Cast your vote

[Mr Pee]

Good thinking, Mr Pee!

Thankyou. I do try.

[kernelbogey]

I suspect that many who complain on this thread and others are of my generation - who remember the Third Programme, and the Radio 3 of Tom Crowe, Patricia Hughes et al. It's an inevitable human characteristic to believe that the old days were better. Perhaps for us they were: but they remain old, gone and lost. I also suspect that the good old British class system is at work in creating an unspoken socio-educational hierarchy of BBC stations with Radios 1 and 2 at the bottom, and 3 and 4 at the top (according to which of them one listens to more). (And CFM somewhere down the bottom of this hierarchy.)

But the world has moved on in our lifetimes, with technological change extreme in the last quarter century. The very existence and independence of the BBC is under threat from huge, wealthy multinationals. The controller's perspective just might be focused on other matters than whether to bring back CD Masters or whatever I or you might prefer.

We're fortunate to have a station that broadcasts 168 hours a week of high quality output, most of it serious music. If we don't like some of it, we have many alternatives, now including the option of listening at times of our own choice. We certainly don't own the station. The Mozartfest was a bold, creative gesture which had divided opinion.

I'm in favour of challenging standards, but get tired of the complaining (in which I sometimes, admittedly, participate) on these boards, and I'm certainly not here mainly for that, but in order to savour intelligent civilised exchanges of information and opinion on music of all kinds.

[french frank]

I'm in favour of challenging standards, but get tired of the complaining (in which I sometimes, admittedly, participate) on these boards, and I'm certainly not here mainly for that, but in order to savour intelligent civilised exchanges of information and opinion on music of all kinds.

I don't think one precludes the other. Some forums and threads are designed for intelligent civilised exchanges of information and opinion on music of all kinds. Others aren't. Surely?

[kernelbogey]

I don't think one precludes the other. Some forums and threads are designed for intelligent civilised exchanges of information and opinion on music of all kinds. Others aren't. Surely?

Fair enough, FF.

[doversoul1]

Re: phone-in and dedications
I find this trend of public display of private matters deeply uncomfortable. I know people have always told their stories but this is something different. This, I think, belongs to the same mental world as bunches of flowers and teddy bears we see piled up all along the road these days where someone or someone’s dog was killed. Not a discreet personal tribute but a show. I don’t know, maybe I am reading into things where there really is nothing but the reason why this makes me feel uncomfortable is because I think this is a manufactured fashion and not a natural way we express our feelings.

I shan’t go on about this and I am even ready to say let them do it if it makes them happy. There are plenty of places where this doesn’t look out of place but NOT ON RADIO3. I think the reasons have been said enough times.

And most importantly, I cannot see how a programme like this will ever encourage people to listen seriously to classical music. What is there to interest people other than hearing the Mozart piece they already know?

Don Petter
Please, can you bring up a font size or two when you post?

[Eudaimonia]

And most importantly, I cannot see how a programme like this will ever encourage people to listen seriously to classical music. What is there to interest people other than hearing the Mozart piece they already know?

Presumably, they're not just sticking around for the piece they know. If audiences find it engaging enough that they keep coming back for more because they feel a sense of personal interest and social involvement, they're bound to learn something by exposure to new works in an entertaining, informative, and comfortable way. Not everyone feels like listening to "two dons talking" all the time--perhaps these call shows were seen as a kind of "leavening" to round out an otherwise heavy day and keep things lively.

That's the best I could come up with, at any rate.

[french frank]

Do others see me as out of line (fontwise, that is)?

Not now, but you were earlier today

Euda, to get back to your question (which I've already answered, but I've thought of another line). One could imagine a Radio 3 which had a 30-minute daily soap opera about a husband-and-wife team and their life with an orchestra; a sit. com. about a provincial opera company; a classical music talent contest in which listeners voted contestants out each week; a comedy classical music quiz, chaired by Graham Norton, in which a team of comedians had a lot of fun; a classical artists' My Garden programme, a classical artists' My Lovely Home programme (supposing you could find enough artists with permanent homes).

My feeling about several aspects of R3 programming is that this is R3 giving an 'R3 twist' to what other radio stations have been doing for decades. Phone-ins? Mmmmm....

Getting back to what Nicholas de Jongh wrote in The Indy - take a look: one of the ideas many of us have mentioned is this: "The station used to be based upon a compelling format of single, discrete programmes."

As it happens, I think they've been discarded because R3 can't afford them any more. But I think something better could be managed than phone-ins and what I would, rather more unkindly, term DJ shows. I think he presents his views in a pretty reasonable way and I would go along with most of it.

[doversoul1]

As for Radio3 #172
If audiences find it engaging enough that they keep coming back for more because they feel a sense of personal interest and social involvement, they're bound to learn something by exposure to new works in an entertaining, informative, and comfortable way.

Feeding children with Sweet Valley High and Point Horror books only (or mostly) lead them to read Barbara Cartland and Ian Fleming (or their more up-to-date equivalent).

Entertainment with classical music is not that hard to come by (I assume) and it may make some people want to listen to the music more seriously. But if Radio3 were to be doing the same level of activities, where would they go?

And more than anything else, WHAT ABOUT US? Are we to be ignored because we are minority and do not add up anything very much to the FIGURES? This is why the whole thing is so wrong.

P.S. Martin Handley has just announced that Sunday Morning is ‘the soundtrack to your Sunday morning’. Not sure if he was meant to say it or if he meant it or what? Ah well…

[Mr Pee]

P.S. Martin Handley has just announced that Sunday Morning is ‘the soundtrack to your Sunday morning’. Not sure if he was meant to say it or if he meant it or what? Ah well…

I don't really see what's wrong with that. It's just an expression.

Maybe if we all lightened up a bit and enjoyed the music, instead of micro-analysing every turn of phrase used by a presenter, we'd find that Radio3 is still a fantastic broadcaster of wonderful music, knowledgeably and very professionally presented.

Just a thought.

[Bax-of-Delights]

Precisely doversoul:
What about US? There seems little intelligence in ditching/ignoring/bypassing what may certainly be your core audience in favour of hunting down something much more nebulous and passing. The end result is a desperation to keep the listening figures up by increasingly changing and rechanging the format - so much so that the core audience has drifted off to their personal CD collection and the "new" listeners come to expect a less rigorous intellectual quality to R3's output.

PS: Martin Handley has just announced for those who are suffering Mozart withdrawal (Oh really? Who would that be then?) that there's another 2 hours devoted to the composer later today. Could not the Discovering Music programme be included in the Mozartfest?

[french frank]

[I have moved Don's text size posts to the 'How to ...' forum as I have something further to add to that discussion]

[tony yyy]

Sean Rafferty implied on Wednesday that R3 has received very little negative feedback about the 'Mozartfest'. He read out a critical message from a listened, was sympathetic but said that everyone else seemed to have enjoyed it.

[french frank]

Sean Rafferty implied on Wednesday that R3 has received very little negative feedback about the 'Mozartfest'. He read out a critical message from a listened, was sympathetic but said that everyone else seemed to have enjoyed it.

I looked at the Gramophone forum to see what happened there. Martin Cullingford, Deputy Editor, had two goes at extracting upbeat contributions and Andrew Mellor [of CFM maga] replied once. A negative comment from a listener and it pretty much died a death. (Nothing by or about James Jolly)

[Mr Pee]

Sean Rafferty implied on Wednesday that R3 has received very little negative feedback about the 'Mozartfest'. He read out a critical message from a listened, was sympathetic but said that everyone else seemed to have enjoyed it.

Which I'm sure is correct. Those who enjoyed the Mozart fest have been doing just that- enjoying it- and the vast majority of them probably have better things to do- such as actually listening to the music- than contact Radio3 to say what a spiffing time they're having, although clearly some have done so. Whereas those who have hated the whole thing are far more likely to complain about it. It will always be so. The silent majority and all that.

[french frank]

Whereas those who have hated the whole thing are far more likely to complain about it. It will always be so. The silent majority and all that.

Try googling "Customers don't complain". Interesting list, as I remember, of reasons why "96%" of dissatisfied customers don't bother to complain, such as, 'It won't do any good', 'I'll be attacked for complaining' (!!), 'I don't know who to write to' &c.