Classical records lose prime slot on BBC Radio 3
NewsAmong multiple changes announced today in the Radio 3 schedules, one will shed gloom and despondancy on the remnants of the international classical record industry.
For as long as anyone can remember, certainly longer than half a century, Saturday morning was where listeners listened to critical analysis of a classical work on record, along with other intimations of recording news. The timing was crucial since it was before many people pulled on their coats and went down to the high street to visit the record store.
But times have changed. There are hardly any records stores left. People buy online. So Radio 3, under new management, has dumped Record Review from its traditional spot and shunted it to sleepy time, 2 to 4 pm, on Saturday afternoon.
This amounts to serious loss of profile for the record industry. It may be the lowest branch of the tree before total drop-off.
The news-oriented Music Matters also moves to a new time and format, on Saturdays, from 1pm-2pm.
In other R3 changes, easy-listening Friday Night is Music Night, featuring the BBC Concert Orchestra, has been imported from Radio 2 and there’s a Round Midnight jazz programme five nights a week.
These importations will take time to bed in. None signifies an obvious pitch for a younger audience.
Two speech programmes, The Verb and Free Thinking, will move to BBC Radio 4.
The ongoing turmoil at Radio 3 reaches new levels of banality. I stream dozens of classical Internet radio stations through my stereo hifi system and two Roberts stream94i portables. Who needs R3?
You could equally say who needs all of those radio stations when you’ve got R3, which in general has reliably high quality performances and presenters.
Am personally heartened that this update heralds no hint of a truly major overhaul, and we’re keeping a pretty good amount of presenter expertise in the mix that’s entirely lacking from playlist-style digital radio.
I echo your sentiments, Ellie, and those of many others in this regard.
I remember a big outcry in the last century about “dumbing down” under a new controller, but when you looked at what the changes were, they did introduce some much needed variety and allowed us to experience more of the presenters personality, which leaves us where we are today.
Record Review was a show that was perfectly pitched for me on a Saturday morning. I did not want it replaced by a show with a presenter who talks and “explains” too much for my liking.
I need the serenity and humour of Georgia Mann at the same time every week day, so I would kick off big time if that was messed with, but Im generally happy with Radio 3 and turn it off when I’m not.
At least they’ve moved Ian Skelly back to the weekday morning slot! Or is he just filling in? I wondered whether he was originally moved because he spoke RP…..
Me! Don Morris
Record Review was excellent and a highlight for me but I will no longer be able to listen (after originally discovering music via this programme and various written guides to recorded music). The proposed replacement on Saturday mornings is wholly unappealing. The station is therefore losing its appeal for me, particularly given the ever-increasing chat. Present information as concisely as possible and then play whole pieces. CotW a necessary exception to this rule (and also excellent). Ditch the mix tape! Listeners’ musical discoveries could usefully be treated in, say, one two hour programme each week.
I also stream other classical music stations on the internet, but I always have time for R3’s Breakfast and Essential Classics.
I have listened to nearly every one since 1972; good old John Lade etc My favourite memory is of David Murray recommending Jean Hubeau’s Faure as the best (le bon Hubeau). Recent dumbing down is having the insufferably smug host interviewing the ‘Building a Library’ experts: men like Jeremy Summerly, Jeremy Nicholas etc do not need this time-wasting and egocentric approach from AM. Now it is in the pm can we lose AM?
if it is to be Tom Service, as another comment states, then I would prefer AM: fine as a solo presenter but my main point is that the reviewers can present without the 2nd person
Just another morning, that makes 6 now, I shan’t be listening to radio 3.
You surely don’t “listen” to Sarah Walker?!? And, frankly, what’s the rhyme or reason of the “Afternoon Concert” in recent times?…
Sarah’s a very good presenter – talks a lot of sense and chooses some interesting material for her programme.
I hardly think 2 to 4pm on a Saturday constitutes ‘sleepy time’!
For toddlers and the very old, maybe.
This is dreadful scheduling. This has been perfect listening for us for decades and Tom Service, whose verbosity and overtalking of guest presenters is a poor replacement for the elegant and knowledgeable Andrew McGregor who is always a pleasure to listen to. Dreadful!
Couldn’t agree more. And why is the ultra-professi9nal Martin Handley being ditched from the Sunday morning slot? If it ain’t broke….
Possibly because the programme has to be from Salford for political reasons and he doesn’t want to move?
Perhaps he’s retiring? He must be in his late 60s at least.
Early 70s. He is 2 or 3 years younger than me – I played under his baton in a student orchestra during my first year of research at Cambridge when he wa sin his second year as an undergrad. He is a conductor and conductors don’t retire ……
I assumed Martin Handley (who mainly broadcasts from home rather than Salford on a Sunday I think) was just on holiday – I very much hope so – the consummate mix of musician’s insight and professional broadcaster.
I still miss Composer of the week being moved from my bedtime listening slot to during the working day.
Like moving the food aisles around in the supermarket, the listener doesn’t much care for change. Unless it involves moving the talking heads who wear their learning so heavily back to R4 where they belong!
By using the iplayer you can listen to any programme as and when you want. My complaint about Composer of the Week is the habit of starting the progamme with a piece of music, but then fading it away after about 20 seconds and Donald McLeod then speaking for a minute or so before we are allowed to hear the rest of the music. They should let the music speak for itself – let the presenter’s talk either before it starts or after it has finished.
Update: Martin Handley referred this morning (3rd March) to “the end of my tenure” in I think 4 weeks. Ah well, that just leaves the second half of The Evening Concert after work, plus what remains of Private Passions after church. Still, on the bright side I can go for an earlier Sunday swim.
Couldn’t agree more. Martin is a consummate presenter and will be sorely missed.
Glad that I’m not the only one who finds Tom Service ‘verbose’ and just too clever by half. I too am irritated by his relentless tendency to waffle on at breathless length, just in order to display how very clever he is, and his habit of talking over his guests.
Not sure it’s to be clever but rather to be ‘exciting’. It’s the school of presentation that has so much injected hyperbole that you wonder what sort of patronising view of the listener must be held. But then, to the BBC equality seems to mean giving the man in the street the help he so desperately needs.
Tom Service punctuates every sentence with an exclamation mark!
I think this might simply be Mr Service’s personal style; there’s nothing wrong with enthusiasm – with the caveat that it doesn’t have the unintended effect of annoying listeners. I’ve seen Mr Service presenting the Proms from the BBC booth in the RAH and he seemed genuinely to stress points with his hands as well as through his vocal emphases.
Tom Service has an individual style, rare on radio these days. If you don’t like it, tune elsewhere – there are plenty of alternatives.
An ‘individual style’ is one way of putting it, I prefer irritating…
They could have invented the term ‘verbal diarrhoea’ for Tom Service; I can’t stand him, as soon as I hear his ‘dulcet’ tones, I switch off.
Couldn’t agree more!
I remember the bad tempered interview Service had with Roberto Alagna a few years ago
Totally agree
You’re right about Tom Service! Doesn’t he go on?!
You might try ‘catching up’ with the programme on BBC Sounds.
The Saturday schedule is a no-go area until 2.00 p.m. Even in my worst nightmare I wouldn’t have dreamt-up a schedule of Alker, Service followed by the execrable Jools Holland.
What a disaster. Radio 3 is unique in this country. Streaming other stations doesn’t compare. Radio 3 feels live.
In what way is it a disaster?
I recently heard Christian Thielemann interview Tom Service on Music Matters on Radio 3.
I think most of the Radio 3 gems are still in the schedule, even if they’re in different time slots. Whether Clive Myrie will have more to say other than analysing classical music is ‘naff and boring’ remains to be seen: he’ll apparently be joined by John Suchet, Matt Frei and others (hopefully Katya Adler, who did a fine job of hosting a Prom on TV last year!) I think the talk programmes will find a natural home on Radio 4, but I wish Radio 2 could keep Friday Night Is Music Night!
I love the analysis of classical music. So disappointing if we are losing it
So much so good on Radio 3, an absolute gem, EXCEPT the constant repetition of trailers, again and again. A few times, yes, but not ad nauseum.
No need for even a few trailers. Radio 3 listeners know what’s on and when. These interstitials are just filler and both unnecessary and irritating with their bleeding chunks of music!
Apart from the incessant trailers, I am driven to swearing at the Classical Mixtape being interrupted by someone telling me I am “now listening to the Classical Mixtape”
Record review is one of the best things on the whole of the BBC, entertaining, informative, and thought-provoking. I will miss its morning slot, but more regrettable is the time reduction. It used to be 3h15, then half an hour was lopped off a few years ago, and now it will be just 2h.
Yes, you’re right. Record Review is one of my three essential radio programmes, and I resent the clear indication that R3s controllers don’t value it and the excellent Andrew McGregor as they should. And, selfishly, I resent the change to early afternoon.
I can no longer listen to R3 on weekday mornings while Georgia Mann’s inane blather and listeners’ horrible selections pollute it, so I’ll soon be a rare visitor to the station. Mess with The Early Music Show, R3, and I’ll start the revolution.
Totally agree. We know far too much about her personal life. So much inappropriate, inconsequential chatter.
Whenever I see or hear Georgia (Deep Breath) Mann I reach for Radio Swiss Classic (IT).
I reach for Radio Swiss Classic (IT).
An excellent heads up there.
So i don’t understand much of the announcements, but they are very few, there’s NO WITTERING, just the music.
Don’t blame Georgia, she’s obviously under orders. She has to tell us how wonderful the music in the show is going to be. Then there are the clips from BBC Sounds which are broadcast over and over again. The new schedules are another stage in R3’s dumbing down to the level of the insufferable Classic FM. The government, Arts Council and BBC all hate classical music.
Mann is given
a prime slot but her show is Increasingly pointless. Endless burbling. on avg.each piece of music 5 mins , often less, eg Telemann’s trumpet conc. truncated to 2 mins. Why bother. John Drummond et al must be turning in their…
Could not agree more
Yes, it will be in the ‘graveyard’ slot. And reduced to 2 hours. So guess what comes next?
Having listened to Record Review since 1970, I will not lament the change. The programme has turned into a constant hype of new recordings and a platform for AM’s hyperventilating and neophiliac of reviewers.
Pearls before porcines?
Radio 3 under its new Controller imported from Classic FM is on a slippery slope to resembling Classic FM. I don’t mind moving programmes around but scheduling the easy listening Friday Night is Music Night on Friday evenings instead of the usual concert means there is one less slot for full orchestral concerts. During the day all the programmes are short works or extracts from larger works except for the Lunchtime concert. I like the variety of works featured but it is a shame we have lost complete works being aired during the day
Friday night is music night is perfect for BBC R3.
Dare one hope that Sam Jackson might actually read all these comments and take heed? I doubt it. Instead, protest to the BBC direct. Sometimes they do listen. I’m surprised they haven’t moved “Add to Playlist” from Radio 4 onto Radio 3. Some of the explanations of the ‘connections’ are so inane and pretentious as to make me want to throw something at the radio. I’m tuning in before “Counterpoint” which is another programme dumbed down. It’s more about pop music knowledge than classical these days and, in their introductions, the first record contestants always seem to have bought was a pop 45.
I’ve never liked Record Review anyway!
Hard to see how the new changes will attract new listeners to R3; and something of a risk giving 3 hours of primetime to Tom Waffle, who is unbearable to listen to.
I find importing Friday Night is Music Night from R2 strangely comforting. At least it’s unlikely to be hosted by Elizabeth Alker…
God save us all from Elizabeth Alker.
I frequently reach for the ‘off’ button on Saturday mornings. Elizabeth Alker has one of the worst voices for radio, rise and fall, gabble gabble – awful!
Anything but Tom Service: talks too much but says little.
Beyond moronic. Record Review is an institution on Saturday morning, a time to enjoy some relaxed critical appreciation of new recordings and the best recordings of a particular work. Nobody is going to be listening from 2 to 4 p.m., it’s the very definition of a ‘graveyard slot’, which is why they currentky give it to an obscure musician to indulge themselves for a couple of hours choosing their favourite recordings.
I suppose, as with TV, the time of transmission is of much less importance when you just iPlayer it at the time that suits you. Just means I’ll be listening to Record Review a week out of sync.
Turning Friday Night concert to easy listening is a loss. Unlikely R2 listeners will listen to other R3 programmes. The BBC orchestras used to cover the majority of lunchtime and evening concerts, sadly reduced to about 3 a week now between the lot of them.
It’s evidence of the continuing dumbing down of Radio 3 that has been happening for years. The loss of Rob Cowan from the daily morning programme was a significant slip towards Classic FM-style mediocrity. Record Review is one of the few Radio 3 programmes that treats the listener as an intelligent equal, to reduce its playing time and shunt it to the Saturday afternoon graveyard slot will lose me as a regular listener. I gave up listening to Radio 3 during each weekday some time ago. I thought it was just me that found Tom Service to be like an excitable puppy. And the hysterical hype about each Proms season is embarrassing.
Are these changes going to bring in a single new listener? Why alienate the existing audience, as they did on R2 by getting rid of Ken Bruce and Steve Wright?
I’ve never bought a classical record, I stream online, but quite disturbed Record Review is being moved as Saturday morning is surely the time for this kind of live, conversational magazine programme. Not clear to me what’s replacing AM and his guests. There’s some idea on here it’s three hours of Tom Service. Doing what?
Additionally, I’ve no objection to a late night jazz programme, but what’s happening to Night Tracks? For me, this show is doing a job of presenting music innovatively in a way that’s right for a weekday night. Hope no hatchet there.
I want variety and imagination from R3. I like the access the station gives me to an ongoing musical conversation. Record Review is part of that and I fear I’m going to find Saturday mornings a bit desolate without it – or at least a similar kind of programme.
Reading the blurb, Tom Service is presenting a live, conversational magazine programme. Just what you’re asking for.
As someone who got a big chunk of his classical music education from record review and building a library, this makes me feel a bit wistful. But times moves on. My CD collection that cost thousands in its day is gathering dust in a spare room, and anything I could ever wish for is available for free on YouTube. The big challenge now though is for kids my age when I started listening to Radio 3, back when it still had a public service and educational ethos. How can you gain any notion of the canon, or of the things that are difficult and don’t yet know yet but will learn to love, if all you’ll get presented to you is what Mr Zuckerberg’s algorithms determine you might like?
Like many other contributors, I have listened to Radio Three’s Record/CD/Record Review on Saturday mornings for more years than I care to remember and have always enjoyed Andrew McGregor’s presenting, and those before him; even though some of his chosen supporting acts are often dreadful. They don’t seem to have the musical gravitas or knowledge of such personnel in bygone days. I certainly won’t be listening to it any more if it ends up in the afternoon slot; although we now have the inanely-titled BBC Sounds to help us catch up with anything we might have missed-or avoided-these days.
As for Mad Tom Service, he annoys me intently as he yaks on and on and on amusing himself talking about nothing very much with the alacrity of a circus Clown on a unicycle who keeps going round and round in endless circles getting nowhere! His excitable musico-verbal-diarrhoea contributions to the few televised BBC Proms we get treated to these days always has me reaching for the mute button on my tv remote to avoid a horrendous attack of word sickness. Then there’s Kate Molleson, the resident Queen of the Lost Consonant, who often stands in on Record Review as a would-be hos_ess with the mos_ess.
Alas, the standards of presenting on Radio 3 over the years has seen more dives than Tom Daley! What’s more, the weekday Morning Show has also been dumbed down to a bizarre presentation of overjoyed listeners emailing/texting/Twatting in their contributions revealing what music they listen to as they clip their toenails or feed their Goldfish. The even earlier Saturday Morning (choke on your) Breakfast Show, presented by Elizabeth Alker, is like being force-fed musical treacle.
God’s Teeth, Auntie! How have we come down to this?
I only just found this site, but I laughed out loud at your contribution for its humour and aptness! Thank you.
I wonder how much of this somewhat misguided revamp stems from self important personnel with inflated ego and how much from the listening and paying public the station should seek to service.
As a Brit living in Prague I commend as an alternative to Radio 3 the Czech classical music radio station D-dur, which plays non-stop recorded music 24/7 with minimal chat. It is available on d-dur.rozhlas.cz. The broadcast page is https://d-dur.rozhlas.cz/d-dur-a-full-fledged-music-station-focused-classical-music-all-genres-7974539.
They generally play complete pieces with a modest emphasis on Czech music.
Radio Vltava has a level of seriousness that used to be a hallmark of Radio 3, though there are signs that it ihas started the slide itself.
Bang on. I discovered it a few years ago and it’s become a constant companion.
Change. Don’t you just hate it !
You make the comment about Record Review sending the music lover out to the shops with a recommendation… What’s interesting is that it is still happening on amazon and discogs where – presumably due to death or downsizing among the generation that hoovered up CDs between 1986 and 2006 – many second hand CDs of classic recordings can be bought in a few clicks online for less than the price of a coffee. Quite often, once the recommendation has been made, in minutes you’ll see all the copies being hoovered up across both sites. Many of these discs are now out of print and only available streamed or downloaded.
I totally agree with you. That’s how my CD collection has grown over the years.
It’s great fun chasing these CDs on Amazon or E-bay. Sometimes from different European sites. But, one needs to be quick.
Don’t care… listen on BBC Sounds.
Ah, Building a Library and the Gramophone – mainstays for the record buyer. And why should we have late night jazz? I’d be happy for more jazz during the day, perhaps a Building a Library for jazz.
its the typical stereotype of a jazz fan, that they only surface at midnight. so give them the graveyard slot , BBC3 you have let down your listeners badly and as for Tom Service on at 9am Arrrrrrrrrrggghhhhhh
I am old enough to remember what a number of Controllers of R4 have done over the ages, prompted by a feeling no doubt that they had been chosen because of undoubted superiority and unquestionable organisational ability, only to see some (sadly, not all) the damage done by their wrecking-balls repaired at a later date. BBC management choices have in so many instances been deplorable, with the exception of David Attenborough as Controller of BBC2. The new R3 Controller clearly believes he can make as many changes as he likes, because he can, because he’s top dog now and because he’s worth it. I wonder how many of his brilliantly thought-out decisions (e.g. moving the timing of Record Review) result from detailed Audience Research. I would endorse nearly all the comments posted so far about the choice of presenters: if you tick all the boxes and have a super-ego that flattens anybody else in a conversation, you’re in. If you’re pale, male and stale, you’re out.
I can recall in the 1980s hearing a new recording being played on RR and going into WHSmith later that day and buying it! Times have changed – not necessarily for the better if you are a buyer of the physical product.
Once more brass bands are ignored . Brass players who now sit in many Orchestra brass positions worldwide often started playing in brass bands , yet there is again no recognition of this in radio three programming . The repertoire of brass bands has really grown and expanded , many classically based composers now write for it . Yet nothing on radio three to show for it . Absolute Snobbery !!!
If R3 are looking for new listeners old or young, then i would suggest being more like a classical radio station rather than play a lot of drivel (especially within the morning slot) that few people have ever of, or want to hear. Play CLASSICAL MUSIC R3 then we’ll all be happy
Sad to say, I mostly stopped listening to R3 after the changes some years ago. It was once wall-to-wall music. Now it’s quite hard to avoid the chit-chat. Music is so personal and it shouldn’t be plastered over by so-called presenters, however well-intentioned, let alone those merely after an ego trip. Back to the CDs.
Tom Service gets quite a battering here but, sadly, he deserves it! He is clearly knowledgable but he wraps it up in a patronising and verbose manner. And saying Record Review is less relevant as there are less records stores … yes, but I nearly always order online a CD after listening to the reviews – it has educated me about good music over the years. And final blow is moving Composer of the Week to afternoon when I am at work, instead of lunch hour when I can listen. As for losing Martin Handley …. as Tom Service would surely say !!!!!!
I don’t see what the death of record shops has to do with RR.
Whether in the high street or on line, potential customers might still like to hear about new releases or best recordings.
I too have really enjoyed Record Review over the years on my Saturday morning motorway drives…..shame it’s been moved.
Also, no comments about the dropping of J to Z? Whatever you thought of the presenters, it was my main way in to lots of jazz I’d not come across before and I enjoyed the guests’ influences section.
I will give Round Midnight a try but not live…
Sam Jackman said how much he cares about classical music and especially modern composers. So why so very little of Birtwhistle , carter , Boulez , second Viennese school , modern British composers. Etc etc. Also very few programmes in music history with any critical rigour. His woke bigotry and fear of real creativity is repellant. I hope his huge salary helps him sleep at night.
I love Tom Service… that breathless excitement pummelling me with information plucked from deep and dusty shelves… Finding him too wordy is silly, to say the least. His slot is informative and exciting.
Looks like I might be the only one with this view…
I have been listening to Radio 3 since I discovered classical music in 1971. Every year since the early 90s it has been degraded in some way by controllers who have been desperate to increase its audience share. Unfortunately it doesn’t work like that with pure instrumental and artistic music and singing. It’s a minority taste and always will be. Every time you water down the offering to make it more popular you just lose more of your traditional listeners and gain virtually no-one new to compensate. Just stop doing it and accept that you must maintain a classical music audience by keeping Radio 3 in its traditional format like Through the Night has always been.
Totally agree Arthur. My thoughts entirely.
My views entirely. I started listening in 1966 and R3 has been my companion ever since. The latest changes are ghastly and seem to be designed to mirror the equally ghastly Classic FM.
Record Review is the perfect start to the weekend. The 3 hours whizz by. It would be desecration to truncate and move it. People do still buy cds and the weekly recommended recording gives an expert an opportunity to help us appreciate the musical nuances. There is no other programme like it.
I agree with person who said it makes 6 mornings of no R3 – me too. I can’t abide Georgia Mann hopefully she’ll be shunted off somewhere. Couldn’t beat the great Rob Cowan.
I will not be listening to Record Review at 2pm, I will be either out shopping, visiting relatives, pruning Roses, making compost, shovelling manure, Duck shooting, tending to my wife or reading a book or listening to a gramophone record. I find the choices of some of these so called experts bizarre which choosing a recommended recording I usually ignore their advice.
I have filed a strong complaint with the BBC about this matter and would encourage to do the same.
I have also complained. Inevitably they’ve decided not to do anything “on this occasion”. I wonder if even one R3 listener wants Record Review to be moved away from Saturday am. I think Andrew McGregor is excellent. It has accompanied my Sat mornings most agreeably for decades. No more. What is proposed instead is wholly unappealing.
Hardly any record stores left, that’s total bollocks. There is a fantastic one in Dawson street in Dublin and a great one over in Berlin Dussmanns. Maybe over in GB you buy online, at least in Ireland, Germany, Austria you can still buy them from a human being.
I cannot abide many of the Radio 3 folk eg Petshop Baloney
We will miss Sunday morning with Martin Handley. He’s a pleasure to listen to.
Can’t believe Elizabeth Alker gets 30 minutes more on Saturday .
Downgrading Record Review to after lunch is a mistake. Andrew Mcgregor is one of the best
And most knowledgeable
presenters .
Why Jools Holland Clive Myrie and Friday Night is music night?
Don’t Radio 3 listeners have a say in this?
What about Martin handley? Not mentioned….but so love Sunday mornings with him? And more not less of the insufferable E. Alker. Yeeuuch. Will be listening more than ever to classicfm.
So sad, something to look forward to slashed, and for what?
Sadly they’ve not ditched the insufferable Alker and McKinney.
I’m really sorry to lose Martin Handley from Sunday mornings. Why oh why oh why??
Could not agree more.
Well, 2-4 on Saturday will be my new time for working in my potting shed.
Don’t understand why Kate Molleson is not more popular. She is a proper musician with intellectual heft. She may not enunciate well, but she has a nice voice to listen to.
‘Fraid I do have to agree that Tom is not my cup of tea, but maybe with more music and less words he will calm down. Here’s hoping!
Dumbing down continues! Importing product from Radio 2 and moving away from serious music is a disastrous move. Sacking of Martin Handley is a stretch too far and moving Record Review to an afternoon slot is just plain daft! And as for 3 hours of Tom Service on a Saturday morning – my brain hurts already!
While Petroc Trelawny presents Breakfast all is not lost. They appear to have pushed everything which contains expertise to 4.00 in the afternoon, whilst the day is just presenters of varying quality up till then. Record Review was an island of intelligence in a sea of poor quality programmes on a Saturday morning (up till 1.00), so I am not against pulling it out to a new place. What would be really good would be introducing its equivalent for archive and historic records – mm – I wonder who the expert is there? Does anyone read Rob Cowan in Gramophone magazine?
Take something that works well and is popular with listeners …..and change it. How brilliant……how many more own goals from so called “managers” before we lose the lot.
Lately R3 seems to have succumbed to the prevailing BBC obsession about the presenter being bigger than the content. Andrew McGregor is one of the few on the station who still believes in the music coming first. So maybe he’s out of line with current thinking and has been moved for that reason.
To make way for what? The overly verbose and excitable Tom Service, who thinks absolutely everything is extraordinary, fantastic and unspeakably brilliant? And don’t get me started on McKinney, Linton Stevens and the unmentionable Ms Alker.
R3 controllers would do well to remember that the music doesn’t need bolstering or selling, it speaks for itself. Understated presenters like Donald McCloud or Penny Gore are about to set the stage instead of attempting to dominate it.
I have changed my mind about this, and agree, after suffering Saturday morning 6/4/24 up until 13.00, is that these changes really are dumbing down in a big way. Any programme where the presenter actually is an expert in what they are talking about has been extracted and pushed to the late afternoon and evening, apart from Record Review. Tom Service I won’t comment on, except to say that he is one of the few presenters where I prefer the radio off. We are down to Sarah Walker and Petroc Trelawny as presenters with good music knowledge and high quality presentation (as opposed to vague chumminess).
Much too much Tom McKinney in the new schedule. I find his voice and style irritating.
I couldn’t agree more.