[Swprograms] Incredible Arrogance

[John Figliozzi <jfiglio1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Well, I was surprised somewhat to hear a segment of my letter on Write 
On tonight; but I was even more amazed to hear the absolutely 
incredible degree of arrogance displayed by the BBC's spokesman in 
reply to a series of letters telling him and the BBC that they are just 
plain wrong.

At one point, he (I'm sorry I don't recall his name and neglected to 
write it down; but he's apparently the responsible party for 
determining or carrying out their distribution strategy) claimed that 
the BBC's research shows that they have a listenership in North America 
of around 5 million now and---now get this--most of them listen late at 
night!

Duh.  That's the only time they're on in an overwhelming number of 
local markets because local FM rebroadcasters will only turn over the 
overnight hours to them!

To the series of correspondents protesting that their shortwave radios 
remain perfectly useful and convenient instruments for listening to the 
BBC, he simply replied that his research says otherwise.

One letter pointed out that the BBC was attempting to take its 
listeners back to a time when the family had to sit around a large 
instrument in the center of the room to hear "radio".  He was unphased 
essentially saying that the BBC was doing this for the benefit of ALL 
its listeners and if some had to be sacrificed along the way, well that 
was too bad but necessary.

"We're right; you're wrong" was the subtext throughout.  The clear 
logic of the letter writers was deflected with one word: "research".  
To give her her due, Ms. Penny Vine did a good job pressing the 
listeners' case as forcefully as she could.  He was just having none of 
it.

At several points, he referred to the BBC as a "business".  Maybe 
that's all it is to them at this point.  And maybe that's the problem.

John Figliozzi
Halfmoon, NY

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