Results of the Mozart poll

[Eudaimonia]

Yes, har, har! Most companies would be quite worried about cheesing orf a quarter of their customers (and 80% had reservations, btw!).

Well, completely cheesing off ONLY a quarter of the customers lurking around these parts is bleeping well near a miracle. I would have thought it would be well upwards of 70 percent. Can you say "sample bias"? Oh, I knew you could.

Seriously, though, the main discrepancy is between RW's view on the blog that people were agitating for the next 'clear the schedules' composer event while these figures show 60% against the basic concept.

Maybe they are. After all, the people voting around here aren't exactly the people he's talking to every day, are they. His sample is probably skewed in the favourable direction just as hard as this one is skewed unfavourable.

Face it: our peculiar little crowd of Radio 3 Messageboard Refugees is in no way representative of the 1.8 million R3 listenership at large. How do I know? Because no "average, casual R3 listener" is going to be motivated to show up and discuss Radio 3 on a message board to begin with, much less make the jump to an identical forum once the original one is shut down! Only the hardest of the hardcore survived...it's a highly self-selected sample.

And the Guardian poll also was only 50-50.

No it wasn't, the "good idea" side won by exactly 0.2 percent. heh.

Given that this was a solid classical music project, there is no reason why members of this forum should have some sort of predictable, inbuilt hostility rather than 'overwhelming' support. Au contraire, some would have predicted that everyone here would be jubilant.

Er, not anyone who's read the archives and knows the history of what the board reaction was the last couple of times around.
And anyone who predicted that THIS messageboard would be jubilant about anything Wright does must be on some seriously high-quality psychedelic drugs.

[Eudaimonia]

I suspect this was a publicity stunt pure and simple.

One point you might want to consider is that this event conveys the message that Radio 3 is unique, effectively carving out a distinct niche in the radio landscape and proclaiming "we do what no other station will." Considering how many critics are looking for reasons to kill the BBC completely, is this such a bad thing?

People complain twelve days is too long-- but if they played everything in sequential order as quickly as possible to get it over with, that really would be boring, lazy programming, wouldn't it? Repeats and excerpts helped keep it on-point and engaging.

And about the lack of playlists: perhaps they deliberately didn't include them because they wanted people to be more open to the whole experience, rather than showing up for one particular piece and switching off when it's done. Rather than being prejudiced against works they think they won't enjoy, it encourages audiences to hear works in the context of the program.

Something to think about, at any rate!

[Frances_iom]

Something to think about, at any rate!

have you ever thought that there might be openings in selling pre-owned cat litter - it built on the R3 is unique theme but in way that the numerous Hollywood prequels + sequels build on an initial box-office success - the subsequent efforts become more hackneyed + less imaginative

[Eudaimonia]

[deleted response to Frances to avoid getting sent to the Basement]

[Panjandrum]

The Poll was viewed 4028 times. There are presently 536 members so probably most people were aware of it.

12% voted it Bad/Terrible
7% voted it Excellent/Good
81% aren't at all bothered and aren't getting their knickers in a twist about it.

So, tell me, how is that "overwhelmingly positive"? :doh:

[David Underdown]

I think RW's blog post may ahve been slightly miscontrued, I think he meant "we can't do these too often" in the sense that we don't have the resources to do these events more often - look at the first half of the sentence "despite the demand", and the sentence that follows.

[Don Petter]

Face it: our peculiar little crowd of Radio 3 Messageboard Refugees is in no way representative of the 1.8 million R3 listenership at large. How do I know? Because no "average, casual R3 listener" is going to be motivated to show up and discuss Radio 3 on a message board to begin with, much less make the jump to an identical forum once the original one is shut down! Only the hardest of the hardcore survived...it's a highly self-selected sample.

Probably true, and I am fully aware of the dangers of extrapolating any small sample. I can only report my own experience. Of people I know well, there are only six I can think of who are interested in classical music and have regularly listened to R3. None of them are people who would ever think of looking at a message board, much less posting to it. They have all mentioned at different times that they now never listen to Breakfast, and that they listen to R3 in general much less than they did before recent changes.

[french frank]

I think RW's blog post may ahve been slightly miscontrued, I think he meant "we can't do these too often" in the sense that we don't have the resources to do these events more often - look at the first half of the sentence "despite the demand", and the sentence that follows.

I'm sure you're absolutely right, David. My reply was a hilarious witticism to suggest that there are also those who are not clamouring for the next one!

My own view is that, although I think there are much better ways of focusing on the work of a particular composer, the Mozartfest didn't impact much on my own listening as I listen seldom and selectively these days, rather than in any sense relying on R3 for my daily music.

[french frank]

Well, completely cheesing off ONLY a quarter of the customers lurking around these parts is bleeping well near a miracle. I would have thought it would be well upwards of 70 percent. Can you say "sample bias"? Oh, I knew you could.

Maybe they are. After all, the people voting around here aren't exactly the people he's talking to every day, are they. His sample is probably skewed in the favourable direction just as hard as this one is skewed unfavourable.

I think you're splitting hairs here. I have the unique privilege of knowing how everyone voted and if you take the voters at the two extremes they are completely unpredictable to me. Both views include people with hugely impressive musical credentials whose opinions I value. Food for thought for all of us.

As I said earlier, a lot depends how you 'consume' Radio 3, and now that I'm not a regular listener I wasn't personally bothered by 12 days of Mozart. But intellectually, if the question were put to me, I can think of far better ways to focus on Mozart's music. But they wouldn't suit R3's purpose.

It boils down - as so often - to whether R3's main duty is to cater for its target audience or to cater for an audience which it hopes to attract. And also, one might have thought, whether it's possible to do both at the same time.

[amateur51]

It boils down - as so often - to whether R3's main duty is to cater for its target audience or to cater for an audience which it hopes to attract. And also, one might have thought, whether it's possible to do both at the same time.

And there's the rub. In pursuing the new audience, they appear to being doing an excellent job of alienating the established audience at the moment.