The Eternal Breakfast Debate in a New Place

[James Wonnacott]

Call me anything you like- just as long as it's not late for dinner :)

BTW What's the little blue square with a corner cut off that appears on every post???

[french frank]

Call me anything you like- just as long as it's not late for dinner :)

BTW What's the little blue square with a corner cut off that appears on every post???

It just means 'post', the default icon. If you use the Go Advanced reply window, you have a selection of Post Icons to choose from. Like Mr Cool

[french frank]

Sorry to interrupt the flow of this fascinating discussion but I can't see a "new members introduction" thread, so I'll just say a quick hello here. I'm a long time listener to R3 and used to post on the R3 Message Board but haven't done so for a couple of years. Nor can I see a section relating to "Classical Collection". Is that subsumed in this general area?

Hello and welcome, Gasteiner. I think there was a Welcome thread somewhere on Platform 3. We haven't got a Classical Collection forum because the Beeb boards didn't have one and we've started up with the identical ones here so that people feel at home.

[french frank]

By the way, Rob has posted a farewell message on the Beeb boards, for those that want to say goodbye.

[Cellini]

The thing is, most of us like RC - BUT he is now having to front a really lousy programme that wastes his talent. Breakfast is the sort of programme you can find on all the other radio and TV channels and it really has no place on a serious arts channel like R3.

It is a pity that people are beginning to call each other snobs and inverted snobs. Everyone has the right to make a criticism or comment about a certain style of programming, as I have done.

Obviously there are people that like "Breakfast" and others who do not. I don't make a song and dance about it, I just never listen, or if I do it usually goes off after about 20 minutes.

[BetweenTheStaves]

I knew it wouldn't be long before the inverted snobs made their mark. I quite like Breakfast, but do find the texting nausiating.....

I am with you 100%. I like Rob Cowan and his presentation style. I hate the texts and emails. I simply do not care what someone remembers listening to when they last flossed their teeth.

[teamsaint]

perhaps one problem eith Breakfast is that its just too long. Rob is fantastic, and the show suits my particular "lifestyle" (IE getting up early and working hard!!)...but, seriously, who is having breakfast at 10 AM?

make the show 2 hours long, and give Rob for an hour at 9 to play whatever he wants, with just a few words of wisdom.....and , at the moment, throw in a weather forecast !!

[antongould]

I would definitely vote for that teamsaint

[mercia]

give Rob for an hour at 9 to play whatever he wants

Apologies if I'm missing the point but doesn't Rob play whatever he wants currently, for the full 3 hours?

[Vile Consort]

but, seriously, who is having breakfast at 10 AM?

Absolutely! It's all I can do to drag myself out of bed by 10.30.

[Norfolk Born]

If he does, that would make him one of the world's greatest admirers of Andre Rieu, whose offerings feature every week.

[mercia]

I am a very late latecomer (sorry for the bad English) to this discussion and I am sure you are all sick to death of making the same points over and over, however if we are saying that Mr Cowan and colleagues are playing some other (unknown) person's choice of music, not their own, in the Breakfast programme, they are certainly covering up their annoyance / boredom / frustration very well. It must be hell to go to work for them. They deserve a collective pay-rise.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

did i hear correctly this am that there is gonna be another mozart fest thing?

[Frances_iom]

.. however if we are saying that Mr Cowan and colleagues are playing some other (unknown) person's choice of music, not their own, .

I suspect that Rob is more than capable of selecting his own (tho I suspect a couple of other might rely more heavily on researchers) - however the point is that there it is a committee decision (admitted to by Rob) that determines certain criteria eg music linked to whatever is to be 'plugged' that day in terms of orchestra, conductor,composer etc + also the trend to yet more and shorter works or most commonly 'bleeding chunks', which FF gave some outine statistics for.

Re another Mozart fest - yes - choose your favourite chunk - then a 'competition' to see who has guessed the most popular - maybe a prize of a Mozartkugel is envisaged (about all R3 can afford these days tho maybe the eText revenue can be used to fund it) - as mentioned many times on the now defunct R3 board the programme moves ever closer to CFm and IMO is only rescued by the expertise of Rob - just think how it would fare under Paul Gambaccini 'Professor of Pop' whose appearance in a built trailer this morning resurrected the horrors of some years ago when R3 started on itsdescent along the CFm path

[johnb]

In general, I would guess that the presenters for Breakfast and Classical Collection are the front men/women and the choice of what is played is largely determined by the programme team working behind the presenter (despite all the "I have chosen..." talk), basing their decisions on the brief from the Radio 3 management.

I suspect that the extent to which individual presenters influence the choice of music varies. Rob, when he started on Breakfast, would have been in a strong position to insist that he had an influence in such matters. Probably much more influence than the other presenters have.

[Re-posted after test deletion.]