Cremating the cat: But what do YOU do when listening to Radio 3's Breakfast show?

We, too, cremate the cat, Roland.

I'm waiting for my lovely Polish and Slovakian carers to come and put me to bed. I'm looking at the birds havng their last meal of the day.

With time difference between Brazil and the UK, am still asleep, sorry!

Hello Roland :-)



Are you going to change the banner at the top back to The Radio 3 Blog, and replace the Proms graphic?





[I'm afraid I don't have the qualification to answer your question :-/]

I am in Rhodes island this period trying to concetrate to the heavy task of studying veterinary pathology.Your excellent broacasting is really helping me!You may be the reason that I eventually finish the university!I am sending you all my sun-clad love.Your greek devoted friend, Maria Friday.

I don't listen to Radio 3 breakfast, it's on at the wrong time

Thank you for the reply, Graeme. I think it would have been better to have had a Proms Blog on the Proms website. Although I'm sure it got lots of views there wasn't much response and there weren't (m?)any R3-type things on the blog while the Proms were on. And, after all, they aren't the R3 Proms, they're the BBC Proms.



"This morning's conversation focused very much on the lifestyles and habits of the audience. In case you missed it, over the last few days, presenter Sara Mohr-Pietsch has been asking you to send in texts and emails to tell us what you've been up to while listening."



Hmmmm. Well, I did miss it. But I hope you discussed at the Breakfast meeting the fact that **some** people find all this trivial stuff highly irritating. Does this mean that in future the programme will be targeted at people who are cremating their cats or was it just an attempt to drum up some interactivity? Are people who respond just trying to be obliging or do they really want the entire world to know that they're sewing a button on a shirt, cleaning out the grate or reading their post? If 100,000 people are listening, it stands to reason that most of them will be doing something different and we could invent our own lists if we thought such things were interesting.

I am coming to the end of my day's work here in Sydney. I particularly enjoy hearing the 7am news and of course - the "pips" just before it.

Through the day, I like to listen to Through the Night - if that makes sense...Welcome to my time warp :-)

I work on my online family tree, researching genealogical records, adding photos, stories, and data; finding 5th and 6th cousins in the process! When I'm not doing that, I have to have classical music on while I write my novel. Being on California time, I love that I can still listen to the Breakfast show (and others) with the "listen again" link. Thanks for that.

To "french frank" I'd like to comment that I find it highly interesting what people do while listening to a favorite music program. Precisely because much of what we do IS mundane (or appears to be on the surface), that's the poetry of it! By tuning in and giving ourselves up to the surprise of pieces chosen by someone else, we invite this medium to accompany us in our daily lives, allowing it to ground us, inspire us, support us, soothe us as we cope with day-to-day tasks...move us. And because it's a shared moment no matter where we are in the world, it's interesting to know what others are doing while listening. I think the composers, whose works are an expression of a life lived, would like to know, too. I'd like to think that your person sewing on the button was perhaps composing a love letter in their head, or praying for peace which is hardly a trivial matter. I even like it that you are irritated.

Graeme



It's good to have some genuine 'interaction' between R3 and the audience, putting a point of view, listening and responding, though I realise it's not part of your official duties :o) - but it is appreciated. Thank you.



Well, you say **you** feel beleaguered ... :-(



What I really miss is the feeling that R3 has any sort of critical edge or objectivity. LA-ing Drama on 3 earlier today I caught a trail for Breakfast: it reeked of marketing blandishments, of telling us how wonderful we are and R3 is. It's constantly *selling* itself and its 'product', always seeming so pleased with itself. I don't blame R3 for this: it's the BBC which has turned from a public service into a pushy publicly-funded commercial business. Its whole ethos has changed and the ethos of R3 as an improving, educational, aspirational station is slipping away. [Don't forget the Guardian ICM poll found that 57% thought the BBC had (ahem) 'gone downmarket' - a not much publicised fact.]



That said, one thing that I think 'humanises' classical music for me is ... the R3 messageboard: these are *real* human beings, some more likeable than others (okay, some downright nasty!), some with dotty ideas, petty, nitpicking, chips on shoulders and bees in bonnets: and a wealth of knowledge and a generosity in sharing it. It's gutsy and controversial - much more what I want R3 to be than the endless uncritical hype and bland niceness you seem to cultivate now. I think you're too scared to do anything unfashionable.

kcballetdancer



"I even like it that you are irritated."



:o)



[I didn't say I was irritated, btw. I'm only vicariously 'irritated' as I haven't listened to the early morning programme for two or three years.]



If you want something to 'soothe you and help you cope with the day-to-day tasks', you should also try Classic FM https://www.classicfm.co.uk/on-air/programmes/smooth-classics-at-six/ . In fact, it's designed for people who want to listen to classical music while writing novels, doing genealogical research, praying for peace &c.

Out of interest, what sort(s) of Interactivity would interest you on the Breakfast show, french frank, and on BBC Radio 3 in general?

:o)



We really need to discuss this in the legendary Nag's Head some time, kleines ;-)



In the days when I did listen I switched on the programme (On Air, then Mo3) purposely to hear (classical) music and the easy, informative introductions. I would find *on-air* interactivity of the kind mentioned of no interest whatsoever :-D.



What's more, I mistrust the BBC's reasons for introducing it, the more so since I'm not too sure what those reasons are :-/



[And another thing: I've previewed this post and NONE of the words run in to each other.]

I'm normally traversing London in order to get to work when SMP is broadcasting to the nation. However, I normally find her dulcet tones invaluable in guiding me through an afternoon of hard work at the computer when I listen to her on the BBC iPlayer-it-Again.



Dull I know. But truthful and accurate nonetheless.

Hmmm - any more BBC employees queuing up to say how enjoyable they find Breakfast? ;-)



Btw, Thoroughlygood - what's wrong with Afternoon on 3? You could listen to that instead. Or do you listen to it on the iPlayer in the evening and Performance on 3 at breakfast time the next day? :o)

In terms of the non-musical parts of the BBC Radio 3 Breakfast show, I thought that the 41 contemporary poems worked rather better than the 100 free thoughts.



https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/speechanddrama/poetry/2009/poems-for-today.shtml



https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/freethinking/2008/free-thought/



Did you catch any of them, french frank?



;)



As for thoroughlygood, alas, I share french frank's scepticism that you spend your afternoons listening to repeats of Sara Mohr-Pietsch on the BBC iPlayer. One thing which might interest you in the afternoon, french frank, certainly in the run-up to this year's 21st century family orientated Free Thinking Festival, is 'A History of Private Life' on BBC Radio 4.



https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00mvfb7

No :-)



I have attempted, humblingly inadequately, to fill your shoes by publicising ThinkFest 2009, kleines. What will Breakfast's contribution be this year? Perhaps they should employ you to generate good ideas? (I am currently reading Mill's On Liberty, which is a bit of a ThinkFest on its own.)

'Morning, Graeme



Yes, I noticed that :o)



When you say, Can't wait! - what are you expecting? (heh, heh!) [I'm keeping out of this one :-)]

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