to be fucked off and actually really quite sad at what has happened to Radio 3?

[cruikshank]

It used to be my go-to station: not only for the breadth of music they played, but also for the incisive and intelligent commentary that opened up that music. Now, it's all bitty - single movements of concerti - including even Vivaldi concerti which are only about 25 mins long in their entirety so hardly taxing on the brain in the first place. And on top of that, instead of having people who actually know about music talking to us, we get witless, endless fucking parp from listeners about 'Ooh I like this one because it reminds me of a picnic I once went on' etc - I don't fucking care. If I wanted to listen to Classic FM I would kill myself tune into it. That's not what Radio 3 is supposed to be for. There are endless radio shows with thoughtless meaningless audience participatory aspects to them. There is a whole radio station (Crassic FM) devoted to rehashing middle-brow supposed 'culture'. So those aspects of broadcasting are already more then adequately catered for elsewhere. Why then do we need to have them encroaching on the one radio station that offered something truly different, something properly thought-provoking and elucidatory?

And no, 'Crassic' is not a typo. It's my little joke. It reminds me of a picnic I went on when we played Widor's organ concerto. Because that is, evidently, what music is all about.

Why are you telling us? Get onto the BBC.

If there was an audience for it, they'd keep the format. Sadly, it seems they've made a change based on what the majority want.

Have done, as have many others according to what I can gather. They tell us that it's all about 'democratising' the station. I suppose I was just wondering if there were any like-minded mumsnetters out there.

Personally, I would ban all listener participation from all radio stations. Dh listens to sports radio in the car and I cannot for the life of me work out why anyone cares what Dave from Essex would do if he was the manager of Manchester United! And then there are the inane squeely listeners who enter competitions and whose shrieks are replayed on the hour, every hour!

Must be especially annoying if you've chosen to listen to a 'proper' music station. It's bad enough on the pop stations.

The evening concert and weekend mornings are still mostly OK... But one day I was off work doing some DIY and was absolutely appalled by the mindless dross on offer. I suppose some people must like it, though?

Its because the arts council have 'widening access to classical forms of music' or something, and the BBC needs to hoover up this funding..

If they could get rid of Katie Derham, that would be a start. I want people who actually know something, not newsreaders who just quite like classical music. Her Proms coverage is excruciating.

I do love 'Building a Library' though. Worth the LF alone.

Oh God, Katie Derham is bloody awful. Proof if proof were needed that just liking something isn't enough to carry off an entire programme about it. Jesus, if that were the only criteria, they might as well have employed me.

Agree completely. I am no music expert, but loved R3 for introducing me to some amazing music that I would never have heard otherwise, along with the intelligent commentary/criticism. It's going the way of all media - bite size, dumbed down, lowest common denominator. Have written to R3. Not that I think it will do much good.

I also love R4, but the number of 15 minute pieces is growing. Hate it. They obviously think we all have the attention span of a gnat.

I didn't know this had happened because I stopped listening to 3, mostly, many years ago. I still agree with you though. We listened to it all the time when I was growing up. I began to resent it as I resented my mother and it was her 'thing'. But I understood it was a good, solid radio station with no frippery or faffing about. It wasn't populist. That was what was good about it.
Also there were a lot of times you would turn it on and you would get total silence, in between movements or whatever

Classic FM was farcical in comparison and I have never listened to it. It's painful.

If this is true then, we have to mourn a great institution. Bloody BBC.

I feel your pain. I don't want to listen to listeners tweets and random audience rubbish. Mainly CD listening now but yy to Building a Library.

I think the sports commentary makes sense - some of them have bizarre opinions but if you like football, it can be interesting to hear what tactics or issues other people think are to blame, and what they'd do to turn it around. Likewise hearing their predictions.

Commentary on radio three makes no sense and I stopped listening to it when they introduced it. I wasnt an avid listener anyway, really.

The BBC seems determined to make everything appeal to the masses, which makes it all a bit crap, really. It's a fast route to pleasing no one.

Does the audience really matter for the BBC? It's a public service broadcaster, surely playing things you don't find on commercial stations but are incredibly valuable and worthwhile is something they should be doing? And having knowledgeable people talking about it? I suspect that our musical life as a nation would be poorer without these niche programmes while I listen to Beyoncé.

OP, I suspect that the kind of content you want may have been moved online or to podcasts most likely.

Agree, agree, agree. I know v little about music as my secondary education was poor. I used to love Radio Three.

I want to listen to people who know more than I do, who can open up the world of music for me. One of the best things about the BBC was always that it was the way that everyone could have access to the most educated and brilliant minds in the country - for the price of a radio set. That is democratic radio - not idiots with their "views".

I don't listen to R3 [philistine] but I'm with you, OP; surely not everything has to be appealing/accessible to everyone?

And I agree, Bill, that one of the functions of the BBC is, or should be, exactly that – it has both the right and the responsibility to deliver, as well as content that lots of people like, content that will be watched or listened to by three people and a dog.

Get back on to the Beeb, OP. Keep on at them. Get others to contact them too. They may well still not listen, but at least you and like-minded people will be making yourselves heard.

I completely agree. I used to listen to Radio 3 quite a lot, but rarely do now, as I find it so annoying.

I agree with lostin that everyone is expected to have the attention span of a gnat these days.

I think we are in danger of creating a generation of people who can't concentrate on anything that isn't "instant".

Absolutely agree with you OP. And about Katie Derham. Excruciating. I want to listen to an expert not a bland all purpose presenter.

Agree - and particularly about Katie Derham.

R3 has always been the station where I can listen to - for want of a better term - 'world' music as well as classical music; but that seems to be lessening these days. No other radio station explores music from around the world in the same way - you certainly wouldn't get a series examining, say, sacred music of Northern India on Radio 1 or Radio 2, and it seems to be elbowed out of Radio 3 too. It's perfectly nice listening to well-known duets from the Pearl Fishers or whatever, but I can get that from YouTube.

I agree OP. Classic FM has its place, to be fair, and it does it well

but there is a need for a station to play more obscure pieces, or whole works.

Problem for me with Radio 3 has always been I didn't like 50 per cent of the music they played. So I would flick between Classic and Radio 3. But I also am a philistine

I stopped listening to Radio 3 several years ago for precisely the reasons stated. Everything is being dumbed down,I don't want to know what other listeners think of the music, I want to hear the music and if there is discussion then I want it to be informed discussion with participants who know what they are talking about.
The BBC should be offering an alternative to commercial stations, that is the whole point of a publicly funded broadcaster -to provide the public with access to a whole range of music and informed discussion and opinion on it.

Well, I heard the overture to Die Zauberflote on Crassic FM this morning, and it reminded me how much I love it.

Mozart is still Mozart whatever radio station it is on!

The thing speaks for itself.

I listen to the radio between 9 and 10am on a commute and usually listen to Radio 3 but periodically I would fancy ear candy and listen to Classic FM. I quite enjoy Radio 3 Essential Classics. Sounds like Waitrose' Essential Caviar range.

I stopped listening to R3 a while ago. It is sad (and stupid) what is happening in the BBC.