Tag Archives: BBC WS

BBC Bush House: auctioning bits of radio history

BBC World Service – Bush House

Thousands of fragments of BBC history, ranging from “on air” lights to a picture of Sir Paul McCartney broadcasting live to fans in Russia, are going under the hammer in a huge auction.

The lots are all from Bush House, the Aldwych home of the BBC World Service for the past 71 years, which the Corporation vacates tomorrow. Entire studios are among the items for sale and are expected to attract bids of up to £10,000.

Elizabeth Sewell, managing director of specialist auctioneers Peaker Pattison, which is handling the sale, said: “A lot of overseas radio stations are interested in buying the large studios such as S6, which is the one Paul McCartney used to broadcast to Russia. We’ve had enquiries from India, Pakistan and all across the former eastern bloc.”

Turntables and reel-to-reel tape decks in the auction have attracted huge interest from club DJs who use them for mixing dance tracks. Online bidding for the first 1,500 lots has already started and will end on July 25. A second tranche of lots will be sold in September. The highest bid so far is £910 for a Steinway baby grand piano.

Many of the lots reflect the huge diversity of cultures represented at Bush House, where 68 language services were broadcast, ranging from Maltese to Welsh for Argentinian Patagonia.

They include maps of India, Mexico, central Africa and the main theatre of the Second World War, as well as a painting of the BBC motto “Nation Shall Speak Peace Unto Nation”.

As well as the former Beatle’s famous 1989 broadcast, there are photographs of Mikhail Gorbachev, Bob Geldof, Charlton Heston, Sir Bobby Charlton and Yes Minister actor Paul Eddington.

Staff at Bush House have now relocated to the newly refurbished Broadcasting House in Portland Place. The BBC European Service moved into Bush House in 1941 after bomb damage at Broadcasting House, followed in 1958 by the rest of the Overseas Service.[…]

Read the full article at the London Evening Standard.

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Aung San Suu Kyi visits the BBC World Service with thanks, criticism

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Aung San Suu Kyi (photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Noted Burmese opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, visited the BBC World Service last week. Her visit served, in part, to thank them for their broadcasts, which became a lifeline of information for her during her fifteen-year imprisonment in Burma between 1995 and 2010. Shortwave radio connected her with the outside world in the solitude of her prison years.

Sadly, many of the programs offered by the BBC World Service have been cut since Ms. Suu Kyi’s imprisonment. She voiced a few comments about the cuts:

(Source: BBC World Service)

Ms Suu Kyi’s schedule on Tuesday – her 67th birthday – involved a visit to BBC World Service staff at the new Broadcasting House in central London.

“Because of the BBC, I never lost touch with my people, with the movement for democracy in Burma and with the rest of the world. For that, I would like to thank all of you very sincerely,” she said.

But Ms Suu Kyi also said she was “a little sad” about changes to programming on the World Service.

“I feel that the BBC World Service is not as versatile as it used to be – or perhaps I’m not listening at the right times,” she said.

“There used to be so many different programmes, and every time I listen to it now, it’s news and commentaries. I miss the other old programmes… Bookshelf, Just a Minute, and so many others which I don’t seem to hear now…

“It’s not what it used to be,” she said.

During her four-day tour of the UK, Ms Suu Kyi is due to meet members of the Royal Family and address the UK Parliament.

Of note as well was the praise she showered on veteran British DJ, Dave Lee Travis, whose music request program she called “a jolly good show” for making her world “much more complete. I can relate, at least to some degree: you see, music, it seems, still delights listeners on shortwave.

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BBC World Service: A Lifetime of Shortwave Radio

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(photo: BBC World Service)

An Antarctic glaciologist, Burmese monk, communications professor and a Somalian tell their shortwave radio stories in this article posted by the BBC World Service in honor of 80 years of shortwave radio broadcasts. In my opinion, these stories are very much representative of the power of shortwave radio and why, for many parts of the world, it is still vital. Though this article focuses on a look into the past, there are still many parts of the world that have no access to the internet, nor reliable electricity and/or their people live under repressive regimes. Shortwave radio offers a lifeline of information. Shortwave listening habits are not traceable or trackable (like they are over the internet) by those in power. The story below, by a Burmese monk, could stand as an example.

(Source: BBC World Service)

[…]The BBC has been an integral part of my life for over two decades now – I believe I haven’t missed a single transmission in all those years. I even kept a diary of all broadcasts from 1988 to 2003, recording all new staff who joined in those years and their first ever broadcast.

I started listening to the BBC Burmese Service in 1988 when the whole country rose up against one-party rule.

I was living in western Burma’s Rakhine State, teaching Buddhist scripture to the student monks. I was fascinated by the BBC’s coverage of the news and was much impressed that the news I heard on BBC turned out to be exactly what was happening in the country.

I was a well-informed and knowledgeable monk, partly because of the BBC. The BBC, because of its reporting on Burma, was much hated by the military authorities and people had to secretly listen to it within their own homes. But luckily for me, I had my own monastery then and could listen to the broadcasts relatively undisturbed.

Then I left for India for further studies but continued to listen. On my return to Burma, I moved to Rangoon, the then capital and stayed at a monastery on the suburbs of the city. Rangoon was a hotbed of activism against military rule and the military government openly practised a “divide and rule” policy. People were suspicious of each other and that distrust spread to the monasteries as well.

The other monks in the monastery disapproved of my listening to the BBC, because they feared government reprisals, and some even said I was an “informer” providing information to foreign broadcasters. They dubbed me a “reporter monk”.

I took more precautions but never stopped listening. I would take my transistor radio and go outside to the farthest corner of the monastery compound, away from other monks, at the times of the broadcasts.

Every day I learned something from the radio. My morning teaching lessons start only after the BBC morning programme and I do my nightly prayer after the evening programme.

My radio is set at the frequencies on which the BBC Burmese broadcasts and I usually tune in a few minutes before the programme starts. I don’t want to miss anything. When the weather is bad, it takes more dedicated effort to tune into the shortwave signal, but I don’t mind that.

Some people frown on monks listening to the BBC. But I believe my life is enriched by it. The BBC has become a very important part of my life and I will continue listening to it until the end of my life. As Buddha has taught, we living beings must face the truth and bring about the truth. I believe the BBC is earning this merit every day by sharing the truth with millions of listeners.[…]

Read the BBC World Service article in its entirety here. I have filed this article under our ever-growing tag “Why Shortwave Radio?”

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A West Dorset view on the Rampisham Radio Transmitting Station closure

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Photographer: Nigel Mykura. (Creative Commons)

(Source: Real West Dorset)

RAMPISHAM’S radio transmission station may close before Christmas with the loss of more than 20 jobs, even though it’s currently broadcasting into Libya.

The proposed shutdown of the Dorset site follows the BBC’s decision earlier this year to cut back on World Service shortwave broadcasting and stop it altogether by 2014, even though nearly half of the World Service’s audience (184 million in 2010-11) listens via shortwave.

The BBC says it’s phasing out shortwave because the Foreign Office cut the World Service grant by 16% (£46 million).

The author, Jonathan Hudston points out:

Britain has three major sites broadcasting internationally on shortwave. The others are Woofferton in Shropshire and Skelton in Cumbria. Rampisham broadcasts more hours than they do, is more reliable, and has a wider reach across Europe, Africa and the Middle East. (It’s a little-known fact that the National Grid runs right through the Rampisham site, supplying 60,00 volts. I think it has only ever lost power twice in 70 years. Once was during the Great Storm of 1987, which shows it takes something pretty extreme).

He goes on to ask:

Is it really in the UK’s national interests to dismantle Rampisham and sell its equipment for scrap?

The modern preference is said to be for internet-based services, but Jo Glanville, in a good piece about the World Service in the current edition of the London Review of Books, makes the point that shortwave radio can reach many millions of people in ways that internet-based services cannot.

He has a very good point. As we’ve mentioned numerous times before, shortwave radio crosses borders better than any other medium. It’s hard to block and untraceable.

(Read the Full Article Here)

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BBC strike next week

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BBC journalists have announced that they will strike next week in protest of the mandatory lay-offs/redundancies which will greatly reduce the BBC World Service staff.

(Source: Journalism.co.uk)

Journalists at the BBC have announced they will take strike action next week in a dispute over compulsory redundancies.

Members of the National Union of Journalists voted in favour of strike action earlier this week, with 72 per cent of those who voted saying they would be prepared to strike.

According to the NUJ, more than 100 people are at risk of compulsory redundancy at the BBC World Service.

Union members are also said to be at risk in divisions including BBC Monitoring, BBC Scotland and potentially at BBC Wales, BBC 4, BBC Sport and TV Current Affairs.

Today the union confirmed a one-day walk out will take place on 15 July.

Read full article at Journalism.co.uk.

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BBC World Service to be allocated additional funding

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BBC World Service - Bush House

In the midst of many international broadcasting budget cuts, very good news for the BBC World Service (Source: BBC):

BBC World Service is to receive an extra £2.2m per year over the next three years from the government.

The funding boost will be used to maintain BBC Arabic Service’s “valuable work in the region”, Foreign Secretary William Hague said.

The BBC will also reallocate an additional £9m to safeguard the Hindi language short wave service.

Read full article here.

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BBC World Service annual broadcast to Antarctica

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(Thanks to Andy Sennitt for bringing this to my attention.)

This year, it’s difficult for me appreciate the annual tradition of broadcasting to the 43 scientists and technicians at the British Antarctic Survey in light of the recent BBC World Service cuts. Still, the broadcast is quirky, nostalgic and certainly DX worth catching.

Here are the times/frequencies courtesy of RNW Media Network:

This half-hour programme will be on the air at 2130-2200 UTC tomorrow (Tuesday 21 June) on the following shortwave frequencies: