Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Eric McFadden (WD8RIF), who notes that one of my favorite podcasts, 99% Invisible, has featured The Shipping Forecast in their latest episode:

Four times every day, on radios all across the British Isles, a BBC announcer begins reading from a seemingly indecipherable script. “And now the Shipping Forecast issued by the Met Office on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency,” says the voice over the wire. “Viking, North Utsire; southwesterly five to seven; occasionally gale eight; rain or showers; moderate or good, occasionally poor.” Cryptic and mesmerizing, this is the UK’s nautical weather report.

The Shipping Forecast is “part of the culture here,” muses Charlie Connolly, author of Attention All Shipping: A Journey ‘Round the Shipping Forecast. “It’s a much loved institution. People regard it as poetry.” Connolly grew up listening to the forecast. Even now, as an adult, he sets his alarm so he can tune into the early morning forecast.

The story of this radio program starts (well before the BBC itself) in the 1850s with a man named Admiral Robert FitzRoy. He was the captain of the Beagle, the ship that brought Charles Darwin to the Galapagos.

FitzRoy had a long, sometimes controversial career, but later in his life he became fascinated with the study of weather prediction.[…]

Continue reading and listen to this episode at 99PI.

As many of you know, I’m a big fan of The Shipping Forecast and have featured it in past posts. Thanks for the tip, Eric!