Is Radio 4 dumbing down?

[Etino]

Very unscientific but I find myself switching off a lot atm. Lots of podcasty chatty content, yesterday in the space of a 2 hour drive there were 2 half hour chatty, contentlite progs. (I’m on 1% so will check and repost what- utterly un memorable)

You may never break free Orchid it depends how young you were when you started.

For me, it was on at home from day one, I'm like those ducks in the experiment where the first thing they see is a man and follow him around forever thinking it's their mother

R4 has become obsessed with birds twittering. It’s very annoying indeed.

It’s not all bad, though. I’m enjoying Evan Davies on PM. Eddie Mair wasn’t really my cup of tea.

I never would listen to PM with EM but it's fine with Evan.
I generally have R4 on all day but switch off quite often these days.

Oh god yes. I was just saying the same thing to a friend on Sunday. Why oh why in an age where everything is being dumbed down, dies Radio4 feel its necessary to do the same? We already have masses of dumbed down shite out there to choose from! Please for the love of god, remain a quality, highbrow broadcaster.

1. Woman's’ Hour needs completely overhauling. No more transgender, lesbian, bisexual, feminist fashionistas please. We want to hear about amazing, accomplished women, not some awful trendy rubbish that just happens to be done by a woman.
2. Grace Dent is awful. We all know it. Replace her please or just stop banging on about food. It’s boring.
3. Please get rid of The Listening project. It’s boring, trite and twee.
4. Where are the working class voices/stories?
5. Stop messing with the Archers.
6. Commission some new dramas. The current offerings are alarming (and not in a good way).
7. Get rid of Thought for the day. Its pointless.
8. Do more in-depth, serious reporting. We dont need more reporting-lite.
9. Replace whoever commissions the ‘comedy.’ It’s anything but.

10. More Ed Reardon. I love him. 11. More classics please. 12. More educational content. 13. Less of the god awful music. 14. Please retire Jenny Murray.

I could go on but you get my drift. At this rate Radio 4 is going to end up being like Radio 2.

I tend to listen to the World Service a lot more now when Radio4 has a shit show on.

Life long R4 junkie, dislike some of the dumbing down. Some of the changes in presentational style are just fashion but not my cup of tea.

• hate the dumbing down of science content (same could be said for Horizon which often seems to address primary school/Take-A-Break crossove audience now)
• the listening project - will it ever end?
• woman's hour seems to have a higher proportion of cooking and fashion and "girly stuff" than it used to. I love Jenny Murray, find Jane Garvey's tentative style a bit grating.
• love In Our Time which seems to maintain a high expectations of its audience
• some of the comedy is rubbish but that is personal taste and has always been the case. Remember the godawful Count Arthur Strong?
• Josie Long on the other hand is mindnumbing drivel by any measure
• way too many traillers not jsut between programmes but in the middle of them. I'm a R4 listener, I'm able to cope with a schedule without tedious trailers being repeated every hour.
• You and yours - trite and simplistic but I think it always has been
• dicking around with TA but I used to complain about that in the days of The Beetle. Complaining about "TA these days" is mandatory for R4 listeners.

When they ran the anniversary programme for Tomorrow's World it reminded me that there was a programme in prime time BBC1 slot which assumed its audience had brain cells and could follow a scientific or technical explanation designed for a non scientific audience. I cannot imagine Tomorrow's World getting that kind of mass audience prime slot now.

Oh also whilst I'm not a fan of Grace Dent's presenting style some of the programmes have been thought provoking - I particularly remember her following a woman traying to bring a case for sexual assault/abuse and the impact on her and her family.

But generally yes more in depth reporting and less skimming of of the serious stuff before returning to "and today's look at hemlines".

Long time listener here. All the radios in the house are tuned to R4 (except the DDs').

R4 is worth it for More or Less on its own.

I really enjoy R4. I listen randomly, and often catch the last half of a programme twice. But the diverse mix of topics is really interesting. There are very few things I actively switch off, though Count Arthur Strong and The Food Programme are both on that list.

I'm listening to The Untold on BBC Sounds.

Why does Grace Dent deliberately avoid pronouncing EVERY "t"? Even though she speaks... in a painfully... slow......... speed. She has plenty of time to pronounce letters but instead, she pronounces le'ers. Argh

Talking of the Food Programme (which I don't mind) can someone please explain why the scheduling goes:
Sunday
12:04 Just a Minute. series 84/ep3
12:32 The Food Programme

Monday
15:30 Repeat of yesterday's FP
18:30 Repeat of - no wait, it's JAM 84/4

WHYYYYYYYYY? It disturbs me greatly. Does the Radio4 scheduling week start at 18:30 on a Monday?

I don't mind the Fud Programme but not when the Fud Awards are on it.
Like Jane Garvey but not Jenny Murray.
Love In Our Time.
The Listening Project is something I don't listen to.
Did I mention trends - I find that there will seem to be lots of programmes e.g. dramas or features about something until they move on to the next thing. Trans, Refuges, Breggsit, LGBT or something - it makes me feel that they are shoving it down my ears and I'd rather make up my own mind.
World Service is probably great but my radio is permanently tuned to R4, so I only hear it if I can't sleep.

Yes I can’t stand Grace Dent’s delivery. Just talk normally!

Amol Rajan has made the Media Show unlistenable most weeks. Obvs Steve Hewlett left huge boots to fill but at least I can listen to a whole episode when it's hosted by Andrea Catherwood.

Agree that More or Less is gold Teen.

Retire Melvyn Bragg.
I’m also so sick of Women's Hour banging on about transgender/lesbian/ bisexuals. Well, I’m not sick of it now as I’ve stopped listening to it.

Whoever commissions the "comedy"... why? Just why? It is absolutely toe-curlingly awful

The canned laughter makes me switch off straightaway.

Why is you and yours on radio 4?
It should be on five live or something. Very occasioanlly I have a lull at work and I can put the radio on ... For example today.....and it was you and yours on and I HATE it. I'd take the food programme over it any day. Also any answers.... Makes me rage. I can just about stand any questions but any answers makes me want to throw the Google home out of the window.

I LOVE ed reardon, the news quiz and more or less. I like front row too...... It punctuates the end of my work day.

Women's hour I have a love/hate relationship with. Sometimes loathe it and then they will do an interview with someone really interesting and I'll think it's great again...... And then they'll do a slot on making the perfect cake or something and I'll loathe it again

YANBU. It definitely is.

And where have the interesting documentaries gone? We used to joke in our house that you could put on radio 4 and hear a genuinely interesting documentary about goat herders in Uzbekistan or something random like that. That never happens any more

The comedy is. I used to love the 6.30 comedy slot but most of it is really low grade and unfunny and has been for the past 12 month or so.

I've migrated to the World Service for documentaries. The Compass and The Forum are both excellent.

Jim Al Khalili's science interviews are still worth a listen. The comedies are mixed, I loved "It's a fair cop", but it was on at 11:30am on a Friday and never repeated at the 6:30pm slot.

In Our Time is good but it depends on Melvin Bragg's mood, he can hector some of the guests. Loose Ends never captures my ear, nor does Broadcasting House.

Last Word and More or Less make for good listening. There is nothing like listening to someone's obituary to make you want to do more with your own life.

I used to listen all the time but have gradually moved away. I can understand if they're trying to draw in a younger crowd otherwise they'll eventually die out with their audience. Trouble is a lot of people have embraced podcasts for spoken word listening - so much more variety of content and style - so they really don't need R4.

The Listening Project is the absolute worst and yet they doggedly persist with it..surely if it's a 'project' it should have an end date??

Fotheringhay - love the idea of you imprinting onto R4 and following it around like a mother.

fedup - I know what you mean. I feel like they make fewer docs about random things these days as well. You might want to try The Inquiry (World Service programme/podcast), and Crossing Continents if you haven’t already.

I feel like there’s quite a lot of philosophy and history “chat” type programmes, but I don’t necessary learn much from them.

Having said that I think Soul Music, Great Lives and More or Less are having a bit of a golden era.

There seem to be be far more discussions with artists, which I’m not very interested in, and I really don’t understand why radio has programmes about dancing. I agree that much of the comedy is awful apart from the well written Ed Reardon and John Finnemore - other stuff like the News Quiz don’t sound spontaneous - just badly scripted and presented. Why does Radio 4 not use more of the brilliant World Service programmes like Witness History, Outlook and excellent documentaries?

Good shout on the World Service - thinking about it some of the podcasts I listen to instead of R4 when the tripe comes on are from the World Service - Forum, The Compass and random world new documentaries of the type which used to get a hearing on R4 as well.

I can understand if they're trying to draw in a younger crowd otherwise they'll eventually die out with their audience.
What was Radio4 like in the latter 1970s? Was it considered dumbed down then, to draw a youthful me in?