Tag Archives: BBC World Service

Today: Catch and record the BBC’s broadcast to the British Antarctic Survey Team

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Halley VI: The British Antarctic Survey's new base (Source: BBC)

Halley VI: The British Antarctic Survey’s new base (Source: BBC)

Every year, the BBC broadcasts a special program to the 41 scientists and support staff in the British Antarctic Survey Team.

The BBC will play music requests and send special messages to the team who winter over in this isolated post. The broadcast is guaranteed to be quirky, nostalgic and certainly DX worth catching. Click here to listen to the 2013 broadcast.

The winter program will air today, June 21, 2014 at 21:30 UTC on the following frequencies:

  • 7,350 kHz; Ascension; 207°
  • 9,890 kHz; Woofferton; 182°
  • 5,985 kHz; Dhabayya; 203°
  • 5,875 kHz; Wooferton; 184° (updated)

Readers: If you have a chance, try to record the broadcast as I’m uncertain if I’ll have a chance to catch it this year. I would like a good recording for the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive.

Many thanks!

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BBC: audience for international services “has risen to a new high”

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(Image source: BBC)(Source: Yahoo News via Richard Cuff)

The BBC has said the audience for its international services has risen to a new high, with 265 million people around the world accessing its output each week.

The corporation’s estimates show the numbers using its various global news services – including the World Service and BBC World News – have risen by 3.5 per cent in the past year, with big jumps in Russia and Ukraine as people have apparently turned to “trusted” sources.

[…]Radio has seen a major decline in numbers with 17 million fewer listeners than the previous 12-month period, although it continued to be the biggest platform overall with 128 million tuning in.

Rises in digital and television use have offset that figure to give an overall audience rise.

[…]The audience for TV services stands at TV viewers at 126 million and digital access stands at 46 million – a third of these through mobile devices – with many people clearly using more than one of the services.

Peter Horrocks, director of the BBC World Service Group, said: “Today’s figures show the most successful year ever for the BBC’s global news services.

“Investment in TV bulletins and responsive mobile services for the World Service is bearing fruit. Radio will be a World Service mainstay for years to come, but as these figures testify, the way people access news is changing and we must continue to innovate if we are to flourish in the years ahead.”

Read this full article at Yahoo News.

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Thailand Coup: BBC World Service increases shortwave broadcasts

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Original Image by Zuanzuanfuwa via WikiMedia Commons

Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Richard Cuff, for forwarding this press release from the BBC World Service Group Communications:

 BBC World Service increases broadcasts to Thailand

BBC-WorldService

26 May 2014. As authorities in Thailand take key national and international channels off air in the country, BBC World Service has increased its shortwave English-language radio broadcasts to Thailand, to continue the delivery of its independent news and analysis to audiences there.

From 01:00 GMT on Monday 26 May, BBC World Service expanded its availability via shortwave to Thailand by adding [ten] hours of broadcasts to its daily shortwave schedule (all times GMT):

  • 01:00-03:00 on 11,600 kHz
  • 03:00-05:00 on 7,370 kHz
  • 05:00-11:00 on 11,700 kHz

Acting Director, BBC World Service Group, Liliane Landor says: “In times of national crisis, there is an acute need for accurate, trusted and impartial news. This is why, with our international TV news channel off the air in Thailand, we have increased BBC World Service radio broadcasts in the country.”

The above transmissions add to BBC World Service’s six hours of shortwave broadcasts at peak times for Thailand.

Ends//

For more information about the military coup in Thailand, and how it affects international broadcasting, please follow our tag: Thailand Coup

[Update 27 May 2014: Number of broadcast hours corrected. HT to Dan Ferguson and Richard Cuff]

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BBC World Service features DRM

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In this BBC World Service report, Mark Whittaker explores Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) and, especially, its potential in India. Use the embedded player or link below to listen:

listen to ‘Digital Shortwave: a radio revolution ’ on Audioboo

(Source: Audioboo via Tarmo Tanilsoo on Facebook)

drmlogoYou’ll note the BBC World Service fails to mention that DRM has been in use now for over a decade.

The report ends by suggesting that portable DRM receivers will be on the market in a few months. Even if DRM radios start appearing, whether or not they’ll be effective and inexpensive remains to be seen. So far, portable DRM radios have been mediocre performers (at best) and relatively expensive.

Don’t get me wrong: I would love to see DRM take hold, I just have my doubts. DRM might stand a chance if a manufacturer like Tecsun were to build an inexpensive portable radio, with a form factor much like that of their other portables. If they made a DRM version of the PL-380, for example, it could be a winner for both the company and the medium/mode.

By the way, if you’ve never heard what DRM sounds like over the shortwaves, I just posted a fifty eight minute recording of All India Radio on the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive. Contributor, Mark Fahey, recorded the broadcast from his home in Australia.

I’ve embedded a link to the audio below, but you can listen to the broadcast and read Mark’s notes on the shortwave archive (click here).

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BBC World Service to get more money, but less influence?

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(Image source: BBC)

(Image source: BBC)

Jonathan Marks takes a look at the future of the BBC World Service under the umbrella of the BBC News group board.

His conclusion? Just doing the news may be “too narrow a remit.”

I tend to agree.

Read for yourself on Jonathan’s blog, Critical Distance.

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BBC World Service longevity vs. commercialization

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(Image source: BBC)

(Image source: BBC)

Back in October 2010, we learned that the BBC would take over the cost of the World Service from the Foreign Office from April 2014. Shorty thereafter, the BBC World Service was dealt a 20% budget cut which eventually lead to the loss of 550 jobs. Now April 2014 is upon us.

The BBC, which is largely funded by a mandatory TV license fee, must now share its budget with the World Service. But even after the announcement of this consolidation, the TV license fee was not increased accordingly.

And then there’s another over-arching question: Will the BBC be a good steward of the World Service? BBC World Service boss, Peter Horrocks was recently asked this question by The Guardian:

“The switch from government to licence fee funding prompted fears that if the BBC faces further downward pressure on budgets – surely inevitable – it will be the World Service that suffers rather than a domestic channel such as BBC2. “Of course there may be people who make those arguments,” concedes Horrocks. But he argues that licence fee payers directly benefit from the World Service’s role as an ambassador for the UK and from its journalists who increasingly contribute to the BBC’s domestic output. Plus, it has nearly 2 million listeners in the UK every week (including its overnight broadcasts on Radio 4).”

Horrocks is being optimistic. After all, while not on the scale of the BBC, the death of Radio Canada International had much to do with the fact that the domestic news arm, the CBC, found RCI an easy cut. When the CBC was dealt a 20% overall budget cut, it cut RCI’s budget by 80%, effectively firing Canada’s radio “ambassador.”

Moving forward, the BBC World Service is dipping its feet into commercialization to prop up their relatively meager budget and to lighten the load on the TV license payee. As my buddy Richard Cuff says, this is a slippery slope–and as Peter Horrocks states, “It’s not that easy to get advertising in Somalia.“

If you would like to read more about the changes at the BBC World Service, check out these most recent articles:

You can also follow our tag: BBC World Service Cuts

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BBC World Service ‘can make a difference’ in North Korea

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NorthKoreaMap

Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Ulis, for the tip:

(Source: The Independent)

One of the world’s experts on North Korea has called on the BBC to “be part of the solution” in fighting human rights abuses under Kim Jong-un’s repressive regime by initiating Korean-language broadcasts by the BBC World Service.

Michael Kirby, the eminent retired Australian judge who chaired a recent Commission of Inquiry (COI) on North Korea for the United Nations Human Rights Council, told The Independent that the BBC could make a difference to the lives of people in “a country that has been largely cut off from the rest of the world”.

Speaking in a personal capacity, Mr Kirby said the BBC was in a position to make a difference in North Korea.

[…]He told The Independent: “The strict controls on sources of information in North Korea, revealed in the COI report, surely add to the arguments for an increased outreach by the civilised world to the people of North Korea. With its hard won reputation for truthful reporting, fair coverage and proper priorities, the BBC has a special potential to be part of the solution.”

[…]Funding of the World Service has passed from the Foreign & Commonwealth Office to the BBC. Previous BBC studies have identified problems in providing a Korean service, especially in relation to the difficulties of the North Korean population tuning in and defying the ban on listening to foreign broadcasts.

Foreign Secretary William Hague said recently that it was “not currently possible for the World Service to offer a meaningful, effective and cost-effective service”. But last week Foreign Office minister Hugo Swire gave renewed hope to campaigners for a Korean service when he said: “We have approached the BBC and are waiting for its detailed response.”[…]

Read the full story at The Independent.

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