Classic FM Reviews 316

Not sure who picked the music for this evening 26 September from 19.00 till I gave up at 21.30 but it was dire! Don’t want another evening like that!

Dan Walker is so tedious. He always sounds forced. All the chitchat is irrelevant. Who cares if some unknown person somewhere likes cheese for example. Who cares if they go the gym. Lets have more music.

I listen to Classic FM for the beautiful music. Last thing I want is to hear the over-rated Dan Walker and some sports commentator interviewing sportsmen. I have to switch off 9pm Fridays 😡 Stick to classical music please

No no no Dan Walker -hopeless
No AA -to into himself

The best is always Aled by a million miles

Dan Walker! Whoever at Classic FM thought he was a good choice? Sounds scripted and phoney

I enjoy listening to Classic FM........................ BUT, why, whenever they play a track from the Planet Suite it is invariably 'Jupiter'. One of the most famous pieces is 'Mars' but I have never heard it, nor Saturn nor Mercury etc.... always Jupiter, Jupiter *##*!#* Jupiter. Oh and very occasionally Venus.

Same pieces time and again. Too many adverts during peak morning show. They even cram adverts between pieces, driving me mad. I am now Streaming my own classics through Spotify.
I do love Aled though.
It is becoming more of a talk show with school runs and endless people messaging in as to what they are doing, who cares! Just play music!!!

I understand Tim L needed to hand over his morning slot but to Dan Walker!! Have gone to Radio 3 as a result. DW is dreadful and ill suited to classic fm and as for Xander Armstrong:-a screech show of vocal gymnastics. It’s about the music not the presenter and a bit of knowledge of the classics would help. Vaughan Williams ‘ drivel tends to dominate as shows descend into pop dross.

ClassicFM is getting worse and worse. The same pieces again and again just make former regular listeners (like me) stop listening.
Does nobody at ClassicFM see that the listening figures are plummeting and ask why? Imagination concerning both playlists and presenters is now desperately necessary before it is too late.
Richard Calasca
P.S. Scrapping the inane 'let me know me what you're doing' would help.

As mentioned in many of the other reviews on this site, the repetition on Classic fm just seems to be getting worse. A lot of pieces I used to enjoy caused me to start switching off or changing station, as their regular play list is so safe and so small that I tired of hearing the same pieces time after time after time. They keep pushing the Hall of Fame Hour as something marvellous, but so much of the rest of their offering is taken from the Hall of Fame that the whole point of having an hour (or is it two?) devoted to it every day, just seems daft. I have now switched mostly to Radio 3, which is less hectic and has a lot more variety. The DJs also just fit seamlessly into the programmes without trying to make it all about them. I hate the dreadful ads too, but they’re a commercial station, so I understand the need for them
I did write to Classic fm at one point to ask for their comments on the repetition, but their response, albeit very courteous and polite, pretty much boiled down to (and I paraphrase) “well we have a huge audience who seem to enjoy it, so tough!”. Which is fine I guess. If they can keep their listening figures (which I believe may have dipped recently), then good luck to them. I for one however, will henceforward be nothing more than an occasional later evening listener, when there seems to be a little more variety.

I used to listen to Classic FM every day at work.
Since the changes of Dan walker at breakfast etc it has got very dull and predictable until I stopped listening at all some time ago.
I’d listened for about 15 years until then but it’s not just the presenters, the music choices have drifted to the same stuff all the time or things you wonder who on earth likes the pieces.
Unfortunately I now appreciate silence better ….

I have a love-hate relationship with Classic FM. On the plus side, when you turn it on, there's a good chance of hearing some pleasant music, which is no longer the case with Radio 3.
The downside is that they play the same tedious pieces ad nauseam. They are clearly aware of this because they had a survey about it recently, but they have done nothing about it.

The worst offenders, in case anyone from Classic FM is bothering to read this, are
Dance Macabre (Saint-Seans)
and Crown Imperial (Walton), both of which were played this morning, 12 June.
Also up there are some decent pieces of music that I'm getting fed up with because they come up so often - Beethoven's fifth, first movement, Pachelbel's canon, Widor's toccata, Handel's Queen of Sheba.

I don't agree with all the criticism of Dan Walker. He's fine. Presenters change. Get over it.

This isnt a classical music channel its a sanitized updated popular music channel. They seem to play more Star Wars and Harry Potter themes than classical music! What classical music they do play is frequently repeated and very safe. The channel has succumbed to the demands of wokery in the endless search for DEI- resulting in mediocrity rather than excellence all too often. Unfortunately Classic FM is like a drug- a difficult habit to break for many. Surely we can do better than this? Perhaps time for a channel name change certainly.

Oh dear, having read many one/two-star reviews, the wind has been taken from my sails.

DW is an inappropriate disaster. I’m sure I heard him touting himself around various media platforms prior to his arrival.

How is it possible for the management to drop Tim L and replace him with DW?

To quote Major Bloodknock (Peter Sellers):

“Someone has blundered!”

This management is making errors that broadcasters of yore ironed out of their programmes half a century ago.

John Brunning/Tim L have more musical knowledge in their little fingers than DW can conceive.

Now, who have they got secreted away from 01:00 until 04:00? I remember him reading the news a few years ago - Bill Overton.

He has researched his programme and makes no boasts as he presents with impeccable grammar - let’s bring him to the fore.

Otherwise I will sadly be joining the exodus.

Time to wake up Cfm and be counted.

Would give 1 star, but give 2 because T.L. is still on the weekend morning show. Strongly agree with all the other 1 star reviews on here though, get T.L. back on weekday mornings, Catherine Bott on sunday afternoon, and the old presenter for classic fm at the movies on saturday night. Reduce the number of irksome ads, get A.M.M. on for an hour longer in the afternoon, and reduce the amount of news bulletins, with the presenter who draws a sharp intake of breath all the time, to sound like a presenter of the evening news, I have to mute the hourly news. Will still listen to T.L. at weekend mornings, but that is about it....classical mixtape on bbc sounds is good, and got classical cds and spotify playlists, and there are plenty of good internet classical stations to listen online as well, like King FM from Seattle, as well as Radio 3 and Scala and the recommended ones in these comments.

I'm another listener who has switched to Radio 3 due to the repetitive play list on Classic FM and the constant adverts. I found the Specsavers ones particularly annoying. Not keen on some of the presenters either particularly the early morning ones.

Oh CFM you’ve done me such a favour in driving me away, what with the constant repetition, incessant ads and Dan ‘shouty’ Walker first thing in the morning, there’s nothing restful in listening to you anymore. I’ve discovered Radio 3 - so much glorious and diverse music and presenters such as Petroc Trelawney, who really know their stuff. Peace reigns once more in our household.

Tim on the breakfast show was witty, well informed and intelligent. Dan Walker is none of these, in fact he's tiresome, egotistical and hard on the ears. If this is Classic FM's way forward JUST STOP AND RETHINK.

I like the music but not all the presenters or the excessive ads. If this is a serious music station we need empathetic presenters who sound as they mean it. Sadly I loved Dan Walker on football and would prefer not to listen to him on Classic FM as he doesn't convince me he knows classic music and his 'quips' don't seem natural.