Classic FM Reviews 316

Dan Walker 😡
I have listen to Classic FM constantly since 1989! You helped me through the pain of my divorce with your wonderful healing music!! 🎶 it’s always been a tremendous balance through out the day and night!
But now you have this loud mouth peace disturbing ego driven soulless tinny voice belting out on your morning airwaves!
Who is the guilty person for signing him up?? They need to rethink their decision! CFM are loosing faithful listeners every day! I always had CFM as company over breakfast! Now it’s anything but Dan Walkers terrible voice! He lacks knowledge and feeling in his presentations! No skill at all. Come on CFM keep up the high standards you have always achieved from day one!!!???!!!
Sadly Kay Dobson

I agree with pretty well all of the comments on here. My partner and I have re-tuned to Radio 3 as we cannot stand Dan Walker's 'shouty' style. We so miss Tim L who had the perfect style and 'eased' us into the day perfectly. We like presenters who 'talk' to us and not shout like DW does in such a bombastic, crass way - we take exception to being catapulted into the day. I don't know who Classic fm think their audience is, but it certainly is no longer us who have listened since the start. Unsurprisingly they are apparently losing masses of listeners as they have got it all so wrong. I was mortified when the loutish Jonathan Ross was taken on - he's appalling and carries so much baggage ! I switch off the moment I hear his awful tones.
The boring and charmless Andrew Marr has thankfully departed.
The repetitive repertoire is mind numbing.
Petroc Trelawny, Radio 3 by comparison is in an entirely different league for professionalism, tone and knowledge and presents an interesting and eclectic mix of music. How different his morning programme is in comparison to that of the brash lighweight DW who recently thought he was entertaining by mocking bald men - just tasteless and inappropriate in our view.
Ta-ra Classic fm (my partner is a Scouser!) - it could be worse he tells me.

Bring Tim Back!
Agree with the previous review. Dan Walker has made me turn away from CFM - after many years of listening to the station. I detest his ego-driven presenting style and find it outrageous that there’s publicity for his show throughout the weekend and afternoon shows - ‘the home of Dan Walker’s breakfast show’/‘become DW’s dog walker’ etc etc. They’re trying to attract a new audience but will drive away their current listeners. CFM needs to review urgently.

I am now moving to radio 3 after being a classic FM fan since it started. You have ruined it with Armstrong and walker who simply love the sound of their own boring and arrogant voices.

Like many others I find Classic FM has been deteriorating fast since the turn of the year, in particular in two aspects - the limited and repetitive selection of music, with few novelties, but especially the Breakfast Show. Tim Lihoreau was always going to be a hard act to follow - he was brilliant with a lot of positive vibes and subtle humour to ease us into the day. It's good that he is still with us at the weekends. But by comparison Dan Walker comes across as crass, lacking poise and presence, and focused on a limited set of conversational topics, most of which many of us will have little empathy with. In addition, his classical music knowledge is at best under-developed. As an example, the other day in presenting Ravel's Bolero (how many times do we hear this piece?) he asked us to imagine being in Spain dancing on tables. Well, if Bolero is dance music then I'm a space explorer - any tabledancers would more likely fall off due to the repetitive and deliberate style of the music. And anyway Ravel was not even Spanish - he was French (Basque). Please carry out an urgent performance review of this presenter and take the necessary steps to replace for us all to wake up to a refreshing and positive new day.

I bet the advertisers are getting really annoyed with 'Classic fm' all that music, what little there is of it, and chat getting in the way.
300 pieces of music in the hall of fame, I wonder, during a year say, how many are played regularly, The Planets, Jupiter anyway, Enigma Variations, mostly Nimrod, Cavalleria Rusticana, I know the intermezzo by heart, Thais, the Meditation, to name but a few, played to death.
I have a double CD issued by DG in 1990, 'Essential Classics,' with but a few additions I could make a whole weeks worth of programmes from just those 33 tracks.
Get a grip 'Classic fm' reading the comments on here it would appear listeners are starting to vote with their collective tuning knobs.

Why oh why was Dan Walker ever given the early morning presenting slot on CFM
He sounds like he is presenting news, I really don't want to be negative as I have loved listening to CFM for so many years but now I find myself getting so annoyed with his remarks about biscuits, sandwiches and comments of "lets do this" and referring to great pieces of uplifting music as "right bangers"
Please Classic FM before you lose more and more listeners please bring back, Tim, or Aled or someone who knows classical music and is not so irritating

What a fall from grace for a once entertaining professional radio station. So many inane comments from so many presenters, especially Dan Walker.

The standard of presenters over the last year or so has generally fallen off a great precipice.

Alexander Armstrong, with a pathetic overly dramatic, condescending, childish voice. Egotistical. Stick to game shows. An 'ear ache' as a Classical Music radio presenter.

Jonathan Ross playing the same old repetitive film tunes .

Aled Jones attempting to promote himself along with feeble unfunny quips and 'jokes'.

Alan Titchmarsh, a brilliant self publicist but awful classical music presenter. Time he was put out to grass, back in the garden.

Disastrous Dan Walker, leads to an instant retune to an alternative Classical Music station. An individual who has poor enunciation and so many on air pronunciation gaffs and a big ego. Lacks the professional broadcasting skills of Petroc Trelawny by far. They're on different planets when it comes to presenting classical music.

Presenters more frequently heard fumbling their words, lack of knowledge and poor quality broadcasting

Then to present their night at The Albert Hall as a 'live' performance, broadcast 24 hours or so after the event. To have unexpected intermittent pauses & noises along with poor sound quality throughout the broadcast. Here's to the professionals, eagerly awaiting the BBC Proms at The Albert Hall season.

ClassicFM it's the same repertoire of music, which has become overly repetitive and boring. Ravel's Bolero, Arrival of Queen of Sheena, Wagner's Ride of Valkyries, Zadok the Priest ad nausea. The list of constant repeats is extensive. I could go on, the list is almost endless

Did I mention Dan Walker, sooooo inane.

Far too much 'lovey dovey', sub standard & poor quality presenting with an excessive number of personal egotistical messages.

For what it's worth, John Humphreys & Andrew Marr being off air for the last few months has been about the only positive comment.

I've missed the professional broadcasting of Petroc Trelawny, Hannah French, Katie Derham, Suzy Klein, Georgia Mann etc al Here's hoping ClassicFM don't poach them.

Radio 3 leaves Classic FM standing for dust so I'm heading back to listen to uninterrupted, professional broadcasting.

Adieu.

Further to my review I've had the good fortune of tuning in to Scala. A great station with non self publicist presenters and a great variety of music. With Scala and R3 it's double adieu to Classic FM.

Dan Walker,
Last nail in the Coffin of Classic FM.
It is such a shame to hear a once superb radio station fall to such lows that it has become a screwdriver in the ear, instead of the pleasure it once was.
Alexander Armstrong, Jonathan Ross topped off by the bloody awful Dan Walker.
What is going on at Classic FM !
We were spoiled with such good, well spoken presenters before. And now AA who loves his own over dramatically ridiculous voice, JR playing the same old film tunes with his irritating wit and voice.
And Dan,
Where do you start !
Knows nothing about the subject he is presenting, stupid references to football and silly life quirks and pathetic jokes.
How has this Chap ever got a job in media with his awful presenting style, what happened to giving people with actual talent and knowledge of the subject a job. But no, instead we get Dan.
Tried my best to give Classic FM a chance, But just keeps getting worse.
I have been listening since this station started when I was in University.
Now after all these years I have wiped Classic FM from every radio and internet device I own.
Thank goodness for BBC Radio 3
They are getting better as time goes by and are able to fill the void of a once great radio station.
Such a shame,
RIP Classic FM

I will continue to listen to classic fm as background music during the day, however for a true classical music experience it will be radio three or my CDs,the reason being that their playlist is so repetitive, the arrival of the queen of Sheba has been played every day whereas Christopher Tins Flocks a Mile Wide has never been played despite being one of the highest climbers in their hall of fame and a piece of music that encompasses their mantra of the most relaxing music. Also I'm afraid I have to mentally tune out certain presenters, Tim Lioureu is greatly missed weekday mornings though I do understand after twelve years he needs a change from those early mornings, I listen to him avidly at weekends. So buck up classic fm and bring some variety into your playlist there's plenty of good classical music to play .

Generally happy with Classic FM.
Can't help noticing that, since Dan Walker joined, we now have sports betting ads. Coincidence?
I thought DW was an odd appointment as he seemingly has no connection/knowledge around the subject. I guess you could say the same about Jonathan Ross, but his slot is about cinema music which makes sense. Why doesn't Classic FM look for presenters who have a relevant background, Aled Jones, for example. I have largely stopped listening in the mornings after Tim left.

The 2024 hall of fame saw a flocks a mile wide climb the charts 114 places.Now l4 days and still counting it has never been played since if you want people to vote let them hear other tunes people get fed up with the norm lark ascending, cannon ETC.

Classic FM has been my favourite radio channel for many years. Sadly I have had to downgrade my rating due to the arrival of Dan Walker and his morning presentation style. Don't get me wrong I just love the music, but Walker's showman(ish) and seemingly uneducated and mateyish "modern" style - lowers the standard of presentation as far as I am concerned. My advice to Dan? You don't have to "present" the stuff you play, as if you were commenting on a football match, but you do need to have some understanding of the reason many of us listen to this station and raise your commentary to a level that supports the music and the musician(s) at a level above the "it's all superfab" stuff to complement the music rather than undignify it

I used to listen to Classic FM all the time until it became 'Tory FM'. Like all authoritarian government mouthpieces, left or right, they pump out 'national' music. Can you please stop playing the following over and over. Spitfire Prelude, Dambusters' March, Pomp and Circumstance, Land of Hope and Glory, Jerusalem, Enigma Variations, 366 Squadron, theme from the Big Country. And please get the crawler Alan Titchmarsh his knighthood and then dump him.

I have recently read that this station is losing listeners in it's droves. I reduced my listening by as much as 95% from a year or two ago. Mostly because of the presenters they have taken on in recent years, they are obsessed with TV personalities. In my humble opinion Alexander Armstrong is a disaster, I really miss John Brunning who was excellent and so nice to listen to, and Ann Marie Minhall is really good. Bringing in Dan Walker and giving him the Hall of Fame final countdown was a mistake. And now they've signed up Stephen Mangan, I tuned in during his show without knowing it was the actor I knew the voice was familiar and thought, he hadn't a clue how to be a presenter and then to my amazement I found out who it was and thought of how much they must be paying these TV stars. This station has lost its way.
Update June '24.....Yet another TV personality, Joanna Gosling has joined the station, again I was listening (I just tune in now & again) and thought, she doesn't seem natural, I didn't have a clue who it was, mind you she's not as bad as the gentlemen I mention above. However, she's not a patch on Brunning or Minhall, if only they would be brave and stop recruiting TV stars, then the listening figures might go up. I used to listen 7 days a week, I'd like to go back to my old habit but can't with this line up of presenters.

Love Classic FM....but guys, you really have to do something about the advertising...no wonder you were losing hundreds of thousands of listeners in 2023....Can't you offer an ad-free service...would make all the difference..I find myself switching you off more and more....toescape the really irritating ad sets... Pleeeeeease do something about them.....

Thank goodness for BBC Radio Three and the quality broadcasting of Petroc Trelawny to save breakfast-time classical music lovers from Dire Dan! I was informed by someone who follows Mr Walker's social media platforms that his latest CFM blurbs included how he lost a tooth while on-air, and how he left his wallet on the roof of a car and had to run after it....truly fascinating.

I'm sorry, but now I am fed up with this inane repetition: Ravel's Bolero, Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals, Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries, day in, day out, put out on the air as if we're being fed a rare treat? All fine music, but do we have to hear it at least once a day? I can't believe the presenters are listening to it too? They'd go insane, surely? I'm switching to Radio 3, or, I can listen to any one of my own 3,000 classical CD's.

Stopped listening to Breakfast Show after Dan Walker replaced Tim. Dan Walker’s poor enunciation and pronunciation just maddened me. Moved over to listening to Petroc on Radio 3, and just love the show and his knowledge!
Still tune in to Tim at the weekend.
Also, as I don’t have DAB + radios I have to use the FM option.
I think Classic FM have shot themselves in the foot with the changes; after the introduction to listening to classical music when I moved over from listening to Radio 4, and the Today programme drove me nuts at the time of Brexit, I now find, a lot of the time Radio 3 is better than Classic FM, and the presenters are certainly more knowledgeable and serious at the job. I don’t want to listen to someone who sounds like an overgrown schoolboy.

Jonathan Ross why oh why, he is not even a classical music fan.