The Eternal Breakfast Debate in a New Place

[Daring Tripod]

To raise an old subject, I have never understood why people who hate Breakfast just don't turn it off and stop moaning.
The peole who air their constant complaints about short pieces can wait till 10.00 Clasic Collection programme where complete works are performed.
No one seems to have commented about these programmes which are varied and often interesting. For example, this week is a Polish week where Sarah Walker played a much ignored Panufnik's now rarely heard Sinfonia Rustica which I have always loved. For those of you who have the time I recommend you to give it a try.

[doversoul1]

Daring Tripod
That’s because we (I mean I) want something better rather than forget about the programme all together. The problem is of course, ‘better’ is subjective: one man’s meat is etc.

I prefer not to have to decide what music I want to listen to at this time of the day and am not overly bothered with the choice of music on the programme but I really object having to listen to other listeners’ private matters (re: emails and text messages).

[Panjandrum]

To raise an old subject, I have never understood why people who hate Breakfast just don't turn it off and stop moaning.
The peole who air their constant complaints about short pieces can wait till 10.00 Clasic Collection programme where complete works are performed.

Daring Tripod, let me start by asking you a question: if you turn on the radio and find nothing which appeals to you how do you feel? Are you happy to put on a CD, or do you in fact feel that you are being shortchanged?

From my perspective, I think part of the issue is that many feel a sense of ownership of Radio 3, which goes back through several decades of listening. Essentially, "Breakfast " (dreadful title by the way) seeks to replicate a Classic FM format which is at odds with the standards which Radio 3 should be providing, and with what was put out in the past. Yes, one could put on a CD: however, the morning is an excellent time to listen to the radio and, as such, I feel I am being deprived by not being provided with a stimulating programme on my favourite radio station.

Moreover, it is doubly galling when one considers that the previous incarnation of Breakfast, "Morning on 3", used to provide a far more appetising menu of shorter and longer works of far greater range than is currently served up. FWIW, texting and tweeting have no place on Radio 3, as they are inherently trivial, and can be of no interest to anyone other than the texter or tweeter.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, it has been noted there are R3 broadcasts throughout the day which are far more nourishing in their content. It was commented on at TOP that, when all the journos went on strike and Breakfast was temporarily not dished up, the broadcast of Composer of the Week, with its emphasis on complete works refreshed a jaded palate.

Hope that's clear.

[Daring Tripod]

Dear Panjandrum and doversoul. Thanks for your comments. Of course, I share with you many of your frustrations but they are not new by any means and have been mentioned before on the old Boards. We all hate the new attempts to bring up the ratings of ‘Breakfast’ and I hope that, like me, you have directed your complaints to the official BBC site where I feel the authorities must read our comments.

I, however, have some sympathy for the Organisers. R3 is, by far, the Station with the highest cost-per-listener of all the BBC stations and bearing in mind that the axe will shortly fall, I feel there must be a mad scramble to try and improve this by trying to “popularise”
Breakfast before the cuts come, as they will As pointed out by others on the old BBC Boards, we all know that the way they are going about it will never succeed, but those of us who still listen have to ‘grin and bear it’ or find alternate ways to try and satisfy our listening mornings.

[french frank]

To raise an old subject, I have never understood why people who hate Breakfast just don't turn it off and stop moaning.
The peole who air their constant complaints about short pieces can wait till 10.00 Clasic Collection programme where complete works are performed.

R3's breakfast programme, like most radio stations' early morning shows, is listened to by more people than any other programme. This isn't because it's the most popular/approved of programme: it's because it's broadcast at a time when most people are near a radio. They can't just wait until 10am. Most people I know wouldn't be able to listen to the radio while at work - teachers, nurses, library assistants, erm, police beat constables ...

What's more, it has to be constantly repeated, for all the popularisation, there aren't any more listeners (Breakfast itself has marginally fewer than Morning on 3). The policy seems to be that if people don't like what we're doing, we must do it some more. Even with Rob's adverts all over BBC television and radio ('Step into our world'), the programme still hasn't reached the number of listeners Mo3 had.

[Don Petter]

Dear Panjandrum and doversoul. Thanks for your comments. Of course, I share with you many of your frustrations but they are not new by any means and have been mentioned before on the old Boards. We all hate the new attempts to bring up the ratings of ‘Breakfast’ and I hope that, like me, you have directed your complaints to the official BBC site where I feel the authorities must read our comments.

I, however, have some sympathy for the Organisers. R3 is, by far, the Station with the highest cost-per-listener of all the BBC stations and bearing in mind that the axe will shortly fall, I feel there must be a mad scramble to try and improve this by trying to “popularise”
Breakfast before the cuts come, as they will As pointed out by others on the old BBC Boards, we all know that the way they are going about it will never succeed, but those of us who still listen have to ‘grin and bear it’ or find alternate ways to try and satisfy our listening mornings.

ff beat me to it. The point is that, whatever one thinks of it, such popularisation has not resulted in an increase in listeners. So why should we 'grin and bear it'?

[Martin]

The issue shouldn't even be one of popularity and numbers. If classical music is worth broadcasting, it's worth broadcasting! It may be a minority interest, but there's nothing wrong with that. The substance deserves to be broadcast without overt commercialisation and pop-culture add-ons. Even at breakfast time. Just play the music and tell us what it is. No gimmicks required.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Surely, the more Radio 3 becomes like Classic FM, the more unnecessary it becomes?

[french frank]

R3 is, by far, the Station with the highest cost-per-listener of all the BBC stations

There is another point here. If all the high cost minority listening is segregated on to one station, erm, isn't it inevitable that it will be more expensive per listener? And if you rake in the highest number of listeners on The Nation's Favourite Radio Station by chucking money at 'talent' and aiming the content at the less focused (?), less demanding (?) population with the kind of popular entertainment that commercial stations go for, the cost per listener will be the lowest - actually so low it's almost invisible?

For a public service broadcaster which aims to cater for the nation and which opts for that kind of 'generic' system, isn't it reasonable that the cheapness of the one should be set against the expense of the other and evened out?

[Daring Tripod]

ff. Ofcourse you are right but, alas, the Accountants do not think so and these days they are ones who usually have the say!

[James Wonnacott]

erm, police beat constables ...

I remember them, they used to wear strange hats and big boots and protect life and property, prevent crime, catch crimminals etc. Those were the days <sigh>

[Dave2002]

..... Perhaps we should have a poll? .....

Now there's an idea. We couldn't do that on the old boards, could we?
Maybe we should have phone ins too!

[Don Petter]

Did you get my text about Aunty Mabel's cat?

[Frances_iom]

Did you get my text about Aunty Mabel's cat?

can't see any tail about it here

[Don Petter]

Careful -This thread's in danger of dumbing down, like the subject.