (and listening hours a 16% drop) is misleading. Yes, they happen to be year-on-year quarterlies (2016 and 2017) but both years were under Alan Davey's controllership (he took over in January 2015), and it's highly misleading to suggest that these percentages represent some kind of meaningful y-o-y decline. I wonder if Lunchtime offered any congratulations for the 2016 figure, which was the fourth highest Q4 since 1999 (and 16% above the lowest)?

That said, there are questions to be asked about the most recent changes. I'm not sure that this is the place to list them (briefly ), but perhaps somewhere else?

[Old Grumpy]

Enforced listening to EC as I am on a stopping bus all trains having been cancelled at short notice. Hey, EC is not that bad - certainly brightening up my journey. I have another, shorter bus ride to get to work in a moment.

OG

[oddoneout]

Enforced listening to EC as I am on a stopping bus all trains having been cancelled at short notice. Hey, EC is not that bad - certainly brightening up my journey. I have another, shorter bus ride to get to work in a moment.

OG

I hope it continues to be a distraction rather than a (counter)irritant!

[french frank]

Enforced listening to EC as I am on a stopping bus all trains having been cancelled at short notice. Hey, EC is not that bad - certainly brightening up my journey. I have another, shorter bus ride to get to work in a moment.

The equivalent to listening in the car. Apparently that's when people listen to CFM too.