I like it, I like it not

[teamsaint]

Thirty-nine years might well be "the better part of half-a-century ago" (with or without the ) - but so was The Hitch-Hikers' Guide to the Galaxy, and they're bringing that back!

And the new-fashioned anti-paternalist motivations aren't using a reach to develop an audience - the reach is getting shorter as the audience numbers fall. That's (for me) the important bit - the alienation of the once devoted* audience is not being replaced by greater numbers of eager new listeners: if it were, if the Rajars showed an increase in numbers for the pre-noon programmes which then spilled over into the later schedules, it would be selfish and churlish to decry the happy-clappy fare. As the listener numbers drop, it's not unreasonable to firmly and politely request something more substantial - especially if the same sort of programming is available for those who prefer it elsewhere.

(* = I was going to describe it as a "once regular" audience, but as we're discussing breakfast-time broadcasting ... )

I'm certainly not defending the current programming, just trying to explain it. Re the reach/numbers thing, I guess there is just an element of people trying to manage decline in a world of endless options, or achieve stability, to preserve their employment.


Bringing back Hitchhikers Guide seems a bit , well, pointless , ( and hopelessly unambitious) but perhaps it will be fab.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I'm certainly not defending the current programming, just trying to explain it.

- but I think you're mistaken to thing that the current minsdset isn't "paternalistic": it is quite as much "This is what we provide and what you will enjoy whether you like it or not" as it ever was.

Re the reach/numbers thing, I guess there is just an element of people trying to manage decline in a world of endless options, or achieve stability, to preserve their employment.

You're probably right here, ts - but I just wish one or two might chance their arm and suggest that the Beeb ought to be using its public funding to offer something unique, rather than trying to rival the other "options" by imitating them.

[teamsaint]

- but I think you're mistaken to thing that the current minsdset isn't "paternalistic": it is quite as much "This is what we provide and what you will enjoy whether you like it or not" as it ever was.


You're probably right here, ts - but I just wish one or two might chance their arm and suggest that the Beeb ought to be using its public funding to offer something unique, rather than trying to rival the other "options" by imitating them.

Being brave in the programming , at least some of the time,has to be an option .

Re Paternalism, I suppose I'd see the current " offer" as having a veneer of inclusivity, that I wouldn't see as particularly strongly connected to paternalism. But I take your point .

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Anyroadup, I says, anyroadup - I've got distracted into an eternal debate rather than addressing the Thread topic itself. So:

Likes:
Hear & Now, Early Music Show(s), CotW, Building a Library (solo presentations), Concerts, Late Junction, the Essay, Jazz, Music Matters (sometimes), The Listening Service (very occasionally). The greater prominence of "Modern"(-ish) composers in the mainstream programming.

Dislikes:
Chummy chatter, tweets, guests, smorgasbord programming, isolated movements from larger works, the fragmentation of concert programmes, Music performed in Concert intervals, Building a Library twofers, Choir & Organ, Sat'dy Classics, the poor scheduling of JRR and JLU, (so that whenever there's a long "Live From the Met" they disappear), the absence of Discovering Music ) or some similar "analytical" programme. Presenters over-eager to interrupt audience applause with their own enthusiastic banalities.

Alan Davey is a tremendous improvement on RW - but recent alterations to the pre-noon programmes have made me even less willing to listen to them - although the discarding of the "Brainteasers" is welcome.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

A poll here might be a bit like a poll on a political party's Facebook page - and would inevitably end up with the result that we're not too happy about the way things are going.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

A poll here might be a bit like a poll on a political party's Facebook page - and would inevitably end up with the result that we're not too happy about the way things are going.

Very possibly - but I hope that the equal emphasis on positives will prove useful and productive. (I've never seen the option "What do you like about the other parties' policies?" on such Party polls )

[DracoM]

Anyroadup, I says, anyroadup - I've got distracted into an eternal debate rather than addressing the Thread topic itself. So:

Likes:
Hear & Now, Early Music Show(s), CotW, Building a Library (solo presentations), Concerts, Late Junction, the Essay, Jazz, Music Matters (sometimes), The Listening Service (very occasionally). The greater prominence of "Modern"(-ish) composers in the mainstream programming.

Dislikes:
Chummy chatter, tweets, guests, smorgasbord programming, isolated movements from larger works, the fragmentation of concert programmes, Music performed in Concert intervals, Building a Library twofers, Choir & Organ, Sat'dy Classics, the poor scheduling of JRR and JLU, (so that whenever there's a long "Live From the Met" they disappear), the absence of Discovering Music ) or some similar "analytical" programme. Presenters over-eager to interrupt audience applause with their own enthusiastic banalities.

Alan Davey is a tremendous improvement on RW - but recent alterations to the pre-noon programmes have made me even less willing to listen to them - although the discarding of the "Brainteasers" is welcome.

Time Travellers? Just right for Y5. Or a care-home coffee morning club.
And frankly, that is exactly how IS talks down to us all the time, limping from weak link to weak link and then introducing a 'track' with Wikipedia intro remarks. I mean.......blimey.

[gurnemanz]

Programmes are mainly OK after noon, from which time on I listen to something most days, especially song recitals. Early evening involves cooking and eating usually with Radio Four or sometimes Five Live as background. In the evening I often take in the concert but also watch TV quite a lot - films, documentaries, sport. I sometimes enjoy Late Junction but it is a drawback for me not to have classsical music at bedtime. I nearly always play a CD or two between turning off the telly and retiring. .... e.g. right now, Sibelius Pelléas et Mélisande.

[greenilex]

It is truly not wise to disparage care-home coffee mornings. We none of us have any idea what the future may hold.

[visualnickmos]

It is truly not wise to disparage care-home coffee mornings. We none of us have any idea what the future may hold.

Exactly...

[oddoneout]

Time Travellers? Just right for Y5. Or a care-home coffee morning club.

The title may be naff but I have found these slots interesting, and they contain the germ of an idea which, in an ideal world, I think could be worked up(as they say) to provide something both interesting and useful to a wide audience.
Including Y5 and care-home coffee mornings even....

[Richard Tarleton]

Likes:

Lunchtime concerts
Early Music Show
Building a Library sometimes
COTW sometimes

I find myself listening to chamber and instrumental concerts and vocal recitals these days. I listen to fewer concerts in the evenings (tho of course going to them is another matter).

Dislikes:

(these days) Playlist programmes (for all the usual reasons)
I have gone right off opera on the radio - partly timing, partly presentation. I'd rather listen to a CD or watch a DVD.
I have lost interest in the Proms (the dreadful Albert Hall, the....I'd better not start)

I'd like to like EML and TTN, but they're past my bedtime. Tomorrow is another day - I'm not organised to spend my time catching up).

[oddoneout]

Don't like: trailers. I've voiced my views on this before including the counter-productive aspect. Looking at today's schedule I realised I've just demonstrated that. Having successfully avoided listening to the current Creation one I didn't note that there is a broadcast of Creation tonight, until looking to see if I wanted to listen to the evening concert.....

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I meant to add "trailers"!

(I don't get the reference to "Time Travellers", though ... ? )

[LMcD]

The Proms, Radio 3 in Concert and Choral Evensong are the triple glories of Radio 3 and have been for very many years, each of them an oasis amongst the daily dross elsewhere
and each worth the licence fee alone.

Never listen to playlist programmes and if people don't like them I don't know why they don't just do the same.

I still periodically tune in to playlist programmes which I used to enjoy in the hope (admittedly vain thus far) that they might eventually improve - in terms of both the choice of music and the attitude of the presenter. (It's not my fault that there seems to increased emphasis on presenters - Radio 3 seems determined to ape Classic FM in at least this respect - but if that's the way things are going I think I, and others, are entitled to lament the deterioration in what were previously enjoyable and intellectually stimulating programmes.