Re: [Swprograms] BBC E-mail: World Service soap Westway axed

[Richard Cuff <rdcuff@xxxxxxxxx>]

In terms of "costly to maintain", my guess is that the biggest cost is
the fact that multiple satellite feeds are necessary to create all of
these, and some management overhead to keep track of them.

I agree there is no reason the BBC shouldn't announce "You're
listening to the BBC World Service with programming for West Africa"
or something different.  Also they need to do a much better job of
announcing frequency changes -- I don't think they make a single
frequency announcement anymore.  That is wrong.

The Westway discussion is a microcosm of the debate over how an
international public service should plan its programming.  I remember
when Westway was launched we widely criticized it as "dumbing down". 
Now that it's departing we (collectively) say we'll miss it.  We don't
have a set of universal criteria we can apply when it comes to the
relative merits of one program versus another.  As a result, every
decision is subject to criticism.

I am frankly not trying to defend Mike Cronk's rather weak performance
last week on "Write On".  It reminded me of corporate doublespeak,
deliberately obfuscatory in order to insult my intelligence.

Still, I would love to see some of these audience research statistics someday...

Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA  USA


On Apr 2, 2005 4:54 PM, John Figliozzi <jfiglio1@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Well, I'm just getting a little confused about what the standards are.
> I know you had the "sarcasm" flow on there, but many a things are said
> in jest that are meant in earnest.  I never said that popularity
> couldn't be a measure for a public service broadcaster; just that it
> shouldn't be the only one (or always the most important one).
>
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