Radio 2.5

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

ahem ...barber ollyi am getting quite partial to Final Score .... especially when presented by terry Yorath's girl ...

[Frances_iom]

Is it my age? Are my tastes so weird? ...!!!!

have a look at the radio scene in that bastion of culture the USA - there is virtually no classical music as commercial stations push more adverts between the commercial music - that is what we will hear on the increasingly pepsified BBC Radio, why do you think a non-radio marketing android was put in overall charge - R3 is already dead and replaced by R2.5 during the day - there is a rump left in the weekday evenings but the next round of cuts will see the live concerts disappear

[Nick Armstrong]

For me it's reduced to Saturday morning / lunchtime 9am - 2pm; live evening concerts; and Through the Night. To be balanced, that's still some pretty fantastic, advert-free (well, apart from trailers for its own output) broadcasting.

It's just impossible to repress a groan at the witless dilution of other parts of the week's output, the Breakfast show being the classic (fm) example.

[hmvman]

For me it's reduced to Saturday morning / lunchtime 9am - 2pm; live evening concerts; and Through the Night. To be balanced, that's still some pretty fantastic, advert-free (well, apart from trailers for its own output) broadcasting.

My regular R3 listening is also the Saturday morning/lunchtime period. In the light of the recent changes, notably the axing of Discovering Music, I'm now fearing for the future of CD Review. Will this programme become another charts vehicle and will Building a Library become "'phone and text us your favourite versions of this music"?

I hope my fears are unfounded.....

[Anna]

I've never listed to R3 in the morning as usual routine has been: R4 on at 7am, off by 8.00, 8.30 at the latest when I leave the house. However, if I were a new listener, encouraged to switch over after Today, from what I have heard of Breakfast, I certainly wouldn't be at all tempted. However, I think Essential Classics (drop the guest slot) really isn't too bad and although the complete work at the end is well known I like having 45 minutes of uninterrupted music. Generally though my R3 listening has always been after 7pm

[Nick Armstrong]

My regular R3 listening is also the Saturday morning/lunchtime period. In the light of the recent changes, notably the axing of Discovering Music, I'm now fearing for the future of CD Review. Will this programme become another charts vehicle and will Building a Library become "'phone and text us your favourite versions of this music"?

I hope my fears are unfounded.....

That would be the end.

RW tried to dumb BAL down to a 25 minute slot covering pop classics shortly after his arrival. A friend (who knew him in a previous life, and who is also a BAL addict) and I wrote passionate letters to him and subsequently cornered him (literally) after a Wigmore lunchtime recital on the subject (I loomed over him with my full 6 ft 5 ins I recall) and almost immediately after, the format changed back to the normal 45 mins at 9.30. It was gratifying at the time but we should have spotted colours nailed to the mast already.

I may need to go and do some more looming....

[hmvman]

I may need to go and do some more looming....

Thank you for your previous looming

I don't remember that earlier tinkering - thankfully!

[DracoM]

Frances_IOM

Try WQXR in New York. Classical pretty well 24/7. You do get ads, but somehow because they are advertising things totally ouside most R3 listeners' reach eg in and around NYC, they just pass gently by.

[BetweenTheStaves]

aka CFM2

More like CFM-Lite, methinks.

[Frances_iom]

Frances_IOM

Try WQXR in New York. Classical pretty well 24/7. You do get ads, but somehow because they are advertising things totally ouside most R3 listeners' reach eg in and around NYC, they just pass gently by.

true - but considering the USA is about 5x population of UK almost a lone voice - most of the other FM stations appear to be part of a national chain but with local adverts thus forcing a rigid time plan to allow automated insertion - rather like RW's plans for R3 evenings

[Panjandrum]

Personally, i would advise all disaffected posters to express their displeasure on the Facebook wall. It has the advantage of being updated in real time, and demonstrates how widespread the exasperation is with Radio 3 management. Moreover, Mr Populist Trendsetter himself is a regular contributor and has just been bested in at least two exchanges with posters, while revealing his true colours as a Radio 1 jock manque. Over and above all this, should the press get wind of the torrent of criticism on its own Facebook page I can imagine this creating quite a stir, so "Allez, aux barricades citoyens!"

[Nick Armstrong]

Frances_IOM

Try WQXR in New York. Classical pretty well 24/7. You do get ads, but somehow because they are advertising things totally ouside most R3 listeners' reach eg in and around NYC, they just pass gently by.

Draco, by the same token I enjoy KUSC from Los Angeles http://www.classicalkusc.org/stream/listen.html

Midnight there being 8am here, breakfast-time brings their night-time coverage. Very good playlist and website generally: http://www.kusc.org/playlist/

It transports me back to a few trips driving round S California with the station playing on the car radio - and as you say, the ads have more of the feeling of local colour than intrusive flogging of unwanted tat.

I put the link on the R3 Facebook page but it got deleted

[kernelbogey]

[...] "Allez, aux barricades citoyens!"

I agree with almost all the criticisms on this thread.

I'm not on Facebook, thank Ford, but have begun throwing my own sabots at the station. This morning I texted my objection to the use of snippets from upcoming works as trailers at 0759 at the precise moment they were being broadcast. If many of us did this the producer (just) might get the message. (And possibly desist.)

I too don't much like PT's style, as he seems to have moved into a new disc-jockey mode since taking on the new Breakfast. It remains to be seen (as journalists like to say when they haven't got a clue what's going on) whether Sara M-P will manage to maintain her relatively sane and much better muscially informed style when she takes over from him.

I don't mind bits of arts news, which has long been a feature of Breakfast and its predecessors. But I do not need to know what pictures are on the front page of today's papers, nor do I need or want the news headlines every fifteen minutes.

Allez citoyens, indeed: you 'ave nuzzing to lose but your shoes.

[teamsaint]

heres a thought. Why don't they ask the existing listeners what they want, by means of a survey. Maybe then they would come up with a formula that works

[VodkaDilc]

I don't mind bits of arts news, which has long been a feature of Breakfast and its predecessors. But I do not need to know what pictures are on the front page of today's papers, nor do I need or want the news headlines every fifteen minutes.
.

It is many years since I have risked my health by listening to R3 in the mornings - and everything I have read here confirms the wisdom of my decision. However, reading about news headlines every 15 minutes reminded me of a previous "dumbing down" of this slot. Wasn't it around the time that Classic FM launched and R3 really got in a panic? (early 90s?) And who was the senior and much-respected music critic who sometimes introduced the music and sounded so out of his comfort zone in reading the latest news? My memory tells me that it was Edward Greenfield, but I might be wrong. It was abandoned after a few months, I remember. I don't suppose any notice will be taken of criticisms this time!!