Re: [Swprograms] BBCWS on Sirius Comments

["Sandy Finlayson" <SFinlayson@xxxxxxx>]

John:

Thanks for doing this.  In the light of all the cuts I have been seriously considering Sirius, but given that it doesn't have all of Sportsworld that is a real negative for me.

On a totally different and slightly off topic matter... In last week's Write On someone suggested that if people didn't want to listen to WS on their computer, it was possible to buy small FM transmitters which would allow signals from the internet to be heard on a radio in the home.  If anyone on the list knows anything about this sort of thing I would appreciate hearing about it.

Sandy



-----Original Message-----
From: swprograms-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:swprograms-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of
jfiglio1@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, April 07, 2005 12:30 PM
To: swprograms@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: dxld@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Swprograms] BBCWS on Sirius Comments


Looking over the new PRI-based schedule for the BBCWS on Sirius, it should be noted that there are some significant changes (and improvements) from the previous "all-news" London-based schedule that Sirius used to carry (all times UT/GMT):

1.  Several more feature programs including: Sports International (Su 0432); The Ticket (Sa 0706, 1506, Su 1606); Pick of the World (Sa 0806, 0906, 1306); Write On (Sat 0845, 0945, 1345); Outlook (T-F 0806, M-F 1806, 2132); Masterpiece (W 0706, Sa 1606, Su 1706); The Word (Sa 0232, 1632, Su 1732); Documentary [currently the Arab World Debates series](Su 1306, 1806); Charlie Gillett (Sa 1832, Su 0032), and three scheduled with somewhat less accessibility--Health Matters (M 0706), Go Digital (T 0706), Science in Action (F 0706).

2.  Feature programs also are retained from the previous schedule: Reporting Religion (F 2232, Sa 0432, 2232, Su 0532, 0832, 1032, 1132, 1932); Global Business (Su 0106, 0506, 1506); People and Politics (F 2332, Sa 0132, 0532, 1932, 2132, Su 0332, 0732, 0932, 1532); The Interview (Sa 0332, 2332, Su 0132, 0632); Assignment (Th 0706, Sa 0306, 1806, Su 0906, 2106); Talking Point (Su 1406, M 0806); From Our Own Correspondent (Sa 2106, Su 0306, 0806); Off the Shelf (M-F 1845); The Instant Guide (Sa 1145, 1745, M 0045); World Business Review (Sa 0632, 1132, Su 2132). 

3.  The World, a program produced cooperatively by the BBC and WGBH Boston, joins a WS schedule for the first time (Tu-Sa 0306).

4.  While the greater variety is indeed most welcome, there are some reservations.    
    a.) Sportsworld carriage has been reduced to just the first hour of the three hour program on Saturdays and Sunday Sportsworld has been eliminated entirely from this schedule.  This comes at a time when the WS has made it doubly difficult to hear the program on shortwave with its coverage reductions in Central and South America and the Caribbean, frequencies which were still reliable for the most part for at least some North American listeners.  Sportsworld also is entirely unavailable from the oft-promoted (by the BBCWS) streaming internet audio feeds as well.
    b.) The schedule is somewhat curiously imbalanced with, for example, no less than eight airings of Reporting Religion and nine of People and Politics, yet only three of the staple From Our Own Correspondent and one each (at a very inaccessible time all over the continent) of Health Matters, Go Digital and Science in Action.  Why the schedule makers at BBC give such overriding emphasis to the two programs cited seems quite unexplainable.  It would not seem that PRI (who contracts for this schedule) or its FM affiliates would have any reason to favor these two programs over others.  Then again to this observer, the expense and effort put into the multiple "customized" schedules by the BBC has never seemed to justify the losses in feature program production and shortwave coverage apparently given in trade, as BBC management set such priorities.

3.  The information given on the screen of the Sirius player often still does not match that which is being broadcast or which appears in printed on online schedules, despite the yeoman efforts being made by the BBC and Sirius to address this annoying (at least to this subscriber) anomaly.  It is apparently due to some deep-seated problem resident in the software which governs what appears there.  But it points, once again, to the pitfalls and sometime follies of devising a distribution scheme so complex as to vex even the most intricate computer-based software solutions ostensibly designed to cope with it.  One continues to hope not only for a soon-as-possible repair, but also--on several levels--for saner heads to once again assume the leadership of the BBC.

John Figliozzi, column editor
Monitoring Times magazine
Halfmoon, NY
  

_______________________________________________
Swprograms mailing list
Swprograms@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://dallas.hard-core-dx.com/mailman/listinfo/swprograms

To unsubscribe:  Send an E-mail to  swprograms-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe, or visit the URL shown above.


_______________________________________________
Swprograms mailing list
Swprograms@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://dallas.hard-core-dx.com/mailman/listinfo/swprograms

To unsubscribe:  Send an E-mail to  swprograms-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe, or visit the URL shown above.