[Swprograms] Fwd: BBC WS to further reduce frequencies to the Americaswith A-05 schedule

[Richard Cuff <rdcuff@xxxxxxxxx>]

I thought everyone might benefit by this message.

Richard


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Richard Cuff <rdcuff@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2005 09:08:39 -0500
Subject: Re: [Swprograms] BBC WS to further reduce frequencies to the
Americaswith A-05 schedule
To: Sandy Finlayson <SFinlayson@xxxxxxx>


Unfortunately, Sandy, it's a done deal.  This decision was made a
month ago, perhaps even  in late 2004 when 2005 budgets were being
drawn up.

One outlet would be the "Write On" program -- I believe their e-mail
address is write.on@xxxxxxxxx but that may be wrong.  There's a
web-based e-mail form for Write On at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/write_on.shtml.

The director of the WS and Global News division is Richard Sambrook;
the #2 person is Nigel Chapman, Director, World Service.

You could also communicate with the generic Audience Relations folks
-- who are very diligent in forwarding messages to higher-ups --
web-based e-mail form is here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/us/contact/index.shtml.

This development is particularly unfortunate for Canadians, as they
don't have the listening alternatives we have Stateside -- there is
minimal carriage of the BBC via local rebroadcasters, unlike the
gradually improving state of this in the USA.  Officially, there is no
subscription-based satellite radio, either, though the gray market
("grey market" up North) is increasingly robust.

There is heavy empahsis for 2005 in reducing distribution costs for
radio -- with the resulting savings likely to be plowed into more
radio and TV services for the Arab world.  Shortwave is a relatively
expensive method of distributing programming for the BBC -- after all,
the BBC pays all the costs, the listener, none; by comparison, there
is zero transmission cost for them for the PRI or the XM/Sirius feeds.
 There isn't zero marketing cost, though.

Ironic story:  about 10-12 years ago John Figliozzi and I put out a
survey at the SWL Fest (Shame on you, Sandy, BTW, for missing the
Fest...you're so close...) regarding whether or not listeners would
pay to hear their favorite international broadcaster if funding issues
cropped up.  The majority of folks surveyed at the Fest said yes.
What do you know, that's what has happened now, though indirectly:  We
users pay for satellite radio, and public radio in the USA is funded in part by
direct listener contributions.

Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA  USA

On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 08:50:23 -0500, Sandy Finlayson <SFinlayson@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> Richard
>
> To whom should we write to register a protest about this?
>
> Sandy
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