The Glass Box
will launch soon.
Tonight on the programme, we'll be talking about it a bit.
I'll be saying:
"Very soon on PM we'll introduce a brand new way for you to tell us what you think of the programme. And you'll not only be able to say what you think, you can discuss the programme with other listeners and with the people who make the programme.
The idea is that for the first time you'll have a regular opportunity to comment, praise and criticise what you hear on PM, and engage the programme makers in a public forum.
It'll all take place on the PM blog where we've already tried it out, and everyone seems to have found it quite useful - listeners and producers and editors.
As I say it'll be on the PM blog and it'll be called The Glass Box. So called because every night after the programme we retire to the Glass Box just outside the studio to discuss the programme. For us, the Glass Box is a place to discuss what worked and what didn't. Where we went wrong, and what we could have done better. It's never rude or personal, but we use it as a tool to try to make the programme better.
To whet your appetite for the Glass Box on the Blog - here's what some of the PM production team think of the real glass box, beginning with our programme editor, Peter Rippon."
And then we'll play this.
RSS feed
Email us
Listen to PM
Now my head is filled with the scene from Life of Brian where John Cleese is reading out the charges against the man who said Jehovah?
Are there any WOMEN here today?
Hello,
I have been given permission by the MoD to write to you.
Oh hang on.
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Dear PM
I have no desire to make unreasonable personal gain out of my response to today's PM programme. After all, I switched over to another station almost as soon as you started talking.
Therefore I will require only a three-figure fee in return for contributing this email.
Fifi
What a lovely surprise to hear Yvonne's dulcit tones, and of course the lovely Amanda and Jeremy.
Just love the interactivity of all this :-) .. and it'll be interesting to see how and if the feedback is useful.
Oh Amanda, - nearly forgot - although I love the originality and surreal effect of your groyne in Swanage, can we see more of the town on your next visit ?
yet another "sneak peak" of the show that is incomprehensible on my computer...who knows what it is, but listening to streaming audio on the bbc website is impossible before midnight because the connection just crashes to an indescipherable noise within thirty seconds (volume of traffic I'd imagine...)
Please keep this dark, but my company does not allow .ram and various other file types into the system from outside. However, it has not yet applied the same limitations on .mp3 files. So, if you could provide those...
Eddie,
Admit it - The Glass Box is a pub next door to the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳.
Ah! With my reading glasses in place the strap line now reads as 'shifty'!
Vyle;
Our fellow Frogger Jonnie often provides such a public service via the Froggers Refuge website he runs.
A little pleading in that direction may work wonders. Check the link so kindly provided by Eddie, NBP and friends over near the top of the right-hand pane. As if you didn't know that already....
Si.
To the Eddie Mair Show,
Eddie, don't be fooled – defence secretary Des Browne knew exactly what he was doing when he let the captured sailors sell their stories to the papers. Shamed by its helplessness, the Government hit back with the only weapon at its disposal.
Disgracefully, I think it has used Faye Turney and her pals as little more than pawns in its ongoing propaganda war with Iran. Spreading tales of rough treatment and psychological torture conveniently glosses over the fact that 15 of our sailors were grabbed by an Iranian patrol with the minimum of bother.
Also swept under the carpet is the small fact of whether or not they had strayed into Iranian waters when they were seized – a question that has yet to be properly answered. Of course, the entire country was delighted when the sailors were freed. But this tawdry propaganda exercise which has seen them sell their stories to the highest bidder – with the Government pulling the strings from the shadows – is nothing short of sickening.
The sailors acted honorably and rationally when being held against their will. If anything, this PR stunt has cheapened the courage they showed in the most trying of circumstances. And by putting our sailors up for auction, the Government has only succeeded in further tarnishing Britain's battered reputation abroad.
Re: Simon and Vyle. I'm afraid it's breaking ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Copyright guidelines to copy any material published by the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳.
If I have notification that any clips *CAN* be copied and published as mp3's I will of course oblige.
I was politely requested to remove any ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ material when the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ requested to link to the Froggers refuge.
Okay, guys, let's get ready for the glasshouse. And remember - all stones to be left at the door ....
It's beginning to happen.
Half the program is being taken up with methods of contacting the program.
There's not enough time left to dumb it down!
I can't get used to people saying critique as a verb - I much prefer to criticise, if you'll excuse the pun.
Here's a thought re the glass room - with apologies to the original author...
The PM production team
Are thoughtful little elves,
They think andthink and think and think
And talk about themselves!
Talk about the media being the message - how about reporting the news instead trying to be it!
I just heard your piece on the programme trailing your "Glass Box". Never mind the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ being criticised for being too metropolitan or Westminster-centred - it seems to me what REALLY obsesses the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ is the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ itself. (If the "Glass Box" proves a popular proposal, then i will suspect that this self-regarding quality is shared by a number of the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s listeners too.)
I quite enjoy Eddie's blog, but this sounds a pointless activity - and certainly was a pointless waste of five minutes of this afternoon's programme. I don't want "behind the scenes" discussions brought centre stage like DVD "extras". Why don't you concentrate on making the programme and let us get on with listening to it? This whole drive to "interactivity" and audience participation is really incredibly tiresome.
I do hope that when you discuss the "Glass Box" in The Glass Box today one of your editorial team might realise that if PM crawls any further up its own navel for gazing purposes it might disappear entirely.
I'm having a "Being John Malkovic" moment. But with ears instead of eyes.
pete morgan (14) - The News starts at 6 p.m.
PM at 5 p.m. is a little bit different - a little bit more.
Paul G (7) - silly!
I agree with several comments above. I'm fed up with hearing news about the programme. Please let us just have the news. You are all paid well enough to do your own jobs. I'd also not like to be reminded on such a regular basis of how to contact the programme.
I feel dreadfully sorry for both people involved in the frozen embryo case having the breakup of their relationship aired so publicly.
However, I find it difficult to distinguish between the case where an embryo has been conceived by the 'normal' method and this one, in the sense that no man has the right to demand that his embryo is aborted once conceived.
Why should it be so different where the embryo awaits implantation and the potential mother has waived all claims upon the biological father?
I noted another article in the programme about child abuse.
It is said in many places, especially in Social Services, that emotional abuse through absent parents, neglect etc is much more prevelant than sexual and physical abuse. It is also just as damaging.
Why is this huge problem always overlooked? The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ never seems to mention it - why is that? Maybe some of their employees ingnore their children for the sake of their careers perhaps? An inconvenient truth mayhap.
Anne P, that is an excellent point and well made.
I thought Eddie dealt with the former partner, Howard Johnson, sensitively. But I did think Eddie might have queried Johnson's assertion that Natallie Evans either had lied or was lying. Can someone not change their mind over a period of years? And that makes me wonder whether his decision is just spite. A way of hurting his ex. Humphrys or Paxo might have asked him that, too...
Anne (20), Yes, I've been thinking that too.
Thomas (15) I would imagine one would crawl 'into' a navel rather than 'up' it. But then I'm something of a pedant, and am feeling a focus upon trivia just now.
What I thought interesting about the frozen embryo case was that the couple haven't spoken for about five years (apparently). That certainly didn't auger well in the event of her having been granted her wish.
It's a very difficult case, of course, and I feel for her. However, there is no 'god-given right' to have babies, and sometimes we have to accept our lot.
I doubt if there was any real vindictiveness involved, rather that the ex partner wanted his relationship to remain just that - ex.
Anne P, I agree with annie and appy about your point
I'd rather have the Glass Box, to which nobody has to go if they don't want to, than interminable advertisements for programmes on other channels, on television, and what-have-you.
It does seem to me, though, that the place for something about the making of the programme might be not within the programme itself, but in another programme called not 'PM' but 'The Making of PM' or something similar. I agree that PM is a magazine programme, or whatever the phrase should be, as well as just News (which happens at 6pm, yes), but perhaps too much self-absorbtion will annoy a fair few listeners who don't share the Froggers' interest in the people behind the scenes at the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳.
If the idea is to get our input and ideas for what would be good stuff to include in future (ie not News but Things That Are Going On For Months Or Even Years), when's the last time PM mentioned the fate of Queen's Market in Green Street, just by the West Ham football ground? I'm sure there's a story there about developers, councils ignoring what the local residents want, and the like, if anyone went and asked. I don't live in London, I just happen to have noticed that's an old covered market -- looked Victorian to me -- that was going to be demolished for them to build an Asda, which seems a shame. I've no idea what is going to be happening to it now, and I'd quite like to be told on PM.
Chris Ghoti (27) - I totally agree with you on the "interminable advertisements for programmes on other channels, on television, and what-have-you". It is the one thing about PM that really annoys me. Can these things not be trailed "between" programmes?
As for stories that you want to be covered, like your Queen's Market/Developers, there is a way for you to flag this up. See Eddie's post as below:
/blogs/pm/2007/04/got_a_story.shtml
Thanks, RJD (@28)! I'll see if I can be a bit coherent about that in email, then. Living more than a hundred miles away I don't think I'm likely to find out what was really going on, so it seemed worth asking. :-) That's what PM is for, isn't it? It seems as if Lord Mair has a knack for pulling out the interesting stuff other programmes skate round or overlook.
Gotta be honest, the trails for TV programmes are what get my goat most. One of the reasons I listen to the radio is that I don't have a haunted fishtank, and it is REALLY REALLY ANNOYING to be told all the time about things I would only be able to watch if I went round to someone else's house. They always sound so much more interesting in the trailers than they are if I actually do make that effort, too. Bah, say I.
As to Kevins comment which is above. I was even more surprised that the audio (which I thought was pointless to broadcast) had already been published on this medium.
What on earth was the point in wasting valuable programme time in broadcasting it yet again?
Up or in the navel? I agree to both however.
Don't do too much soul searching in this Glass Box of yours (hopefully you have cleaned it since David Blane was in there)- the programme is brilliant and Eddie is a radio god!
When I dropped by this morning, it was September - so thanks for the link. I'll use it next time (I've encountered September quite often lately!)
And now I'm back (I've actually been WORKING all day, Eddie, so you see I am indeed getting on with my work as exhorted by your goodself long ago!). And how negative it all sounds. Apparently everyone on PM is navel-gazing.
I think the "glass box" is a great thing - for years and years everyone kow-tows to Auntie and then when it's suggested we should join in the discussion, it's apparently not wanted. Blow you lot! This frog is the best ever and here we actually feel we're listened to. So I'm about to smack all you sceptics very hard in my nearest supermarket and you can just wait for supermarketnanny to come to your aid!
I don't actually have many opinions and usually enjoy listening to PM very much when I can, but I'm glad of an opportunity to say so when I don't. As you may have guessed, the smacking bit annoyed me. But after dinner and a little drinkie I feel much better about that, and less good about the above complainers.
End of rant.
Regardless, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ PM is great. The people including the froggers are great.
A fish, without a fish tank, that says bah (29)! Remarkable!! :-)
I agree with a few people here - the blog is big enough to have a rather large feedback method in without disrupting either other elements of it or the programme itself.
It'll be innteresting how people take to it and whether the Glass Box will be either half full or half empty...
(as for mentions of a glass box in Art... well, there's Sleeping Beatuty and a rather disquieting short story by Ray Bradbury about a glass coffin I seem to remember...)
Broadcsating in *any* medium, be it DAB, FM, Freeview, , ..it is merely a means to convey the programme in the best possible way.
The actual length of the 'Glassbox' excerpt was under 4 minutes. That reduces a 53 minute programme down to around 49 minutes, extracting the sometimes possibly useless fillers, and news bulletins etc.
To those who have criticised the little 'Glassbox' experiment, as broadcast on a non Blog format, I really can't see what you have to whinge on about.
This is a *prime* example of how you can uniquely interact with a programme and express your reservations and observations! I do understand that it may have been sufficient to have merely mentioned the blog, however many people may have been unable to access the Internet, and hence what a nice little insight into what goes on behind the scenes.
Well for it it’s worth (a part of my license fee) I embrace it – good on you team, and thanks!
Anne P (20) my very thoughts voiced, thanks.
Re: Whisht ( possibly 34)
I fired of my last (disgusted post) at the non - glass lovers before I saw yours.
Yes I agree that the blog in itself has it's own very unique purpose.
However, I may have got a bit rattled - been out and had a few :-(
BUT Isn't it - (the Glassbox) just a simple means of *US* dropping in a few personal comments of -- How the programme went?
To read some of the above comments, and how they were upset it was broadcast - ! up your navel comments, etc.
Oh well each to their own I guess? :-)
Take a Horse to water but ...................
...you can't make her think, eh, Jonnie?
I thought the GB was a sort of de-briefing on how the programme went, while other discussion goes on in appropriate threads
I enjoy trawling through the postings, but it's not my job. It would be unfair to subject a member of the PM team to this task against the (slight) possibility of there being anything relevant to the show's presentation/content. Not that I am likely to contribute to the Glass Box's deliberations.
Once again, today, the cricket kept me away from the programme.
I have been meaning to say "Welcome back, Roger". Good to know you're back in the saddle, and hope that no other road users separate you again from your outdoor saddle.
Ah nice to see that the carpers from the 20th Century still think that all the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ should do is make programmes and broadcast them. Where do we get these dinosaurs from?
Times move on chaps. The word multimedia was coined over 10 years ago. There is no reason why a magazine programme with a primary outlet on radio shouldn't extend into other mediums (media ?).
No-one questions that every daily newspaper has a website where you can read the stuff for free. No-one questions that SKY also has a website. The extension of PM into cyberspace is part of an overall ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ strategy to embrace the Internet. So why shouldn't the production team make use of these new media?
The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ also has a small variety of 'Right to Reply' type programmes where viewers and listeners can make indirect points to the various production teams, and maybe get an answer on-air. All the Glass Box does is take away the middle man and make it easier for people to get their message across to Peter, Eddie and the PM team directly. And they made the point that they welcome all constructive criticism, whether it's thumbs up or down.
Last nights was hardly a sterling programme, which is not a negative criticism. It seems to be a slow time for news right now, the Iran 15 apart. There are no truly big stories rolling on. Perhaps the silly season will arrive early this year?
It was pretty much guaranteed that the Natalie Evans story would be the lead, either way. If it had gone in her favour it would have been 'EU court dictates law to the UK'. As it was, common sense has (probably) prevailed and it leads for the human tragedy of Miss Evans.
Strange that we decry the growing legions of single mothers who wilfully have a child out of wedlock, but then this case can raise a degree of sympathy for her particular plight when she wants to do the same. How strange we are in our judgements on each other that we can apply such wildly differing sets of standards.
I would have to say that the story did not especially affect me one way or the other, but I agree with the comment above that Eddie's handling of the interview with Mr. Johnson was pretty well done. I'm glad that Ed didn't choose to try and draw him into some kind of an explicit confrontational 'She's lying' position, she had suffered enough for the time being without hearing that from him.
The rest of the programme was competently done, no real highs and no real lows. As I said above, a run-of-the-mill no-news day.
There are undoubtedly big stories one can see coming up; the local elections may be a seismic one; SNP in Scotland & independence, Tories in Wales, Blair resigning, new PM, will Milliband run or not, etc. Who knows, perhaps the French Presidentials will drop in to this category?
And a lot which keep burbling away; Iran's nuclear position; Iraq & Afghanistan; Darfur; Alan Johnston; Israel/Palestine; (isn't it odd how all of these are in the Middle East-ish?).
And the inevitable big story which jumps out on the day.
There just wasn't one yesterday. So I would say 4/10 for content (which is beyond your control) and 8/10 for delivery.
Si.
Anne P - yes it doesn't seem to add up does it?
Maybe the problem is with the agreement that is reached/signed when the embryos are formed in the first place - if it was on the understanding that these could be used whatever the outcome of the relationship, then yes some men may not go ahead but at least there wouldn't be multiple costly and emotional court cases later.
Chris (29) & others - yes I find all those trailers annoying too. I wonder if this is something they have any choice in or whether it is ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ policy?
GM(420: I noticed that the trailers started to proliferate about the same time as the government announced that the licence fee would rise below inflation (or whatever it was, my mind isn't what it used to be). It might be coincidental but maybe not. For the record, the trailers do not work on me at all.
As for the embryo debate: I really am not sure what my feelings are on this, as it just seems to me an impossible situation. I do not think that it is a woman's 'right' to become a mother against the wishes of her (former) partner, any more than I think that a man has the right to change his mind post-facto [i.e. He agreed to the embryos in the first place - really, the state of the relationship should become a secondary factor].
The law obviously needs to be tightened up, but in which way? It's a nasty situation.
Thank you for your in depth analysis Simon.
I have no issue with the blog, however I found the discussion on the air as an irrelevant waste of time. I also find the constant references of how to to contact the programme particularly tiresome.
The trailers are, I vaguely remember, part of teh total rebranding of the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ that went on under Greg Dyke to make it into one organism (thus why news and radio got moved from building to building). Therefore there was a thought that most people have a radio and television so trail relvant tv/radio on th eopposite medium as well as the same medium of broadcast.
It is annoying but makes sense, its easier that way then the unbareable panorama programme "news" stories the day of broadcast, it is like the very worst pr.
I'm looking forward to the glass box really, should provide a helpful space and providing some feedback form the team as well as us to said groupage.
That said, would apreciate more on the scottish, welsh and local elections. We are not too far away from them and to the london obsessed media there is barely a wimper. If it were all over england locals a councillor wouldn't be able to sneeze without it making the news.
Regards
John
Like others I find the constant repetition of trails and 'how to contact' irksome and the use of mystery voices, while intriguing at first, palls.
I suspect that it is premised on the 24-hours-news-programme notion that no-one listens/watches for more than 15 minutes at a time before switching channels. I also suspect that the PM audience does not fall into this category and is capable of remembering what it has heard for more than 15 minutes.
Perhaps a little scientific examination of just how often you need to repeat something to ensure it gets across would be in order, and ok we do need to allow for new listeners who may not have heard it 50 million times already.
Also what evidence is there that someone listening to Radio 4 will rush off to watch TV or listen to Radio 7 instead just because it's been trailed?
Despite being an ardent Frogger, and a contender for Strapline Princess, there is still a part of me that feels programmes should 'give' us the content, not really expect us to respond to it, nor the programme to respond to our response.
Just showing my age, I guess. ;o)
But with my Marketing hat on, it always makes sense for a business to check what its audience/market thinks about what it offers. There are so many other channels now; we could all drift away to those and the team wouldn't know till too late.
Perhaps the Glass Box will provide the perfect place to complain about too many nags about contacting the programme, too many nudges towards the blog, too much about feedback on tonight's show, etc etc.
The Furrowed Brow has become a sort of chaotic Wiki-wotsistname of expert information and considered thought. I love it, even though I rarely feel well-informed enough to contribute.
And as for soliciting news tipoffs from listeners ... if it stops PM from following Today's example this morning, by providing quality stories that actually matter, then it's well worth any airtime it costs. We might actually get news that isn't happening either anywhere elsewhere in the world or in London.
(Today chopped off a genuinely interesting debate towards the end of the programme, to bring us news of a piano falling off the back of a lorry. It really did!)
Fifi
Eddie:
Given that Des Browne has just pulled out of his interview with Jeremy Vine (leaving JV understandably slightly narky) can I ask how PM ensures "guests" don't pull out at the last moment?
Does this happen a lot?
I've said it before and I'll say it again-I really feel that the appeal and success of PM is due to the skills and professionalism of the team.O.K-a few ideas, hints comments are one thing.But to tell professionals how to do their job seems impertinent to me.personally I love Eddie's style as it is-totally unique!
I may be wrong but I don't think I'd want to be aware of such scrutiny all the time.No, I know I wouldn't! I don't really care what goes on at the meetings either....
Sorry to rant!
Long live the blog, PM, Eddie!
Too many cooks etc...
Someone from the programme’s staff, on the airwaves yesterday, said that the glass box makes things more opaque. Did you notice this?
He should have said transparent.
Me (48):
...or even when a presenter pulls out at the last moment?
;o)
SSCat (48), I'm told talking dirty helps. I wouldn't know, of course.
Ap (52) - Right, I'm definitely out of the naughty corner after that one. You'll find the seat warm. Take something to read - you should be there for a while.
On the other hand perhaps he meant opaque (50). Personally I'd be quite happy to see a portion of my license fee used to support the 'glass box' for any purpose especially if by doing do it tips a financial balance somewhere in the bowels of the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ and removes Eastenders and celebrity doggy shows from the airwaves.
Glass box ? where ? I can't see it. Your boss seems to be giving everyone extra work "never make a perfect prgramme" seems pretty good to me. If you really want a complaint - keep that cricket on long wave its SO boring ! More of Hugh Sykes' reports please. Also please can someone put a link from the Radio 4 page to the Alan Johnson petition. Also can the rest of us know when the demontration for Alan is ? or is it just NUJ people ?
Don't forget to water the plants before you leave.
(I always thought you went for a cup of tea in the canteen and sat down with Charlotte or whoever for a chat after the programme) Get well soon Eddie.
As some one who has praised Eddie Mair in my second book (www.amazon.com) on many occasions...the Glass Box sounds like a wonderful place to put war criminals in and very rich Tory hyocrites, who are making loads of dosh out of the mass media and the Iraqi war - but resent the working class soldiers making any...hopefully all PM listeners are intelligent enough to know that 'Social Class' is everything!
Brian V Peck
PC (53), I quite agree, but I'm not allowed to say anything -- see 52 :-(
Aperitif - are you surprised?! It is a glass box, after all, and very see through!!
It's not as if you're on the beach, which, if memory serves, turned blue the last time you were elevated to the naughty step !
nik
Mr Noodle (58), I have tried to stop being naughty but sometimes it's just too hard.
I've just moved my dishwasher to clean under it and there was an enormous crunch of broken glass. I'm sorry, I seem to have killed PM. I do hope E Muir is OK.
You have been going on about this glass bloody box for so long that I will finally comment.
1. PM has lost its edge!
2. Please stop advertising everything else on Radio. We are not stupid, we do look ahead.
3. Please keep Carolyn Quinn off pm. She is the worst news person. All we get is CQ and not the person she is supposed to interviewing.
4. The canned speaker about more blogs and advertising drives me to Classic FM, a pretty horrible programme but I can at least turn the adverts off.
5. Please ask E. Mair to let his subject answer the question. Interrupting all the time is bloody bad manners. Humphreys does that in the morning and is just crass. We are intelligent enough to know when a politician is lying or just spinning.
6. News head lines every 15 minutes tells me you are short on content. We get it at 5 and then the whole lot at 6. Your job is to provide depth and detail and to make it interesting. As it stands now I get just as much from Radio Solent and Classic FM as I get from the new pm.
7. Please keep Carolyn Quinn away from pm, please!!!!
Try to get it back to where you were a respected programme.
Cheers David Goyder