Classic FM Reviews 316

When Classicfm first started, and for at least its run for over a decade, it was a relaxing listen. But now it is is littered with "celebrity" presenters, each providing their own version of dire smugness, and promoting their name over and over again, as if that will make up for their lack of integrity? It tries to be middle class with yummy mummy school runs, perhaps dedicating Bach to Tarquin who passed his music exam and who lost a goldfish or something daft. The station has lost its authentic charm, with a cycle of awful adverts and running over the same music, never really playing a full concert. Now listen to Scala and BBC Radio3.

I used to love Classic FM, i even gave up my tv because I preferred listening to it. But things have changed. Who would put a presenter with a pronunciation problem on the radio? Jonathan Woss! It is painful to listen to, Mylene Klass, mumbling her words are indecipherable. Smooth classics have become tinkling piano's, up the scale, down the scale, up the scale, no melody, no tune, and some ex newscaster trying to orate poetry is not what I want to listen to. Monosyllabic Moira bores the pants off me, and verbal diarrhoea from John Suchet, makes me retch! I used to like it but it is becoming painfull to listen. The laid back enthusiasm of David Mellor is the only highlight of an otherwise dull radio station!

I've listened to Classicfm for years and years. Not quite from the beginning but almost and I must admit that my knowledge of Classical music has greatly improved over this time. I listen in my car, it is set into all my radios at home and I take it on the go when I'm walking the Dog etc. They have been my saviour at times and have kept me sane during periods when I could have blown a fuse. However just recently and I don't know why I am finding that the hourly news bulletins are completely taking me back to feeling stressed, anxious and bordering on depressed. I listened to this station to help with all this in the first place. I now find that the news bulletins are having the opposite effect to the point that I've made the sad decision to get rid of Classicfm from my life. I cannot bare to listen to it anymore knowing that at each hour I'm going to be fed loads of toxic, negative news.

What an abhorrent person to be presenting.

A tolerable station ruined by the excessive reminders that we're listening to Classic FM - the world's GRrreatest music etc ad nauseam. Why this desperate need to tell us what we already know? In this house each "you're listening to..." etc is met by a "you don't bloody say", or more usually something unprintable here. Am re-discovering the ad-free R3, where the listener is not addressed as a simpleton / cretin etc

I used to be such an avid listener of Classic FM and that was from day one. I loved it .
Now it's just awful with non stop adverts and the same constant repeated music.
Half of my car journey to work was during a long commercial break! I switched it off in the car and do not listen anymore . On top of that some of the presenters are tedious to listen to. It just sounds like a station on a loop. It is quite sad how far the stationed has bombed.
The adverts themselves are chronic and just a barrage of inane garbage.
How anyone can enjoy listening to them is beyond me .
I have changed over to Boom Radio and Boom Light . Its the best thing I have done in a long time 😃

Why does Alan Tictchmash have to tell us who he is every five minutes, I cant listen to him any more ,we have bets on how many times he tell us(I'm Alan Titchmarsh)its so annoying and he sounds so patronising

Listen to BBC Radio 3 sounds. That is all.

I love classical music but this radio plays TOO MANY, TOO MANY, TOO MANY piano tunes

classic fm have 2 of the not good presenters they could have on there programs alexandra armstrong and Johnathan Ross they put me off fm at 9am weekdays and Saturday evenings please change it to uphold your good reputation.

I love the presenters and the music on Classic FM bit the constant adverts get on my nerves! So much so that I would actively make a point never to buy the services or products advertised because they have totally ruined my enjoyment of the music

Same music all the time during the day. Evenings better. Too many inane ads. Also get rid of AA! His juvenile, patronising style of presentation is well beyond irritating, it is just a continuation of the equally awful Pointless programme. Listen to Scala now..
Much more professional and less condecending.

Why is the website so bad? You click on classic fm playlist and unless you're very lucky you get stuck on 12.49 whatever time you go on the site. Surely global has the resources to do better than that

I woke to the news on Classic FM that the San Carlo is on strike. All fine but the crass english mentality of then using Puccini opera titles to describe the action was paltry. I recently went to see Die Walkure in Napoli and it was phenomenal better even than the one at the ROH with Domingo and Terfel. Almost all the music on CFM is from Europe and then you make a joke of it. Basically as a amalgam of countries who do not want to be United you are floundering in a sea which may as well be a ocean. May I also remind you that the ROH was on strike on a number of occasions you were not making hapless puns then.

The one thing that puts me off listening to the program is the constant annoying adverts played over and over again its enough to drive you up the wall.
Its as if playing the adds are more important than playing nice music.

Please can we have Andrew Collins back for Classic FM At The Movies. The only regular programme I used to listen too on the station. Now it's joined the rest of the programmes in The Doldrums. Classic FM is becoming so boring.

I used to love Classic FM, a favourite to study to and listen to the old favourite presenters and I still love Catherine Bott and John Brunning. However, the station is stuck in a rut. They play the same music all the time, and this is shown by the Hall of Fame which is getting worse year by year. I think a main issue is that they always play the same movements from symphonies and concertos, they rarely play opera or play less famous ballet music. I miss the old segments such as playing the full symphony or concerto!

I would love to give some ideas to someone to shake them up, and get it good again!

…..and they go on and on, 20 minutes in the hour, the same ones again and again and again.

Once one has factored in the incessant wittering of the entirely superfluous presenters, the John Craven’s Newsround for morons and the so-abbreviated-they-are-worthless weather and traffic reports there’s scarcely time for 20 minutes of actual classical music.

How in hell did that happen?

This station used to be a good classical music station, but it is now being RUINED
By the loud mouth advertisers, especially the ones with the Hyper voices..which has taken all the joy out of listening to this station

Where did it all go wrong? Classic FM has been amazing over the years - one of the last bastions of civilisation in a world descending into chaos and lunacy. It played great music continuously and you could lose yourself for an hour or a whole day if you fancied.

Sadly, Classic FM is yet another casualty of 21st century decline. All we have now are presenters chatting too much, incessant ad breaks and their stupid jingles for 'We Buy Any Car' and 'Serious Tissues', and a plethora of government ads telling you how you can claim more benefits. Worse still, the news bulletins now seem to be every fifteen minutes with the latest summary of headlines from the Guardian newspaper. Why a radio station dedicated to classical music needs news bulletins rather passes understanding; if people wanted a quick snapshot of what the mainstream media is reporting that day they'd just go to the BBC wouldn't they? Such regular adverts and news updates is not just mind numbing, it feels like torture.

Apparently I'm not the only one who is fed up, the station lost half a million listeners between 2020 and 2022.