Is it a 'good news story for the BBC' or a 'bad news story for the BBC' that Quentin Letts of The Daily Mail has fled BBC Radio's 4 Today for BBC Radio 3's Breakfast? Or does the 'good news for the BBC' balance out the 'bad news for the BBC' here? After all, Quentin may be fed up with Today but, instead of fleeing the BBC altogether, has merely taken refuge with yet another part of the BBC, and now feels very happy there?
Quentin's piece in the Mail, which I learned about via Alan at Biased-BBC, struck a strong chord with me because I've also recently stopped listening to Radio 4 whilst driving to and from work and switched to Radio 3 instead - and, like Quentin, I've felt much the better for it.
In fact, instead of blogging about BBC bias, I've spent what little time I've not been at work this week catching up with Radio 3's Breakfast (and other BBC Radio 3 programmes) on the iPlayer, playing the game of clicking on each piece and trying to guess what it is. And, like Quentin, I've found gem after gem after gem after gem. And, also like Quentin, I've especially enjoyed Georgia Mann's presentation (though I'm not sure what Canada's answer to Lord Adonis, Justin Trudeau, would make of her surname, especially if he merely heard it spoken. Would he be reaching for the smelling salts?).
Arnold Schoenberg walks into a bar. "I'll have a gin please, but no tonic".
Why couldn't the string quartet find their composer? He was Haydn.
Why did J. S. Bach have so many children? Because he didn't have any stops on his organ.
Listen to Radio 3 long enough and you will find that it is still the BBC, any excuse to promote female composers, homosexual composers rather than just good composers. Then there are the 'groupthink' guests, always given their chance to give their opinions on the world but with no counter-balance, (certainly not on Radio 3). [Is there a ghost programme that BBC puts out on short-wave from some remote Pacific island in the early hours of the UK morning where all the pro-Brexit, marginally right of Corbyn 'balancing' stuff is broadcast?]. Oh, Radio 3 does the 'Trump' digs too!
ReplyDeleteFrom being a child, I was always a Today listener. Fond memories of Monty Modlin. But I find I frequently fall asleep as my radio alarm broadcasts the Today programme but whilst breakfast was always eaten to the Today programme, we just don’t bother with it anymore. I wonder what the true listening figures for Today really are but I guess they are not reaching as many as they used to.
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