So what's wrong with Radio 3 Breakfast?

[Bax-of-Delights]

I think the difference may be in the use of mobile phones. At mid 60's I can handle a computer interface (d'ye like that? Interface) fairly easily but when it comes to mobiles I am totally at a loss. Well, in truth, I have a mobile but don't know its number and use it purely for emergencies. My £10 top-up lasts 9 months. Texting is a total anathama to me. My fingers are too fat for the keys and I don't have the patience to type out a message of any length other than "OK".

But I see people up to the age of 35-40 using them all the time. They have become part of their bodies, moulded into the palms of their hands and forever referred to. The other evening, on the way back from London and crossing Hungerford Bridge by train I took delight in the lights of London, sparkling up and down the river. 75% of my fellow passengers didn't notice a thing as they had their heads down, staring at their phones awaiting, well, what precisely?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I have a mobile but don't know its number and use it purely for emergencies. My £10 top-up lasts 9 months.

Snap! I so rarely use mine that once my SIMS card "ran out" and I had to buy another. Every month or so I 'phone home now just to prevent this happening again!

Of course, the only time my car has broken down in the middle of nowhere there wasn't a signal!

[cloughie]

I think the difference may be in the use of mobile phones. At mid 60's I can handle a computer interface (d'ye like that? Interface) fairly easily but when it comes to mobiles I am totally at a loss. Well, in truth, I have a mobile but don't know its number and use it purely for emergencies. My £10 top-up lasts 9 months. Texting is a total anathama to me.

And me!

[french frank]

Smart phones are the worst. I get the feeling people have to keep checking them for something. And it doesn't have to be to check text messages (or emails) but anything they can think to do with them. Check the weather. Check the time. Check Facebook. Check Twitter. Check the London street map. Check anything so as to make the most of all the effort of picking them up and checking them in the first place.

(Yep. I have a mobile. Have had current one for four years. Contemptibly small. Hasn't been topped up yet from when I bought it. Carrying it about means you become the victim of all the people who make arrangements and think it's okay to break them as long as they can ring up and tell you.)

[Serial_Apologist]

75% of my fellow passengers didn't notice a thing as they had their heads down, staring at their phones awaiting, well, what precisely?

Godot?

[Serial_Apologist]

Smart phones are the worst. I get the feeling people have to keep checking them for something. And it doesn't have to be to check text messages (or emails) but anything they can think to do with them. Check the weather. Check the time. Check Facebook. Check Twitter. Check the London street map. Check anything so as to make the most of all the effort of picking them up and checking them in the first place.

(Yep. I have a mobile. Have had current one for four years. Contemptibly small. Hasn't been topped up yet from when I bought it. Carrying it about means you become the victim of all the people who make arrangements and think it's okay to break them as long as they can ring up and tell you.)

Donna e mobile...

[Don Petter]

My £10 top-up lasts 9 months.

You're more profligate with it than I am with mine, then.

[Domeyhead]

Reconnecting to the breakfast programme for a minute, I suspect part of the issue is change for its own sake. Producers, Editors, and programme makers are afraid to simply leave a stable format unchanged, because this will all be brought up in the dreaded annual appraisal as indication of "lack of imagination/creativity/innovation (delete where applicable) . The controller, (or whoever appraises producers and editors) will - like all managers up and down the country - be so desperate for nuggets of underperformance with which to ensure that promotions or contract increments can be safely denied for another year, and the editor and/or producer by contrast will be desperate to counter this by throwing in pointless innnovations and gimmicks to show that they have their finger on the zeitgeist. (or the London zeitgeist anyway). Change is necessary. Change is good.
Add to this the media consultants who have to deliver some sort of recommendation and roadmap to justify their existence and it is no wonder that any kind of change will be championed by everyone desperate to show that they have "done something" to justify their existences.
With regard to the breakfast show formula this is why it is only necessary for one person to say (no doubt under questionnaire duress) that they "might" like to feel "more involved" and everyone from the presenter up to the deputy controller will seize on this flimsy opportunity to show how innovative and responsive they are.
Nobody got promoted championing the million or so listeners who actually quite enjoyed the gimmickless programme as it was.
I suggest we all agitate for yet more and more change. never stop. Press for constant, unending every renewing change. Change of presenters, formats, titles, content, No piece of music to be more than 1 minute long. Tweets between every record. Bring in Simon Bates, then replace him with Henry Kelly. Then Jonathan Ross, then Jordan. Let's have Phone in competitions to win a name check. Let's have Lady Gaga's top 10 chassical favourites, every week. If we do this for long enough then maybe the only possible innovation left will be to just play music.

[Panjandrum]

I've asked for this before; could we have a "Like" button? Domeyhead's post is such a model of good sense that one should be able to endorse the whole post.

I particularly agree with the point made on the insidious influence of the appraisal system: not only annual, but frequently bi-annual. In fact, I used to work for a firm whose mantra was "continuous appraisal" (sic). There can be little doubt that the media luvvies, and attendant "consultants" are behind much of this drivel.

Re Twitter and Facebook, I adapt Pancks' motto: "I'll keep them at it". SM-P, Clemency et al no doubt detest hearing from me, but if we don't keep them at it, they'll just turn round and parrot Roger Wright's favourite saying; "We keep getting texts and e-mails from people who tell us how much they love the new format."

[kernelbogey]

I've asked for this before; could we have a "Like" button?

Would that be :like: something you could :like: punctuate your emails with?

[Panjandrum]

Would that be :like: something you could :like: punctuate your emails with?

Semicolon

[DublinJimbo]

I've asked for this before; could we have a "Like" button?

I, for one, would not like a Like button.

[DublinJimbo]

I suspect part of the issue is change for its own sake. [...] With regard to the breakfast show formula this is why it is only necessary for one person to say (no doubt under questionnaire duress) that they "might" like to feel "more involved" and everyone from the presenter up to the deputy controller will seize on this flimsy opportunity to show how innovative and responsive they are.

Wonderfully well said (not just the quoted bits, but the entire post).

[Don Petter]

I've asked for this before; could we have a "Like" button? Domeyhead's post is such a model of good sense that one should be able to endorse the whole post.

You've just said you like it, as I do also, so why is there need for a button?

[Panjandrum]

You've just said you like it, as I do also, so why is there need for a button?

It gives a clear indication of how popular a particular sentiment is without having to trawl through dozens of posts all repeating the same observation ad infinitum.