So what's wrong with Radio 3 Breakfast?

[Serial_Apologist]

....performed by some Old Spice Girls?

Tut tut, that's a bit orff

[Frances_iom]

RW’s Radio3 on top form

Today, 19:30 on BBC Radio 3
performances of John Williams' Olympic Fanfare, Vangelis's world-famous theme from Chariots of Fire, Ravel's Bolero, highlights from Carl Orff's Carmina Burana

135minutes of this? (we haven't been told)

I suspect we are due another 3 months of this possibly populist programming - quite what a bunch of often doped physical exercisers can add to the music is beyond me - but the whole Olympic charade is just a mechanism to throw large amounts of public money towards developers much the same way the public purse funded the infrastructure that enabled the private profit of Canary Wharf

[teamsaint]

I suspect we are due another 3 months of this possibly populist programming - quite what a bunch of often doped physical exercisers can add to the music is beyond me - but the whole Olympic charade is just a mechanism to throw large amounts of public money towards developers much the same way the public purse funded the infrastructure that enabled the private profit of Canary Wharf

completely agree. If they wanted to redevelop the olympic site, it could have been done better and more cheaply without the distraction and farce that is the olympics.
building stadia to then knock them down? building arena we don't really need ? absolute madness.

25000 + security staff including lots of soldiers.........sounds dangerous to me !!

if it was any other event it would have been scrapped years ago.

and as for the intrusion into the musical world..............well at least Wickham festival is going ahead, with record ticket sales so far, right in the middle of it all. A haven of sanity, hopefully !!

[cloughie]

Did anyone see yesterday's Independent. In the magazine was a quite lengthy article on the success of 6Radio and the success of its average 39.5 year old audience in getting a reprieve and revival for the station. Match that to the total lack of success of this board.s average 59.5 (or is it 69.5) year old audience in restoring R3 to what it should be.

[french frank]

Did anyone see yesterday's Independent. In the magazine was a quite lengthy article on the success of 6Radio and the success of its average 39.5 year old audience in getting a reprieve and revival for the station. Match that to the total lack of success of this board.s average 59.5 (or is it 69.5) year old audience in restoring R3 to what it should be.

The situation was that 6 Music was really doing reasonably well. But the five new digital stations were launched specifically to boost the sales of DAB receivers by providing more choices for listeners - as long as they bought the new radios. This isn't speculation: the BBC confirms it. It was preparation for the digital switchover.

Sales of the radios remained very slow and I think it was privately (and not so privately) acknowledged that the strategy of launching all the new stations hadn't achieved its aim. So when the time came for finding cuts, the suits felt that 6 Music and the Asian Network (by far the least successful and most expensive of the new stations) could be axed without much loss.

But 6 Music was/is essentially a pop music station. It ought to have had more listeners and research showed that the main problem was low public awareness, not that there was no demand. When the campaign against closure was launched, the problem of public awareness was solved almost overnight: the potential audience flocked in (without necessarily having to buy DAB radios either, now that other platforms have become more popular).

R3's problem is, if anything, the exact opposite. The BBC strategy (however they like to cloak it) involves getting in more listeners and changing Radio 3 in order to make it more attractive. They have been using every promotional stunt in the book - from hugely expensive pan-BBC trails to One-Composerfests to the Nation's Favourite Opera Song to Snippets from the Charts to Your (Wake-Up) Call to Music Nation on 3. All ways of attracting public and media attention. The (potentially) huge audience poised to flock in is the one which is attracted by the gimmicks and the easier listening. Unlike with 6 Music, we don't have common cause with such new listeners and apart from those in the media who have been appreciative R3 listeners, Out There isn't that sympathetic towards us because we're not pop

[cloughie]

The situation was that 6 Music was really doing reasonably well. But the five new digital stations were launched specifically to boost the sales of DAB receivers by providing more choices for listeners - as long as they bought the new radios. This isn't speculation: the BBC confirms it. It was preparation for the digital switchover.

Sales of the radios remained very slow and I think it was privately (and not so privately) acknowledged that the strategy of launching all the new stations hadn't achieved its aim. So when the time came for finding cuts, the suits felt that 6 Music and the Asian Network (by far the least successful and most expensive of the new stations) could be axed without much loss.

But 6 Music was/is essentially a pop music station. It ought to have had more listeners and research showed that the main problem was low public awareness, not that there was no demand. When the campaign against closure was launched, the problem of public awareness was solved almost overnight: the potential audience flocked in (without necessarily having to buy DAB radios either, now that other platforms have become more popular).

R3's problem is, if anything, the exact opposite. The BBC strategy (however they like to cloak it) involves getting in more listeners and changing Radio 3 in order to make it more attractive. They have been using every promotional stunt in the book - from hugely expensive pan-BBC trails to One-Composerfests to the Nation's Favourite Opera Song to Snippets from the Charts to Your (Wake-Up) Call to Music Nation on 3. All ways of attracting public and media attention. The (potentially) huge audience poised to flock in is the one which is attracted by the gimmicks and the easier listening. Unlike with 6 Music, we don't have common cause with such new listeners and apart from those in the media who have been appreciative R3 listeners, Out There isn't that sympathetic towards us because we're not pop

And their celebs such as Cerys and Jarvis endorse the 6R campaigners support. Celeb presenters on R3 endorse BCs rather than FWs and several Desert Island Disc type slots and CFM mimickry each week. 6R's campaigners are also facebook twitterers, which is alien to many seasoned R3 boarders, myself included.

[Frances_iom]

.. 6R's campaigners are also facebook twitterers, which is alien to many seasoned R3 boarders, myself included.

there is a general principle that whatever technology children grow up with is just how the world is and accepted uncritically, technology invented from say age 15 to 30 is exciting, to be grasped and possibly allow a career to be built from it - technology invented say age 45+ is not usually used as doesn't fit into existing pattern of life or requires an effort to do so(ok highly simplified) - the same is I think true of music - the 'movers + shakers' are those for whom digital technology was the norm, tweeting is something you do without any thought whilst walking down the street - their music thanks to dominance of commercial radio and the disappearance of both church attendence + music lessons was pop based - R3 is basically doomed tho' easy listening stations can attract many but this is not what R3 should be about.

[mercia]

technology invented say age 45+ is not usually used as doesn't fit into existing pattern of life

for example ?

[Norfolk Born]

What does the phrase that you've highlighted actually mean?

[Frances_iom]

look at use of internet + computers (not generally domestic items until 1990's) by the over 65's - yes many use them but not that fluently and for quite restricted purposes (eg their grandchild probably set up skype for them) - I can recall the difference between my parents kitchen and that of my grandparents re say use of fridge and freezer

[salymap]

Don't judge everybody by the people you know. Half my friends
of my age are computer literate and several younger friends and family won't go near the evil machine.

Strangely so-called computer 'experts' all give different advice - must prove something.

[kernelbogey]

And I thought we 'silver surfers' had been found to be the largest age-group amongst users - tho' don't know if that's still true....

[cloughie]

And I thought we 'silver surfers' had been found to be the largest age-group amongst users - tho' don't know if that's still true....

But selective in our usage - obviously enjoy these boards, but in general do not use twitter and facebook, but will do the occasional serious email, more often than not from a laptop or ipad, rather than a phone.

[kernelbogey]

So different of course for anyone born after, say, 1990 - who have never known a world without computers, internet and mobile phones etc. It requires a substantial mental effort to empathise with that younger life experience.

[salymap]

The big difference to me is cars. I intended to get a car after leaving work in London but, as a pensioner, could never justify the expense.
Young people today seem to think a car their right, whether in work or not.