The Eternal Breakfast Debate in a New Place

[vinteuil]

Did I really hear PT introduce the Radetzky March as a waltz this morning?

... he did - but afterwards said that he thought even those on 'Strictly Come Dancing' might have found it it difficult to waltz to the Radetzky March - so I think he acknowledged his slip quite elegantly.

[cloughie]

Petroc grew up, I believe, in Cornwall, where English is a foreign language, which he was obviously sent off to learn at a good English school .

I don't know if you've been to Cornwall recently but I doubt you'd be understood in most places if you ordered your pasty in Cornish.

[bach736]

Looking at the breakfast RAJAR figures for 2012 quarter 4, I see that R3 had the lowest reach and was down -8.9% quarter-on-quarter and -13.8% year-on-year.

[Bax-of-Delights]

I rarely tune in to "Breakfast" but occasionally if out in the car at that time of day and I've heard enough news I press the R3 button. It would appear that it has now been taken over by CBeebies entirely with requests for A road numbers to be matched up with opus numbers as an excuse to play, well, the same old stuff.

All an exercise to get listener feedback and interaction one presumes - but, oh sweet lord, how fatuous.

[Sir Velo]

I rarely tune in to "Breakfast" but occasionally if out in the car at that time of day and I've heard enough news I press the R3 button. It would appear that it has now been taken over by CBeebies entirely with requests for A road numbers to be matched up with opus numbers as an excuse to play, well, the same old stuff.

All an exercise to get listener feedback and interaction one presumes - but, oh sweet lord, how fatuous.

Ah! I get it. I'm travelling on the A36 later today, so I would ask for Brahms' 2nd string sextet or Tchaikovsky's 4th symphony (well, a movement anyway - probably the Andante would be appropriate for my journey). What larks!

[Bax-of-Delights]

Perhaps, in the guise of "inclusivity" the Breakfast kids could ask their listeners to match opus numbers with London bus route numbers for those commuting to work by public transport or the time of the train from your home station (i.e. 7.38 - although, thinking about it, perhaps we get enough Vivaldi already )

[Jazzrook]

I rarely tune in to "Breakfast" but occasionally if out in the car at that time of day and I've heard enough news I press the R3 button. It would appear that it has now been taken over by CBeebies entirely with requests for A road numbers to be matched up with opus numbers as an excuse to play, well, the same old stuff.

All an exercise to get listener feedback and interaction one presumes - but, oh sweet lord, how fatuous.

"Breakfast" has become increasingly irritating with quizzes, frequent bores ringing in on 'Your Call' and now the idiotic matching of road numbers with music. Why not just play the music and dispense with all the chat and attempted jollification?

[french frank]

"Breakfast" has become increasingly irritating with quizzes,

I see Ofcom's definition of 'challenging' is "It makes me think" so presumably the EC Brainteaser and sundry quizzes provide the 'challenging' element of Radio 3?

I imagine the popularity/success of the station is now judged by the number of Likes on Facebook (clicks to say you 'like' a photo, for example, and you do need to stop and think whether you like it or not) and the number of emails/texts/phoners-in it gets. And, to be fair, u do need 2 think in order 2 write an email or txt msg.

[Zucchini]

I imagine the popularity/success of the station is now judged by the number of Likes on Facebook (clicks to say you 'like' a photo, for example, and you do need to stop and think whether you like it or not) and the number of emails/texts/phoners-in it gets.

Isn't it long past time for you to stop using hiding anonymously behind 'french frank' when you are in fact speaking officially as: Sarah Spilsbury, Coordinator, The Friends of Radio 3?

[Suffolkcoastal]

Just having look at the Breakfast playlist for this morning, there seems to have been even more of the regular regurgitations than normal. The warhorse section of my spreadsheet is already virtually filled up with a considerable proportion having already having been broadcast several times and we are only in to February!

[cloughie]

Isn't it long past time for you to stop using hiding anonymously behind 'french frank' when you are in fact speaking officially as: Sarah Spilsbury, Coordinator, The Friends of Radio 3?

And are you really Mr Courgette - are you green or yellow - left alone will to grow will you become Mr Marrow - be careful though there a cooks on these threads you could be stuffed and placed in a hot oven or even spiced and placed in a jar as chutney!

[Richard Tarleton]

And are you really Mr Courgette - are you green or yellow - left alone will to grow will you become Mr Marrow - be careful though there a cooks on these threads you could be stuffed and placed in a hot oven or even spiced and placed in a jar as chutney!

I was thinking diced with a sharp knife, and stir-fried in very hot olive oil with garlic....

[french frank]

Isn't it long past time for you to stop using hiding anonymously behind 'french frank' when you are in fact speaking officially as: Sarah Spilsbury, Coordinator, The Friends of Radio 3?

Quite right. It does no harm to point out that the administrator is me, also joint founder of FoR3. Not everyone reads everything on the forum. Though I suspect you're not revealing much about my anonymity that people didn't already know.

stop using hiding anonymously behind 'french frank'...

Btw, if you click on House Rules (permanently linked on the homepage, left hand sidebar - top item, or on Terms of Service (dark band at the bottom of each page), you'll find:

"Administration and Moderation

The Radio 3 Forum has two administrators, the co-founders of Friends of Radio 3, Mark Sealey (administrator – technology) and Sarah Spilsbury, forum name ‘french frank’ (administrator – moderation).." Last updated July 2012.

There is also a permanent message on the homepage asking people to read the House Rules before they post for the first time.

[EdgeleyRob]

I rarely tune in to "Breakfast" but occasionally if out in the car at that time of day and I've heard enough news I press the R3 button. It would appear that it has now been taken over by CBeebies entirely with requests for A road numbers to be matched up with opus numbers as an excuse to play, well, the same old stuff.

All an exercise to get listener feedback and interaction one presumes - but, oh sweet lord, how fatuous.

This is a wind up surely !

[Zucchini]

Not everyone reads everything on the forum. Though I suspect you're not revealing much about my anonymity that people didn't already know.

I did think before I posted. I trust you don't think identifying french frank as Sarah Spilsbury, Coordinator of The Friends of Radio 3 is a breach of netiquette. Your photo and biog appear on the FoR3 website and you are quite often referred to as Sarah S here.

I think you overestimate your fame and the effective reach of the forum:

Did you know that just 25 people account for over half of all messages ever posted on the forum? And seem to be ever-present - Tweedledum and Tweedledee account for near 10% between them!

And over 1350 people have posted less than half.
On top of that there are observers, maybe finding their way here by accidently typing french horn into a search engine.

(Hosts should be addressing this, doing what a host should do - making efforts to attract the interest of the huge majority outside the tiny clique who swap 'in' jokes in their senile playground. What's New often looks awfully uninteresting unless you like listening to CDs of long dead artists at home)

The problems with your double identity usually arise from the use of the words "we" & "our". For example: "I explained our objections in a letter to the Queen..." Next a member of the forum says "Thanks for doing that for us french frank. We are all very grateful" Note that he/she is not entitled to say "all" and you didn't do it for the forum. Next you say "Our paper to Roger Wright will say that instead of Breakfast we want live concerts to start at 7.30am..." This statement is still open to the misinterpretation that this is the FoR3 forum. About a month ago a member posted "I can't do without my daily fix of FoR3"! That's wrong.

Simply solved if french frank is for your statements as administrator, your concert-going, views on food and drink, R3 programmes and Sarah Spilsbury is for analysis, evaluations, strategies of R3s output and aims and plausible alternatives.