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)

I’m so pleased to see that so many feel as I do about Grace Dent. If she spoke at a normal speed, took out the pauses and the musical interludes that whole programme would be about 7 minutes long. It has interesting subjects but says nothing in depth about them. Really shows up GD as vacuous and lacking in content.

And the Afternoon Drama - every time I turn it on it appears to be a dystopian / off the grid gloomsfest.

Other than anything with Rosie Cavaliero who is usually very listenable. The “this service will” series with her and Justin Edwards was good if a bit uneven.

Also the Today programme has become very chatty and informal. I sometimes get the impression that the producers are shouting instructions into the presenters’ ears:
“Little laugh now Justin”
“Throwaway comment please Mishal”
“Sarah we need more bants with you and big John, quick”

There are some brilliant things though - this has stayed with me so much www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b09q9zgc

Yes Rosie Cavaliero is always good and I liked that one Hello. It used to be things like that that I loved about Radio 4 - you were listening absent-mindedly and then thought “oh this is interesting” and you have to keep listening eg in the car even if you’ve arrived somewhere. I haven’t done that recently though.

Just slightly off topic, but the mention of R4 being like a mother made me think of Jenni Murray!

Her voice makes me feel all nice and fuzzy - like I'm being hugged

Just saying.....

Re being imprinted on Radio 4 , it’s been very stable over the years and that’s part of its strength. I was shocked to see a picture of Sue McGregor as a child as I’d thought she was an African lady called Sooma!

@HelloYouTwo PM is also chatty but gets right. Fingers crossed we’re spared Wimbledot this year- whatvwas that about?!

I too was imprinted on R4 and have listened since I was in the womb.

I don't want every programme to be good, because I have to do other things in my life. It does still have some great programming - I was just talking to a German colleague, who was telling me about a podcast he enjoys - which turns out to be the Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry.

We are all different, so we're never going to all agree on everything,though I do agree that Grace Dent's whisper voice is really annoying, and spoils what is otherwise quite an interesting programme. I don't even mind Y&Y once in a while. I haven’t heard the afternoon play in ages, as when I have been working from home, I've had conf calls at that time, so don't hear all the dystopian stuff. In any case, as long as we still have things like In Our Time, More or Less, John Finnemore and things like that, I can live with the programmes which aren't so great. A lot of the others, particularly things like DID or WH can be good or bad, depending on the person or topic.

There are other channels and media available, but in the end, I come back to R4.

Also, I am unable to give up the Archers, even when it's dire.

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?

I don't believe it's 'dumbed down' now, just changing with the times as it would indeed have been doing in the 70's

The other day I had a real pearl clutching moment - I thought I’d tuned into R4 and there was a phone-in and I was sat there thinking “WHAT is this? What has happened to r4?! I’ve been reading about cuts to budgets recently but this programme really is awful.” Then I realised it was R2
I think it was Amol Rajan standing in for Jeremy Vine. He was fine it was just the content/structure etc.

I think I’ve become one of those people who writes to Feedback.

I've been a R4 listener since I was a student in the late 80s and as a pp said, I don't mind if I don't like some of the output - I just don't listen/ switch off.

I've no idea if it's dumbed down - I've changed so much and R4 has changed so much since I initially started listening it's difficult to tell!

Some of the drama is dreadful but some I loved such as Tracks, Tumanbay, A Charles Paris Mystery, and How Does That Make You Feel?

Same with the comedy - Count Arthur Strong made me want to throw my radio out the window but I adore Ed Reardon's Week and Fags Mags & Bags for e.g.

I think it really comes into its own with its factual output, so many interesting programmes many already mentioned by pps.

I particularly loved A History Of The World In 100 Objects.

Also, I am unable to give up the Archers, even when it's dire

We can give it up any time. I have in fact given it up hundreds of times.

I couldn't agree more about GD. I can't listen to her and without her the programmes would be worth listening to. I've grown to like LL but would be nice to have Kirsty back. But don't get me started on Woman's Hour and Jenny Murray.

I still enjoy R4 on the whole - John Finnemore was funny today, I have a minimal interest in gardening but always enjoy Gardeners Question Time, Food Prog, JAM always worth a listen.

But I also really really REALLY dislike Grace Dent's delivery (not accent), I turn her off every time. It's like she's been listening to too many ASMR videos on YouTube

Another one imprinted on R4 from birth here.

Someone once said about radio 4 "my favourite programme is 'people talking in the background'. Luckily it's on all the time". As others have said I feel less like that recently though.

Comedy is patchy but the things I like, I REALLY like. Some good history and science, and More or Less is great.

People generally chatting about life is one of my favourite things and thus I can't work out why I don't enjoy the listening project. I blame Fi Glover.

Love Round Britain quiz.

Also love book club when the authors are on with James Naughtie. The Mariella Frostrup book programme is not so good.

Grace Dent has one of those voices where you can hear her lips move..not her fault, but it makes me want to kill.

Hate The Listening Project but somehow always manage to switch on the radio just as it's about to start...

My most hated are probably Loose Ends and Saturday Live - Richard Coles is insufferable.

Someone once said about radio 4 "my favourite programme is 'people talking in the background'. Luckily it's on all the time".

This except it’s not comforting and interesting and reassuring anymore. It feels as if the students have taken over. It could be my age but Ive only recently noticed it and I’m another who was imprinted at birth.

I read that they are investing money into podcasts instead. But the trailers for them sound really cringy, for lack of a better word. And I am a youth, by R4 standards (early 30s).

The BBC sounds is annoying me. I don't like the way it doesn't just stop after I listen to whatever it was.
I don't like the books this week.
I don't mind Saturday Live but it's too long. I like BH.

Grrrr the music! If I want to listen to music there are hundreds of bloody music stations!

I like Any Answers because it amuses me that anyone would want to their opinion.
I like You and Yours because it is pleasantly dull.

Years ago a friend of mine started referring to the programme as Up Yours, and I think it still applies.

We could probably rename a few of them but Up Yours is brilliant.

This will out me to anyone I know (hence NC), but Any Answers is known in our house as Fascists Reply.

Same here! Imprinted (probably shortly after conception). Soundtrack to my childhood, student days, would feel as if the world had ended if it didn’t signal the start of any day at home.

I don’t find that Today has changed all that significantly in spirit over the decades - but it’s more inclusive now and they don’t assume they’re speaking to only one section of society. (The most poisonous time was during the Coalition ...)

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 feel completely the opposite about this! Really loving the post 9.am slots - often unmissable. And today I caught a repeat of the programme with the 103 year old dancer - utterly superb radio.

But 99 times out of 100 I turn to Radio 1 to avoid WH. Then flip between 1 and 3 most of the day - only going back to 4 for news and TA. Some afternoon dramas are astonishing, (the recent Death of a Cosmonaut for instance,) too many are flimsy and cliched. I seem to have come round to Evan D. at 5pm. Not enjoying Front Row these days - don’t know what’s gone wrong. I miss Kalaidescope ... Generally by 10.pm I’ve heard enough news and stay with R3. Free Thinking has obviously not dumbed down! (Though the evening concert has turned to mush, sadly.)

On Saturdays it’s 3 all day after 9.am.

On balance - I’d say I rely on R3 for intelligent conversation just as much as R4 now. Though 3’s classical, as opposed to contemporary orchestral, output has completely lost its way. Hard to say if R4 has definitively dumbed down because I only listen to the things that are still good.